The most popular opposition in the country is the Islamists, whose radical
wing would like to see Egypt turned into an Islamic republic like Iran or
the Sudan. Since parties based on religion are illegal, the Islamists cannot be
officially represented in the People’s Assembly. Some of the groups they form
are responsible for terrorist strikes against government members, Western
tourists and Copts. Their attempts to overthrow the government, which they
believe comes too much under the influence of the West, made Mubarak crack
down upon them repeatedly. Whether they are to be considered as part of a
civil society is a matter of definition, since it is understood by most that civil
society should be based on tolerance. Many Egyptian thinkers are of the opin-
ion that the government’s generally sceptical and often hostile attitude towards
civil society can be considered a mixed blessing. Although on the one hand
the government sets strict limits to the freedom of speech and of thought,
on the other it has so far managed to prevent the country from falling into
anarchism. However, some intellectuals also speak of McCarthyism, finding
themselves caught between the limitations set for them by the government
on the one hand and by the fundamentalist Islam that challenges Egypt as a
modern state on the other.