A Big, Big Deal

It’s a bit off our national radar at the moment. And recent events make it not terribly surprising. But the Egyptian government has now formally banned the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered its assets seized.Just speaking for myself, this seems like a very bad idea. Once you have a coup, it’s difficult to do it halfway. So I see some of the realities that the current government is grappling with. Moreover, the Brotherhood’s brief tenure in power showed it to be as illiberal as many of its opponents long warned. But there is no ignoring or changing the fact that it represents a significance fraction of the Egyptian political nation. Egyptian military governments have been trying to crush or marginalize it (while occasionally pandering to it) for half a century, to little effect. And longterm, even medium term, you won’t have a stable or inclusive Egyptian political system as long as they’re written out of it.