Muslim Brotherhood Bloggers Could Be Washington's New Hope - Middle East Times

By JOSEPH MAYTON (Middle East Times)

Published: December 09, 2008

..."I believe [that as a ruling party] the Brotherhood in Egypt could operate in a similar way to Turkey, where an Islamic party is in power, but is not implementing a conservative view of Sharia," he says.

"[Egypt] is not 100 percent Muslim and people have different ideas about what laws should be established. We cannot cause more people to get frustrated by [ourselves in] government, so I think a Turkish-style government would be a good idea."

Anani, the expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, thinks that Washington should seize the moment to reach out to the reformer-bloggers.

"The reformers and their belief in democratic ideals could be a precursor to changing the Islamic face of the Middle East," Anani says.

However, Dina Shehata, a political expert on Egypt's opposition parties, argues that U.S. influence has no place in internal Egyptian politics...

Powered by ScribeFire.