Today in the "Religion of Peace™"

On October 6th, 1981, president Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt was assassinated by his own troops during a military parade.  Nine other people in the stands were killed by the assassins.

Sadat took part in the 1952 coup that overthrew King Farouk, which was partly motivated by the defeat of the Egyptians in 1948 by the Israelis.  Following the humiliating defeat by Israel in the Six Day War in 1967, the Israelis made a diplomatic offer to return Gaza to Egypt and the Golan Heights to Syria, in return for peace agreements, and to begin negotiations to define Israel's border with Jordan.  In response, the Arab Summit issued the "three no's" policy: "no peace, no recognition, and no negotiation."

Instead, Sadat planned and carried out the Yom Kippur War against Israel in 1973, in coordination with Syria and Iraq.  The surprise attack on the holiest holiday eve of Yom Kippur was chosen by the Muslims intentionally.  It also marked the beginning of Ramadan, a holy holiday for Muslims, though obviously in that case "holy" does not infer "peaceful", as Muslims regularly fight wars during Ramadan.

After some early victories in the sneak attack, Egypt's top generals such as Saad El Shazly warned against continuing the offensive, but Sadat ordered the attack to continue.  The tide turned, and the result was another humiliating rout of Egyptian forces.

In 1979, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty following the Camp David Accords with President Jimmy Carter, for which they both won the Nobel Prize (as did that other well-known peace advocate, Yassir Arafat, in 1994).  In response, the other Arab nations expelled Egypt from the Arab League and from the Islamic Conference. Muslims expressed their displeasure in time-honored fashion, as enraged crowds rioted and threatened Sadat with violence, burning buses and buildings, and destroying nightclubs.

In February 1981, rumors began to circulate about a possible coup attempt.  Sadat rounded up the usual suspects: communists, feminists, homosexuals, intellectuals, and Coptic Christians.

Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman wrote the fatwa approving the assassination, in accordance with mainstream Islamic principles.  In a very precisely timed operation, during a military parade celebrating the Yom Kippur War, the assassin troops pulled in front of the review stands just as Mirage jet fighters flew overhead, distracting the crowd.  The assassins threw grenades, and then began shooting at the review stands.  Some of the assassins rushed to the stands to get a better shot.  Despite this occuring during a military parade, with literally thousands of Egyptian troops on hand, and with Sadat surrounded by bodyguards, the assassins were able to continue firing unhampered for several minutes.

Sheikh Abdel-Rahman, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other Egyptian jihadis were arrested for their participation in the murder, but this being Dar al-Islam, they were set free just a few years later.  Abdel-Rahman was later arrested in the U.S. for planning the first bombing of the World Trade Center, and al-Zawahiri went to Afghanistan and joined up with Osama bin Laden.

We criticize our leaders for advocating war;  they criticize (well, actually, they murder) their leaders for advocating peace.

And now, let us close with some words of wisdom from Anwar Sadat, Nobel Peace Prize winner:

"Fear is, I believe, a most effective tool in destroying the soul of an individual - and the soul of a people."