Sadat didn't battle Islamists, in fact, he proped them up, and made an unholy alliance with them to kick the leftists'ass, you just had to see Cairo University confrontations between Naserite students and Islamist students! it was fun, of course the Islamists students were calling the Naserist students Infidels Kufar, and fighting them with knives, it was a bizare scene to watch every Nasser aniversary during that period. When he wanted to turn against them, they developed lethal force, and finished him off. I voted for the Islamists at the Engineering Syndicate in 1990 hopping for a change for the better, however, I was disappointed for reasons beyond this reply. Today, the government is battling islamists not only because it is a dictatorship, and it likes to have monopoly (which is true by the way), but also because there is a real fear for the very existance of the civil state in Egypt (you can check my post on this fear http://nahdetmasr.blogspot.com/). BTW, I would prefer to live with the limited freedom we have currently under a secular tyrant, than to live in theocracy where writing a technical paper/article can get you divorced from your wife (Nasr Abou Zeid) or even worse (Farag Fouda). Final note; you have to check the Al-Wasat party website. These are the ones who claim to be the moderate centrists! I will let you do the discovery yourself! When they say that they are Allah's exclusive representatives, that means that anyone who opposes them would automatically be branded "Apostate" (or Infidel in the case of non-moslems), and every meniac will be delighted to cut their throat!

Formidable analysis.

You are right, Bheyya is a naturally gifted political analyst, and the most entertaining commentator on Egyptian political affairs in the blogosphere.

Akis Patsourakis