Egypt rushed, unprepared, into democratic elections. Just like Tunisia. No wonder the Muslim Brotherhood won in both cases. Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman, attempted on Saturday to send reassuring messages, promising that he represents moderate Islam. The Salafis, also victorious, spared us the calming statements. It is difficult to ignore the resounding truth in the Arab world today: The choice is not between dictatorship and democracy, but rather between dictatorship and Islam. You can't say we were surprised: The Muslim Brotherhood was the natural choice for a society that did not want the remnants of the old regime or the immature opposition parties. There weren't many options. The Muslim Brotherhood has dreamed since 1928 of taking power, dreamed of a state based on religious law, dreamed of Sharia law. How ironic that everything that Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak kept them from for years is now being handed to them on a silver platter from Tahrir Square. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! Now the Muslim Brotherhood, and no longer the army, can see itself as a leading force in Egypt. The balance of power has shifted. If after the Tahrir revolution, while the army was still in charge, the two large forces agreed to cooperate, today things are changing. The brotherhood now has a rubber stamp of approval granted to it by the elections. While the army today represents the Mubarak heritage, the brotherhood, of all people, represents democracy ... it will be interesting to see how the army will react. One thing is for sure: The coalition between the forces no longer exists. Today it's brothers in arms. The brotherhoods real problem is the high number of votes that went to the extremist Salafis. They usurped the clientalist methods of the brotherhood in poor areas and in return earned votes. Lots of votes. Their strong showing in particular has opened the eyes of the world. Without the Salafis, the Egyptians would also be telling us, as they are in Tunisia and Morocco, about the new fashionable idea, "moderate Islam." French Secretary for Youth and Community Life Jeannette Bougrab, a Muslim of Algerian origin, did not hide her concern this weekend in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien: "I don't know any moderate Islamism," she said, "As a jurist, I am not familiar with Sharia lite." In 1991, the Islamic Salvation Front won democratic elections in Algeria, which were then annulled by the army, plunging the country into a civil war. Two hundred thousand people died over the next 10 years. Today, the religious parties are illegal and the elderly dictator (Bouteflika) controls the state. As inhabitants of the region, we should hope that there is a third way for the Arab world, distinct from Islamism or dictatorship. We aren't there yet. Perhaps the Arab street has rejected Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gadhafi, but it doesn't want Obama, Sarkozy or Merkel either.
