• EGYPT
  • May 19, 2013
  • 3 minutes read

Poll Shows Muslim Brotherhood Maintaining Support Despite Egypt’s Travails

Poll Shows Muslim Brotherhood Maintaining Support Despite Egypt’s Travails

Two years after Egyptians banded together to overthrow former President Hosni Mubarak, the country’s much-celebrated revolution isn’t going well, according to Egyptians who responded to a Pew Research Center survey released today.


Thirty percent believe the country is headed in the right direction — only a notch above the 28% who had the same answer before the revolution in 2010. That’s down from 65% who said the country was doing well in 2011 and 53% who said so in 2012.


None of this is particularly surprising given the state of the economy and the dwindling levels of security throughout the country. After decades of autocracy, Egyptians are still reeling from the insecurity wrought by a street-level uprising that hurt the economy and sent police officers scurrying from their posts.


Since then, Egypt has been roiled by protests, labor strikes and a sharp rise in sectarian violence against the country’s Christian minority. Successive leaders — first a council of military generals, then an Islamist-backed government led by President Mohammed Morsi — have faced violent demonstrations the likes of which Mr. Mubarak never tolerated.


Yet amid the gloomy mood and regular paroxysms of public anger, Egypt’s sitting Islamist rulers appear to have held on to a sort of fragile popularity while the leading voices among his opposition continue to lag behind.

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