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Photo: Flickr / Muhammad Moneib
Egyptian writer Bassem Sabry in an American University of Cairo blog:
[When] Egyptians voted for the Islamists, the overwhelming majority didn’t do so because they wanted their country to turn into Afghanistan, as some have put it. Not anything in Egypt is so simple anymore. Some voted Islamist (particularly for the Brotherhood) because they believed they were the only truly experienced and organized technocratic entity that could serve the country at this critical juncture. Some, because they believed politicians with strong personal religious credentials would hopefully be less vulnerable to succumbing to the rampant corruption that has been at the leading feature of Egyptian politics and economics for decades. Others, because they felt the Islamists “deserved a chance” after going through decades of regime-sponsored repression. And still others, because they “knew them personally” from their neighborhoods, as well as from their charity and community work from long before there were even elections to speak of. And also because the Islamists did the most and best electoral awareness and campaigning on the trail, even if the methods used weren’t always entirely acceptable. And, of course, yes, there were many who voted for them hoping for a political-ideological project that imbued or fused politics with religious values, though the visions of that project varied immensely from one voter to another — from the ultra conservative to the remarkably liberal. [...]
Egypt is moving forward, and everyone knew that Islamists were going to politically dominate these elections, even deservingly so. It is time for the critics to stop haranguing Egyptians for voting the way they did, realize that their vote was only a logical and expected result of all conditions considered, and instead focus on the core of what the democratic process is all about: how the wider array of Egyptian political parties can learn to positively and constructively better compete for the votes and betterment of the lives of Egyptians.
(Via Lisa Goldman)
