(Egyptian police kicking a demonstrator for the defence of the detained judges.)After watching the news yesterday about what’s going on in Egypt and the government crackdown on protesters displaying support for the detained judges I thought the Egyptian regime has gone crazy and that it’s acting randomly out of fear. But an article I read yesterday at the Washington Times changed my mind.
The article suggests that scaring USA with the Islamic movements popularity has become a trade mark of the regional leaders, using the example of Hosni Mubarak who skillfully presented the dilemma in his own national elections last year, where candidates from the Muslim brotherhood soared to victory.
The article said that the brotherhood benefited from Mubarak’s imprisonment of moderate leaders and intimidation at the polls.
The same is true for the Saudi monarchy, were moderate candidates were overshadowed by Islamic extremist candidates and rather than take a stand for reform or against extremism, much of the royal family didn’t bother to vote, allowing the hardliners an easy victory.
In both cases the regimes wanted to show USA the this is what happens when people of the middle east are given the choice, they will choose Islamic parties and fundamentalism. So, the Egyptian regime is now cracking down on the liberals and reformists free of fear of American pressure.
This way it’s now clear why the Egyptian regime gave up the glamorous image it tried to convey during the election and why suddenly the regime doesn’t care about his international image, that it is intimidating even international journalists.
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