Egypt and the Islamists

REPORT: MORSI PROMISED TO SMUGGLE AL QAEDA LEADER ZAWAHIRI BACK TO EGYPT

According to a new report published in the Arabic-language news outlet Misr al-Gidida and translatedby Islam expert Raymond Ibrahim, Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi’s secretly met with al Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri while in Islamabad, Pakistan. During the visit, Morsi reportedly promised to smuggle the Egyptian-born jihadist back to his native country.

According to the report, a Pakistani source said the clandestine meeting was “facilitated by elements of Pakistani intelligence [ISI] and influential members of the international organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Zawahiri is, of course, an alumnus of the Brotherhood who allegedly tired of the group’s more patient-approach to world domination.

Ibrahim translates that the Pakistani source said that the meeting lasted 45 minutes during which Morsi pledged to make preparations for Zawahiri’s return. The source also said that Morsi indicated that “some Muslim Brotherhood members would handle the operation, by first smuggling the al-Qaeda leader to a Gulf nation, likely Qatar, and then easily transferring him to Egypt—on condition that Zawahiri disappear lest he embarrass Egypt’s ruling Muslim Brotherhood with its American ally, whose security and intelligence agencies consider Zawahiri most wanted.”

While Ibrahim cedes that the Arabic-language report cannot yet be independently verified, he said that a number of indicators support the report’s veracity. For one, he notes that Egypt’s Salafi faction has been clamoring for the return of their “hero,” Zawahiri and Aboud al-Zomor, a leading member of the new Egyptian parliament, has also called for the return of Zawahiri, “with his head held high and in safety.”

Morsi, who was once a prisoner himself, has already released other jihadis and has been consistently calling on the U.S. to return of the “Blind Sheikh” to Egypt. Of course, the Blind Sheikh is serving a life sentence for masterminding the original World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

In terms of where, specifically, the al Qaeda leader might go should he make safe passage to Egypt, the Arabic-language report also indicates that Zawahiri will likely disappear in the Sinai, where al-Qaeda influence has grown under the leadership of his brother, Muhammad Zawahiri. Ibrahim points out that the Muhammad Zawahiri was also imprisoned by Mubarak only to be released by Morsi.

Given Morsi’s history of releasing other jihadis — including Zawahiri’s brother — and his consistent appeals for the U.S. to release the Blind Sheikh, it does not strain belief that Morsi would be planning to bring home the al Qaeda leader many of his counterparts laud a national “hero.”