This Is Gonna Be BIG!

Moved on! Check TheCairoCalls

This is all over the news.
A group of "western" intellectuals, most of whom are from "eastern" origins, mind you, have jointly published a manifesto declaring their opposition to "Islamism" as a form of totalitarianism (the -ism seems to do the trick!), and urging everybody to stand together to "assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people". Fair enough!
You can read the full transcript, and follow international reactions here.

The manifesto, as it stands, is balanced, straight-forward, and, frankly, a bit inconsequential. It would be funny though to see how this gets morphed, and deformed as it propagate.
I am putting all my money on this: unprecedented demonstrations erupt on Friday, after the prayers, across the middle east. Calls for boycotting the "west" are everywhere (especially your local supermarket). Ahmadinejad issues a counter-manifesto declaring opposition and refusal to ideals of democracy, and tolerance. He ponders privately "Is it permissible to issue another fatwa against Rushdie? I read somewhere that two death fatwas can invalidate each other!". Ahram says the manifesto is a "dangerous escalation", while Al-Jazeera airs a secret tape of the satanic rituals performed by the signees before they penned the declaration. An Imam somewhere declares that "all manifestos are haram to start with". MB chicks cry while holding Korans, and demonstrating in front of Cairo university. And, I almost forgot, the EU flag (it was getting a bit out of hand with all these countries, so this will do) is burned. Of course, together with the American and Israeli ones.
Wanna bet?

Tags: egypt, islamism, decleration, manifesto, Ahmadinejad, reactions, betting