On Track To Ultimate Power
My, how events have overtaken the most optimistic visualizations for the future of the Muslim Brotherhood. One might assume that after three-quarters of a century of organization, planning and public relations in the guise of helpfulness to the downtrodden, that they might themselves have achieved this great advance on their own behalf. But no, it took the courage and the idealism of liberal thinkers dedicated to advancing the human rights interests of Egyptians to bring about this sea-change in the fortunes of the Brotherhood and the Salafists, through the medium of the Arab Spring.The Brotherhood took a cautious, low-key approach to the protests that engulfed Egypt when hundreds of thousands responded to the social media-inspired calls to gather and deliver an indelible message of resistance through peaceful means, to the government they wished to replace. All the groundwork was helpfully assumed by an assortment of liberal-minded, freedom-aspiring young Egyptian men and women in a loose coalition of groups dedicated to hauling their country out of its medieval traditions. What those men and women failed to reckon with was that fundamental Islam is most comfortable in medieval mode.
Post-Mubarak Egypt has not advanced its human-rights agenda one whit. The devil they knew was in fact, an improvement over the devil waiting behind the scenes. What hovers over this new Egypt is the joint expectations of the Muslim Brotherhood and the other Islamist parties who have handily managed to garner the majority of votes in the most recent, and above-board election. Egyptians have spoken; they have responded in the affirmative to the Islamist message, returning trust to those who waged a campaign against government corruption, giving aid to those in need.
And the Muslim Brotherhood which initially claimed it would be satisfied with taking a back-seat in Parliament suddenly discovered the attractiveness of front-and-centre seating. And from eschewing the opportunity to run a presidential candidate, they have done another U-turn to present one of their own. "He is a national hero to Egypt. He created an institution from the sweat of his brow and when it was destroyed because he was in competition with the son of the toppled president, he was jailed and injustice done to him", crowed Mohamed Badie, Brotherhood leader.
Khairat al-Shater, in preparation for his presidential run, resigned his official position with the Brotherhood as deputy leader. It is not only ordinary Egyptians who wish to cleave him to their collective bosom, but Western officials as well. He has been consulted by the International Monetary Fund team. He is considered moderate, an "excellent strategist". On his release from prison, post-Mubarak, he stated: "Egypt will not return to the days of one-party rule. The Brotherhood will help strengthen other parties. Even if one party is a majority, it should never have a monopoly."
Leader of the liberal Free Egyptians, Ahmed Said, ruefully acknowledges that the Brotherhood speaks a line that it does not pursue in actual fact, "proving each day that power is their only goal". The Brotherhood insists it should form the new Cabinet in reflection of its parliamentary majority, though the existing constitution hands that power to the military - or a newly elected president.
The military's refusal to fire the Cabinet is being cited by Brotherhood Secretary-General Mahmoud Hussein as "a real threat to the revolution and the democratic transition to an elected civilian government". Don't those Western-inspired catch-phrases just roll off the tongue as though they were the most natural thing in the world?
As the leaders of the assorted liberal-inspired Egyptian parties, still making an effort to organize themselves into effective opponents of the Islamist parties begin to despair that what they wrought will result in no effective lifting of their country out of its traditions of despotism, simply resulting in the exchange of a political-military autocracy for a militant-religious one, another group too is responding.
Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church has announced its withdrawal from talks revolving around a new constitution. Islamist domination of the drafting body has made its participation, it contends, "pointless". While Egyptian liberals have called for a boycott of the drafting committee. Which all recognize as failing to represent the diversity of Egyptians.
What an amazing surprise, what an unanticipated turn of events, what a fateful turnabout for a revolutionary contingent that envisioned great things for their country. But then, what is occurring in Egypt began much earlier in other countries of the Middle East; the inexorable rise of political Islam in all its fundamentalist glory.
Labels: Egypt, Heritage, Islamism, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 03, 2012
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