Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Shouted Down By Unity Protesters
EGYPT in Chaos: Will the Islamists take power and seize control, replacing one authoritarian regime with another?
The BBC says Mohamed ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood may already be divided:
However, there have been some signs of disagreement within the opposition, with the largest group, the Muslim Brotherhood, appearing to go back on its endorsement of leading figure Mohamed ElBaradei as a negotiator with Mr Mubarak.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsy, told the BBC: “The Muslim Brotherhood is much stronger than Mohamed ElBaradei.”
Oh really?
Gamal Nasser, a spokesman for the Brotherhood, told DPA that his group was in talks with Mohammed ElBaradei – the former UN nuclear watchdog chief – to form a national unity government without the National Democratic Party of Mubarak.
The group is also demanding an end to the draconian Emergency Laws, which grant police wide-ranging powers The laws have been used often to arrest and harass the Islamist group…
Speaking to CNN later Sunday, ElBaradei said he had a popular and political mandate to negotiate the creation of a national unity government.
“I have been authorized — mandated — by the people who organized these demonstrations and many other parties to agree on a national unity government…
“I hope that I should be in touch soon with the army and we need to work together. The army is part of Egypt,” the opposition leader added.
Or not. Peter Khalil writes:
“Some protesters shouted out ‘Allah-u-Akbar’ [God is Great] and they were shouted down by the majority who said ‘Muslims and Christians, we are all Egyptians’,” he said …
He said radical Islam had only taken hold in poorer communities where the Brotherhood delivered basic services to people who have been ignored by the regime.
“Between 20 and 30 per cent of the population would support them, but this is not an Islamic uprising …
“The Islamists will bang on but they fail to read the mood of the people, especially the young who are not driven by the Muslim Brotherhood … unlike Iran in the late 1970s they will not be swamped by radical Islam.”
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Posted: 1st, February 2011 | In: Politicians Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
