PARSHAT SHEMOT Hang in there, Shabbat is coming! Something happened in Egypt on Christmas Day that certainly escaped my attention and as you know Im a bit of a news junkie. But I wont claim it wasnt reported as it is possible that I missed it. Maybe you missed it too. It was momentous and it was something very, very promising. The new President of Egypt - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi - (Well call him el-Sisi for short) went to a Coptic Church and brought them Christmas greetings. This was a Church that had been fire-bombed during the time that the Muslim Brotherhood was in charge of Egypt while police stood by and did nothing. Just to recall the timeline which is important - the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt in what Egypt and the West called fair elections after the revolution that toppled Mubarak. Because it was a fair election the west was determined to give the Muslim Brotherhood some breathing room in spite of the fact that before they were elected we saw them as a terrorist organization believing and hoping (irrationally in my opinion) that once in power they would govern differently. It didnt work out that way and before the Brotherhood could bring Egypt completely under radical Islamic rule another revolution took place - a military coup for all practical purposes - and removed the Brotherhood. The West wasnt very happy - at least publicly - but the Egyptian military which sees itself as the protector of Egypt (for good reason) wasnt going to wait until Shariyah law took hold, for women to be pushed out of Universities and back into their homes and for Christians to be further persecuted and forced to flee Egypt. After the coup Al-Sisi was elected President and moved Egypt back into a more secular stance with proper respect shown to Islam and immediately made war on the Muslim Brotherhood. They declared Hamas a terror organization and moved to disconnect Gaza even more from Egypt (The west didnt get too excited about this because it wasnt Israel doing it. Its ok for Muslims to protect themselves from the terror organizations in their midst. Its another thing when Jews do it.) Now Al-Sisi goes to a Coptic Church on Christmas - the first Egyptian President in history to so - and talks about Egypt as one people. He tells them that the world looks at Egypt and sees one people - not Muslims and Christians - just Egyptians. And that is what Egypt must be- he says. And if we can do that, he says, they can once again take their rightful place in civilization as a beacon of light (those are my words). This means that he doesnt accept Islam trying to force itself on other religions - on other people. It must respect the other and demonstrate that it is a society where equality and dignity applies to all its citizens. Only this way, he says, can Egypt be restored to its prior greatness. Egypt is the largest Arab country in the world and is the leader of the Arab world. They understand and know what Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood are. They know what Iran is and they do not want to see the Middle East come under their influence and leadership. Will the new leadership of Egypt find allies in Europe and America. That brings us to this weeks portion. We didnt defeat the tyrannical Pharaoh until he was punished with the Ten Plagues. Initially Moses tried negotiation and reason. It failed. God knew it would fail but He wanted to let the process go forward so all of Egypt, Israel and the world would know that it was Pharaohs arrogance and stubbornness that brought him down and with him came Egypt. There are Western leaders who are still negotiating and reasoning and handling the terror threat of Radical Islam. It wont work - never has. Time to find the head of the snake and cut it off for its venom is spreading and soon not one western community will be safe - not Christians - not Jews - not even Muslims. We pray for the hostages now being held in Paris in the Jewish Deli. They are us - we are all being held hostage by this evil and our leaders still dont seem to get it. We need a Moses like figure to lead us out of the enslavement that this scourge of terror is creating in our lands of freedom. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Ed Farber
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:21:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015