From the Department of The Times They Are A-Changing:

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

http://www.smh.com.au/world/mursi-picks-woman-copt-as-vicepresidents-20120627-212wd.html

So in today's news from Egypt, the leader of the new Muslim Brotherhood government that won the election has decided to go with a female Christian as his Vice-President, as a sign of inclusiveness for the new Egyptian government. I admit that this could sound a little bit like Tokenism, but I think if it was necessary to find an Alan Colmes style "safe" Christian that the Muslim Brotherhood would have chosen a man. So this is actually a positive sign that the Muslim Brotherhood may really have changed for the better.

Comments

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Definitely looks like tokenism.

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

But is it always a bad thing? They have to start somewhere, the first of whatever is usually a token.

Seriously, it really depends on her real position, and what kind of power she receives.
I mean, after all Sandra Day O'Conner was a token on SCOTUS when appointed, but darn if she didn't become a swing vote.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in certain countries I tend to think along the lines of "it hopefully can't hurt", even if there is no depth what so ever in the act.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

It's not necessarily a bad thing, and it'd be a dozen times better if appointing a lady was a symptom of a much deeper social process than there currently is.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

VP picks are always political.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

Looks like symbolism... which at least shows he cares. Regardless, this is way better than if he picked a College of Clerics of something.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Of course he cares. He's still far away from having the grip of power Mubarak did, so every symbolic gesture should be well measured.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

Well, tenuous and temporary grips on power by your leaders are the main benefit of democracy. It's not like it improves the quality of your choices or anything. This development fills me with cynical optimism.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Me either. ;-)

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

I'd say the position is to try and defuse anger by Coptics since they're a large minority. I'd give even odds that before the term is up the VP will resign or be forced out due to conflicts with the extremists.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Given this is the Muslim Brotherhood, the progress here is that they considered a woman and a Copt at that at all. I mean these guys *are* Islamist fanatics, nothing says they *have* to appeal to external Western public opinion one way or the other......

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

I'd say they should be given credit for trying and we'll see what happens from here. I'm also sure there will be conflicts with extremists, but then there are in any decent sized democracies, this doesn't mean things are doomed to fail.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

ain't democracy grand?

[foreverbeach.livejournal.com]

At least now we might get some relief from that tired old irrelevancy that "Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East and therefore must be supported by the Western Democracies."

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Those Coptic bishops look like something out of the movie Agora. As for Mursi, we will see how things play out in the long run. I hope that tensions do not escalate with Israel.

[foolsguinea.livejournal.com]

I think it's a woman and a Copt for two positions, not a female Copt for one position.