Should we worry about Egypt becoming Democratic?
Indeed, if Egyptians are not worried, why should we worry? According to a study released by the Pew Research Center on December 2, 2010 (http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/): 82% of Egyptian Muslims favor stoning people who commit adultery; 77% favor whipping/cutting off of hands for theft and robbery; and 84% favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion. Nicholas, do you dispute these numbers, or do you not find them worrying? Are you of the opinion that these beliefs will disappear when "democracy" comes to Egypt?
Query for Nicholas: You write in your op-ed "Militants, Women and Tahrir Sq.", " I constantly asked . . . Coptic Christians whether a democratic Egypt might end up a more oppressive country. They invariably said no — and looked so reproachfully at me for doubting democracy that I sometimes retreated in embarrassment." Do you speak fluent Arabic? Did you speak to the Copts in English or Arabic? Was this a scientific poll you conducted? Did you inquire among Copts in their churches and communities, or did you primarily ask questions among the protesters? Why did you not mention in your column the murder of 21 Copts, who were coming out of a church in Alexandria, one month ago?
Further query: Why are you not reporting the attitudes of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood? In the 2005 elections, the Brotherhood's candidates, who ran as independents due to the Brotherhood's illegality as a political party, won 88 parliament seats (almost 20% of the total of 454 seats) to form the largest opposition bloc. According to an article by Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press appearing in Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_218):
"The Brotherhood has rushed to take a stronger role in the unprecedented protests that erupted 10 days ago, led by more secular young activists demanding the ouster of Mubarak. The Brotherhood's strength was on display in the pitched battles in Wednesday and Thursday against government supporters who attacked the protesters' camp in Cairo's central Tahrir Square before they were driven from the square by the pro-democracy forces.
Brothers — distinguishable by their close-cropped beards — dominated the front lines, often lining up to pray for 'victory or martyrdom,' before throwing themselves into the fray, hurling stones, sticks and firebombs at the attackers while shouting 'God is great.'
Amr Said, a 41-year-old chemist who said he is a Brotherhood supporter, told The Associated Press in Tahrir Square Friday morning that 'our instructions are not to assume a role that is too visible at the moment, and to get along with all other groups including and leftist and liberals.
'We also refrain from making our typically brotherhood chants and when one of us does, we quickly shut him up,' he said."
Nicholas, isn't it important also to report what supporters of the Brotherhood are thinking and saying? It's not hard to find them at Tahrir Square.
Will those fervent advocates of democracy and free speech at The New York Times post this comment? Let's wait and see.
Incidentally, as I observed in my prior blog entry, Roger Cohen yesterday wrote in an op-ed from Cairo entitled "We the Egyptian People" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/opinion/05iht-edcohen05.html?hp):
"Islamic parties can run thriving economies and democracies like Turkey’s".
Compare Egypt with Turkey? Yeah, right. As astutely observed by David Horovitz in a Jerusalem Post article entitled "Dangerously underestimating the Muslim Brotherhood
" (http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=206969):
"[N]umerous “experts” in both the US print and electronic media over the past week have been concertedly representing the Muslim Brotherhood as benign, hapless, not particularly popular, or all three of the above.
Far from benign, the Brotherhood is committed to death-cult jihad in the cause of widened Islamist rule, was the progenitor of Hamas and central to Islamist radicalization among the Palestinians. And its popularity was evident in that impressive 2005 parliamentary performance, achieved, it should be stressed, despite the Mubarak-orchestrated unfavorable circumstances.
. . . .
Experiences elsewhere have demonstrated the patience that Islamist organizations can exercise, building and gaining power and influence over years, over decades. Yet the absence of the Brotherhood from the protest frontlines for a matter of mere days – an astute tactic to ensure the watching world was not alienated and to maximize domestic support for the uprising – was apparently widely misread as proof of its irrelevance.
A much-cited – though not always accurately – Pew Research Center of Muslim attitudes, published only two months ago, indicates how frighteningly fertile the ground is for the Islamists in Egypt: 82% of Egyptian Muslims favor stoning people who commit adultery; 77% favor whipping/ cutting off of hands for theft and robbery; and 84% favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion, it found. By way of comparison, the comparable percentages in Turkey, even as it submits to growing Islamist influence, were just 16%, 13% and 5% respectively."
Worry about Egypt becoming democratic? In the immortal words of Alfred E. Neuman, "What, me worry?"
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