CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the biggest winner in parliamentary elections, but the fundamentalist group that has long dreamed of ruling Egypt is likely to be cautious about flexing its newfound muscle.
The Brotherhood has been crushed by the military before and will probably tread carefully to avoid spooking the ruling generals or the country’s Western supporters.
That may be the best tactic for the Brotherhood as it seeks to translate its impressive electoral victory into political power while reassuring this turbulent nation of 85 million people that it has no intention of monopolizing power.
The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, is insisting it has no immediate desire to push through Islamic legislation or form a new government.
Also, it has distanced itself from more militant groups and has gone to great lengths to avoid a clash with the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak 11 months ago.
“The cautious approach is rooted in part in the lessons the Muslim Brotherhood has learned from past clashes with the army, for which it paid dearly,” columnist Abdullah al-Sinawi wrote in Monday’s edition of the Al-Shorouk daily.
The Brotherhood has spent most of the 84 years since its inception in 1928 as an outlawed organization. At times, it enjoyed a level of relative tolerance by authorities that allowed it to function as a religious charity.
But for most of those eight decades, Brotherhood leaders and supporters have been targeted in harsh government crackdowns that saw hundreds jailed, tortured and convicted.
The Feb. 11 ouster of Mubarak heralded the empowerment of the Brotherhood. The group responded with astonishing speed, emerging as the nation’s most dominant political force.
