Egypt

Even the BBC, a bastion of good sense, has the following headline regarding the ongoing violence in Egypt: “Mubarak ‘fears chaos if he quits’”. Well, sir, you’ve got chaos already. I imagine that’s not a direct quote from Mubarak, as even a senile and power-hungry Islamist dictator tends to refrain from employing the third person when discussing themselves in public. However, do not listen to this sort of rhetoric. I cannot emphasize that enough. The Guardian ran a similar headline earlier today on their website, as though the opinions of the ruler of a country who hasn’t felt the need for a public election in almost thirty years deserves that sort of authority. Let the people choose. Hold an election NOW.

Admittedly, an election would do little good if it handed power to the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most vicious, insipid, wretched, hateful, dogmatic Islamist sects going. Just because they appear to side with the pro-democracy protesters on this one does not mean that they do. Ah, the unity one uncovers when fighting a common enemy. As Michael Totten correctly points out, “if Egyptians elect the Muslim Brotherhood in a free and fair election, and the Muslim Brotherhood then rigs or even cancels every election that follows, Egypt will not be in any way shape or form a democracy. It will be a dictatorship that happened to have an election.”

Shadi Hamid, somebody who, from now on, I’ll have fairly little time for, makes a contrasting argument. He claims, were the West to sidle up to Saudi Arabia somewhat, we may yet forge a happy marriage with the Muslim Brotherhood. Thank you no. He writes:

The Brotherhood, to be sure, is not a force for liberalism, nor is it likely to become so anytime soon. The group holds views that most Americans would be uncomfortable with, including on women's rights and segregation of the sexes. But we're not voting in Egyptian elections; Egyptians are.

I find this extremely irritating. This final sentence encapsulates fairly well the self-deprecating tone that has come to embed itself and grow within liberal consciousness for some time. Hamid seems to say; if we can simply put our social, moral, and political values aside for a moment, and remember that Egypt has its own set of social, moral, and political values, then what’s to dislike about the prospect of the Muslim Brotherhood taking control? This is false reasoning. Our superset of ideologies, although by no means perfect, is not to be discarded at an instant’s notice. Our values can and, indeed, should be applied in all cases. That’s why they’re values. To use an old cliché, there is a moral high-ground here, and the West should take it.

No, we will not stand idly by as the Muslim Brotherhood opportunistically attempts to make nice with international media outlets at a time of crisis. What’s more, we stand alongside the demonstrators in Cairo and elsewhere who are desperately and resolutely trying, non-violently, to bring about major change.

Sandmonkey, the alias of an Egyptian activist and blogger, is one such comrade. He was detained earlier today but, reports suggest, he was released soon after. His blog, in the meantime, was taken down, and yet now it appears to be back online. Such is the ebb and flow of a revolution. If it is possible to find amusement in times like these, Christopher Hitchens rather amusingly noted in his Slate column this week that the surest way for a dictator to give up the ghost is to shut down the domestic media. Anyway, for a very insightful overview of the scene on the streets, read Sandmonkey’s latest entry, “Egypt, Right Now!”