The Islamist Ascendancy

Post-revolutionary Libya appears to have elected a relatively moderate pro-Western government. Good news, but tentative because Libya is less a country than an oil well with a long beach and myriad tribes. Popular allegiance to a central national authority is weak. Yet even if the government of Mahmoud Jibril is able to rein in the militias and establish a functioning democracy, it will be the Arab Spring exception. Consider:

Tunisia and Morocco, the most Westernized of all Arab countries, elected Islamist governments. Moderate, to be sure, but Islamist still. Egypt, the largest and most influential, has experienced an Islamist sweep. The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t just win the presidency. It won nearly half the seats in parliament, while more openly radical Islamists won 25 percent. Combined, they command more than 70 percent of parliament — enough to control the writing of a constitution (which is why the generals hastily dissolved parliament).

As for Syria, if and when Bashar al-Assad falls, the Brotherhood will almost certainly inherit power. Jordan could well be next. And the Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing (Hamas) already controls Gaza.

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About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “The Islamist Ascendancy”

  1. A generation, the Islamists will hold control for longer then that, assuming there isn’t a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel.

  2. Regarding Islam, Charles Krauthammer is a fool. He once castigated Geert Wilders, for not making a distinction between Islam and Islamism (such a distinction is, off course, artificial). According to Krauthammer, there’s nothing wrong with Islam. What an uninformed idiot!

  3. Forgive Krauthammer. He’s a political pundit of the old guard. He doesn’t comprehend what is actually happening in the Netherlands.

  4. Where’s the “sticky” post by Stephen Coughlin? I think it should remain at the top for the next week so everyone has a chance to see it. I had to search for it to watch it today. I almost forgot I was going to go back & watch when I had time , thinking it would still be at the top.