A Democracy Movement?

The Muslim Brotherhood has never been a democracy movement. It may be a popular movement (particularly among the poorest and least educated Egyptians) but the moment Morsi, one of its adherents gained power, he sought to restrict the liberty of his countrymen. Other isms besides Islamic fundamentalism have absolutist tendencies- notably communism and fascism, but there can be no doubt, Morsi was attempting to build a sharia state that would vastly restrict the rights of women and Egypt's Christian minority. If a George Washington had somehow risen in Egypt, it could have transformed the Middle East, but the Muslim Brothers instead merely offered a different brand of tyranny. For the US and the West, to interfere now in the internal Egyptian conflict will have lasting consequences that we can not anticipate, just as our backing of Afghan Mujahideen against the Russians in the 1980s spawned the al-Qaeda movement that we still fight today.