I’ve said it many times before, you’re only splitting hairs when see ‘differences’ between Egypt’s Salafist party and the Muslim Brotherhood. These same ‘differences’ exist between the Fattah and Hamas terror groups. It’s a matter of tactics in achieving the same desired radical result. In one former case it’s a purely Islamic state with the full implementation of sharia as it’s judicial code. In the latter, it’s the full destruction of Jewish state of Israel.
Using tactics to achieve one’s radical, extremist aims, is not a sign of ‘moderation’, but of guile, pragmatism and forward thinking, and it’s something that has fooled many of the West’s political think tanks into believing in something that simply doesn’t exist.
How to Make the `Bad Guys’ into `Good Guys’ By Pretending They’re Moderate Guys
By Barry Rubin
There are two types of revolutionary Islamists in the Middle East today: the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Salafists.” Of course, the Muslim Brotherhood is in fact a salafist group, in the sense that it wants to use Islam as it can be most strictly and repressively interpreted and create a dictatorship based on a radical interpretation of Sharia law.
And that is the first important point to understand. The difference between Brotherhood and “Salafists” is purely tactical. The Brotherhood has learned how to maneuver politically, an advance similar to what Lenin instituted for the Marxists of his day. You can’t just declare a revolution and change everything overnight.
No, the Communists argued a century ago and the Brotherhood advocates now, instead the road to victory is to create a disciplined movement, build a mass base, construct front groups, create (temporary) alliances that split your opponents, and march step by step to total power. Just as Lenin planned to get the capitalists to sell him the rope with which to hang them, the Brotherhood plots to get the infidels to do.
So far the Brotherhood has been pretty successful.
In contrast, the Salafists are less elegant. They put it all on the table: total Islamism now through direct action and violence.
These thoughts were prompted by an Associated Press article on Tunisia, the only Middle Eastern country where secularists are going to make a stand against the revolutionary Islamist movement that is advancing everywhere. In addition, since the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is in a coalition government with liberals Tunisia will be a test case for lots of issues.
So can liberal Tunisians expect any real Western help or sympathy? Well, as we’ve seen in Iran, Turkey; Lebanon, and Syria the answer is pretty much “no.”
