Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian parliament six years ago now, and at the time it seemed like the first opportunity to test all the claims -- going all the way back to Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations?" -- about whether Islam is or is not compatible with democratic government. That experiment was spoiled, however, by the severe restrictions on Palestinian autonomy imposed by Israel and the United States, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not.
Elections in Egypt may now give us a new opportunity to see how Islamists rule in a democratic government. But once again, the Islamists and the democrats must overcome un-democratic interventions, this time by the controlling military council of Egypt itself. As Hamas itself has observed, the protests of Tahrir Square have not yet secured victory. We can only hope for more progress in the near future.
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