The longer a power vacuum goes on, usually the worse people there are to fill it. The kinds of people who are willing to sacrifice themselves to build the institutions necessary to maintain democracy (as the West envisions it) are a minority in Egypt, and across most of the Muslim world.
‘Rather than a spontaneous outburst, what we saw last week was a raw play for political power by radical Salafists. We have seen things like this before, most notoriously in Tehran after the Iranian revolution.’
Perhaps we’ve got some leverage:
‘There is nothing we can do to stop the radical Islamists from framing the United States when they need a wedge issue, but we can — and certainly should — make it clear to the likes of Mohamed Morsi that we can make his job and his life a lot more difficult than the Salafists can.’
Addition: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s piece in Newsweek suggests that Islamism is gasping, and will ultimately be defeated if Americans don’t bend on our liberties and principles. Islamist governments deprive their citizens of political and economic freedom. She gets the comments going.
Related On This Site: From Al Jazeera English: ‘Morsi Wins Egypt’s Presidential Election’…Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest on Egypt: ‘Still More of the Same—and Something New’…are we still on a liberalizing, Westernizing trajectory?, however slow the pace? Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘What Did The Arab Spring Really Change?’
From Abu Muqawama: ‘Mubarak And Me’…From Michael Totten: ‘The New Egyptian Underground’…Michael Totten At The American Interest: “A Leaner, Meaner Brotherhood”
Francis Fukuyama At The American Interest Online: ‘Political Order in Egypt’
Walter Russell Mead At The American Interest: ‘Mubaraks, Mamelukes, Modernizers and Muslims’……James Kirchik At The American Interest: ‘Egyptian Liberals Against the Revolution’
