Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

We - the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), the organization I work for - have just released a new publication, outlining a new U.S. strategy for supporting human rights and democracy in Egypt. 

This is a critical period for U.S.-Egypt relations, with President Hosni Mubarak planning to visit Washington for the first time in 5 years, and President Obama giving his major speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4th. So we hope this report, written by Greg Aftandilian, will help in framing the current debate.

What we tried to do with this paper is provide a way forward that was a middle path between inaction and a more pro-active approach (which has little chance of happening in the current political climate). We wanted something that Obama officials could read and say to themselves, "hmm, we can actually do this - now."

Perhaps, sometimes, a bit of ambition must be sacrificed for a bit of realism, as much as some of us may dislike the way the word "realistic" is misused these days. In any case, the vision Greg lays out in this paper is actually doable, not later but now, and we hope the Obama administration will consider the policy recommendations, particularly in light of some recent signs suggesting that the administration is de-emphasizing human rights and democracy in the bilateral relationship.