Rex,

That is why I consider the MB, in general, as a shade of gray of insurgency. Yes -- the Egyptian faction (as well as the Jordanian, Somalian and Tunisian factions) have more or less abdicated violence. But because of the organization's revisionist agenda that aims to redraw the region's political order driven in large part by a (largely accurate) perception of Western interference and a general failure of the Arab states to reach modernity, I think its activities amount to subversion disguised in democracy. I think 'radicalism' is not of particular concern -- most groups of whatever origin or agenda resort to violence or coercion. I think the larger concern is of revisionism and revolution, which we of course oppose in the region, as do the entrenched elites of the conservative/traditionalist/reactionary regimes. Radicalism IMO is partly a product of alienated revisionism and as you correctly point out, it's a serious dilemma (i.e. Hamas). (On a side note, this makes me wonder whether Saddam's Iraq could/should have been 'rehabilitated' into the international community following 9/11 and partly why I think Syria should be; but we'll see how the democratic process plays out in Iraq). "Nothing is settled that is not settled right." The question is not if (again) there will be another Arab 'revolt' against the powers that be -- but when and how. The monarchists of the early 20th century failed. The nationalists and the socialists failed. Are the religionists faring any better? And who will replace them should they also fail? Is there anything more dangerous than the integration of political action and religious belief?