Saturday 19 November 2011

Thursday 3 November 2011

Haykal's Warning

In his extended interview with Al-Jazeera, Muhammad Hassanayn Haykal said something very interesting with regards to what seems will be explicit Western recognition of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (and we can add Al-Nahda in Tunisia). He says to such groups "Be careful, this recognition is not innocent". He explains that in seeking a Sunni bulwark against Iran, cozying up with such groups can be construed at part of a process of ratcheting up pressure and regional support against the latter.

How the bogeyman is framed often changes - Communism, Political Islam, Shi'ism, Persian Safavids (I don't joke) - but at the risk of sounding like too much of a realist, the strategical calculations behind such framing look pretty discernible.