Egypt - Ccitizens faced with radical upheavals often yearn more for safety and stability than they do for abstractions

A threat to liberty: Muslim Brothers' agenda

John R. Bolton

Widespread rioting and violence has again engulfed Egypt following the July 3 overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government; Tunisia just suffered this year’s second political assassination; Libya continues unraveling and Syria’s civil war rages on unabated. As the Middle East descends toward chaos, Arab rulers friendly to America must be wondering if their turn is coming.

Egypt is now the main focus, and the central question is whether the Muslim Brotherhood truly qualifies as a democratic political party.

In 2011’s Arab Spring, Hosni Mubarak’s secular opponents proclaimed (and too many in the West believed) that authoritarianism was dead and democracy was at hand. That was the first mistake.

Too late, pro-democracy advocates realized that defining “democracy” simplistically and mechanically — holding elections and counting votes — could produce profoundly anti-democratic results. Quick elections only benefited the best-organized, most-cohesive groups, namely the Brotherhood and the even more radical Salafists. Coptic Christians saw what was coming; scores of thousands fled the country.

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