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Forgotten Flowering of Political Islam
[Financial Times-UK] Roula Khalaf - Only two years ago, political Islam was staging a stunning comeback across the Arab world. In the Palestinian territories, Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections, routing the secular and corrupt Fatah. The previous year, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood gained 20% of parliamentary seats, despite fielding only a limited number of candidates. But as Islamists flexed their political muscle, they heightened the anxiety of the Middle East's autocratic rulers and their Western backers. The backlash has been sweeping.