piece in the latest New Yorker on the Nour Party + the place of Salafists - who have stepped into a big chunk of the power vacuum to challenge the Brotherhood for Islamist, and thus Egyptian, primacy - in the general fuckery of post-Mubarak Egyptian politics. unfortunately most of it is behind a pay wall but it's basically on the rise of the Salafists (in true populist fashion, based far more on their social service programs than their ideology) and how their not so secret desire to impose strict Sharia fits uncomfortably into a nominal democracy. which is always the charge against Islamists in a democracy but there are lot of quotes from Salafists themselves that provide insight into how they reconcile such an apparent contradiction (well, actually, it comes off like a bait + switch, but that's nothing new either) and the thoroughly creepy way fundamentalists of all types genuinely believe they are improving peoples lives by imposing ancient religious laws on them anyway it's worth a read if you can get your hands on a paper copy.
2 other points of note, both of which should also surprise no one: secular liberals + leftists have, after being such a driving in the revolution, been thoroughly marginalized; the security apparatus of the Mubarak state are still well entrenched and will likely continue being so despite all other factions agreeing (possibly the only thing they agree on) that they are bad. oh yes and as mentioned Egyptian transitory politics are a total clusterfuck. neither a new military state or an Islamist takeover are entirely unlikely. I feel like my repetition of this idea is getting into
carthago delenda est territory at this point, but again: to win a revolution is easier than, and don't matter if you can't, win the post-revolution. and the secular left/lib types Westerners like were always going to lose this one. your base can't be a million foreign fucking Twitter followers. social media revolutions are bullshit, especially once all those self-satisfied Westerners move on to the next Kony 2012 and leave you stuck in the shit by yourself. oh yes + Obama + his crew (+ anyone else who's mouth-serviced Arab Spring) left/are leaving those cats seriously in the lurch too. a new beginning indeed.