EGYPT - The Challenges Of Terrorism - Part 3D - Conclusions.

Judging by the determination he and his top aides have shown so far, President Hosni Mubarak will never allow real democracy to take root in Egypt. This is because he is convinced that, if he does, the ultimate outcome would be a Sunni theocracy under the Muslim Brotherhood.

Prime Minister Ahmad Nazief recently explained to a small group of reporters his government's commitment to democracy. He promised that restrictions on political parties will soon be eased to allow for real political competition. But when asked if the regime will legalise the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most popular and best-organised opposition group, he said: "Never". The Brotherhood "will never be a political party", he said, because "it is based on religion" and this will not be acceptable to the government.

Mubarak, Nazief and other officials further down are convinced that the US will never force Egypt to legalise the Muslim Brotherhood, although the US in Iraq has allowed a legalisation of Islamist parties - both Shiite and Sunni Arabs - as well as parties based on ethnicity, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). In fact, the President of the Iraqi Republic now is a Kurd - PUK leader Jalal Talabani (see the OOD and RIM series on Iraq).