Democracy in Egypt?

Today’s New York Times reports that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has put forward its own presidential candidate in spite of assuring everyone after the fall of Mubarak that it would not.  Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact that the Brotherhood is acting with the tacit support of the U.S. Government.

Throughout the Mubarak years, the U.S. portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as a powerful, fanatic group that, if permitted to participate in the political realm, would push Egypt toward fundamentalist theocracy.  Scholars sometimes criticised the U.S.’s monolithic view of political Islam, arguing that there was (and is) a healthy divergence of opinions and robust public debate among Islamic actors in many countries concerning the role that Islam should play in government.  Scholars (including me) argued that many forms of Islam are compatible with a functioning civil society and democratic governance. 

It now appears that U.S. policy makers are beginning to appreciate the nuances of political Islam and that the Brotherhood does not appear to be enemy of civil society and democracy that it was assumed to be.

TAK