Thursday, July 18, 2013

How Did the Muslim Brotherhood Mess Up So Fast in Egypt?

Erick Stakelbeck, who wrote a book about the Islamist movement, explains it like this:
...[T]he Muslim Brotherhood, long the world’s most politically astute, patient, and disciplined Islamist movement, overplayed its hand so badly in Egypt and revealed its true intent so early. At the end of the day, instituting sharia was more important to Morsi and his fellow Brothers than feeding the Egyptian people or making even the slightest attempt at jumpstarting the Egyptian economy. That in itself is not surprising. This is who the Brothers are, after all: committed ideological fanatics. What is surprising is that they made it so obvious, so soon.
With all due respect to the author, given that they're committed ideological fanatics who have been lusting for power--and for sharia law in Egypt--for so long, I don't think it's at all surprising. What's surprising is that anyone would believe that democracy (real democracy, not merely the act of casting a ballot) and sharia were in any way compatible.

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