4. Candidates must constantly remind potential voters of their party's record of success and the opponent's record of failure.

The secular democratic and human rights groups in Egypt and in the rest of the Arab world show little sign of understanding these facts of political life. The Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, gets at least three out of four. True, they have never been in office. But they have a political program and a vision not only until the next elections, but in their view until the hereafter. And they are very good at reminding Egyptians of why the other party's policies will be ungodly and therefore catastrophic for Egypt. Above all, they have succeeded in embedding themselves in Egyptian society in ways that could prove crucial.

When I was 15 and considered myself a member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, there were secular political groups in the diasporas of Pakistanis, Yemenis and Somalis in Nairobi who lived in exile like my family. These loosely organised groups had vague plans for restoring their respective countries and building them into peaceful, prosperous nations. These were dreams they never realised.

The mosques and Muslim centres were the main areas of association, but they visited us at home. Importantly, their message transcended ethnicity, social class and even educational levels.

It is true that the movement was violent, but we tend to underestimate in the West the Brotherhood's ability to adapt to reality and implement lessons learned. One such adaptation is the debate within the network on the use of violence. There are two schools of thought within the network, and both of them invoke the Prophet Mohammed as an example.

Those who want instant jihad hark back to the time when the Prophet had small armies that defeated massive ones, as in the battles of Badr and Uhud. The nonviolent branch of the Brotherhood emphasises the Prophet's perseverance and patience. They emphasise Da'wa (persuasion through preaching and by example) and above all a gradual multi-generational process in coming to power and holding on to it. Above all, they argue for Taqiyyah, a strategy to collaborate with your enemies until the time is ripe to defeat them or convert them.

Why are the secular democratic forces in Egypt so much weaker than the Muslim Brotherhood? There are a number of factors. One reason is that they are an amalgam of very diverse elements: There are tribal leaders, free-market liberals, socialists, hard-core Marxists and human rights activists. In other words, they lack common ideological glue comparable to the one that the Brotherhood has. Finally, there is a deep-seated fear that opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose aim is to install sharia law once they come to power, will be seen by the masses as a rejection of Islam altogether.

Just for a start, although I'm sure most Westerners (to whom she peddles her nonsense) wouldn't know the difference, the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia are pretty much complete opposites, and they would certainly not be in any funding arrangement.

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Yes, through charitable contributions. They may also have some form of membership fee, that is ongoing, not sure about that though. Some other Ikhwaan-inspired groups do.

The sincere Islamic movements usually decided from the outset not to take donations from governments, as those governments then try to control and corrupt them for their own purposes.

What exactly does Hirsi Ali lie about?

Give one example of a lie that you have some evidence of, unless it is you who is the charlatan.

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I have enough authority to know the Saudi government specifically funds people to intellectually attack and slander the Muslim Brotherhood, the idea they're funding the Brotherhood is just ludicrous.

It's about as whacky as the idiot idea that al-Qaeda and Iran are in cahoots, nevermind that the two are completely ideologically opposed to one another in every aspect one could imagine.

Or the garbage about al-Qaeda & Saddam.

There's always plenty of gullible fools to swallow it though I guess.

Kinda like the article today in the Herald Sun, where the source of the "Mobile WMD labs" fabrication admitted it was fully concocted. I still remember watching the footage of it on the news, and how they used these satellite images to convince us it was undeniably true.

The entire Western case on Islam is a sham, the Brotherhood being funded by Saudi Arabia is no exception.

It's all built on the fact most people are so incredibly stupid, you could tell 'em anything and they'd just go along with it.

You asked for examples of her lies, you got 'em. Her lies about Islam began when she was seeking asylum, she was so devoid of any morals or decency, she decided to trash her own religion to convince the Dutch to take her in. So she invented the garbage about forced marriage and escaping civil war and refugee camps, and she hasn't stopped since, especially when she realised how gullible the masses in the West are, and that they'd actually pay her just for telling whoppers about her own cultural background.