During the Cold War, people in the West would shout “the reds are coming, the reds are coming”. But since the popular uprising took place in Egypt, they now shout “the Muslim Brotherhood is coming, the Muslim Brotherhood is coming”. I say: God willing. I do not want any theocracy of any kind to rule, because I do not want to fall under the tutelage of one single party, and I prefer democratic rule, which allows opposing ideologies and opinions to thrive. However, if the Muslim Brotherhood intimidates Israel, the American Likudniks and the rest of the enemies of Arabs and Muslims, then all I say is that they are most welcome, while I reject the campaigns currently being waged against them in the U.S. media, and which Professor John Cole described as being hysterical. The Muslim Brotherhood has changed greatly throughout a history that spans more than eight decades. They were involved in violence, and had assassinated a judge and a prime minister. But they were also the victims of violence themselves, as their founder Hassan al-Banna was also assassinated, while their most prominent ideologue Sayyid Qutb was executed. And ever since they were accused of orchestrating the assassination attempt against Gamal Abdel Nasser, they have been banned to operate as a political party, and the group's name in the last elections was ‘The banned'. We can fairly say that all radical Islamist and terrorist groups have been spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood, and I also know that they were influenced by the ideology of Ayatollah Khomeini in the beginning, and had both secret and open ties with Iran, which suffered setbacks under the ‘moderate' Mohammad Khatami, but which have since been restored under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the group has learnt its lesson. Its members, who ran as independents, won seventeen seats in the parliamentary elections of 2000, and increased their share of the seats to 88 in 2005. They would have won an even larger number of seats were it not for the fact that the third stage of those elections were rigged, as were last year's elections, where they failed to win any seats although the group is the largest opposition force in the country. The slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood is ‘Islam is the solution'. However, its leaders are pragmatic. They have their feet on the ground and they roll with the punches. They thus prefer to be in a coalition government with other factions. But this is probably a temporary policy, as they do not want to scare people both domestically and abroad. For this reason, they are inclined not to put forward a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, and perhaps they will endorse Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei whom they had nominated to negotiate with the government prior to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak's regime. The Muslim Brotherhood did not start the youth's uprising against the regime, and had played a limited role in it. But perhaps their over-cautiousness is a reflection of their bitter experience with the regime. At any rate, their caution this time has backfired, and the rebels did not miss the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood was willing to negotiate with the regime, while one million Egyptians in Tahrir Square were shouting slogans calling for its downfall. It was a blunder then. But the Muslim Brotherhood has a certain degree of self-organization and funding, along with sufficient experience, to allow it to regain the foothold it enjoyed, without seeking exclusive control of the government, as they know that the army will never allow them to rule Egypt. The armed forces remain the most formidable branch of the establishment. For instance, Hosni Mubarak continued to defy the people and Tahrir Square, and millions of Egyptians, so long as the army was at his side. However, the military leadership advised him to step down after his bad speech last Thursday and so he stepped down. The Muslim Brotherhood will not enter a confrontation with the army. They are well aware that the outside world will not approve of them, as their triumph would encourage Islamist movements elsewhere in other Arab countries to seek power. Further, their political agenda is a source of concern for both the United States and Israel, and it threatens the peace treaty, which would cause Egypt to suffer international isolation should they seize power. Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly voiced his concern regarding a possible takeover of power by the Islamists in Egypt. This was echoed by the Israel lobby, the Likudniks and other extremists in the United States by warning against the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after the uprising, and the threat to Israel posed by a group that rejects its very existence, not just the occupation. Thus, I summarize the stances of the enemies of the Muslim Brotherhood with one article out of one thousand, written by Frank Gaffney, one of the most ultra-extremist Likudniks and neoconservatives there is. The article is entitled ‘The Muslim Brotherhood is the enemy'. He means ‘America's enemy', although it is him and his ilk that are the real enemies of America, as each of them places the interests of Israel above those of their country. The Likudnik Gaffney quotes a ‘secret' memorandum of the Muslim Brotherhood regarding their goals in North America. In contrast to these people, I welcome the Muslim Brotherhood as partners in government, without being fooled by their recent statements. Like Imam Ali said, “I am not guileful and the guileful do not fool me”. I had also quoted a saying that summarizes my views regarding the causes behind the uprising in Tunisia, which was “Nothing can bring down thrones except women and money”. I also expressed my concern about the future after the success of the uprising in Egypt that had no leaders, by saying “Do not count your chickens until they have hatched”. When it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose leaders speak with children's innocence in their eyes, I say, “pretend you are weak when you can”, a saying that every Egyptian understands. [email protected]
