NY Times record: Russia, China, Cuba and now Egypt.

I have always been a skeptic about the eventual trajectory of the revolts in Egypt and elsewhere in northern Africa. I don’t believe that the revolutionary urges found there today are going to make life better for the people or make the region more peaceful.

As if on cue, the Muslim Brotherhood is flexing its muscles as it prepared to take over Egypt. The NY Times keeps insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood is the “moderate” voice of Islam and wants us to be afraid of “Salafists.” I can foresee the day, not too far in the future that the NY Times will proclaim that the takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood will the triumph of moderation. That will set up a few billion dollars in foreign aid to people who want to kill us … moderately.

And example of just that thinking came from the comments on Ann Althouse’s blog which linked to the NY Times article. Here is commenter Lyle:

Lyle at 9:07 PM
We're just going to have deal with the fact that Islamism is popular with some of our fellow man at this time and they will be as religious as they want to be. As long as they don't get overly violent... that's okay.


Lyle at 9:46 PM
They're still violent, but as long and they don't massacre Christians or secularists, they can hate all they want to.


Lyle at 1:08 AM
I expressly wrote that if they start killing people it will be bad.

J. Allen at 10:30 AM
You’re naïve about Egypt and, probably, the larger picture too. Opposition to the Brotherhood is being eliminated, churches are being burned and bombed, and Christians and secularists are being murdered.

Lyle at 11:22 AM
I'm not ignorant about what is going in Egypt. I'm aware of the flash mob attacks on Christians. I'm aware of what the Muslim brotherhood is.

However, my point is that Egypt is a majority Muslim country. And those Muslims are quite religious at the moment and they're going to be very religious. And there's nothing we can do about it. If they kill some Christians, they kill some Christians.

At some point you expect Lyle to tell us you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.  He begins his defense of the transformation of Egypt by saying that everything was OK as long as things did not get "overly violent" which leaves him with lots of wiggle room.  He ends up with “If they kill some Christians, they kill some Christians.” I guess killing Christians does not fall into the category of being “overly violent.” Religious Muslims got to do what Religious Muslims got to do.

There’s no hope for Lyle. What is interesting to watch is the reaction of those who hailed the toppling of the old order in the Middle East as the beginning of the new dawn of freedom, just as, I am sure, those who saw the toppling of Russia’s czar as the road to democracy. It didn’t quite work out that way and I predict that the hopes of those who saw the false dawn in the Middle East will also see their hopes dashed.

And then there are the Lyles who will play the role of the true believers who went to the USSR after the Communists took over to proclaim, like Lincoln Steffens: “I have seen the future and it works.”