by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n It is clear that the media and its host of analysts are split in two camps on the Egyptian revolution: one that sees it as a wonderful expression of “people-power” that, left alone, will naturally culminate into some sort of pluralistic democracy, and another that sees only the Muslim Brotherhood, in other words, that sees only bad coming from the revolution. These extremist views need balancing. The fact is, depending on what the US does \u2014 or doesn’t \u2014 the result of this revolt could either be the best or worst thing to happen to the Middle East in the modern era.<\/p>\n For starters, that the Muslim Brotherhood poses a great threat, there is no doubt. If Mubarak goes and a power vacuum is created, the best positioned opposition group to take over is the Brotherhood \u2014 this is especially the case if there is no outside intervention to prevent it.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the majority of the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protesting and dying in the streets of Egypt today are not doing so because they want Sharia law enforced to the letter. Rather, this is a popular revolution in the literal sense, and contains all segments of Egypt’s population, not just the Islamists. The only united goal all Egyptians have is to see Mubarak go \u2014 hence the ubiquitous Arabic sign,\u00a0Irhal<\/em>: “Get out!”<\/p>\n Therefore, rather than naively assume that this revolution will lead to a democratic Egypt (and so the US should stand by), or cynically assume that this is unquestionably an Islamist revolt that needs to be crushed (by supporting Mubarak and tyranny), the US should simply do whatever needs doing to see that the revolt, in fact, leads to a secular and pluralistic society, which, believe it or not, many Egyptians would welcome.<\/p>\n The secularists are there. Now is the time to support them. Without Western support, the Muslim Brotherhood will take over Egypt by default. And if that happens, the Middle East will rock like never before in the modern era.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim NRO’s\u00a0The Corner It is clear that the media and its host of analysts are split in two camps on the Egyptian revolution: one that sees it as a wonderful expression of “people-power” that, left alone, will naturally culminate into some sort of pluralistic democracy, and another that sees only the Muslim Brotherhood, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[118,227],"tags":[1034,1035,228,1017,1043,1016],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-104","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6351,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/murbaraks-muslim-brotherhood-prophecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":0},"title":"Murbarak’s Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Gatestone Institute In a\u00a0video of Hosni Mubarak\u00a0when he was still Egypt\u2019s president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood have come to pass.\u00a0 What follows are Mubarak\u2019s words from a conference in Egypt (date unknown; author\u2019s translation): So they [Brotherhood and affiliates] took advantage of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/parallel-betrayals-iranian-revolution-and-arab-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":1},"title":"Parallel Betrayals: Iranian Revolution and Arab Spring","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine Many are the lessons to be learned between the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the current revolutions of the Arab world. Consider the issue of the hijab, the female \u201cveil\u201d \u2014 the proliferation of which, according to\u00a0one former Islamist\u00a0and associate of al Qaeda's Ayman Zawahiri,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4080,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/egypt-on-the-brink-bradley-reveals-instability-in-modern-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":2},"title":"Egypt on the Brink: Bradley Reveals Instability in Modern Egypt","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Middle East Quarterly A review of\u00a0Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution\u00a0by John R. Bradley (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). To the general reader,\u00a0Inside Egypt\u00a0is a good introduction to some of the problems rife in the most populous, Arabic-speaking country. From\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6383,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-terror-leader-behind-bars-in-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":3},"title":"A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine The supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the Islamist snake, Muhammad Badie\u2014who had slipped security forces by traveling in and out of the\u00a0Brotherhood torture camps\u00a0(known as \u201cpeaceful sits ins\u201d by the mainstream media\u201d)\u2014has finally been arrested in Egypt and is awaiting trial.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6341,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/egyptians-enraged-by-u-s-outreach-to-muslim-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":4},"title":"Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0PJ Media In the eyes of tens of millions of Egyptians, Senators John McCain\u2019s and Lindsey Graham\u2019s recent words and deeds in Egypt\u2014which have the \u201cblessing\u201d of President Obama\u2014have unequivocally proven that U.S. leadership is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian media is awash with stories of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6122,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-to-egyptian-christians-dont-protest-the-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":3848,"position":5},"title":"Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don’t Protest the Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate\u00a0\u00a0in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President\u00a0Morsi\u2019s\u00a0rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the\u00a0Tahrir\u00a0protests that earlier ousted Mubarak.\u00a0\u00a0Accordingly, among other influential\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3849,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3848\/revisions\/3849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}