The Muslim Brotherhood is "benign, hapless, not particularly popular"... Not.

Fool:"He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath."King Lear (III, vi, 19-21) 

A few weeks back there was no mention at all of the Muslim Brotherhood and its role in Egypt’s politics.

Then there was fleeting mention.

Then there was more mention, but the line was: “they won’t be a part of the new democracy”.

Then the line became: “well, the Brotherhood may be a part of the new democracy, but don't worry, they’re pussy cats” [the wolf is tame...], or they're too disorganised to get much of the vote, or they're not popular anyway, so  "don't worry; be happy" [believe the whore's oath].

Or, as David Horowitz says:

…numerous “experts” in both the US print and electronic media over the past week have been concertedly representing the Muslim Brotherhood as benign, hapless, not particularly popular, or all three of the above.

Far from benign, the Brotherhood is committed to death-cult jihad in the cause of widened Islamist rule, was the progenitor of Hamas and central to Islamist radicalization among the Palestinians. And its popularity was evident in that impressive 2005 parliamentary performance, achieved, it should be stressed, despite the Mubarak-orchestrated unfavorable circumstances.

“Dangerously underestimating the Muslim Brotherhood”, David Horowitz, The Jerusalem Post, 6 Feb.

Or read Barry Rubin:

It's absolute nonsense that the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate. It's very simple to explain: The regime suppressed the Brotherhood very seriously. These people were in concentration camps and were tortured under Nasser. They didn't want to go back, so they began to be more cautious. Yet they are still extreme.   

All you have to do is to read any speech by a Brotherhood leader or any of their publications. They have an English-language website that is very moderate - for the suckers. Just read the speech that the head of the Muslim Brotherhood gave last October. He declared Jihad against the United States.

“Revolution and the Muslim Brotherhood”. Interview with Barry Rubin, 6 Feb 2011.

We can wish and hope with all our might that the Muslim Brotherhood really are a moderate outfit who will play a part in the shiny new Egyptian democracy. But we’d better be ready for the likely reality: a fundamentalist organisation, bent on bringing Sharia to Egypt and the world. The horse ain't healthy.

Reference:

Source document:Milestones, by Sayyid Qutb, the “granddaddy” of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its chief theorist-architect.  This is the full text, and worth reading is “Jihad in the way of Allah” at p.63 et.seq.