Over the weekend, the Muslim Brotherhood’s new party, Freedom and Justice, took 36.6 per cent of the vote in Egypt’s first round of parliamentary elections. Al-Nour, a more radical Islamist party came second with 24 per cent. The outcome of the elections thus looks set: Islamists will hold the controlling power in any new and democratic Egypt.
This outcome should not come as a surprise: persecuted by the Egyptian state for many years, Islamists have been able to unite in a political opposition movement that is far better organised than many of its secular and liberal counterparties.
