Egypt is slipping away: (courtesy of the invaluable Translating Jihad)
Translated from alqanat.com, 25 March 2011:
Facebook Campaign Demands Dismissal of Yahya al-Jamal
Salafi activists in Egypt launched a campaign on Facebook which calls for the dismissal of Dr. Yahya al-Jamal, the Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister. They demanded that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces dismiss him, and they accused him of doing nothing but dividing Egyptians against each other.
It appears that al-Jamal cannot keep from igniting controversy and creating more problems in the cabinet of Dr. 'Isam Sharaf, who has thus far been unable to contain the long list of crises and problems on his desk since he emerged in Tahrir Square a little less than a month ago. At that time the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces offered him the leadership of Egypt, as his was the face that the revolutionaries in Tahrir Square accepted to form the Egyptian government.
Unlike Sharaf, who appeared compatible with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis who embraced him in Tahrir Square, and cleared the way for him to stand on the podium on the condition that he stand in the middle of their symbols, al-Jamal intentionally collides with the Salafis and provokes their anger. Thus it seems that Sharaf's government contains one who can incite the anger of the Brotherhood and the Salafis, who so far appear to have benefited the most from the 25 January revolution.
Read the whole thing. While we fantasize that the people we support (the <1% of the Egyptian populace that is Western, secular, and speak English) represent the future in Egypt (and Libya, et al) the reality is that we have no idea what is going on in these countries on the ground and are likely to be unpleasantly "surprised" when Islamism wins the day. After all, our government believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate group.
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