What Do We Expect From the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists?

What Do We Expect From the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists?

A great historian. From his books we have learned the modern history of Egypt, but he belongs to the Islamist school of thought. Bishri knows, of course, that when a revolution succeeds in overthrowing a system of government the revolution has to draft a new constitution that fulfills its objectives. Yet in in the aftermath of the revolution and the overthrow of Mubarak, we find Bishri obeying the military council and accepting the chairmanship of a committee formed to make limited amendments to the 1971 constitution, instead of insisting on a new constitution. The military council asked Egyptians to vote in a referendum on the amendments recommended by Bishri's committee. The council has since turned against the referendum result and declared an interim constitution of 63 articles.
Bishri's cooperation with the military council deprived Egypt of a new constitution that might have put us on the right track. Instead we have been led down a dark tunnel of which, a full year later, we are trying, and failing, to get out. The question is: How can a man as learned, upright and patriotic as Bishri take on such a task? Bishri wanted to ensure the political dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood, to which he belongs. He believed that service to the Muslim Brotherhood would be in Egypt's interest.
The idea is clear and important. The television sheikh makes a big scene if the police prevent a woman wearing the niqab in some Western country but doesn't lift a finger if an Egyptian woman in niqab is molested, because she doesn't belong to his group. The television sheikh can't imagine that virtue exists outside his group. In his opinion you can't have a conscience and condemn abuse unless you're pious, and you can't be pious unless you're Muslim, and you can't be pious unless you belong to the Brotherhood or the Salafists.



The other option is for the Brotherhood and the Salafists to evolve in a way that enables them to respect those who disagree with them and to realize that what they offer is an interpretation of religion rather than religion itself. Then they would adopt the aims of the revolution and work to fulfill them, however much that upsets the military council. If they take that option, the revolution will fulfill its objectives and history will recall that it was the Islamists who set up the democratic, modern Egyptian state.