The Muslim Brotherhood's program....

At least, we can see their political program for Egypt...

Elsewhere in the Arab world's steady march backward, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which represents the Islamists' most significant political opposition force, finally published its first detailed political program. The manifesto sent Arab progressives into deep shock.

Among its highlights:

• The revision of "every article" of Egypt's constitution in order to replace civil laws with Islamic sharia laws in "material, spiritual, financial, economic, psychological, and societal matters."

• The restriction of the government's top posts, including the presidency, the premiership, top army and police commands, and judicial posts to Muslim men.

Should the program be adopted, it would dispossess the 9 million Egyptians who are Christians (the largest such minority in the Arab world today) as well as nearly 40 million women, who are half the population.

But what really takes the cake in the Brotherhood's program, however, is its definition of who will arbitrate all laws and legislation: only "a committee of religious scholars as elders and guides" are qualified, the manifesto insists. And those "elders" are to be selected — as you might have guessed — by the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood (which itself is to be elected or chosen by none other than itself). There is no need to delve further into the entire 108-page document. If you've read Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kämpf," you have the idea.