re: #47 lawhawk

Those who claim deep knowledge about the MB appear to discount, dismiss or otherwise ignore their clear intentions to ultimately establish a caliphate, see to Israel’s destruction, etc. They fob those off as merely wishful thinking and that the Brotherhood has moderated.

Their pronouncements in the course of the protests about Israel shows that they haven’t changed their tune vis a vis Israel, and it should make everyone leery of their ultimate goals for Egypt and the region. Egyptians themselves are leery about the Brotherhood and whose interests they’re promoting.

I think that’s totally fair and there is no doubt this underlying viewpoint and agenda exists. The question for me and for many I’ve seen talking about it here and elsewhere is not so much that this doesn’t exist but what is the possibility in terms of power and influence for them to actually enact it and to what extant would they be able to enact.

Hate to do it but I will anyways. There is no doubt in NA, mostly US that there are political groups that would like and are striving for a more ‘theocratically’ based gov’t ranging from mild to damn extreme. Some are very plain about, dominionists for instance and some not so plain. I honestly do see a whole lot of difference between what people like the MB want, more religiously based rule based on Islam and those that want more religiously rule based on some form of Christian morality and tenants. Many of these types have had an agenda like this for years and have been working their way into the current system here and arguebly with some success. They’re doing this within a democratic system yet I don’t seeing a lot of people decrying their right to do so. Decrying what they’re doing and it’s negative effect but not the basic principle that in a democracy that these sorts shouldn’t exist or participate.

If western democracies have these elements within their systems then why shouldn’t or wouldn’t non Western democracies have them as well. And even more at a foundational level if having a ‘theocratic’ or ‘religiously’ based element functioning within a democracy makes it somehow bad at some sort of fundamental level then that doesn’t say much about our own democracies.