Will Egypt’s new government be worse than the devil we knew?

I wasn’t alone in worrying that the Arab Spring uprising that usurped Hosni Mubarak’s totalitarian regime masquerading as a democracy could, if unchecked, transition power to one of two potentially more dangerous forces: the country’s military, which had for years enforced Mubarak’s policies until he became a liability, and the political groups within the country that had theocratic leanings and would take the country back decades and bring in something just as sinister: rule by religion, suppression of free speech, and the abatement of civil rights.

Some of those fears were stoked by elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, but they have nothing on the Nour Party, which has picked up most of the few seats the MB was unable to acquire in recent parliamentary elections.

From The New Republic:

I also asked the Salafists why hadn’t they just joined the Muslim Brotherhood. “Because the Muslim Brotherhood is a group and tied to certain rules,” said Ali Sharaf, a Nour party coordinator who was sitting nearby. “But I’m a Muslim and Islam is open to anything.”

Yet I’d already learned that the Salafists were not as open-minded as they claimed. At one of my polling place visits, a van full of women that had been brought to vote for Nour called me over to extol the Nour Party’s virtues. “They are good people and serve the community,” said Nour al-Hoda Desouki, excitedly holding a Nour party sample ballot. “We are a conservative people but we’ll talk to you.” But her good deed couldn’t go unpunished. A Nour representative swiftly approached my translator and told us to stop talking to women.

It would be a shame to see those brief flashes of unity amongst disparate groups and the promise of a secular government that did not condemn any belief or ethnicity but also actively sought not to rule by virtue of one be crushed so quickly. And yet, here we are. The pillars of freedom haven’t been demolished yet, but here comes the wrecking ball.