And in the ‘there are no words’ category of Headline Stories …”Should the World Trust Islamists?” The Atlantic

Atlantic Mag .. a must read

Should the World Trust Islamists?

Newly powerful groups in Egypt and Tunisia cannot afford to become Hamas-like international pariahs, but they should be watched closely.

Tunisian Islamist party leader Rached Ghannouchi, right, speaks with a deputy.Reuters

TUNIS — Like it or not, this is the year of the Islamist.

Fourteen months after popular uprisings toppled dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, Islamist political parties - religiously conservative groups that oppose the use of violence - have swept interim elections, started rewriting constitutions and become the odds-on favorites to win general elections.

Western hopes that more liberal parties would fare well have been dashed. Secular Arab groups are divided, perceived as elitist or enjoy tepid popular support.

But instead of the political process moving forward, a toxic political dynamic is emerging. Aggressive tactics by hardline Muslims generally known as Salafists are sowing division. Moderate Islamists are moving cautiously, speaking vaguely and trying to hold their diverse political parties together. And some Arab liberals are painting dark conspiracy theories.

Ahmed Ounaies, a pro-Western Tunisian politician who briefly served as foreign minister in the country’s post-revolutionary government, said that he no long trusted Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party. Echoing other secular Tunisians, he said some purportedly moderate Muslim leaders are, in fact, aligned with hardliners.

“We believe that Mr. Ghannouchi is a Salafist,” Ouanies said in an interview. “He is a real supporter of those groups.”

Months after gaining power, moderate Islamists find themselves walking a political tightrope. They are trying to show their supporters that they are different from the corrupt, pro-Western regimes they replaced. They are trying to persuade Western investors and tourists to trust them, return and help revive flagging economies. And they are trying to counter hardline Salafists who threaten to steal some of their conservative support.

Given the choice between American, and ‘western’ support and $ or hewing to the Salafi line of Hassan Al Banna and Sayd Qutb, are you KIDDING ME, Atlantic?

This…

Newly powerful groups in Egypt and Tunisia cannot afford to become Hamas-like international pariahs, but they should be watched closely.

as cautious as it sounds, is actually western denial. These groups are NOT newly powerful. These groups TRULY REPRESENT the will of the vast majorities, and they have for a very long time. That will has been suppressed by ruthless dictators.

To salafis our way of life means their personal responsibilities before god require them to help us to their way, or exit the planet. It’s only a question of how each is accomplished. So not only do the peoples there dislike us because of the Mubarak’s and Sadat’s, they link that to our drinking, fornicating, make up our own laws in defiance of god’s, - ways.

That is HOW IT IS.

If we bear THAT in mind we can escape all killing each other.

If we fantasize about who they are, and their goals which are completely unlike ours, then civilizational level errors occur which can lead to only one outcome.