I am not quite sure where I heard this story but it seems to be from my primary school days in Cameroon. We were told that the story is one of the Tales from the Arabian Nights but I have not verified this information. This is how the story goes: A man had a camel and they were traveling in a very cold clime. When it was time to sleep, the man built a tent and slept in it and the camel stayed outside. The camel however began to complain of the cold outside. In order to relieve the effects of the cold, the camel begged to put just one of its feet in the tent so that the warmth generated in the tent may pass through its feet and warm its cold body outside. After initial hesitation, the man allowed the camel to put one of its feet in the tent. Then the camel said that its body will warm better if both of its feet were in the tent. Again, after some hesitation, the man allowed the camel to put both of its feet in the tent. You may see where this story is going. The camel asked for its head to be placed in the tent, and so on and so forth. In the end, the camel was in the tent and the man was outside.
This is not a perfect analogy but I think it could be used for the situation in Egypt. When the revolution started, the Muslim Brotherhood said it wanted democracy like everyone else. It did not want to lord it over all Egyptians, as Hosni Mubarak did, but rather to be part of a participatory democracy. It even said it would not field a candidate for the presidential elections. However, when the time for the elections came, it said it would field a candidate. It said it was looking for a participatory constitution but when the time came to draft a constitution, it pushed everyone out and pushed its agenda in. Initially, they seem to behave as if they did not want power. Now, they are dying in the streets to keep the power they had grabbed. Perhaps we should have known all along that a people who claim that "Islam is the answer" cannot share power with anybody. Strange tales are still being told by Arabian Nights.
This is not a perfect analogy but I think it could be used for the situation in Egypt. When the revolution started, the Muslim Brotherhood said it wanted democracy like everyone else. It did not want to lord it over all Egyptians, as Hosni Mubarak did, but rather to be part of a participatory democracy. It even said it would not field a candidate for the presidential elections. However, when the time for the elections came, it said it would field a candidate. It said it was looking for a participatory constitution but when the time came to draft a constitution, it pushed everyone out and pushed its agenda in. Initially, they seem to behave as if they did not want power. Now, they are dying in the streets to keep the power they had grabbed. Perhaps we should have known all along that a people who claim that "Islam is the answer" cannot share power with anybody. Strange tales are still being told by Arabian Nights.
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