The Moslem Brotherhood isn't taking the
Thousands of Brotherhood supporters were hunkered down in a vigil at a Cairo mosque on Sunday, vowing to stand their ground despite the imminent threat of a move to disperse them.
Saturday's bloodshed, following huge rival rallies, plunged the Arab world's most populous country deeper into turmoil following two turbulent years of transition to democracy with the fall of veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
Egypt's Health Ministry said 65 people had died. The Brotherhood said another 61 were on life support after what it described as a ferocious dawn assault by men in helmets and black police fatigues. The ambulance service put the death toll at 72.
The new government isn't inclined to give the protesters space to demonstrate. We want Egypt to pull "back from the brink" of all-out civil strife, but inclusion that allows the anti-democratic Moslem Brotherhood into the government isn't resuming the path to democracy.
As I argued when Mubarak was on the way out, we have to support Egyptians in restricting those who run to those who would stand for honest reelection, too:
One of the problems is that the protesters want opportunity and freedom from Mubarak and the old order; but that getting democracy is only one path in the negative common objective of removing Mubarak and the old order. Yes, some protesters--the members of the Twittering Class that we identify with--want something called "democracy." Others don't want that. Those anti-democratic protesters simply want Mubarak out and we have no obligation to include these people in the new order that is being created before our eyes in the mistaken notion that freedom requires all opposition forces to replace the existing government. Indeed, we have an obligation to keep those proto-thugs out of the new government[.]
Even those who want "democracy"--without having lived in one--need our help in understanding what that means. Those who don't even aspire to democracy except as a means of gaining permanent power--most prominently the Moslem Brotherhood--must be kept out of the political process. Or are neo-Nazis allowed to run for office in Germany?
There are a lot of people in our own government who pretend that Iran has a functioning democracy despite the screening the mullahs use to keep anybody but a mullah-friendly candidate from getting on the ballot. If Westerners (and even our government, on occasion) can say nice things about that system, we should be able to accept a system in Egypt that screens those who would use elections to gain power without respecting the electoral system as anything other than a show to justify authoritarian rule.
If Egypt doesn't do that, the choices will be voting that lets the Moslem Brotherhood regain power or accepting some type of military-backed authoritarian government. Neither of those options seems very good, does it?
