The Muslim Brothers: The Story is Just Beginning

That is the view of Thomas L. Friedman, (The New York Times, December 6):

“The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis have been living underground focused largely on what they were against and confined in their ideologies to platitudes like “Islam is the Answer.” Now that they are emerging from the Arab basement, they not only have to define what they are for but do it in the context of a highly competitive global economy that will leave Egypt’s 85 million people, about one third of whom are illiterate, even further behind if they don’t get moving. This will eventually require some wrenching ideological adjustments by the Muslim Brothers and Salafis to reality. The story is just beginning.”

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“We are talking about the politics of resentment,” said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre in Quatar, referring to the Salafis (The New York Times, December 11). “They have thrived off the gap between most Egyptians and the elite – including the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood – both in lifestyle and outlook.”

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“[The Muslim Brothers’] offices are social service agencies,” Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in his column. (The New York Times, December 11). “Citizens drop in to ask for blankets for the winter and the party hands them out, along with campaign brochures…. The price of sugar, the price of rice, that is what voters care about. If Islamists can deliver on that, they’ll succeed. If not, they’ll be voted out in the next election.”

A volunteer for an independent voter education group added: “[In any case] we’re not going to end up like Somalia.”