A Saudi Writer Explains the “Muslim Brotherhood Spring”

By Barry Rubin

It’s always fascinating to read the work of genuine Arab (or non-Arab Muslim) moderates to see how much it differs from the Western-celebrated false moderates and radicals so prominently featured in the mass media and academia. Indeed, people like the following writer can never be found as heroes of the official West because they tell inconvenient truths about the Middle East.

Consider a young Saudi named Mshari al-Zaydi. He is the opinion page editor of Al-Sharq al-Awsat, the best Arabic newspaper, where this article first appeared. It was then reprinted on the website of al-Arabiyya, the UAE alternative to the radical Qatari al-Jazira. Funny, how the anti-Western al-Jazira is lionized by the West while al-Arabiyya is ignored.

Al-Zaydi’s article is entitled, “The Muslim Brotherhood Spring,” an apt name for what is otherwise called the “Arab Spring.” One need merely quote what al-Zaydi writes:

“Today, those who supported the Egyptian revolution are in a state of shock with regards to the domination of the political arena by religious parties and currents….What we are seeing is a political Islamist tsunami….

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