- Image via Wikipedia
There are more than a few who want to take a wait-and-see approach before they say anything from the ease of their recliners, or who go so far as to create wild and fanciful theories about the President secretly in league with the Muslim Brotherhood, but using simply search strings on this new fangled thing called Google, one can easily identify the issues. Or, you can go to news sites and see what they say.
Regarding the Muslim Brotherhood, reports today suggests that they will not run a candidate, or that the threat is overblown, and their contribution to the protests were met with stiff resistance and a call to unity. The issue with these protests, as I noted when I first started running my take, is that there is a possiblity that it may lead to a fundamentalist Islamic country. Professor Zunes believes that the MB aren’t as a big of a deal as they publicly claim to be. (By the way, the Professor answers several questions about the issue at that link):
Q: What role do you believe the Muslim Brotherhood is playing in the Egypt protests and does that organization enjoy broad support among the Egyptian people?
A: The demonstrations are led primarily by young people who are not only anti-regime, but find the aging leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood as out of touch with their day-to-day realities as the government. There seems little support for the more extreme Islamists either. The Brotherhood’s refusal to endorse the protests until after they started and were clearly gaining support was clearly opportunistic and doesn’t help their standing
I hope that the mounting international pressure on Mubarak will cause him to begin the process of real reforms to meet the protesters’ demands, thereby preventing a power vacuum. From the looks of it, the military will not be joining the police in attacks against the people, which is a good thing.
For a live report from the streets of Cairo, read this one.
Related articles
- What is the Muslim Brotherhood? (cnn.com)
- Mubarak or Muslim Brotherhood not Egypt’s only choice: Experts (content.usatoday.com)
- Egypt’s Brotherhood is no threat to West: Islamist (reuters.com)
- Good News: Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood leaders (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
- “Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood” and related posts (online.worldmag.com)
- As Egypt falls the Muslim Brotherhood promises those aligned with the West will follow (notalemming.wordpress.com)
- “Muslim Brotherhood Joins in Egypt Protests” and related posts (worldthreats.com)
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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I’m not optimistic about the outcome of this. That’s not to say I support the present regime–far from it! I just don’t think we really understand all of the issues well enough.
I am fearful of the MB and I pray that the Copts are given a safe respite in all of this.
Michael Barber,
Thanks for expressing the thought I have been trying to express on this subject.
I’m afraid I’m afraid as Michael Barber, with whom I agree here. Michael, you might appreciate this post:
http://rjosephhoffmann.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/riddling-the-sphinx-egypt-2011/
A little history and ideology… I can well imagine the menacing Muslim Brotherhood rubbing their hands with glee as they fan the flames with bellows, and filling the ink wells ready to sign up new recruits. Oppressive regimes are often replaced by … oppressive regimes. Meanwhile lets all blindly support the ‘right to protest’. Oh dear.
http://itself.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/some-philosophical-fragments-on-the-struggles-in-tunisia-and-egypt/
Just a link I wanted to share.
My concern is about the MB, but what if we are overblowing their threat as many are suggesting? What if this is actually a good revolt? Granted, time will tell.
or history tells. Consequence of similar disfunction elsewhere in the world tells. I think you’re an idealist Joel. It would be lovely if it had a happy ending but the only successful revolution I can think of is Sth Africa – and there is a reason that was successful. For the engineers of this protest, yes sorry the MB, this revolution is about God.
I am an idealist, Steph – most days.