Monday, January 31, 2011

Islamist or Secularist? The Choice Should Be Egypt's

Many, many people are freaking out about the Muslim Brotherhood and its role in the turmoil in the Middle East. The Muslim Brotherhood is reaping the fruits of its history of extremist ideology. Nobody in the West trusts them or believes them. This has lead, IMHO, to a lot of wacko, illogical conspiracy theorizing coming from folks in the West. Sheesh, people. Leave that to the conspiracy theorizing specialist themselves, the Arabs.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Conspiracies certainly exist, but most tumultuous situations are far too fluid and unpredictable for anyone to have total control, to the point of moving it in precisely the direction they want it to go, especially when we're talking about relationships that span a multitude of nations and hundreds of thousands of people.

From what I've seen and read, the MB is being reactive rather than proactive. They've been handed an opportunity and they've leapt to take advantage of it. I think Tony Blair has it right:



What's happening right now in the Middle East and North Africa is a genuine uprising of "people power". Therefore, the West should tread carefully. The "people" should not be betrayed and what should happen, and don't ask me how, is the Muslim Brotherhood should be discredited and their power and influence diminished, without betraying the aspirations of the people on the streets who want to rid their countries of a half century or more of oppression.

Any reading of all the tweets being published over the last couple of days from Egyptian rebels should eliminate the notion that there is a yearning for a Sharia based theocracy rather than a genuine democracy.

To be sure, the security of Israel may be at risk, but if one more boot comes stomping down on the Arab street from the West, then the Muslim Brotherhood gains an enormous amount of street cred. Believe me, we don't want that to happen.

Need I remind you, the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel survived the assassination of its Egyptian signatory, Anwar Sadat, by the Muslim Brotherhood. Anyone who has been following the comments in Sandmonkey's blog, and others from Egypt, will know that ordinary Israelis and Egyptians have been talking to one another and actually being very amiable with each other for some time. Never forget the immortal words of the Sandmonkey's Seven Rules of the Arab Parallel Universe. He is a young, Western educated man. He and his compatriots are the future. Don't betray them by swallowing conspiracy theories.

The same could be said about Iraq. There, as was obvious to me anyway, there was a three way struggle between Islamists, the old-guard, hardline Arab Nationalists (in this case, the Ba'athist Party and their head goon, Saddam Hussein) and regular, westernized Iraqis. Between the three, it should be no contest which the West should support.

History is full of great turning points, from which the subsequent passage of time reveals a new path has been taken. From here on in, the West needs to send a clear and consistent message to Arab countries: "We support your legitimate struggle against tyranny, whether religious or nationalist." Don't betray the people on the street simply because the Islamists seek to exploit them.

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2 Comments:

Blogger SnoopyTheGoon said...

It's not necessarily an issue of choosing between conspiracies and reality: it's just that reality offers too few options, none of them palatable. Oh well, check out the clip I have posted in that last post today. This Egyptian guy explains it quite clearly.

February 01, 2011 9:43 am  
Blogger Louise said...

Well, Snoopy, I never said there shouldn't be consequences. Let them make their choice. We'll make ours.

February 01, 2011 12:28 pm  

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