Dear Examinator..

your treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood seems to be quite secular in perspective.. assessing them from the standpoint of the immediate historical context of the period when they emerged.

To an extent this is reasonable, but what you neglect, is that the MB actually harked back to the original pure form of Islam. It was not a new idea..such as a political movement which addressed specific social issues of the day.. which would mean that as soon as those issues were successfully addressed, the movement would have no further purpose and would most likely fade...nope.. it ain't like that. Pure Islam is very much about the re-establishment of the Kalifah. Please review your essay and re-submit it for your lecturers(me) scrutiny :) haha..

STEVEN.. if you honestly believe the USA media is free.. try uttering the words 'Israel Lobby' in any article which is even remotely critical and see what happens to you. (See how the American Jews treated Meirsheimer.. and they wonder why 'AntiSemitism' arises?
As Inky Stephenson once said. "You cannot have anti-semitism unless you first have 'semitism'".. how true.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html

You will notice that by and large NO American publisher was willing to run the gauntlet of those 'men who don't exist' in the American business and holywood world.. who have no impact and can do nothing :)
That article could be published was the UK. Americans are so intimidated by the Jewish control of so much Media there... that they won't go near such things with a million mile barge pole. So much for a 'free press/media'.

OBAMA is speaking as most politicians do. 'politically'.... long on rhetoric, short on real solutions, after all...it's VOTES that count.

Arjay, Steven etc,

Steven,the Muslim philosophy is to subjugate it's women who are great
organisers.When you omit at least half of your population's intelligence,how can you compete?
Islam is the philosophy which retards them,not generally their
genetics.
Posted by Arjay, Sunday, 24 August 2008 4:03:24 PM

Interesting, the Arabs must have been at one time quite advanced in
their development of scientific and philosophy etc eg during the so
called dark ages. Yet today they do not seem to shine.
Could it be their propensity for cousin marriage ?
Both in NSW and the UK it has been found that moslem populations have
increased genetic defects. In the UK it was found that the increase was 13%.
As far as I know, no figure was calculated in NSW.

I think it is still legal to marry a cousin in Australia.
This practice should be outlawed as it is for sibling marriage.

The really telling statistic is that more books are translated into spanish in one year than have been translated into Arabic for 50 years.

Bronwyn,

Bush administrations move into Iraq may have been poorly thought through, but it may still have a very positive outcome, albeit at a significant cost. Regardless, the invasion of Iraq NEVER " destabilised the World" as you suggest. This is just hyperbole.

I'm so happy for you that you have found a source of information that isn't dedicated to spin. Tell me is it the socialist monthly? Or Green weekly? Because those groups are methodical in their search for the end of capitalism, oops I meant in their search for truth.

Obama is a first term senator. He has next to no experience in anything, let alone foreign affairs. And involving Caroline Kennedy in your dream ticket is just laughable. Why don't we add Pollyanna and Mr Maggoo to the line up as well?

It must be nice living in your world where everything has a simple fix.

Polycarp my personal pontificating professor ;-)

True the MB does hark back to an older more fundamental view of Islam.
The more informative perspective is WHY?

Tolerance by the individual for the ‘unconventional’ (the less obviously relevance to day to day survival) is in direct relationship with that individual’s sense of their personal security. (See Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
Consequently the lower on this hierarchy the individual is the less tolerant they tend to be.

Generally speaking the greater the inhibitors are to moving up Maslow’s hierarchy stress tolerant towards less tangible the individual becomes. Tolerance is usually the first human value jettisoned.

There are many factors that influence the individual’s movement up this scale including personal involvement, up bringing, intellect, education etc. Some people compensate for deficits in some fundamentals by distorting what they understand by Self Actualization and how they measure it.
In many cases money or power is the driving force eg Murdock, Pauline Hanson and her ilk.

History has shown that in the face of perceived threat the public generally becomes more ’conservative’ willing to trust the ‘steady, strong leader’. This is often at the expense of reasoning i.e. Willingness to accept the extreme notion that in conflict it’s either bellicosity or appeasement (nationalism comes in here).
e.g. Churchill despite his history of poor judgement he was widely supported during WW2 but dumped after.
Menzies and the Libs managed the ‘reds under the bed’ and associated perceptions to maintain power.
Howard did the same…fear security and for living standards. His reign became progressively vulnerable to fear of HIS tactics.

The conditions in Egypt and other Arab countries at the time as now left/leaves the basically illiterate/ill-informed population powerless and fearful. Add to that, the anger of the educated unemployed and you have fertile grounds for “another way” (a term used in MB literature) a return to the old and tried ways (galloping Conservatism.)

In the west the rise of Christian fundamentalism, Charismatic grouping and extremist greens etc (all as unpalatable and ill-informed as Islamic fundamentalism) are clearly bell weather warnings of mass discontent.
Honours please:-)

Paul.L

"Obama is a first term senator. He has next to no experience in anything, let alone foreign affairs. And involving Caroline Kennedy in your dream ticket is just laughable. Why don't we add Pollyanna and Mr Maggoo to the line up as well?"

It may well have been an impossible dream, but it's far from laughable. I actually found the following excerpts from Moore's letter quite compelling, but then again as you would be the first to point out I am naive and gullible.

"Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl."

"This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!)."

Obama mightn't have had as many years in politics or carried out as many bombing raids as his rival for the presidency, but there are millions of Americans who believe he would make a far more honest and decent go of it.