Political Islam's pioneer wins polls Message in Egypt's final result

[Ray]

Political Islam's pioneer wins polls
Message in Egypt's final result

Cairo, Jan. 22: Egyptian authorities have confirmed that a political coalition dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the 84-year-old group that virtually invented political Islam, has won about 47 per cent of the seats in the first parliament elected since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

An alliance of ultraconservative Islamists won the next largest share of seats, about 25 per cent.

The military council leading Egypt since Mubarak lost power in February has said it will keep parliament in a subordinate role with little real power until the ratification of a constitution and the election of a President, both scheduled for completion by the end of June.

But the council has assigned parliament the authority to choose the 100 members of a constitutional Assembly, so it may shape Egypt for decades to come, although the military council has sometimes tried to influence that process.........

The tally, with the two groups of Islamists together winning about 70 per cent of the seats, indicates the deep cultural conservatism of the Egyptian public, which is expressing its will through free and fair elections for the first time in more than six decades.

But the two groups have described very different visions and appear to be rivals rather than collaborators. The Brotherhood has said it intends to respect personal liberties and will focus on economic and social issues, gradually nudging the culture toward its conservative values.

By contrast, the ultraconservatives known as Salafis, put a higher priority on legislation on Islamic moral issues, like the consumption of alcohol, women's dress and the contents of popular culture.

Among the remaining roughly 30 per cent of parliamentary seats, the next largest share was won by the Wafd Party, a liberal party recognised under Mubarak and with roots dating to Egypt's colonial period.

It was trailed by a coalition known as the Egyptian Bloc. It included the Free Egyptians, a business-friendly liberal party founded by a Coptic Christian businessman, Naguib Sawiris, and favoured by many members of the country's Coptic Christian minority, about 10 per cent of the public.

A coalition of parties founded by the young leaders of the revolt that unseated Mubarak won only a few per cent of the seats.

Western democracies should overcome their aversion to Islamist groups that enjoy popular support in North Africa and West Asia and encourage them to respect basic rights, Human Rights watch has said.

Political Islam’s pioneer wins polls

Though there is a war on terror spearheaded by the US still going strong, though in a much more benign way (no more direct invasion), yet it appears that the Freedom and Democracy that was expected where, as per Bush, bringing in American values, is nowhere to be seen.

Instead, country by country, it appears that the Islamic waves is catching on with fundamentalist parties in the forefront.

Has the War on Terror Failed?

Has all this bringing Freedom and Democracy only permitted radical regimes or religion based parties to come to the forefront?

Does it not indicate that the Islamic population who were shown a the gateway to Freedom and Democracy have spurned the same and merely used it to usher in fundamentalist Islam?

Is it turning the whole thing into a game of We and Them?

How will this affect the stability of the countries like Egypt, an in turn, the world.

 

[Vyom]

The US can't change the world, only the people inhibiting them can. It is all upon the people of these countries, to give the right direction to their nation.

 

[ejazr]

I think it matter what your definition of War on Terror is

If it was a War on Islam, then ofcourse it will be a loss because you can win a religious war. These are never ending.

If it was war specifically on militant groups like Al Qaeda and its affiliates, then they have been very successful. A defeat would have been if majority of the Muslim population would have started supporting the viewpoint of Al Qaeda which is that it is legitimate to attack US and its allies including civilians. We see that the opposite has happened.

One of the primary reasons that Bin Laden played on to justify his actions which we know from his tapes and letters was the support of Arab dictators by US and UK. The other was ofcourse the Israel/Palestine conflict. The Freedom and Justice party was the only organized opposition during this era and as expected they have done well in the elections. Now the real test will be what they do when they come in power. Already there are compromises on issues like tourism and peace treaty with Israel.

The Freedom and Justice Party backed by the MB in Egypt nothing different from the mainstream Republican discourse that we see in the US today.
As Vyom said, the US will have to stop interfering in the middle east and let them choose their leaders and live with their consequences. Shashank Joshi and Time had some good articles that discuss this here

The Muslim Brotherhood is not the Taliban - Telegraph
http://defenceforumindia.com/west-a...rolina-gingrich-egypt-muslim-brotherhood.html