Posted 12/01/2011 06:12 PM ET
Islamism: The news from Cairo is bad. Early election returns point to a Parliament dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and the even more extreme Salafis. It's time for a fast reset to realism.
History never repeats itself precisely, but Egypt's revolution does seem to be falling into a familiar rut. Liberals lead the charge, overthrow the autocrats and then fall to a new breed of oppressors, more brutal, fanatical and globally ambitious than anything that went before.
Think France in 1789, Russia in 1917 and Iran in 1979.
Balloting has begun to choose the first Egyptian Parliament since the ouster of pro-American strongman Hosni Mubarak. To no one's surprise, the well-organized Muslim Brotherhood (slogan: "Islam is the solution") is getting the largest share of the vote, about 40%.
This would not be so troubling if the Western-looking liberal parties and more moderate Muslim groups had picked up enough votes to keep the Brotherhood in the mainstream, where it claims now to be.
Instead, it's the extreme Islamists, the Salafis, who are on the rise. Their strong showing could bring them about a quarter of the vote. Not only would the Islamists have a huge majority, but any moderate leanings in the Brotherhood could be squelched by the clout of the hard-core Salafis.
What now? For America, that question might be moot. We are neither loved nor feared in Egypt, so our ability to influence events there is almost nil. Blame for this condition, to be fair, is shared by the past two administrations, which have treated democracy — or the trappings of it — as a sort of pixie dust that would bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East.
George W. Bush at least tried to balance this >>>



