Perception Of The Muslim Brotherhood

With the situation in Egypt still unresolved – although I still think that time is up for Hosni Mubarak and that he’ll be off sooner rather than later – speculation continues about what political change in that country may bring. At the forefront of that speculation is the Muslim Brotherhood.

Who they? Well, you can find them on the web, and their site tells of the group’s opposition to the al-Qaeda franchise, of its founding back in 1928, and states that “Egypt’s Revolution is a Peoples’ Revolution with no Islamic Agenda”. There is an aspiration to a “democratic civil state”, together with a clear distancing from pronouncements coming out of Iran.

So far, so unthreatening, but that’s not how some of the UK press see it: a comment piece in the Maily Telegraph yesterday contained this gem: “Maybe the Muslim Brotherhood will manage to foment enough religious feeling to create a new Islamist state”.

The Daily Mail observed the Cairo protests and noted that “A large number had the trimmed beards of Islamic conservatives, a sign of how the Muslim Brotherhood movement is playing a major role in the fight”

So we are clearly supposed to be frightened, even though, as the Guardian’s Michael Tomasky pointed out, we don’t know what approach the Brotherhood will take. This contrasts with Rupe’s downmarket troops at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, who are warning of “Islamic law”, a “rise in extremism”, and “damaging confidence”.

But there is one horror not being blamed on the group: none of the assembled hacks has thus far mentioned falling house prices.