Egyptian Hot Wax

President Obama openly embraced the Arab Spring as a Moment of Opportunity for  hope for change and likened the uprisings in North Africa to be like America’s Civil War to end slavery or ensure Civil Rights.  Now the world can witness the harvest from the fruits of Islam.

The Obama Administration watched and did nothing as street uprisings overthrew Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarack in February as part of the Arab Spring.  Rather than help an autocrat had been favorably disposed towards American interests and kept stability in the volatile region, President Obama threw Mubarack under the bus to hope for change.  Mid East experts predicted that if an early election was held, the Muslim Brotherhood would be a powerhouse as they were the only nascent political group that was well organized.  Not surprisingly, Islamists took 70% of the vote in the second round of parliamentary voting.

Now that their fundamentalist power base has been confirmed, Salafist politicians are poising to turn their rhetoric into reality.   Members of the Nour (the Light) Salafist party are making noise to put an end to idolatry in Egypt as epitomized by the Pyramids. To that end, the Nour party proposes destroying the Giza Necropolis , built for the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt by slave labor quaffing a beverage akin to Ta Henik beer.  

Such a destructive bent follows in the footsteps of the Afghan Taliban, who took umbrage at the Bamiyan Buddhas, a 55 meter sculpture carved into a sandstone mountain which UNESCO considered a cultural treasure but they fanatically blew up in March 2001.  No wonder why Vice President Joe Biden recently insisted that the Taliban are not the enemy in Afghanistan.

But the ikwan (Muslim Brotherhood) is attempting to be more enlightened about imposing a strict Sharia Caliphate.  Nour Parliamentary candidate Abdel Moneim Al-Shahat suggested getting rid of the "rotten culture" by concealing the Giza Pyramids in paraphin wax.  In the scorching desert, these concealed cultural treasures would likely become Egyptian Hot Wax.  But don't mistake Al-Shahat as one dedicate to preserving the arts, as he also sought a fatwa against Noble Prize winning author Naguib Mahfouz.

To maintain Egypt's lucrative $20 billion tourism industry, which represents 11% of the nation's GDP, perhaps they could emulate the example from Despicable Me and replace the Pyramids with inflatable replicas.   But the political instability and intolerance to non-Sharia influences, the occupancy rates will probably continue its plummet from 90% to 15%.