Monday, April 2, 2012

Muslim Brotherhood fails to change politics as usual in Egypt


Future Egyptian President....
With First, Second, Third and Fourth Ladies of Egypt!
Celebrate the "Gains of the Revolution"....

By Joseph Mayton
Bikya Masr

"It is done. The Muslim Brotherhood have officially reneged on their promise to not field a presidential candidate in the upcoming May election. It is yet another sign that the group has become drunk with power, seeking more in an attempt to solidify their position as complete hegemon over Egypt.

It is one thing to debate their candidate, but we should never be here. They promised. But as in all things political in Egypt – and elsewhere – one’s word is not bond. And in less than three months, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has gone from fighter, to Parliamentary champions, to in a nutshell liars.

It is easy to say that all politicians are liars, but for the most part in Egypt, no party or group had reneged on a promise, or straight up changed their policies on an issue or topic. This time, the Brotherhood has done exactly that.

By reneging on their previous statement, the group is signaling that it is politics as usual in Egypt, where once a group enters into power, they become almost intoxicated by it and want to maintain and grow their will over the country.

This is exactly what the Free Officers did in the early 1950s, which continues to this day in the form of the military junta. The Brotherhood needed to show Egyptians, both liberals and conservatives, that they are going to change the status quo and build a new political structure based on honesty and openness. Deciding to field a candidate all but ends that hope.....

“I think where we are at is to simply worry about the future of Egypt and its democracy,” one liberal MP told me recently. He argued that if the Brotherhood did put forward a candidate, “it could spell the official end to the revolution and what we had fought for.”.....

Understandably though activists, who continue to demand an end to military trials, greater freedoms and a civil state, the candidacy of a Brotherhood member has stoked fears that Egypt is heading down a path toward conservatism never before seen in its modern history.

Many of the activists I have spoken with recently fear that a Brotherhood president and a Brotherhood parliament would be disastrous for the country. One young female university student, Heba, told me that “they would be able to push through anti-Christian and anti-women laws that would not be good.”....."

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