Shaddy Soliman, pastor of Every Nation Church in Lake Mary, Fla. and co-author of Islam and Terrorism, is sounding the alarm about what he sees as an attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to ultimately destroy Israel.
Hassan al-Banna, a pan-Islamist who opposed the secular tendencies in Islamic nations, formed The Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. It was he who birthed the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
Charisma magazine caught up with Soliman in this exclusive one-on-one interview to discuss his take on the crisis in Egypt, why the U.S. shouldn’t push democracy there, and what the Bible has to say about this historic event in the making.
Charisma: Is there more to what’s going on in Egypt than what we see on the surface?
Shaddy: Yes. The Western mindset says, “This is the people. They have no jobs and the economy is bad there. They have nothing to eat. They are starving. They are in a very bad economic shape. They’ve been oppressed by this dictator for 30 years. They have the right to freedom.”
This is what may appear on the surface. But this is not an organic movement of oppressed people that are ready to take their rightful place on the road to democracy. This is absolutely not the truth at all. This is well-organized and well-planned in all these countries by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is not a new group. The group has been established since 1928.
Charisma: Why don’t you agree with democracy for Egypt?
Shaddy: History is the best reference to what’s taking place. In 1979, the same thing exactly happened with Iran. Iran was America’s greatest ally in the Middle East. [President Jimmy] Carter went over there to toast the New Year with the Shah of Iran, yet the Shah was there as a dictator for a long time, oppressing some of his people and putting some in prison. It’s the same story as Hosni Mubarak.
Carter said, “We need to hear the voice of the people. We need democracy in this country. We have to have free and clean elections. We want to hear the people’s voice.” What happened? The Shah went in exile. Ayatollah Khomeini took over. Within one month, Khomeini slaughtered over 2,000 people who stood for democracy and the movement of democracy in their country.
Charisma: Can democracy work in an Islamic state?
Shaddy: In Iran, it turned out to be a disaster. George Bush committed the same mistake with the Palestinians. He wanted free elections. Who won that election? Hamas. So what are you going to do now? Support Mahmoud Abbas because he’s our ally. He’s our good guy and we’re going to support his organization, Fatah, even though they lost the election. So we split the Palestinians into two groups and they’re still fighting.
Islam and democracy will never work. The idea of democracy is this: a government by the people, for the people, and lawmakers that make laws that agree with the people to protect the people. We vote our representative in. This is what Islam says, “People have no voice.” Islam says, “Allah gives us the law and the law is the Sharia law and we will enforce it to the world by the sword.” End of story.
So every time we call for democracy in the Middle East or where Islam is present, this is what we’re saying, “Let me pave the highway for you to achieve leadership in this area so you could kill any resemblance of democracy and add to the West’s enemy list because that’s your agenda and until Jesus comes back that will always be the agenda.”
Charisma: So Islam is more than a religion.
Shaddy: Islam is a religion and a government.
Charisma: Why else do you think this crisis is organized by the Muslim Brotherhood?
Shaddy: There is one thing that Sunni and Shiite Muslims agree on: the destruction of Israel. To achieve the destruction of Israel, they’ve got to disarm all Islamic secular government in the region. Muslim secular governments agree with America and the West with the right for Israel to exist. Mubarak was America’s greatest ally. The president right now in Yemen is an American ally. The king in Jordan is an American ally.
All the secular American allies now will be removed and replaced by extremist Muslims so the squeeze on Israel will take place. That’s what’s making Israel right now very nervous. Here’s how Israel will look at it: In the north, they’ve got Hezbollah which is southern Lebanon and which, by the way, already removed secular government and are pursuing to take over the Lebanese government. In the west-north is Jordan. Right now, there is a protest in Jordan. In the West Bank, which is the Palestinians, you’ve got Hamas. So the only border that is secure for Israel is the southern border with the agreement of Camp David, the peace agreement with Egypt. Now, if this land is in the Muslim’s hands, Israel is surrounded. The only direction they could go is the Mediterranean Sea to the east.
This is not the time for our world leader to be blinded by the ideology of democracy and not see the bigger picture.
Charisma: It sounds like you are fed up.
Shaddy: I am fed up with the level of ignorance that we operate under here in the West because we keep ignoring history. We keep ignoring the fact of Islamic agenda. We want to camouflage all this and make it no big deal while the truth of it is absolute obvious.
Charisma: So what’s your prediction?
Shaddy: If you read Isaiah 19, it will explain a lot of what is taking place right now. You see the process looks very ugly in Isaiah 19 but the end result is amazing. Now, how long will that take? I don’t know. I read it this morning. I’ve meditated on it and I’m trying to hear the voice of God in it. Lord, what is this applied to today?
An attempt at the United States of Islam was made in 1967 by Egypt, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Jordan. That was the ’76 war against Israel. This is about the fifth attempt created a United States of Islam. This time, what is making it more possible is the communication age that we live in: the Internet, Facebook, Twitter—and unity. In the past that was not possible.
Charisma: What should our response be?
Shaddy: First, pray, pray, pray. The second response will be to be very diligent in what we’re doing as a nation—what we are representing. The third most important thing is to inform the people around us—our churches, our leaders—that this is not what it appears to be and let’s not be all about democracy and absolutely foolish about what’s taking place from the Word of God. Exposing the truth is the best agenda and the best way to set people free. The truth has been hiding too long. It has been camouflaged and has also been polluted by so many.
What is the Lord saying to you about the crisis in Egypt?
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