Word: koddus
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...such conditions runs a high risk of rewarding fundamentalist groups that have little interest in tamping down anti-Western attitudes. The popularity of Islamists may be discomfiting to the West, but it increasingly seems to be the bargain required for implanting democracy in the Islamic world. Says Mohammed Abdel Koddus, a member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: "People are looking for alternatives, and the only alternative they see is Islam...
Since then, Abdul Koddus has been on the knife-edge of Egyptian politics. Writing in Al Shaab, Cairo's main opposition newspaper, he campaigns for democratic elections and release of political prisoners, not knowing whether government tolerance will give way to another jail term...
...conversations in his spacious salon overlooking the Nile, Abdul Koddus stresses the Brotherhood's desire to adopt the best of Western values. "I ask for political freedom for everybody," he says, rejecting the goal of militant groups to establish an Islamic dictatorship. Yet he believes that British author Salman Rushdie should be put on trial for blasphemy, and he refuses to condemn Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, convicted on terrorism charges in New York City. And there can be no peace with Israel, he adds, so long as the Jewish state occupies Jerusalem...
...Abdul Koddus says he is confident his vision of Islam will prevail in Egypt and across the Arab world. Recent patterns seem to support his view: while secular governments have contained, if not eliminated, terrorist groups, they have enjoyed less success in holding back the tide of Islam as a political force. In Algeria and Turkey, for example, Islamic parties won stunning electoral victories. Though the triumphs were later reversed by military-backed crackdowns, that only confirmed the potency of their challenges...
...somebody with Abdul Koddus' secular upbringing can turn to Islam for the solution, many others will eventually do so too. Abdul Koddus even got the blessing of his father, an editor and novelist known for his racy, romantic themes. "I could have chosen a completely different path, but my father did not object," says Koddus. "The way I see it, if Islam and liberalism can exist in one household, they can exist in the same society." And, with that, Abdul Koddus excused himself and went to pray...