This week’s visit to Washington by members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, demonstrated just how much has changed in US-Arab relations in the wake of the Arab uprisings. The high-profile Egyptian delegation coincides with visits by representatives of other Islamist parties from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and Libya also in town this week for various meetings and conferences. While skepticism (and in some circles open hostility) toward Islamists persists, the unspoken boycott of political Islam by the US administration and most of the Washington policy establishment has officially come to an end.
To be sure, this newfound openness is rooted in pragmatic rather than sentimental or intellectual considerations. Islamists have long been the most formidable opposition forces in the Arab world and are now poised to take power in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region. Yet there is one electorally successful group that is unlikely to be welcomed in Washington anytime soon: Hamas. While the Palestinian Islamist group’s status and circumstances differ from those of other Islamist movements around the region, its continued shunning by Washington may be just as outdated and counter-productive.