CBS News is reporting today that Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over as head of Al Qaeda after Osama Bin Laden was killed, has released a videotaped statement asking Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad’s “pernicious, cancerous regime.”

The article reports that a senior Iraqi security official told the Associated Press that Al Qaeda fighters have been flowing from Iraq into Syria.

It is interesting to me that Al Qaeda is supporting the overthrow of the regime. Assad has been a brutal dictator, but I do not think Al Qaeda would be supporting him unless they felt they could install the Muslim Brotherhood in his place (as they have done in Egypt). The danger here is to the non-Muslims who live in the country. For whatever reason, Assad was content to let Christians practice their faith in Syria. I seriously doubt that will continue if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over.

The Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda have the same goal–a worldwide caliphate. They just have different ideas on how to get there. In American the Muslim Brotherhood is working within the government and the legal system to win control (see Dallas News). The Muslim Brotherhood believes that violence is not useful until the government of the country it is taking over is ready to fall. Al Qaeda sees violence as the means to bring down a government. The end game is the same, but the method is different.

If the government of Syria falls, which I believe it will, the only safe place for Christians in the Middle East will be Israel. Isn’t that ironic?