re: #161 wrenchwench

I don’t feel the need to suss out where each Muslim comes down on the issues of his or her religion. It’s when they want to make their view of their religion the state version that public interest is warranted. That’s why it’s important to be clear what you mean by “Islamist”. To me it means a person who wants Islam as the state religion.

Well - it seems that MB would fall into that category of an organization that wants Islam as a state religion.

But we may not have any choice there. If you have a democratic society that chooses to have Islam as their state religion, it’s what will happen. It may be that in Egypt (if not Indonesia or Turkey), the choice will be between such a state and an autocracy that brutally suppresses dissent.

To be clear, I’m not defending theocracy - but if I were given the choice between a democratic theocratic state that denounces terrorism and promotes women’s rights, and an autocratic theocratic state that promotes terrorism and mysogeny - I’d take the former.

In fact, I would support strong opposition to the later - and that’s why I’m trying to get a better read on what may possibly in a very large and powerful country populated, primarily, by Muslims.