Three weeks ago, I wrote in this corner that Islamists and extremists living in democratic or undemocratic non-Muslim societies are keen to display the best and noblest values of their religion. Three weeks ago, I wrote in this corner that Islamists and extremists living in democratic or undemocratic non-Muslim societies are keen to display the best and noblest values of their religion. I also said that these people would have to act in such a cynical way to win over their non-Muslim host so they could live next door, or perhaps persuade said host that the strangers' faith was peaceful, and ultimately hope that the host would convert to their religion. I also said that Islamists and extremists, including political asylum seekers in foreign societies, claimed to advocate democracy and human rights of women, children and even fetuses if such an issue got in their way. It would be absolutely no surprise if an Islamist living in a non-Muslim society showed his undivided support for animal rights if he discovered that his next-door neighbour(s) had pets. Islamists and extremists are bound to act violently when they live in a Muslim-dominated society—particularly when they are given the opportunity to rule: for example, the woman is cursed. Being the source of eternal agony, the woman's feelings and emotions are cruelly maltreated, she has to cover herself from head to toe and walk around like a ghost. Her innermost feelings are equally abused when she is forced to participate in polygamy. Girls under 14, who come from poor families, have their innocent emotions and childhood brutally destroyed when they are forced to marry men as old as their fathers or even grandfathers. Strict laws adopted in democratic and dictatorial non-Muslim communities leapt promptly to my mind when I attempted to analyse the extraordinary psyche of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as found among Islamists and extremists. I realised that strict laws in non-Muslim societies would persuade—or compel—Islamists and extremists willing to stay in their new countries to abandon their sickening ideas and misinterpretations of the holy Qur'an. Admittedly, my point three weeks ago met with harsh criticism from readers and even friends belonging to the Islamist camp. However, they must have reconsidered their attack last week. Egypt's Islamists and extremists unleashed their Mr Hyde only five months after they had been given the reins to rule the country. Demonstrators, who camped near the presidential palace in Heliopolis to protest against President Mohamed Morsi's draconian measures, were attacked by thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other Islamists. The attackers kidnapped and savagely tortured demonstrators to confess that they were paid to chase President Morsi from the presidential palace. Footage on YouTube showed young and old captives confess simply to escape savage torture. Some captives were stripped of their shirts and had swollen eyes and faces, their chests were covered in blood. Girls and women belonging to the April 6 Movement and liberal groups had their share in being tortured and beaten. The irony is that all these 'prisoners of war' in Wednesday's Tent Battle voted for the MB's candidate Mohamed Morsi in the presidential election in May. A few months earlier still, Muslim Brothers and Salafists themselves had been at the receiving end of torture. During the January 25 revolution, Muslim Brothers and Salafists rode on the protests of those they captured and abused in the Tent Battle last week. Having had to live in the shadows for several decades, after Mubarak's departure the MB's influential cadres and key figures in the Salafist community celebrated their new freedom by touring television studios day and night to introduce themselves to the excited nation. They deceptively and cleverly displayed a winning smile that could seduce and tame a hungry wolf. But things have changed. Last week the population regretted the fact that no MB or Salafist leaders came to the fore to condemn the masterminds and protagonists of the Tent Battle on Wednesday. People were even more dismayed that not a single allegedly moderate voice from the MB in particular issued a comforting statement. Words of sympathy and support were only expressed for the five MB members killed in the exchange of fire with armed men, who had infiltrated the peaceful demonstration. But a journalist, who is not an Islamist, was shot in the head and is fighting for his life on a life-support machine. President Morsi did not address the nation on Wednesday night after the mayhem subsided, nor did he have any words of comfort for the tortured detainees (his former supporters in the presidential election), who sustained serious injuries and were admitted to ICUs in different hospitals. The brutal attack on peaceful demonstrators last week undermined the MB's credibility and integrity. There is now profound mistrust between the Islamists and the rest of nation. The MB opened a deep wound, which will take decades to heal and only when new men lead the organisation. The Tent Battle has exacerbated the MB's isolation in society. This movement will ultimately be the biggest casualty and find it hard to survive. If a brutal civil war broke out (more savage and catastrophic than the one in Syria), the task to save Egypt would remain with the US, if Washington did not have a different fate in mind for our country.
