A better man than generally admitted in a much more complicated Egypt than described here.

Submitted by Sherifa Zuhur (United States), Sep 7, 2016 at 20:05

Read with some amusement as I was with Sisi at the Army War College, was with him weekly in 2 seminars. I read & believe I had some influence on his SRP - certainly the entire group's discussions of democracy are reflected here and his intent was a response to those who insisted that democracy must take a Western pattern, unrelated to the historical traditions of the region.

No, Dr. Pipes, he's not a salafi. However, salafi discourse has impacted many who are not. Our local mosque in Carlisle was certainly salafi. His "daughter" in the niqab was actually his visiting niece.

That said - his impact should be separated from the influence of those advising him & the popular committees which pushed him to run for office. In a tremendously complicated Egypt, negatively impacted by loss of tourist dollars; with a judiciary and security services still operating on the earlier decidedly non-democratic model, it's difficult to know how much can be accomplished, but stability, not democratization was the first objective.

Thank you.

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