In a country where the Ikhwan got 47 percent of the vote, that will only go so far, but it does underscore the fact that the group, which knows how to campaign (and how to tamper with voting), now has to figure out how to implement its plans to govern and maintain power.
The Brotherhood built its reputation in part by railing against corruption and cronyism in Mubarak’s regime, but has already shown its own ample propensity for the very same.
We tried to tell you. “Some in Egypt Turn Their Anger on Islamists, and the Syrian Embassy Is Attacked,” by Liam Stack and David D. Kirkpatrick for the New York Times, January 27:
CAIRO “” The resentments of many young political activists toward the Muslim Brotherhood spilled into a public spat on Friday as some demonstrators who came out to mark the first anniversary of the country”s revolution turned on the group.
The protesters, who accuse the popular Islamists of being too accommodating of the military leaders who replaced the ousted president, Hosni Mubarak, surrounded a stage set up by the Brotherhood, jeering and in some cases hurling plastic bottles.
Although the exchange lasted only about a half-hour and was hardly representative of national opinion, some Brotherhood members appeared shocked by the vehemence of the verbal assaults. At one point, protesters who have grumbled privately for weeks that the Brotherhood had made its peace with the military rulers chanted, “You sold out the revolution.”
Adding to the tumult, opponents of another autocratic leader, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, stormed into that country”s embassy a few blocks from the demonstration and caused some damage. Many Egyptian pro-democracy advocates and Syrians in Cairo believe that Mr. Assad should be overthrown as part of the Arab Spring revolts.
The tactics they first try on non-Muslims, they will eventually also turn on Muslims who for whatever reason are not good enough. Quite literally, first they came for the Jews, and no one cared.
It was the second time in five months that Egyptian security forces failed to prevent an attack on an embassy; the previous attack was at the Israeli Embassy.
The hostility toward the Brotherhood appeared to reflect the Islamist group’s transition from outlawed opposition to part of the political establishment, as well as the frustration of pro-democracy advocates who accuse the military of thwarting revolutionary change.
The dispute broke out around sunset Friday as thousands of people in several anniversary marches converged on the capital’s Tahrir Square, where the Muslim Brotherhood had erected a giant stage.
The marchers were determined to use the anniversary to call for the military council leading the country to exit power immediately. But the members of the Brotherhood, which dominates the newly elected Parliament, came to the square in an attempt to keep the anniversary demonstration upbeat. The Brotherhood has endorsed the generals” timetable for a handover of power by the end of June.
When the marchers reached the square, some vented at the Brotherhood, both for its approval of the military”s timetable and for the acoustic domination of its stage.
A crowd surrounded the stage, shouting insults and waving their shoes in the air, a grave affront in the Arab world.
The speakers on the stage, including several sheiks from the prestigious Al Azhar College of Islamic Studies, looked stunned. “Please, don’t do this,” one speaker pleaded. “We are all one hand!”
The Brotherhood speakers attempted to join with the crowd by leading chants of “the people want the fall of the regime” and “down with military rule.”
But the protesters appeared unconvinced. The speakers retreated under a hail of insults and an occasional plastic soda bottle.
“Young people made the revolution, but then the army brought us Tantawi,” said Abdelrahman Ahmed, 37, a telecom engineer, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the top officer of the military council. “And now the Brotherhood mocks us.”…