OK, so it really is a tiny minority of extremists -- just 19%. From AP, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
Preliminary results in Egypt's elections Thursday gave the leading opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, a record 19 percent of parliament, with the ruling party and its allies holding an overwhelming majority after a four-week election with unprecedented political violence.The results leaked by an official in the Interior Ministry, which oversaw the election, came a day after no fewer than eight people were killed as police battled to stop voters reaching polling stations in Muslim Brotherhood strongholds....
Worth having a look at the Egyptian Sandmonkey's blogsite for pictures of how the elections were conducted that will never make the MSM. About as violent as things are in Iraq and Israel and surrounds. http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/
So much for the contention by the usual suspects that things would be peaceful and calm in the Middle East but for the nasty occupiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
There's a slow motion "coming out" party underway worldwide.
Step-by-step, the demur deb inches out from behind the velvet curtain, the crowd oohing and aahing at the beauty reveals hereself before them.
Jihad (aka "internatinal terrorism") is becoming ok, even the cool new thing. You got your English Knight, your legit government in the PA, white flag waving and apologizing in France, Sami al-Arian is a misunderstood intellectual, Hamas is fine, Hizbullah is understandable...
... the boys are alright.
Is there any evidence that Condoleeza and President Bush actually understand islam, or are they as blinkered as they appear to be?
sheik yer'mami said "So the rubber-bullets prevented the other 40 % of the 'tiny minority of extremists' from exercising their right to vote."
I had the same thought, that it was 19% of those who made it past the police blockades to the voting place.
Without these minor voting discrepencies (like police killing people for trying to vote), there would likely have been a similar result as in Algeria, where the tiny minority of extremists won the election outright, only to have the government decide to invalidate the elections and stay in power. Ah, the sweet smell of Democracy in the Middle East.
The December 8 New York Times said that the Muslim Brotherhood actually limited the number of seats it was running for, because if it had won too many, that would have provoked a harsh government backlash, as in Algeria.