Weigel

Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney on the Caliphate

I have been told to watch Glenn Beck’s Fox News show this week, as he has tried to tackle the crisis in Egypt. “It’s incredibly insane,” they informed me.

I was skeptical. Why was I skeptical? His February 1 show was an instant classic, with the highlight coming in a six-minute theoretical exploration of how radical Muslims, if they took over Egypt, could build a caliphate. The whole thing is too good to chop up: Here’s the whole excerpt.

Here’s how a caliphate could play out.

You have Somalia and Iran already in green. Now, let’s add Tunisia. Former Tunisian government was considered one of the most secular and corrupt governments in the Arab world. The poor and the angry demanded changes. Most dangerous scenario is that radical Muslims seize power and put Sharia law into place.

Same thing now with Egypt. Here is Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood want this. They want a power-grab from Mubarak.

He’s going to resign in September he said, just a few minutes ago. People are upset Mubarak doesn’t take a hard line against Israel. Maintain the peace treaty with them. The Muslim Brotherhood, as you’ll see in a minute, take a hard line against Israel.

This could very easily be 1979 Iran.

Then you have Jordan, the king is already considered a puppet because he sides with Western forces. Today, he said he’s going to change out his government.

Then you have Syria. Here’s Jordan. Here’s Syria. Syria is already a puppet of the Iranians.

And then you have Yemen. This is Saudi Arabia. All of your oil comes from here.

Do you see what’s happening? All of your oil – you get your oil from here and here. How does that happen?

And we have Lebanon. Iranian-backed Hezbollah is in the driver’s seat of their government.

If you go back to Africa, you have Nigeria. Parts of the country are already controlled by Sharia law.

Somalia, most of the country right now is living under Islamic law.

Sudan – the country is split with Sudan. The north is imposing Sharia law already. The south is largely Christian. They’re slaughtering each other.

Here’s Algeria. Notice its location.

Algeria – Al-Qaeda already has a significance perhaps there.

Then you have the Ivory Coast down here the election turmoil is going on right now between Christians and the new Islamic president.

And then you have all the other ones that are on a tipping point, already a hotbed of al-Qaeda activity. Libya – Libya has already been anti-Israel, pro-terrorism for a long time.

And then you have morocco. Morocco – important, significant al-Qaeda activity. The king has been battling. But if you go back here, you have - - remember, this is Iraq. Look at what you’re surrounded by.

Iraq is really important, especially to the Shiites, especially to the Twelvers who are in charge of this country right now. Because what is in Iraq? There’s one place that we told our bombers not to bomb. Does anybody know what it was?

Two wars in Iraq. We said no bombing there. Ancient Babylon. Ancient Babylon. Why? Because the Bible tells us that that is the seat – right here – of power of a global, evil empire.

Well, that’s also where the 12th imam from Iran is supposedly going to show up. Everybody on this side wants ancient Babylon for their caliphate.

Turkey was originally the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the last caliphate. It’s now modern day Turkey. It has Islamist government that is moving aggressively pro-Iran, anti-Israel.

Saudi Arabia, God help them, I don’t know what happens to those guys. And the Gulf States are all nearly defenseless and tiny, all of them, throw them in. Do you have it?

Now, what happens? You move over to Asia and grab the ones – once this dominoes starts to fall and the Muslims start to see oh, my gosh, we might have a caliphate. We might be able to have Islam impose Sharia law all over the globe. You start to lose all of Asia.

Now, let’s go up this way, shall we? Turkey’s prime minister came out and supported today the Egypt protesters. Morocco. Morocco – if Morocco flips, it puts pressure on Portugal and Spain. It could close off the Strait of Gibraltar, which is right here.

We all know how weak this entire area. The Iberian Peninsula is very weak.

Let’s talk about 22 percent unemployment in Spain. It’s also once a Muslim land. They have high Muslim populations. It’s already in trouble. Bad economic situations, food prices go up.

Well, let me ask you this. Here’s Spain. Here’s France. What happens to France?

You already have a lot of Algerians living there. If you go to Italy, you have the Libyans living there. You have Great Britain where many of them are from Pakistan.

So, what happens? What happens?

In the three days after this aired, Beck has been knocked back and forth like a birdie. The punchline: He is not the first conservatives to talk about this.