By Ilan Berman - from Forbes.com
Call it belated full disclosure. Ever since the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, the Muslim Brotherhood has reemerged as a major force in Egyptian politics. For most of that time, however, it has played coy about its political aspirations and ideological agenda. These days, though, the Islamist movement has become a great deal more frank about its plans for Egypt.
“At this period, we would like to lead the society to achieve its Islamic identity in preparation for the Islamic rule,” Saad Husseini, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, proclaimed at a recent rally in Cairo. These ideas have been echoed by other Brotherhood officials, who have outlined sweeping social changes once “Islam enters the lives, ethics, and dealings of the people.”
Not surprisingly, such statements have created an uproar among Egypt’s leftist and secular political parties, who are leery of political competition from their religious flank. Far more telling, however, has been the Egyptian public’s tepid response to the Brotherhood agenda. A recent poll by the International Peace Institute, for example, found only 38 percent of respondents had positive views of the movement, and just 12 percent said they’d actually vote for the Brotherhood if parliamentary elections were held today. This suggests the views of Husseini and company are of significantly more limited appeal than commonly believed—at least for the time being. Read more...
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