More on how democratic openness is unleashing the forces of Islamism in the Muslim world. From AP, “Banned Islamic Group Protests in Egypt”
CAIRO, Egypt May 4, 2005 “” Thousands of supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamic group, protested across the country Wednesday in an escalation of the opposition campaign demanding political reform. Police arrested hundreds of protesters.
More than 2,500 Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters demonstrator in front of a large downtown mosque, some waving copies of the Quran and chanting, “Reform is a religious necessity, reform is Prophet’s way.” One of the banners read, “Freedom is a religious duty.”
The protests held on the 77th birthday of President Hosni Mubarak were the latest show of strength by the Brotherhood, which is probably Egypt’s largest opposition movement but for years held few large demonstrations to avoid provoking the government. In recent months it has organized repeated demonstrations, joining other groups in an unprecedented string of protests against Mubarak…
“We stress that the Brotherhood continues to demand reform. These oppressive means only increase the tensions in Egypt,” Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef said in a statement…
The Muslim Brotherhood, which calls for implementation of Islamic law in Egypt, was established in 1928 and banned since 1954. It renounced violence in the 1970s, and the state tolerates some of it activities but has frequently imprisoned its leaders. Fifteen Brotherhood members have seats in parliament, elected as independents and forming the largest opposition bloc.
As it has thrown its weight in protests alongside more secular reform movements, the Brotherhood has sought to emphasize its nationalist credentials. During the Cairo protests, participants chanted, “The Muslim Brotherhood is part of the nation,” and “Copts are sons of the nation” in a gesture of unity with Egypt’s Christian minority.
At a conference Wednesday, Brotherhood members and other opposition figures and pro-reform activists called for lifting emergency laws imposed by Mubarak in 1981 after the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat. Critics say the laws, which give security forces broad powers including great leeway in making arrests, are used to stifle opposition…
Why resort to messy and unpredictable coups and assassinations when you can get yourself voted straight into power? Bet they’ve been reading Mein Kampf.