Egyptian Islamist parliment to enact law permitting husbands to have sex with dead wives as well as

[MADem]

9. Well, Egypt had a lot of Muslims, but it prided itself -- before Mubarak was deposed--on being a

rather multifaceted group of societies. The thing that linked them all was their EGYPTIAN culture, not their Islamic culture. That seems to be shifting these days.

There are many flavors of Christians in Egypt, very ancient and orthodox faiths, too, closer to the old school Catholics than the RC church is today. There were only a few Jews who stayed after the "troubles" with Israel (previous to that there was a very vibrant Jewish community in Egypt, centered in Cairo--they moved to Israel and other nations when the shit hit the fan in the middle of the 20th century). I would guess they'd regard this as the last straw--I imagine they're packing. I would if I were them, frankly. And of course, the pre-Christian/pre-Muslim pharonic culture was always a point of pride, to say nothing of tourism. The more secular types would identify with that cultural aspect.

Egypt is not going to be fun for awhile. The loudmouth religious-right-wingnuts are going to get their way, and the people who don't agree with them, because they are used to living in an authoritarian regime, won't pipe up until it is too late and the loudmouths have already consolidated power. They'll be stuck in the mud, like Iran was post-Shah.

Shame.