Early Results in Egypt Show Mandate for Islamists

M

MojoMan

1,000+ Posts
The Muslim Brotherhood Party appears to have won the largest share of votes in Egypt's parliamentary elections this week and will likely govern together in a coalition with an even more hardline Islamist party. Together the two parties have apparently won a solid majority of the seats in Egypt's parliamentary elections. The official preliminary results are supposed to be announced some time today.
The Muslim Brotherhood Party, which will apparently lead the drafting of a new constitution, has insisted in recent years that it has changed its ways and is now committed to democracy, human rights and freedom. Now that they will be given real power, their credibility will be on the line for all to see.

Are these Islamists reformed in their ways? Or is this just the beginning of another oppressive Islamist regime?

In reply to:
 
I'm not thrilled by their name- but let's face it- no one knows anything about them. If you were an Egyptian you could say the same thing about the Young Mens Christian Association. But of course as Americans we know that the YMCA is a great place to stay, and even made a happy song about it.

Look- let's chill the F out and separate speculation and anxiety from reality until best warranted. Sometimes a country can liberate itself ok without an army from across the world having a hand in the government. Anxiety based speculation is not helping anything.
 
mcbrett, I don't disagree with you. However, I am not too optimistic. Iran regime change with the Shah started as a student movement against tyranny and we all know the end result wasn't an improvement for Western interests. However, Iran and Egypt are not the same and it is unfair to automatically assume that Egypt will end up like Iran. With that said, the Muslim Brotherhood's history with Israel has not been exemplary. Here is an article from Montreal and another from Israel:

The Link
In reply to:
Click to expand...
 
Mubarak was stability no doubt- and kept the peace agreement with Israel.

Sometime soon the region will seek, and hopefully have, Democratically based stability rather than Authoritarian. That should be the long term goal- it may require a decade of learning curves for Egypt to figure it out. I don't believe Egypt is capable of attacking Israel right now- what is more of a concern is shutting off the nat gas pipeline between the two countries which is a real possibility. That could lead to trouble- and is one of many reasons why Israel is a leading CleanTech developer.
 
Actually quite a lot is known about the MB.

This ABC blog piece on the way the MB got out the vote will surely remind many people of similar actions here in the USA:
"The Muslim Brotherhood has already started coloring outside the lines in order to win a majority in Egypt’s parliamentary elections.
Free food and cheap meat
In Cairo’s Saida Zeinab neighborhood, at one of the busiest polling centers in the city, we saw a party member and two other supporters of an independent candidate passing out leaflets to voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots – in clear violation of election laws. Soldiers who were on site for crowd control, did nothing to stop them. At the same spot, a tech-savvy FJP member sat on a bench, laptop in hand, to conduct exit polls. At other polling stations, they provided polling information to baffled voters.

In a more economically disadvantaged part of Cairo known as “The Slaughterhouse,” Hanan Nasr, a mother of three, watched FJP members pass out free packages of rice and oil to voters on their way to the polling station – again in contravention of campaign law. They also bused in party members from surrounding neighborhoods.?"

Any of those tactics sound familar?

more atThe Link

We can hope they will govern moderately and hopefully stop the killing of Christans and other nonmuslims.
 
Anyway, when I see comments from those like Roger35 that state the US brought regime change to Libya and Egypt the right way....

You seem to be confusing how the regime change was brought about (and I think it was the "right way") with the outcome of the change.
 
Israel and Egypt have been somewhat stable for decades. And now we're just hoping that a hard-line Muslim party will play nice? Good luck with that.
 
mcbrett
not ever holding ekected office is NOT the same as knowing nothing about the MB. quite a bit is known
their tactics is this elections reveal even more.

But we can remain hopeful they will govern fairly as I know all the Christians and non Muslims in Egypt hope.
 
Silly me, I am still holding out hope that the Muslim Brotherhood and their coalition partners (hopefully excluding the hardline Muslim group) will take a responsible and sustainable approach to drawing up a truly democratic constitution here, assuming these election results hold up. After watching all of the overthrows of tyrannical regimes lately, not least of all their own, it would seem that they would want to avoid immediately setting themselves up to head straight down that same path again.
I really do wish the best for these people and I want to see them succeed. And I do realize that I may just be engaging in wishful thinking here.

In any case, John Bolton, someone whose opinions I have great respect for on these matters, is not so optimistic. Here is a link to a video earlier today on Fox News. He believes the imposition of Sharia Law is a real possibility here.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1304802283001/strong-showing-from-hardline-islamists-in-egypt-election
 
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