Booze and bikinis in a new Egypt

At left, the leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badei, and at right, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

/ CBS/Getty

Booze and bikinis. Eventually, these twin pillars of Egypt's tourist industry are bound to provoke fights within the Muslim Brotherhood, as the group rises to virtual domination of the nation's political landscape.

The Brotherhood must try to resolve its Muslim roots with the demands of a modern economy, which has seen tourism all but cease in the wake of a violent uprising to oust long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.

But the Brotherhood, poised to claim an outright majority in Egypt's new Parliament, has a much bigger battle looming.

Rebranded the "Freedom and Justice Party," it's about to square off against the nation's powerful military clique - the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or SCAF - which has been running Egypt for the past year.

The Brotherhood has announced its intention to ditch the SCAF's Cabinet in favor of its own appointees. It also wants to minimize the military's hand in writing Egypt's new Constitution.

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Predictably, the SCAF has no intention of conceding on either front.

There will be no dramatic showdown though, says Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institute, an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The last thing the Brotherhood wants to do is provoke a military coup.

"Instead, it will be a slow burn. The Brotherhood will try to do temporary deals with the SCAF to avert a showdown in the short term," says Hamid.

Two days ago, The Brotherhood's official spokesman, Mhamoud Ghozlan, floated one such offer. Appearing on a talk show, he suggested that if the SCAF generals handed over power peacefully, its members could be granted immunity from prosecution in cases of violence against protestors.

While the horse-trading and threatening goes on between Egypt's two new centers of power, the Obama administration will make all efforts to keep both sides friendly.

"The U.S. will keep its longstanding, close relationship with the military," predicts Hamid. "And, clearly, the Obama administration has to engage with the Brotherhood as they represent a popularly elected political majority. But we will have to wait and see what that engagement looks like."

Hamid says the U.S. government is being pulled in two directions, but it "can't be seen to be empowering Islamists over the military, especially right now."

It's too soon to say whether the SCAF or the Brotherhood will win the inevitable power struggle in Egypt.

Right now, the political elite across the spectrum are united against the SCAF for having mismanaged Egypt's transition to democracy.

If push comes to shove - even liberals will back the Islamists against the generals who have virtually ignored ongoing calls to immediately hand power to civilian leaders.

But the Brotherhood is bound to fall out with the old guard when the fight eventually comes back to booze and bikinis.

[HotBrit]

I came to Egypt to get married staying in this totally Muslim Farming Village, When and if I go outside the women stare at me like I have three heads but honestly I would give anything for a seven up and Vodka Oh well we cant always get what we want

[paul2313]

If I was living under an opressive Muslim regime, I'd need some booze and bikinis too.

[montani42]

Obama helped over throw a trusted friend of the USA so islamic terrorists could control Egypt. The so called "Arab Spring" was nothing more than a multinational plot to give islamic extremists control of most of the middle east. All the work of previous US presidents to keep the middle east stable has been destroyed by the muslim loving Obama administration. Obama has almost destroyed our country and has damaged many of our allies.

[BShred]

The Freedom and Justice Party is DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED and should be in power. Seems the moment people see the words "Islamic Political Organization" people start foaming at the mouth and our propaganda machines try to link it to terrorism. Never mind that this is democracy and its a core value of the United States. Apparently democracy shouldn't be tolerated when our elite don't like the result. Tyranny is A LOT better(sic). People don't seem to notice that this is pretty much the equivalent of Iran's State Run TV saying "Christian extremists from the US republican party are bloodthirsty warmongerers... so this means Christianity is an evil diabolical religion and only violent people practice Christianity." The truth is that the Muslim Brotherhood has a long history through many different countries as a protest political party and there is a wide range of people involved in it. Yes, some were not very upstanding but demonizing the entire culture and political movement because of it is idiotic. That's like painting all people voting democrat/republican as radical crazies of a fringe group because the fringe element does indeed exist in both political parties.

Do not forget... Freedom And Justice Party = DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED!!!

[YoosAir]

Hmmm... Stalin, Hitler, and Bush were also "democratically elected."
Democracy gives the mob an opportunity to rule by the rules of the mob.

[joe1022joe]

Obama's efforts supporting the ouster of Mubarik, a longtime friend of the USA, have succeeded in putting the Islamists in power. Just what a guy named Barak Hussein Obama would like to do.

[karek40]

The author is naive, he credits booze and bikinis (tourists and the income they bring to Egypt) with more power than Islam. Islam does not care if many starve.

[antoniof123]

The Brotherhood has announced its intention to ditch the SCAF's Cabinet in favor of its own appointees. It also wants to minimize the military's hand in writing Egypt's new Constitution.

Oh well this bunch won't last long.

[nineknot]

Iwas working as a boat guide in miami last summer and many pious muslims from around the world came to see our lovely waterways.
Sure enough, all they wanted to do was get drunk and prance around in their bikini's.
The women got sloppy drunk and let it ALL hang out. the men also let themselves go cause you know once in good ol' Saudi Arabia its time to behave or face some stoning...
What hypocrites....

[euge005]

booze and bikinis? Hall marks of civilizations and why bother with the whole bikinis. Just becuase the US has a juvenile nudity taboo does not make it the standard for the world. While we are growing up ourselves, time to legalize most drugs and penalize what is done under the influence, if it hurts others. All the small town cops could free up time to go after corrupt pols instead of harrassing poor people.

[fedup12]

I opened this because I wanted to see a hairy egyptian woman in a Bikini.

Can you say.... She needs a wax!