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Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood poised for action

We saw in Egypt that the Muslim Brotherhood was not the instigator of the protests but quickly took advantage of the potential power vacuum to position itself as the largest and best organized opposition group.

Déjà vu time.

After a series of independent calls on Facebook and elsewhere to hold a "day of rage" in Syria this Saturday, some of which attracted thousands of members, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood had put out its own call for protest, calling for a ten part plan to reform Syria.

Just as in Egypt, their public position is not overtly religious but couched in terms of democracy and freedom (the single reference to religion is a call to have Syria rid itself of Iranian Shiite influence.)