A Cold Chill Comes Over the Arab Spring

Islam is on the march in the Middle East. For the past few years, in every Mideast election, the Islamic parties have won: in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and in Iraq and Tunisia in 2010. In 2011, they won again in Turkey and Morocco, and in Egypt the Islamist parties confirmed an overwhelming victory in the first parliamentary elections since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood won the biggest share with the hard-line Salafist al Nour Party of Light. The youth groups that staged the demonstrations that toppled Mubarak took only seven seats. What are the implications for US policy and its ideals of self-determination and human rights? Will the liberals triumph, or will the Egyptian people face a hard-line Islamic future? This article attempts to answer these questions.