Once ikhwan are in control, forget about democracy

Submitted by Sherif Helmy (United Kingdom), Jul 12, 2012 at 09:42

As an Egyptian, I am always interested in Dr Pipes' views. On this occasion, I think the situation is a lot more complex for a variety of reasons:

1. While SCAF is neither secular nor liberal, it is also not islamist, and has moderate political views related to foreign affairs, unlike ikhwan who are the glossy, sophisticated version of islamists, who are certainly far more dangerous than SCAF, as their target is to control the whole region with their islamist ideology, using Egypt as a spring board.

2. Almost all SCAF members have vast financial interests and they have been directly responsible for several massacres that took place over the last few months (Maspero, Mohamed Mahmoud, etc..). They know that they will be put on trial (and probably executed) the minute they lose power to the islamists.

3. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that SCAF is colluding with ikhwan to keep the status quo, in a power sharing status, until one of them is able to take full control. The army greatly assisted ikhwan during the parliamentary elections to win tens of seats by fraud, in addition to changing the voting borders in favour of islamists, and dismissing more than a thousand documented complaints about fraud within the elections. That could not have happened if SCAF viewed islamists as enemies.

4. There has been a radical shift in public opinion of the moslem middle class in Egypt, who finally realised the true colours of ikhwan. Interestingly, while the vast majority of Egyptians were anti-mubarak, almost half the population voted for Shafik because of fear of islamist rule.

5. Western pressure on SCAF to allow ikhwan to govern will be a total disaster. The army is the ONLY power in Egypt that can de-throne ikhwan. If any one thinks that ikhwan will give up power if they ever lost an election, then they are sadly deluded. Ikhwan have made it clear on every single occasion that they will NEVER give away power. Every election in the future will be rigged (they have been able to rig elections without being in power!). they have hundreds of judges who share their ideology and have no problem rigging any future elections. This explains why so many people in Egypt are hoping for a military coup that would end up sending islamists back to jail.

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