Former President Carter meets with Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo

by: jim kouri | published: 01 17, 2012

The chairman of Egypt's new Freedom and Justice Party -- a/k/a the Muslim Brotherhood -- met last week with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

The stated purpose of the meeting was the ongoing Egyptian transition process and the recent elections

Carter congratulated FJP chairman Mohamed Morsi on the parliamentary election results achieved by the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), noting there was international consensus to respect the results which reflect the Egyptian people's choices, said a statement posted on the Muslim Brotherhood's web site.

"The former U.S. president called on the FJP to accommodate nascent and new parties of youth which have not achieved significant rates of victory in recent elections," the web site stated.

President Carter is known for his enthusiasm for Islamist groups that takeover Middle Eastern and North African nations. He's also known to curry favor with Islamic radicals, neo-Marxists and other enemies of the U.S. and Israel.

In fact, Carter angered the Israeli government and people when he compared Israel with South Africa during that nation's Apartheid policy.

Morsi, a longtime member of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Carter that a mixed presidential-parliamentary model was optimal for Egypt in the current transitional period. This can be transformed into a full parliamentary system after the completion of democratic process, he added.

The FJP chief also said Egypt is a big country with vital institutions and respects the agreements signed in the past as long as all parties are committed to their terms within the framework of respect for sovereignty and independence.

Carter, who arrived in Egypt Monday, held talks with the chief of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi, and Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri.

During Carter's visit he never met with representatives from Egypt's Salafist Party, which is suspected of being more radical than the MB. Israeli Intelligence claims Salafists have often entered Gaza in support of Hamas, the Army of Islam, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups.

While progressives in the United States continue to be enthusiastic about Egypt's future, U.S. conservatives believe that Egypt may become another Iran -- a nation that deposed an alleged brutal dictator and replaced him with a radical Islamist-controlled government.

Carter, who allowed Iran to fall to Islamic revolutionaries during his presidency, while allowing dozens of Americans to be captured, spoke to college students last February. Much of Carter's lecture was about current events in the Middle East, including Egypt. He's never been shy over his hatred for Israel and his love for groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

"I think the Muslim Brotherhood is not anything to be afraid of in the upcoming (Egyptian) political situation and the evolution I see as most likely. They will be subsumed in the overwhelming demonstration of desire for freedom and true democracy," Carter told the students.

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