Not the Movie: Follow-up

Guy Taylor in yesterday's Washington Times provided some interesting insights on the milieu of the brutal murders in Libya and the simmering violence currently enveloping the apparently still very fluid "Arab Spring."

In the paradox that is the still censored, but somewhat "new and open" Egypt post-Mubarak, remarks quoted by sociologist Saadudin Ibrahim are particularly worth noting.

“The young people who carried out the revolution are not in power,” Mr. Ibrahim said.

“It’s the latecomers who are in power. Some of them, like the Salafis, did not participate in the revolution at all,” Mr. Ibrahim said. “This is an indication of their plan to hijack, control and monopolize.”

Alas, isn't it often so?

7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:7-14; NIV)

And though the "critics" of the Salafist/Islamists would seem to have some upper hand in the "new Egypt/Arab World," this critical, non-Muslim, outsider, bystander, etc., sees it a little different.

Nevertheless, may religious extremists, everywhere - and perhaps, as well, some (of us) who stand idly by seemingly (or actually) doing nothing or very little at all - lose their (our) foothold upon the souls of men and women.