I’m just a little bit sick of the underlying racism coming across in the reportage of Egypt. Sometimes it’s explicit and sometimes it’s implicit, but it’s there a lot, most of the time.
What if…what if…the people have their way, oust Mubarak, install democracy and then actually elect the Muslim Brotherhood? Shock! Horror!
No matter that almost every journalist based in the region continually chants that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a fanatical organisation, has no connections to al-Qaeda and espouses democracy, not theological rule, and that in any case, they do not appear to have a following big enough to automatically assume they would be elected under a democratic vote.
Whatever decision the Muslim Brotherhood may or may not make if they are elected to power, they will have the right to make that decision because they will have been democratically elected by the free people of Egypt. Worrying about what policies they may form if elected is not a reason not to support democracy in Egypt.
I think that’s a risk we have to take. After all, the world had to put up with the non-election and then the subsequent genuine election of George W. Bush – and look at the damage he caused to the world. Two illegal wars, hundreds of thousands of innocents dead, and yet nobody questions the legitimacy of the American people to elect whom they choose (or whom a blatantly partisan Supreme Court chooses for them).
But no, it’s different, because the party in question, the Muslim Brotherhood, has the word Muslim in it. It’s funny that you don’t hear such objection to parties with other religions in the title. The current darling of Europe, Angela Merkel, heads up the Christian Democratic Union, after all. It’s Christian, it’s different, I understand. The Christians have never caused unrest.
Frankly, I’m more worried about the Tea Party than I am about the Muslim Brotherhood.
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