[lbo-talk] Egypt Islamists widen poll lead

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Mon Dec 5 14:10:14 PST 2011


On Sun, Dec 4, 2011 at 2:14 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:

But in any case, these different attitudes toward organizing beg a
> question what explains this difference? Why is that assorted
> religious fanatics and right wingers in Egypt and elsewhere are busy
> organizing, while assorted secularists, liberals and left wingers are
> not?
>

My command of the situation in a country a half-hour away isn't as good as you might assume! However, my rough understanding is that the Brotherhood and Salafists organized with more impunity during subsequent dictatorships because of their presence in religious institutions, which were fairly untouchable. Bastard or no bastard, Mubarak could hardly have sent riot police into too many mosques before people would have started to lose patience with him. By contrast, liberals and secularists enjoyed no such refuge.They've been going full-steam since January, but a year just doesn't compare.

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."



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