Egypt's Morsi Using 1979 Iran's Playbook
An Egyptian protester hold a sign that reads in Arabic 'I sacrifice my soul for God's prophet' during a demonstration outside the US embassy in Cairo on September 11, 2012 against a film deemed offensive to Islam. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GettyImages)
Egypt's president is calling upon the United States to punish the film-maker who made the low-grade movie that has been used as an excuse to attack American embassies on the anniversary of 9/11.
I can only imagine the film-maker's response: "Thank you, Allah!" This movie deserved to lose every dollar of the $1400 invested in it. Instead, it's made the film-maker's fortune.
More serious is the exploitation by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president of the incident as support for anti-Islam blasphemy laws. It's important to understand that Morsi is concerned with Egyptian, not American, laws. Morsi is taking a page from the 1979 Khomeini playbook, fabricating an international incident to mobilize religious passions as a weapon for his political grouping against more secular blocs in Egyptian society - the Egyptian military very much included.
As the US government responds to Morsi, it's important for American commentators to understand : at issue here is not the threat of Sharia law in the US. (As if.) At issue is an attempted coup against America's dwindling band of friends inside Egypt.
About the Author
David Frum
David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of eight books, including most recently the e-book WHY ROMNEY LOST and his first novel Patriots, published in April 2012.
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