Why Does the Muslim Brotherhood Attack Churches?

The world is focusing much of its sympathy today on the members of the Muslim Brotherhood that were gunned down in the streets of Cairo by armed police and soldiers seeking to end the Islamist attempt to put Mohamed Morsi back into power. The violence is regrettable and the casualties are widely interpreted as evidence of the brutality of the military regime that toppled Morsi and his Brotherhood regime last month. But the notion that the Brotherhood is the innocent victim of a nasty junta seeking to bring back Mubarak-era authoritarianism is only half right. Though the military government is an unsavory partner for the United States, no one should be under any illusions about the Brotherhood or why the majority of Egyptians (who went to the streets in their millions to support a coup) probably approve of the military’s actions.

3
Shares
Google+ Print

Why Does the Muslim Brotherhood Attack Churches?

Must-Reads from Magazine

Democrats Are Being Outmaneuvered

Flirting with incoherence.

A fair scoring of the Trump presidency’s first year would have to hand 2017 to Democrats. The opposition party  exploited the Trump-led GOP’s mistakes and excesses and translated them into victories both on Capitol Hill and at polling places around the country. But that was then and this is now. Democrats remain married to tactics that have not served them so well in the New Year. Democrats are not winning this moment. They don’t know it yet.

26
Shares
Google+ Print

Integrity Matters

Conspiracies kill credibility.

For Republicans, the Trump presidency has been one long test of faith. The truest believers in Trumpism are compelled to demonstrate their commitment to the cause by publicly defending obvious falsehoods with as much zeal as they can muster.

25
Shares
Google+ Print

Nancy Pelosi’s Crumbs Will Power the Economy

A prisoner of the narrative.

Nancy Pelosi dismissed the bonuses associated with recently enacted tax cuts for middle-class individuals as “pathetic” and mere “crumbs.” For someone who lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco (the most expensive neighborhood in the United States), when not relaxing at her vineyard in the Napa Valley, the financial benefits associated with tax code reform are, to be sure, no more than rounding errors. But for the average citizen–a demographic the Democratic Party claims to represent–they are very real.

31
Shares
Google+ Print

OK, So This Is What’s Happening with All the Probes

Podcast: The FBI, Mueller, and the infamous memo.

Text-gate. FISA-gate. Mueller-gate. FBI-gate. Unmasking-gate. What’s real? What’s nutso conspiracy theory? What’s to be concerned about? What deserves a fuller investigation? We try to sort this out on the second COMMENTARY podcast of the week. Give a listen.

7
Shares
Google+ Print

The Trump Standard Won’t Outlast His Presidency

A transactional relationship.

Among the right’s moral majoritarian leadership, the ethical flexibility on display since the revelations involving Donald Trump’s alleged affair with an adult film actress is of Olympic caliber. This represents only the latest opportunity for the evangelical community’s leaders to jettison their credibility. Some leaped at the chance.

26
Shares
Google+ Print