In many ways, the above picture of a known pro-Brotherhood protester, Walid al-Khatab, is representative of the two faces of the organization. He earlier called into a live show calling for the “slaughter” of every police officer in Egypt, to background cries of “Allahu Akbar!” and then later apologized, saying he was just “angry” and “didn’t really mean it.” Here he is, however, holding the famous yellow smiley face, with the words “Smile to the world, and it will smile back at you.”
In the upper corner the sign also displays the Brotherhood’s banner, two swords crossed over the Koran, with the word “prepare” underneath — a reference to Koran 8:60: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrorize the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.”
In other words, smile to the world so that it smiles back, but prepare with the sword so “you may terrorize the enemy of Allah and your enemy” — a perfect summation of the Muslim Brotherhood.
By Coptic Solidarity