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Where Did Nick Kristof Get the Idea that the Muslim Brotherhood Is Moderate?

(New Republic) Eric Trager - As the ascendant Muslim Brotherhood tries to project itself as a responsible actor, including by hosting credulous New York Times columnist Nick Kristof for a home-cooked meal, over the past two weeks I have interviewed seven Brotherhood parliamentarians-to-be. Far from being moderate, these future leaders share a commitment to theocratic rule, complete with a limited view of civil liberties and an unmistakable antipathy for the West. At the most basic level, the organization's future parliamentarians insist that all law should be drawn exclusively from the sharia - and they are convinced that this is a goal shared by nearly all Egyptians. When I told Essam Mukhtar, who was recently elected in northern Cairo, about a video that a friend had sent me depicting Salafists calling for holy war against the Jews, he laughed and suddenly transformed into a civil libertarian. "People are free to say what they want," he said. He proceeded to rant against Israel. The writer is the Ira Weiner Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2011-12-15 00:00:00
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