Can Egypt put the Islamist genie back in the bottle? | Nahlah Ayed - CBC News

---

In Egypt, the sentiment gained real momentum in November when the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, then Egypt's president, rammed through a controversial constitution that, among other faults, barely mentioned women.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: CBC News
By Nahlah Ayed | July 12, 2013

A growing anti-Islamist backlash across the Middle East serves many agendas, not all of them altruistic

Within weeks of the Muslim Brotherhood's swift ascent to power last year, a friend of mine who lived in Egypt decided it was time to leave.

"The Islamists are coming," she told me. "There will be no room for people like us."

My friend was joining a small but steady exodus of Egyptians being driven away as much by the increasingly frequent episodes of violence, as they were by the belief that their country was about to become a far more conservative place.

They simply could not bear the idea of being ruled by Islamists, however moderate or inclusive the new ruling party might claim to be.

Just as Islamists began reaping the power rewards of the Arab Spring, a perceptible backlash was taking root — and not just in Egypt.

Over the past year, this opposition was slowly coalescing right across the region into a movement dedicated to taking some of the wind out of the Islamists' sails.

In Egypt, the sentiment gained real momentum in November when the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, then Egypt's president, rammed through a controversial constitution that, among other faults, barely mentioned women.

But it truly found its voice amidst the din of dire warnings of Egypt's economic collapse and its imminent failure as a state, as well as the irreparable polarization that had peaked under Morsi.

A growing backlash [  ... more ... ]


Read original post here: Can Egypt put the Islamist genie back in the bottle?


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Ahmadiyya Times.