ElBaradei, Mansura, and the Friday Prayer

I'm off for the weekend and it's my daughter's birthday, so anything short of peace breaking out won't lure me back, but here's a story to leave you with. It relates to last Friday, not to today, but here's the tale: Mohamed ElBaradei was making a visit to the Delta city of Mansura last week, his first major foray out of Cairo to promote his reformist agenda. Plans were for him to attend Friday prayer at a mosque that can accommodate 3000 worshipers, but surprise, for "security reasons" he was told to attend a mosque that can hold only 500.

As the linked Al-Masry al-Youm English report notes, regular worshipers at the mosque were surprised to see a new preacher in the pulpit. He repeatedly cited the Qur'an Sura IV, 59, " O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you."

He also prayed for the health of Husni Mubarak, that his Presidency would continue, and noted that Mubarak had made Cairo as significant as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

I'll let Muslims comment on the propriety of that remark, but my own reaction is: subtle. Subtle as an atom bomb. Do they think this helps their case?

Oh, and also: doesn't the government keep saying the Muslim Brotherhood can't run as a political party because it's wrong to mix Islam and politics?