CAIRO - Osama bin Laden's deputy is urging fellow Egyptians to establish Islamic rule over the country after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who sought to curb Islamists throughout his nearly 30 years in power. Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahri made the appeal in an Internet audio message released Friday, his second recording since Mubarak was forced out on Feb. 11. It is unlikely his call for an Islamic state will resonate among the overwhelming majority of those who took part in the 18-day popular uprising and seek a democratic system to replace Mubarak's autocratic rule. "The Egyptian people's demand to establish Islamic rule is one of the most prominent Egyptian realities, a demand by the vast majority which foreign powers try to deprive them of," al-Zawahri insisted. Before becoming deputy al-Qaeda leader, the Egyptian al-Zawahri headed Al-Jihad, an extremist group that fought Mubarak's regime in the 1990s with a wave of bombings and other attacks that also targeted foreign tourists. The protesters who eventually toppled Mubarak's regime included people from all walks of life, including secular activists and in smaller numbers Islamists, particularly from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest political opposition movement. While the Brotherhood advocates the creation of a purist Islamic state in Egypt, it seems unlikely it would have enough support to dominate in a free election and push through such a goal.
