Something remarkable happened in the Islamic world, and I think that not too many people noticed its remarkable significance. This event drew almost no American televised media attention due to the wall-to-wall coverage of the terrorist attacks in France and the resulting mass demonstrations showing unity against Islamic terrorism. As the grisly events in France brought to the world’s attention yet-another example of Islamic terrorism, an event in Egypt indicated that one of the most prominent leaders in the Islamic world took a step to reach out to Christians and non-Muslims as well as to warn his fellow Muslims that they must stop “antagonizing the entire world.”
Egyptian President al-Sisi took the unprecedented step of visiting a Coptic Christian Christmas church service in Cairo. No Egyptian president has ever taken such an inclusive action. In his speech, al-Sisi called on all Egyptians “to unite as ‘one hand,’ put aside sectarian divides and set an example for the rest of the world” (first link). This could well be the most statesmanlike gesture taken by an Egyptian president since Anwar Sadat set aside the history of wars with the Israelis and flew to Israel to address the Egyptian Knesset and declare “no more war.” The second link and third link give additional perspectives on this remarkable action by al-Sisi. Not only is it a necessary gesture by an Islamic head-of-state, it is also a shrewd political action by al-Sisi. The Coptic Christians comprise perhaps 10% of Egypt’s population, so any future election could include Christians as 10% of the electorate. I think there is little doubt that al-Sisi just won an automatic 10% of the vote in the next Egyptian election. It will also put some pressure on other Islamic heads-of-state to follow his example. Polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Egyptians support the action of al-Sisi and the Egyptian military to oust and outlaw the radical Muslim Brotherhood. I know that if I were an Egyptian, I’d have voted for al-Sisi.
The first link also adds additional information which is very noteworthy. It reports that the Egyptian-American rift has widened considerably during the Obama presidency. It also infers that an alliance has formed between Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE “and other regional states” in opposing the Muslim Brotherhood and other similar radical Jihadi groups. Jordan and the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq are surely included in the list of “other regional states” in this budding Mideastern bloc. For years, I’ve commented in my posts that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan were forming a de-facto alliance in the Mideast, and that factors uniting them were a common fear of Iran and a common mistrust of the USA as long as Obama is the US president. Look for this trend to continue. This de-facto Mideastern alliance against Iran and its proxies argues that these nations will eventually be opposed to the Gog-Magog alliance because Iran is clearly going to be in the Gog-Magog alliance (Ezekiel 38:5 lists “Persia” as a Gog-Magog member). Also, none of the nations in the de-facto Mideast alliance are listed as being in the Gog-Magog alliance. It should be noted that all the members of this developing de-facto Mideast alliance (with the exception of Israel) are Sunni Muslims nations who are uniting against the Shiite Islamic faction led by Iran.
I think few Christians are aware of an obscure but important prophecy in Isaiah 19 which addresses the millennial age. Isaiah 19:23-24 prophesies that the three foremost nations in the millennium will be Israel, Assyria and Egypt. ‘Israel” here designates all the reunited tribes of Israel and that would include the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia and many European nations as well as part of South Africa in one entity. “Assyria” designates the modern descendants of the ancient nation/empire of Assyria. The Assyrians were a Semitic people as were the Israelites (Genesis 10:21-22); however, they had no promise of a hugely-enlarged population base as did the Israelite tribes. My books and articles have identified the modern Assyrians as being primarily found in the region formerly known as East Germany (which during the Cold War was imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain and was not allowed to participate in the outpouring of “Jacob’s birthright” that was given to the western European nations after World War II. Other Assyrians will surely be found among the German-speaking nations of Europe, although I identify most of Germany as being descended from the Israelite tribe of Gad in my books and audio messages. The Semitic Assyrians would have been part of the great Caucasian/Semitic exodus out of Parthia after the Sassanian Persian Empire defeated Parthia and drove out all Semitic people and influences from its restored native Persian empire. “Egypt” is obviously modern Egypt. Is it not interesting that the nation which God destroyed when he delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery in the time of Moses will eventually be lifted up by the God of the Bible to be one of the primary major nations in the millennium?
I’d like to finish this post with a few comments about the huge rallies in France against Islamic terrorism. The fourth link indicates that as many as 3.7 million people joined such rallies across France, with the largest one being in Paris. It attracted between 40-50 heads-of-state according to various media reports. It was so well-attended by heads-of-state that it included such usual rivals as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas as well as the Ukrainian President and the Russian Foreign Minister. Who was conspicuously absent from this extraordinary event? The administration of American President Obama sent no top official to participate in this global rally against Islamic terrorism, and Obama himself obviously made a decision to refuse to attend. One media report I saw mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was, for a time, seen walking arm-in-arm with the head-of-state of Mali, an Islamic nation which was all but taken over by Islamic Jihadis before France intervened with troops to rescue Mali. Obama’s refusal to send any top American official to show solidarity with a civilized world uniting vs. Islamic terrorism was shameful to say the least, and revealing as well. The last link reports on the efforts by the Obama administration to back-peddle on its glaring misstep, but the damage was done. I doubt Obama has much credibility remaining anywhere in the world after his shameful refusal to show support for the global war against Islamic terrorism by attending it in person. Obama’s motives for refusing to join a major event against Islamic terrorism have not been revealed. I’m sure many readers have formed their own opinions on the subject. So have I.
While it is true that the vast majority of terrorists are Muslims, it must also be stated for accuracy that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. While the Islamic Jihadis of ISIL, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. furnish Jihadis and terrorists throughout the world, it should be noted that there are courageous acts by Muslims who are opposing Islamic terrorism. Egypt’s President Al-Sisi has taken a leadership role in that camp as have the Sunni Muslim Kurds, who have set an admirable example of compassionate actions in sheltering and protecting Sunni Muslims, Christians, Azidis and anyone else who was fleeing from the ISIL madmen. It also must be noted that the media has reported that Islamic heads-of-state and Islamic Mullahs participated in the Paris rally against terrorism, marching alongside Christians, Jews, etc. Indonesia is a nation with approximately 200,000,000 Muslims, and I can’t recall any recent example of any Indonesians being terrorists.
One last thought: I’m sure the vast majority of Americans were strongly supportive of the Paris rally against Islamic terrorism. Isn’t it too bad the Obama administration wasn’t “with” the American people on this issue? President Obama refused to attend the rally. Vice-President Biden refused to attend the rally. Secretary of State Kerry refused to attend the rally. If they had wanted to attend, they would have rearranged their schedules and made it to the event. That all of them refused to attend speaks volumes about the attitudes now prevalent in the Obama administration. I believe their refusal to participate in the Paris rally has left the world disgusted at the American president and his administration. The recent American Congressional election showed the American people are disgusted with him as well.
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2015/01/12/egypts-sisi-challenges-imams-riveting-speech-makes-history-attending-christmas-mass/
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/01/07/el-sisi-becomes-first-egyptian-president-to-attend-coptic-christmas-mass/
- http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/egypts_sisi_first_president_ever_to_attend_coptic_christmas_mass.html
- http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-france-rally-20150111-story.html#page=1
- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/12/kerry-announces-planned-paris-trip-says-criticism-for-missing-march-quibbling/
