Quote Originally Posted by Marc View Post
Plan A of the Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic republic. However, the Muslim Brothers are pragmatic enough to realize this is not within reach at the moment. Such a project would require a popular Islamic army (like the Pasdaran in Iran) to balance the power of the regular army. At the moment, this is simply beyond their reach. Their worst case scenario is the emergence of a military autocrat like Nasser who removes them from the political scene.
I actually suspect that the Muslim Brotherhood would be the primary beneficiary of a repressive military dictatorship. Moderate opposition would be stifled, and the Brothers are used to operating underground. It would take them a while to do it, but they would very likely emerge as the sole organized opposition to an unpopular and unsustainable government. As yu say, the Brotherhood is not in a position to impose an Islamic State right now... but if they are the primary lever in toppling a new dictatorship, they would be.