On 23/08/2013, at 10:43 AM, "JOANNA A." <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Talked to a friend today, a musician, who has a friend who is Egyptian.
>
> According to him, the largest opposition in Egypt is secular and leftist. They largely boycotted the election because there was no one for them to vote for and for lack of organization.
>
> Although they went out on the streets, reportedly they support the military vs Muslim Brotherhood.
>
> He also reported that the Muslim Brotherhood is relatively small == 100,000 or so, but they do have a wider circle of supporters.
I suspect that support for the Muslim Brotherhood has probably increased dramatically now that they have so many fresh martyrs. Whereas their awful performance in government was a disaster. The coup was the best thing that could happen to them, hence a politically incompetent act on a grand scale.
But still, if there were elections reasonably soon, we might hope that memories of their performance in government might be fresh enough to prevent that sympathy from being converted into many votes. Like after the end of WW2, Brits were very grateful to Churchill, but they didn't vote for him.
The trouble is, the corrupt and incompetent military has painted itself into a corner. It will be very afraid of allowing elections for fear that many of the coup leaders will be prosecuted for their crimes against the Egyptian people. At the very least they could expect to be stripped of their illegitimate privileges and corrupt business interests.
> I don't know how true this is, but I certainly think that the mainstream media's representation of their being only two sides to the struggle: MB vs military is seriously wrong.
It looks like the secular opposition will have some time to get themselves organised. Hopefully not too long. And hopefully they are quietly beavering away at it even as we chatter.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas