it may seem puzzling that 59% of Egyptians affirmed that "democracy is preferable to any other kind of government."  But while Westerners may assume that democracy refers in all cases to the implementation of Jeffersonian principles of limited government, tolerance, the free press, and popular accountability, all too often nowadays it has been reduced to mere head-counting-and in Egypt as well as elsewhere in the Middle East, the advocates of political Islam are the ones who have the heads.

That's why Mohammad-Javad Larijani, secretary-general of the ironically named Iranian High Council for Human Rights, was able to express unqualified support for the Egyptian uprising:  "In my opinion, the Islamic Republic of Iran should see these events without exception in a positive light."  He characterized the already-toppled Ben Ali government in Tunisia as "anti-Islamic," and predicted that soon Tunisians would have a "people's government."  And in Egypt, Larijani said, "Muslims are more active in political agitation and, God willing, they will establish the regime that they want."