Published in Washington Post

Too soon for 'democracy works' The June 25 front-page article “Islamist named winner in Egypt” referred to the Egyptian election as “one of the most concrete signs of democratic change.” One needs only to look next door, at the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, to see that one election does not a democracy make — especially where an Islamist government is concerned. Not a single election has been held since the totalitarian Hamas took over Gaza in 2006. And Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which the winner of the Egyptian elections came. One thing is becoming more apparent regarding the Arab Spring: Democratically inspired revolutions are a far cry from democratically run countries. Michael Berenhaus, Potomac