McManus: Mosque and state

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Islamist parties are a legitimate political force, whether we like it or not.

By Doyle McManus

October 23, 2011

At a conference two years ago, I sat in on a meeting between U.S. officials and young Islamist politicians from Tunisia, Jordan and other countries in the Middle East. The Islamists wanted to know: Would the Americans allow them to run in free elections, even if it meant they might come to power? The Americans turned the question back at them: Would the Islamists, if they won, allow free and democratic elections, even if it might mean losing power?

At the time, it was mostly a theoretical discussion — but now those questions have become very real.

In Tunisia, Islamists are expected to win the largest share of parliamentary seats in the first post-uprising election. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is the most powerful political faction, and it has spawned Islamist offshoots to the left and right. And in Libya, Islamists played a major role in the revolution that toppled Moammar Kadafi and are likely to be major players in any new government.

At that conference, I sat next to the grand old man of Egypt's secular democrats, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a veteran of Cairo politics — and of Hosni Mubarak's prisons. He favored a clear division between mosque and state, but he had no illusions.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-column-islamists-20111023,0,2561680.column