Ultraconservative Islamists make gains in Egypt

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party said Friday it plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming surprisingly strong gains in this week's initial round of voting for parliament, the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

Egypt's election commission announced only a trickle of results Friday and said 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the highest turnout in Egypt's modern history. Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, the head of High Election Commission, jokingly described it as "the highest since the time of pharaohs."

Preliminary counts leaked by judges and individual political groups indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm took the largest share of votes. Following closely behind, was the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc, according to those unofficial counts.

That trend — if confirmed and if extended over more rounds of voting — would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military that took over from Mubarak and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4z5yXyCGolmBwj_ze1EyZ5c-oGw?docId=1470b49e84054442bcbf6276b6bb314b

[On the Road]

1. The Muslim Brotherhood Had Said

that they would only run enough candidates to win 50% of the seats at most. It was a way of alleviating concerns over an Islamicist takeover of the government.

I am personally less concerned with the Muslim Brotherhood than with the more radical Islamic parties, some of which have been attacking churches and Christians with impunity.

The question now is whether the Muslim Brotherhood will need to form a coalition, and if so with who will they have as a partner? (I am assuming a parlimentary-style system.) They have gone out of their way in the past not to be scary Muslim extremists. Now they can continue that line by allying with a more moderate party, or abandon it by choosing allies on the religious right.

It is concerning, but it will be interesting to see how it works out.

[AverageJoe90]

3. Gone out of their way to not be extremists? F*$@ no they haven't!

All they have done is presented a more moderate veil, VEIL, for their sentiments. Deep down inside they're about as bad as all the other radicals, it's just that they're actually smart enough to devise an efficient cover that fools a lotta people(kinda like how Charlie Coughlin operated back in the '30s when he was running his show outta Detroit.).

There's a guy named Dave Emory who's done a lot of fantastic work on the web exposing the MB and other fascists for about 30 years now. Perhaps maybe I need to start posting some of his articles, because some people on here still don't understand what these S.O.B.s are really all about.

[BadtotheboneBob]

2. Our 'Fundies' are party-monsters compared to these guys.

Seriously... Welcome back to medieval times, Egypt, if these guys end up running your country. Flee, Copts, flee...

[AverageJoe90]

6. Ever heard of Dave Emory?

He's an anti-fascist radio personality who's been exposing fascists for years. He also posts articles from time to time and sometimes includes subjects such as the crisis or the various happenings in the Middle East, etc.

I'll have to get some of his stuff on here sometime.

[inwiththenew]

4. This probably set Egypt back about 50 years

But I guess the people have spoken.

[AverageJoe90]

7. I smell election fraud at work.......and possibly some truly duped voters as well.

But I lean far more towards the former.....something smells really off, particularly since the Army has been very sympathetic to the MB as of late.......

[Auntie Bush]

9. You mean just like here in America?

[AverageJoe90]

10. I'm afraid so, AuntieBush.

In fact, it looks like my suspicions may have been valid to an extent.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/33/100/27877/Elections-/News/ESDPs-Zahran-accuses-Muslim-Brotherhood-and-Salafi.aspx

Here's a quote, btw:

"According to Zahran, fully veiled women supporters of the FJP and the Salafist parties have been refusing to reveal their faces or to dip their fingers in phosphoric ink, which allows to vote more than once. They have also been harassing non-veiled women.

Zahran also accused the MB of stuffing ballots in several voting stations in Luxor, Aswan and Fayoum. In some of these constituencies they also barred Coptic citizens from entering the polling stations to cast their votes."

Anyone else think a few of these people may have been paid to stir up trouble?

[AntiFascist]

5. The Muslim Brotherhood may also be suddenly appealing to moderates...

according to CNN, but then who knows?

[David__77]

8. A revolution in Egypt could only lead to an Islamic Republic.

I cannot see how that wasn't clear from the beginning. The vast majority of patriotic Egyptians see Western liberalism as an alien product.

[AverageJoe90]

11. I don't know about that, necessarily.

Unfortunately, sometimes all you need is a very small and vocal minority who really believes in a fascist ideology, and millions of dupes who just wanna go with the flow so they don't rock the boat, and presto, you have fascism.