Two Cheers for the Brotherhood
By John Feffer February 2, 2011
Foreign Policy in Focus
President-for-life Hosni Mubarak is doing what he can to maintain his perch. He has named a new cabinet, deployed more troops in the cities, blocked al-Jazeera broadcasts, and promised not to run for reelection. The opposition, meanwhile, has other plans. Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief and Nobel laureate Mohamed elBaradei has emerged as the leading candidate to manage the transition to democratic rule. In an important political coup, he has obtained the support of Egypt's main opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Those two words strike fear into the hearts of many in the West. The “Muslim Brotherhood” conjures up images of radical Islamists turning Egypt into Iran or Afghanistan. As the ever-predictable John Bolton told Fox News, "The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't care about democracy, if they get into power you're not going to have free and fair elections either." Andrew McCarthy agrees over at The National Review, "our see-no-Islamic-evil foreign-policy establishment blathers on about the Brotherhood’s purported renunciation of violence — and never you mind that, with or without violence, its commitment is…to 'conquer America' and ‘conquer Europe.’”