No surprise here. After all, Hamas identifies itself in its charter as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. "Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas seek to increase role in Egypt : Stratfor," from International Business Times, January 29 (thanks to Mackie):
The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are collaborating and seeking to increase their roles in Egypt....The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic opposition party in Egypt, is picking up the pieces left by President Hosni Mubarak's police force by forming committees to protect public property. ...
The Muslim Brotherhood is also supplying protesters with food and first aid.
Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports that as Egypt's border with Palestine becomes unpatrolled, "Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt" and seeking collaboration with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas is a Palestinian/Islamic political/terrorist organization that was founded as an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"There is a great deal of concern building in Israel and the United States... [over] whether a political opening will be made for the Islamist organization in Egypt," said Stratfor.
With all of the comparisons between Obama and Carter I'm starting to have real feelings of Deja Vu that we are seeing history repeat itself. With articles like this one
Clinton Calls for Orderly Transition to 'Real Democracy' in Egypt will we see the abadonment of ally governments by this administration only to have them replaced by Islamic Theocracies? Except this time instead of one country falling it seems to be happening on a wider scale...Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt...what next?
"Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas collaborating, seeking to increase their roles in Egypt" -- headline
Forming committees to protect public property and supplying protesters with food and first aid is a rational way for the MB to portray themselves as being a benign force looking out for the interests of Egyptians. Indeed, with governmental inaction in providing these functions it is a perfect way for the MB to make the case that it is the only force attending to the basic welfare of Cairenes during this time of crisis, and that they therefore deserve to be allowed to function as a political party in Egyptian politics.
It is a powerful argument, and one that will undoubtedly be used in upcoming discussions involving the formation of a new government, whatever form it takes. The question is whether sufficient numbers of Egyptians will recognize the move as being the Trojan horse that it is, intended to allow the MB to insinuate itself into the political process.
There is a good article over at http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/01/mohamed-albaredei-steps-out-of-his.html that discusses how Mohamad ElBaradei is likely to emerge as the public mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood.
He is a brilliant choice for them, as his selection will create a channel for one Nobel Peace Prize Muslim to speak as equals to the American president, another Nobel Peace Prize winner with Muslim sympathies, at a level that is outside normal diplomacy. Will our political elites be able to detect this back channel, with its own secret codes, and know how to deal with it? They haven't shown any particular creativity up to now in recognizing and dealing with novel political configurations when they occur, so it's doubtful they will here, either.
Moreover, there are unconfirmed reports that as Egypt's border with Palestine becomes unpatrolled, "Hamas armed men are entering into Egypt" and seeking collaboration with the Muslim Brotherhood.
.........................
No surprise there. While Mubarak's government frequently winked at Hamas' arms smuggling in to Gaza, they generally kept a lid on free travel across the border—they *didn't want* the Muslim Brotherhood to have that kind of freedom of movement, since it presented a threat to Mubarak himself.
It was frequently noted, in fact, that Egypt was much more tougher than Israel herself at keeping tight control of the border. Yet, they seldom got much criticism for it, even from the same people who were slamming Israel over any attempts at security.
What I wonder is how much this is going to increase the threat to Israel—not just in terms of the specter of a Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt on its border, but also in terms of a much less constrained Hamas.
Hope all Hamas people leave Gaza & West Bank & pour into Egypt to join Ikhwan, and start clashing w/ the Egyptian army & police. That would be awesome!
Egypt deploys troops along Gaza border
The bigger picture is that Islam has always hated Jews and non-Muslims. Israel is to close for comfort in that part of the country. Because they are not Muslim they must be killed. That is what the jihad is all about.
It shouldn't be any surprise that Hamas is fighting along side the other armys of the jihad. The "Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are indeed collaborating" to control or kill the non-Muslams and the free world.
But it has to take place in stages. Islam is not fool enough to declare war on the entire world all on the same hour. The "Brotherhood" has been at this for several decades. Islam has been at this for over 1300 years. During the Great Crusades Islam was beat back. But they have never stopped their jihad against all non-Muslims. They can't you see it is the largest part of their ideology they call a religion. An ideology that Muslims "submitted" to as children. Furthermore, if they try to escape (apostate from) it the penalty is death.
So for us to make fun of them, or belittle them, will only make matters worse. The first thing we must do is remove ourselves from being ignorant and learn all we can about Islam, the Qu'ran, the Hadith, the Sira, Muhammad, and Sharia. Once we have done that, we will know longer take this so lightly. We will also rethink how we should deal with this.
The second thing we should do is end the honor killings and help Muslim apostates from harm or starvation..
Try to keep in mind that Muslims are created by the same God we are. And therefor they are loved by God just as much as we are. They are trully our brothers and sisters created by the same loving God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Killing should be the last resort not the first.
Semper-Fi