Speaking of Mad Mullahs

Egypt's variety suffers a setback.

Egypt's Islamists set back in presidential race

"The elimination of three of the main contenders from Egypt's presidential race has eroded the chances of an Islamist candidate to seize the country's top job.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful political group to emerge from last year's uprising, finds itself increasingly in a bind. It is unable to exercise the power of its electoral wins so far and is jostling with the ruling generals and liberal and secular groups that drove the uprising but now fear religious domination of politics."

I'm of two minds about this. First I'm glad to see the Islamists being shut out of power, but, on the other hand, in a true democracy, no one should be shut out other than via the voting booth in a free, universal and secret ballot. On the other hand...

Oh well. The road to democracy and the elimination of clerical domination of political power in the West took a very long time and a whole lot of violence. We shouldn't be surprised that similar processes are at play throughout the Muslim world. We can only hope it doesn't take as long. The trail has been blazed.

Indeed, with modern technologies with global reach now available, it should take much less time. After all, the journey from John Wycliff (early 14th century) to the Gutenberg Press (1436) to Martin Luther (1517) and the protestant reformation many years after took hundreds of years.

We now have the Internet and a universal language - English. Information and ideas whiz around the world in mere minutes. Throughout history, great social upheaval has often been spurred by technological innovation. It can't be stopped.