Not to Worry

Submitted by Barry Black (United States), Feb 14, 2011 at 10:21

As the saying goes, "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." Since the ouster of King Farouk in 1952 by Nasser, Egypt has always been ruled by the military where the head of state wears a suit rather than military garb. Nasser and Sadat tended to wear their uniforms a little more frequently than Mubarak. You can have all the elections and public discourse you want, but the military will always have the final say.

Mustafa Ataturk brought Turkey into the modern age with the military as a backdrop and though Turkey as slip a bit into the Islamist realm, it will never become Islamist. While some of the military brass may be Islamist, they are not radical Islamist anymore than the leaders in Israel are radical Judaists. And the same goes for Egypt----for as long as the military overseers any civilian government leadership, radical Islamism will never achieve political dominance.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".