114. Reconciliation in Egypt

The news from Egypt is so heartening I can't resist commenting on it. You remember what we were looking at there, this impasse over the new government? The military council and the Muslim Brotherhood dug in? Do you remember your feelings? Me, I was asking, "What hope is there when junta generals and religious zealots go up against each other? When has either one ever softened?"

Then Monday, the word from Cairo: an accord reached on "the creation of a presidential-parliamentary government, a legal system no more Islamic than the previous one and broad guarantees of freedom of religion and expression." It would include some degree, still to be worked out, of civilian control over the military.

There was little doubt in my mind about the zealous fundamentalism of the Brotherhood. I believed what Mary Crane said about it (for the Council on Foreign Relations), that it "seeks to Islamicize societies from the ground up and compel governments in Muslim countries to adhere to sharia, or Islamic law."

Nor did I have much doubt about the generals' determination. I believed that their position let them run and profit from a lot of key industries, knew that they did not pay taxes, and figured they had a lot of income they'd lose if they lost power. They had every reason to dig in.

So there they were, strongmen and zealots, staring each other down, and by the track record of every other horse in either stable there was no way they were going to send me home happy. Yet that's what they did! They sat down and said, "Hell, we're both in this together. Let's work something out." You'd think they were veterans of the democratic process. That's what we say over here, in this old democracy, isn't it? Isn't it?