This is exactly why the US started to reach out to the Muslim Brotherhood. They've been on the outside looking in for so many years, so now they're going to have to develop actual policies, which ought to be interesting. Even more interesting will be how the US and the Brotherhood interact and what the relationship might accomplish. The US has dumped billions of dollars per year into Egypt for decades and that money had a clear influence in politics. It never trickled down (surprise, surprise) but many at the top did well with the cash. The Guardian:
It's a triumph that's been 84 years in the making and, despite a concerted effort by all involved to stay humble and on-message during their movement's finest hour, few members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood can hide their exhilaration. "These elections are a historic milestone for us and they are a historic milestone for Egypt," said Amr Darrag, secretary general of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party in Giza. "We've not had such free elections since 1952, so it's a great moment for the nation," he said. "The Egyptian people really intend to seize this moment and secure the position for Egypt that it so clearly deserves." The FJP will be the largest force in the country's new parliament when it opens for business on 23 January, almost exactly a year on from the beginning of the revolution that would eventually topple the Brotherhood's tormentor-in-chief, Hosni Mubarak.
