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Is Egypt's Government Getting More Islamist?

(Foreign Policy) Shadi Hamid - Despite considerable legislative and executive powers, the Muslim Brotherhood has passed almost no "Islamic" legislation. Islamization is not something you do on the fly. The Brotherhood's priorities, for now, are simply to survive and get to the next elections. In the midst of an existential struggle, all the organization's resources have been directed toward ensuring Morsi does not fall and take the Brotherhood down with him. When the judiciary dissolved the country's first democratically elected parliament, based on a legal technicality, this created an institutional logjam at the top of the state. Legislative powers were ultimately passed on to an upper house of parliament that was never supposed to have that authority in the first place. Without a legitimate legislative authority, the passing of laws slowed to a trickle. Meanwhile, Morsi loyalists were waging an internal battle to gain control of the executive branch. The writer is director of research at the Brookings Doha Center.
2013-05-16 00:00:00
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