Khaled Hamza and the Search for Moderates Posted by Shadi Hamid

I wrote about Khaled Hamza, the Muslim Brotherhood member who was recently arrested, last week. Steven Brooke, co-author of a great Foreign Affairs article on the Brotherhood last year,  writes about his own experiences with Hamza and comes to similar conclusions about what his arrest represents. This anecdote from Brooke is really interesting, and is worth pondering for a minute or two:

Khaled told me that as a teenager he had a giant American flag hanging on the wall of his room. Coming from a region where American flags are as likely to be burned as hung in a bedroom, this was surprising to say the least. On another occasion he was quick to condemn Supreme Guide Mahdi Akef for ridiculing President Bush, arguing that "I understand his anger at the man, but he is the President. You have to give him some respect."

Brooke then makes an excellent, if worrying, point about what's at stake for Egypt (and, by extension, us):

Though [the moderate Brotherhood trend that Hamza represents] is probably not the strongest, it is certainly in the interests of the United States to see it grow. Arresting and holding Khaled—and the others like him—is intended to send the message to Muslim Brothers that their efforts to engage with the West are doomed. As one savvy Egyptian observer has written, this increasing repression of important moderates is not only radicalizing the group, but Egyptian society as a whole. We should keep this in mind as we ponder the point of this latest arrest.