Egypt's Brotherhood Warns It Could Quit Talks ...

yahoo/reuters ^ | 2/7/11 | Yasmine Saleh and Andrew Hammond

[EBH]

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday it could pull out of talks with the government if opposition demands were not met, including the immediate exit of President Hosni Mubarak who on Monday chaired a cabinet meeting.

Mubarak, 82, who refuses calls to end his 30-year-old rule before September polls, saying his resignation would cause chaos in the Arab world's most populous nation, has tried to focus on restoring order and his government seems to be buying time.

Protesters, barricaded in a tent camp in Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, have vowed to stay until Mubarak quits and hope to take their campaign to the streets with more mass demonstrations on Tuesday and Friday.

Keen to get traffic moving around Tahrir Square, the army tried early on Monday to squeeze the area the protesters have occupied. Overnight campers rushed out of their tents to surround soldiers attempting to corral them into a smaller area.

The powerful army's role in the next weeks is considered critical to the future of Egypt.

"The army is getting restless and so are the protesters. The army wants to squeeze us into a small circle in the middle of the square to get the traffic moving again," protester Mohamed Shalaby, 27, told Reuters by telephone.

[Prokopton]

Egyptian military wouldn't like being forced to live under Sharia Law any more than other non-MB Egyptians would.

"According to a Pew opinion survey of Egyptians from June 2010, 59 percent said they back Islamists. Only 27% said they back modernizers. Half of Egyptians support Hamas. Thirty percent support Hezbollah and 20% support al Qaida. Moreover, 95% of them would welcome Islamic influence over their politics… Eighty two percent of Egyptians support executing adulterers by stoning, 77% support whipping and cutting the hands off thieves. 84% support executing any Muslim who changes his religion.” Egyptian values, in other words, are far from liberal—even if some of the protesters currently out in the streets might be. This, of course, runs counter to the idea that has taken hold in many quarters: that the end of the Mubarak era will inexorably lead to democracy in the heart of the Arab world. But numbers don’t lie; Egyptian society as a whole is both religious and deeply conservative."

[abbyg55]

According to a Pew opinion survey of Egyptians from June 2010, 59 percent said they back Islamists. Only 27% said they back modernizers. Half of Egyptians support Hamas. Thirty percent support Hezbollah and 20% support al Qaida.

Thanks for the info. So even if the peaceful protestors are part of the 27% who back modernizers, a majority of Egyptians back the Islamists, which means they don't want a democracy. That leaves a Hobson's choice of a totalitarian regime under Mubarack or religious tyranny under MB.

[ratsreek]

So GTFO already! Go! Whose idea was it to invite the MB in the first place? Obastard’s, probably.

[Prokopton]

That leaves a Hobson's choice of a totalitarian regime under Mubarack or religious tyranny under MB.

A totalitarian regime under Mubarack is no longer a possibility. Religious tyranny is a fait accompli.

[DoughtyOne]

Hah! Good one. You can’t find more than a few people around that know of Thomas Jefferson’s actions in relation to them. So much for avoiding foreign entanglements et al then and now.

And yes, they want more. Kind of funny how that works out when they were the ones to instigate this ‘spontaneous’ unrest in the first place.

[abbyg55]

Religious tyranny is a fait accompli.

We're screwed.

[MindBender26]

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday it could pull out of talks...

Promise?

[Christian Engineer Mass]

Do you have a link for your quote? Thanks

[StAnDeliver]

"Getting the Brotherhood to quit talks ought to be our objective."

Exactly. If there's a price to be paid, let them pay it.

[1010RD]

The Obama Administration is lending credibility to these guys that they don’t deserve.

Let them leave the table and Mubarak then negotiates with the non-Islamist opposition.

Mubarak gets a check mate on that one.

[Carry_Okie]

And yes, they want more. Kind of funny how that works out when they were the ones to instigate this ‘spontaneous’ unrest in the first place.

Shades of the Watts riot: Build me a new house honkey, or I'll burn the one I live in now!!!

[DoughtyOne]

Yes. I agree. You expand that to the Watts community and it becomes even more similar.

Then they had the temerity to complain because no businesses wanted to come to the area to get burnt out in 1992.

Can’t wait to see the looks on the faces of the chumps who get toasted to the ground around 2020.

Some folks never learn.

[Mariner]

"I'm praying for a military coup, as that's likely to produce the least bad of all possible outcomes. "

It's the best outcome possible.

[Mouton]

Never cede a point to the opposition without negotiating every one of them. Of course, (.)bama cedes our side and then tries to negotiate. There is no limit on his being nieve. A big mouth with a clip board.

[headstamp 2]

“Getting the Brotherhood to quit talks ought to be our objection.”

I have come to the seclusion that should be the objection also.

[curiosity]

Forgive me. I meant “objective.”

[tobyhill]

This whole protesting is about forcing Bubarak to resign immediately so the Muslim Brotherhood gets in by default.

[Munz]

>I guess MB is expecting us to beg them to take over now??<

don;t worry .. that’s next on the undocumented workers plate .. he will call them quietly though. Tell them he is behind them 100% and send code pink in to grandstand for the MB

[Caipirabob]

Egypt's Brotherhood Warns It Could Quit Talks ...}

Next step, get them to quit breathing.

[Prokopton]

http://blogs.forbes.com/ilanberman/