Harpoon's Thursday Surprise

Harpoon Siddiqui makes the startling claim that "Egypt's battle (is) not about Islam but dictatorship v. democracy. Guess which political party he proffers as being non-dictatorial? If you said the Muslim Brotherhood, you'd be correctamundo:

Not surprisingly, the Brotherhood is busy moving to the centre. It does not talk much about sharia and a caliphate. Mursi is trying hard to win over the liberal and secular Sabbahi and Fotouh camps that are insisting on rights of women, rights of Coptic Christians (who voted en masse for Shafiq, as was their right) and freedom of speech. Neither Mursi nor any serious leader of the Brotherhood is questioning the peace treaty with Israel.

Not surprisingly? Actually, were the MuBros actually "busy moving to the centre and we here in the West understand it--and not centrist solely in the Egyptian context--that would be a huge surprise. But since there's absolutely no indication that the not-as-extreme-sharia-wise-as-the-Salafists Islamists have budged an iota from their "jihad is the way, sharia is the goal, dying for Allah is the highest aspiration" mantra, this is merely another example of Harpoon trying to bamboozle the all-too-easily bamboozable kafirs.

As for the premise of the piece: Egypt's "battle" is about Islam--about whose version (extreme, extremer or extremest) of Islamic law will prevail.

Nice try, though, Harpoon.