Defying a ban against unauthorized rallies, several hundred people took to the street.

Hundreds of supporters of one of Egypt??????s largest opposition groups have defied a government ban against unauthorized protests and taken to the streets of Cairo to demonstrate.

Ahead of landmark elections, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood officials chanted that President Hosni Mubarak was no longer fit to rule Egypt.

Many demonstrators were detained and remanded in custody for 15 days on charges including “membership of a banned organization, participation in illegal demonstrations and incitement to hatred of the regime,” judicial officials said.

Pro-Islamic students at universities in Cairo, Alexandria and Mansoura have protested the government’s detention of the demonstrators.

A small number of protesters from the Kifaya, or “Enough” Movement were stopped from marching toward the parliament.

They then marched to the Journalists’ Syndicate, where the crowd grew to 400, chanted slogans against President Mubarak and carried the movement’s yellow and red flag.

“The one who bars demonstrators would face the fate of Sadat!” said one chant, referring to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamic extremists.

For some effective discussion on whether opposition Islamists overthrowing the government would lead to a democratic government in the end, check out first this post by Kirk as well as the comments, and then this one afterword. I left a comment in the latter which I’ll repost right here, because Egypt is strange case deserving further discussion.

You know, it????????s something I myself am somewhat unresolved on. Is it better to open up immediately and allow political liberalization at the risk of extremists sweeping into power and strangling other political resistence as a dictator would? Or is it better to slowly reform?

I am confused, in part, because of my experience with Chile. Pinochet killed several thousand people and embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars ???????? these are the obvious deplorable things. But he also liberalized the economy which naturally led to the political liberalization of the country. And despite the media claims of his souring in the public eye, you????????d be amazed at how much support he has outside of the upper-class suburb tucked behind the hill of the actual city.

In any case, this brings to mind your other article ony Egypt dealing with its own economic liberalization. The way I see it, even if Mubarak does rig these next elections, the more the economy liberalizes the more people will have a natural interest in having a voice in the country????????s direction. I????????m not condoning what Mubarak does, but it certainly seems like the right way to go if the pressure is kept on him, and a much softer way at that.

But will his overthrow and the installation of an Islamic government lead to democratic reform? If it does, people will certainly know better for the next election. But if it doesn????????t, then people will be stuck with someone perhaps worse without a viable way out. It????????s quite risky given that while economic reform is underway, it hasn????????t captured wholly the minds of the people yet.

This opens up a much broader topic though. I think it is important to note that freedom and liberalization generally leads to democracy, but democracy may not always lead to freedom. I think you must have the first to have the latter, and the distinction should probably be made between the two.

Big Pharaoh has thoughts that echo my fears.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this. Is it better to leave someone like Mubarak in power who will slowly reform, or allow an Islamic opposition to take the reins and possibly cause further turmoil? Does democracy lead to freedom, or the other way around? The more we develop ideas about these kinds of things, the better we can both understand the world around us and effectively promote the policy.