Egypt's Emerging Hero? Mohamed ElBaradei

When battling an established, corrupt political system, is it acceptable to ally with an organization that, in any other situation, would be your enemy?
That is the dilemma facing the grassroots Egyptian movement led by former head of the IAE, Mohamed ElBaradei.  I just spent the past hour reading several articles about the unstable political situation in Egypt, and the newly forming, but yet unnamed, party led by ElBaradei.  Though I am excited to hear about the prospect of change in Egypt, the one thing that I can't seem to wrap my mind around is ElBaradei's current alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.

For the past three decades, Egypt has been ruled like it was during the days of the pharoahs; by a single man, from a single party.  It wasn't until 2005 that the first democratic voiting occurred.  It is a generally accepted fact that this election was no more than a show, with no real legitimacy.  Because of the way Egyptian law is currently written, even if an opponent were to somehow win at the ballot boxes, the party in power would literally veto the public's decision.

The first time I remember hearing about Mr. ElBaradei was in 2002.  He was the famous IAE chief who had the courage to speak out against Bush's insistence that Iraq had WMD's.  He took a lot of criticism from the US and Britain for his insistence that they were either being misled, or simply misleading.  (We now know the latter is true, and that Bush had a hidden agenda all along).

I don't remember hearing about him again until this morning, when I came across the following article:

Egypt's youth build new opposition movement 

I was at first highly disappointed with ElBaradei's movement's choice to align itself with the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is known to favor an Islamic state, governed by Sharia law.  This is the exact opposite extreme of what ElBaradei is fighting for.  How could they possibly be cooridinating their efforts?  

The whole situation reminds me of the TV show Glee.  Would the Glee club align with the football players to beat the cheerleaders?  No way!  Wait a minute...Umm come to think of it, yes.

The seemingly insurmountable odds both ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood face in overthrowing the status quo of corrupt Egyptian politics gives some credence to their alliance.  Furthermore, ElBaradei may be able to use the Muslim Brotherhood as a recruiting ground for his own, much smaller grassroots support structure.  Many of the Brotherhood's memebers are still young enough to be impressionable, and may be easily convereted to the more peaceful, freedom-loving movement.

However, I can't help wondering if the people who ElBaradei is modeling his actions after would approve.  Would Martin Luther King have accepted an alliance with the KKK?  Would it have been smarter for ElBaradei to stand alone, and against, the Muslim Brotherhood, and struggle with smaller numbers, but in-tact principles?  In the long run, I fear this unholy alliance may leave a stain on the otherwise commendable career of the Nobel Prize winner.
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Other resources used for this article include:
Egypt's political battle lines drawn on the web 
Mohamed ElBaradei:  I am not new Pharaoh 

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9/17
Egyptian newspaper defends doctored photo

After reading about Egypt yesterday, I couldn't help but click on the above linked article, found on my Yahoo home page.  After reading it, I have just two quick comments to make. 

First, like many of the critics quoted, I think the doctored photo is evidence of the political corruption inherent in the Egyptian government. 

My second comment is a little off-topic, but too interesting not to note.  In America, when we discuss the Middle East problem, we tend to call it "Israel's issue" or "the problem with Israel."  The Egyptians, apparently, name the constant struggle after the other party involved.  The following is a quote defending the altered photograph from the government-run newspaper's editor-in chief:

"'The expressionist photo is ... a brief, live and true expression of the prominent stance of President Mubarak in the Palestinian issue, his unique role in leading it before Washington or any other.'"

Does the party named in defining the conflict reveal a nations preference for who should win?  I know in the case of the United States government it does.  I don't yet know enough about Egypt to say for sure, but I will definitely keep this quote in mind as I delve further into Egyptian politics.

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