Category Archives: Islamism

This is a guest post by Mr Happy

As we enter day 15 of the Egyptian protests. The Wall Street Journal has a very interesting piece on the Muslim Brotherhood’s take on the actions of their fellow countrymen.

But first, as sentiments of the Egyptian protests are largely sympathetic across much of the Arab world and the West, there have been some notable endorsements that the Egyptian people could do without. The first, Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iranian proxy-group Hezbollah:

The latest endorsement of the protesters came Monday when Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the political and militant Shiite group Hezbollah, gave a televised speech to a crowd of several hundred supporters gathered at an auditorium in south Beirut waving Egyptian and Hezbollah flags.

“The resistance Egyptians demonstrate does not differ from the resistance of Hezbollah during the 2006 war with Israel,” Mr. Nasrallah said. “I wish to be with you and offer my blood to support your cause.”

Here’s an unsettling but ultimately optimistic appraisal of the onset of a new age of pro-democracy activism in the Middle East and a crucial component: the power of the humble blog. From an interview of Walid Phares, author of The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East.

The present:

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s truly going on in Egypt?

WALID PHARES: The current popular uprising is a mixture of public discontent with economic and political affairs in Egypt, a push towards political change inside the country led by young democracy currents, the Tunisian model that gave the uprising a copycat to follow, and also a convergence of efforts by anti-Mubarak political forces not all promoting democracy. This cocktail of ingredients led to the largest demonstrations in Egypt’s history, where the focal point is opposition to President Mubarak, but there are diverging points of view immediately beyond that. In my view, this is a real surge coming from the bottom, but many others are riding the wave.

This is a cross-post from Left Foot Forward by Ghaffar Hussain at the Quilliam Foundation

Whilst most ordinary people around the world have interpreted the protests in Egypt as good news, fears of an Islamist take-over have dampened the mood slightly in western policy circles. After all, Egypt’s largest Islamist party, the Muslim Brotherhood, is frequently described as the most popular and best organised opposition.
So, the logic goes, a free and fair election would result in an Islamist takeover of arguably the most important Arab state. But all of this misses certain importance points.

The Brotherhood is an important part of Egyptian political life. They have been around since the 1920s and they can certainly be described as very well organised. Their popularity, however, has wavered through the years but has often been helped by political events. The assassination of Anwar El Sadat in 1981 by militant Islamists, who were in large part inspired by the Brotherhood, ushered in an era of dictatorship, repression and martial law.