Dance with the Wolves

From Nobody is Innocent in "Innocence of Muslims" 

In Europe, dealing with extremist groups is always tricky. They are usually banned when the law permits it like what happened with neo-Nazi movements, which are always vulnerable if only because they represent a trend that was crushed in World War Two. But when one of those groups gains legitimacy and turns into an officially recognized ultra-conservative party, it becomes respected and even popular like the National Front in France. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy exaggerated in his stance against immigration to win the votes of the extremist right, but they did not save him in the last elections because they knew he was not genuine. That is why they supported Marine le Pen, the candidate that really represented them, when they thought she stood a chance to win.

But intellectuals are different from politicians for they enjoy a greater deal of freedom and that is why they are vocal about their stances against extremist groups and many of them wrote entire books dedicated to deconstructing their ideologies and warning of the threat they pose.

In our region, politicians are repeating Sarkozy’s mistakes through being lenient with extremists and even currying favor with them because they need their support in elections or at least try to ward off their evil. At the end, they will be ruthlessly stung by them like what happened with Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi and other Arab leaders who thought they could “dance with the wolves.”

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Fraternal Strifes 

Brotherhood ideas questioned by founder's brother

 Gamal, noted for his liberal Islamic views including opposition to the veil for women and to mixing religion with politics, never joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and cut off contact with the group altogether after his brother's killing.

Over the years, the Brotherhood has become more extreme on the question of women's rights because of the spread of hardline Wahhabi thought from Saudi Arabia, he said.

Saudi Arabia has turned women into "black ghosts", he added, referring to the gowns and veils worn by women in the Gulf state.

Many of Gamal al-Banna's publications, which number in the hundreds, have focused on women's issues. He has argued that wearing the headscarf is not an Islamic, but a Gulf tradition.

WANTS LIBERAL PRESIDENT

Clean shaven, wearing glasses and casual clothes, he said he was opposed to the merging of politics and religion espoused by the Brotherhood, whose slogan has long been "Islam is the Solution".

"Any nation founded on religion must fail. This has been true in the Islamic and Christian experience," he said.

Reflecting on the Brotherhood's performance in the recent parliamentary elections, Banna said its FJP party had ridden to success on the back of discontent with decades of autocracy rather than public support for its programme.

"Many people who voted for the Brotherhood said: 'We tried Socialism, we tried Nasserism, we tried pan-Arabism, so why not try the Brotherhood?'" he said.

Banna believes Egypt would be best served by a liberal president. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, had been the best candidate until he decided to withdraw from the race, he said.

"In the long run, someone like ElBaradei will succeed in Egypt. He was the fittest candidate if not the only one," the kind of figure around whom the youth protest movement could and should coalesce, Banna said.

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The reform movement has a long way to go, Banna said, adding "This was a popular uprising that succeeded in destroying a system, but not in building a new one."


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El Baradei

The Constitution Party