World View: Egypt Faces 'Million Man Protest' After Friday Prayers

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com:

• Four protesters killed in clashes at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen
• Has the fuse been lit?
• The role of blasphemy in jihadist movements
• Egypt facing ‘million man protest’ after Friday prayers
• Stocks surge again after Fed announces QE3

Four protesters killed in clashes at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen

Pan-Arab nationalist demonstrations at U.S. embassies spreadto numerous countries throughout the Mideast and beyond on Thursday.There were small protests in Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Bangladeshand Iraq, and continuing demonstrations in Egypt and Libya.The biggest protest on Thursday was at the U.S. embassyin Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where anti-American andanti-Israeli protesters stormed the embassy, chanting “deathto America” and “death to Israel.” Four protesters werekilled and dozens injured by police gunfire, but no embassypersonnel were killed. 

Yemen’s president, Libya’s president and Egypt’s president allapologized for the embassy attacks. The Libyan government says thatit’s arrested four men involved in the killing of U.S. ambassadorChris Stevens, but that hasn’t been confirmed. National Yemen and CNN

Has the fuse been lit?

There’s been a lot of talk about a lit fuse that’s leading to a hugeexplosion in the Mideast, similar to the 1979 Great IslamicRevolution. Perhaps that’s true, and the Generational Dynamicsprediction is for a major sectarian Sunni vs Shia war, but I seelittle signs of it so far. The 2005 Danish cartoon protests lookedthey would explode, but they fizzled within a few weeks. The “ArabSpring” protests have been going on for almost 20 months, and theprotests we’ve been seeing this week have not, so far, been as big asthose. So it’s possible that the situation will explode in the nextcouple of weeks, but it’s at least equally likely that the currentround of anti-American protests will fizzle, at least for now. Iwould suggest to everyone that you not go too far out on a limbpredicting a new revolution. 

The role of blasphemy in jihadist movements

I continue to be impressed with the role of charges of blasphemy as acommon theme in the jihadist movement. The protesters in Cairo andBenghazi were not protesting America’s support for Israel, or fordrone strikes, or for Guantanamo or against Christians. They wereprotesting blasphemy. The Danish cartoon protests were forblasphemy. In Pakistan, jihadists groups kill Shia and Sufiworshippers almost on a daily basis, and the reason given is alwaysblasphemy, as I described in “26-Apr-12 World View — New report examines terrorism and religious extremism in Pakistan.” 

For some reason, charges of blasphemy seem to be able to stir upextremely angry passions among Sunni Muslims. In Pakistan, there havebeen numerous examples where the population simply didn’t care if someperfectly innocent person was murdered or jailed, if there werefatuous charges of blasphemy involved. Charges of blasphemy havetargeted far more Muslims than non-Muslims.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this is a massphenomenon that’s typical of generational hatreds. In the past, I’vehypothesized that this behavior in Pakistan is similar to the refusalof American prosecutors to investigate and prosecute banksters formassive incidents of fraud. And as I explained in “The Legacy of World War I and the Holocaust”, this is also the same behavior that led to the1930s Holocaust. This kind of mass generational hatred only leads toone place: catastrophe. 

My interpretation of the situation is as follows: Sunni jihadists havebeen trying for years to repeat the success of the Iran’s 1979 Great(Shia) Islamic Revolution, but to do so in a Sunni Islam country, andthey’ve failed over and over and over. This is just another trythat’s likely to fail, but the one thing they use repeatedly to stirup mass fury in Sunni crowds is charges of blasphemy.

Egypt facing ‘million man protest’ after Friday prayers

Friday has always been a big day in the Arab Spring protests, becausethe mosques fill up for midday prayers on Fridays. After the middayprayers are over, people pour out of the mosques into the streets forprotests. Protests have been non-stop since Tuesday in Cairo Egyptnear the U.S. embassy. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist NourParty have called for a “million man protest” on Friday after middayprayers, with the protest once again motivated by charges ofblasphemy. Al-Ahram (Cairo)

Stocks surge again after Fed announces QE3

The Federal Reserve announced a new quantitative easing program onThursday. In the QE3 program, the Fed will “print” $40 billion permonth, and use it to purchase an equal amount of mortgage debt. Thiswill theoretically lower mortgage interest rates, possibly to below 3%on a 30-year fixed mortgage, which will theoretically spur economicgrowth. All the previous programs have been failures, buttheoretically “this time it’s different” because the program isopen-ended, and the mortgage debt purchases can continue indefinitely.Stocks surged on Wall Street as excited as banksters and traderslooked for ways that they could get their cuts of the new outlays.Bloomberg

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