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Fear of Democracy
(Telegraph-UK) Editorial - The democratic election of an Islamist government in the West Bank and Gaza was sensational enough. Imagine the impact of the same thing happening in Egypt, a sovereign nation with the largest population (70 million) and economy in the Arab world. President Hosni Mubarak decreed last month that local elections be postponed for two years, a decision which completed its passage through parliament on Tuesday. That forestalls the further immediate advance of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas' success will incline Western governments to treat the postponement with more indulgence than they might otherwise have done. Yet they might usefully reflect that fear of democracy is a damning indictment of a quarter of a century of corrupt and repressive stagnation under Mubarak.