Go Easy on Mubarak — For Now

Our Russian correspondent Russkiy (who reads Arabic) has been monitoring some of the Arabic-language material on current events in Egypt. He sends along his translation of a reader comment on the BBC website, and includes this note:

You may find the comment below (from BBC Arabic) about the situation in Egypt interesting.

I thought that the author was playing taqiyya and trying to encourage others not to make comments damaging to the revolution; however, I searched on his name and found that he is actually pro-secular government in Egypt.

His translation:

I think that the Mubarak regime is playing for time. However, time is against him. I hope that Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood refrain from statements about what’s happening in Egypt so that they don’t arouse fear in the West that this is an Islamic revolution on the model of Iran. The position of the West at the moment is in the interest of the Egyptian people. I call for personalities having an “acceptable” image such as Dr. Mohammed El Baradei and Dr. Ahmad Zuwayl to be positioned to speak of the demands on the behalf of the demonstrators so that ruptures in their lines with regard to the leadership don’t appear at this current stage. Of course this is only a transitory stage.

I thank the Egyptian Army for their position on this matter.

Ibrahim al Jandi (Egyptian Journalist)
Washington DC

The same text in Arabic is posted below the jump, for those who can read the language and are interested:

أعتقد ان نظام مبارك يلعب على عنصر الوقت ، على الرغم ان الوقت ليس فى صالحه ، اتمنى على ايران والاخوان المسلمين فى مصر التوقف عن التصريحات الخاصة بما يحدث فى مصر حتى لا تثير مخاوف الغرب من تكرار النموذج الايراني فى مصر ، فالموقف الغربي والامريكي تحرك الان لصالح الشعب المصري ، وأناشد المقبولين شعبيا كالدكتور محمد البرادعي والدكتور أحمد زويل قيادة مطالب المتظاهرين حتى لا تبدأ الانقسامات فى صفوفهم على من يقود المرحلة ، مع التأكيد على انها مرحلة مؤقته ، شكرا لموقف رجال الجيش المصري صحفي مصري ابراهيم الجندي واشنطن العاصمة