Newsweek features a puff piece on the Muslim Brotherhood. Reporter Stephen Glain astonishingly overlooks the failures of Hamas, the only Brotherhood affiliate to win power democratically:
This isn’t your father’s Muslim Brotherhood. It’s still the world’s oldest and largest Islamist movement. But as with Arshead himself, these days it’s gone heavy on populism—and light on God. Known as the Ikhwan in Arabic, renowned for its conservative and often backward ways, it now counts women as members. Once wary of engaging in the parochial rough-and-tumble of politics, it increasingly collaborates with non-Muslim and even secular groups pushing for democratic reform. That “big tent” political pragmatism is now helping the Brotherhood move decisively into the Arab mainstream, scoring big election advances from Morocco to Egypt to Lebanon as the champion of the little man….
UPDATE APRIL 29: Want further food for thought? See the NY Times Magazine‘s lengthy dispatch from Cairo about the Brotherhood’s Egyptian gains.
UPDATE MAY 2: Sandmonkey isn’t the only Egyptian blogger recently making waves. The Christian Science Monitor spotlights the case of Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, who blogged for the Brotherhood before being arrested. The Brotherhood’s online efforts are proving successful because of people like Mahmoud. In this regard, this certainly ain’t your daddy’s Brotherhood!
