Considering that
recent polls show 59% of Egyptians prefer Islamists to modernizers,
Fundamentalists, not Islamists. Islamists are fundamentalists, but not all fundamentalists are Islamists. There are often pretty big disagreements (down to accusations of heresy, even) between, for instance, a number of Salafi groups and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
A majority preferring fundamentalists to modernizers is still not a good thing, but it doesn't necessarily imply support for Islamism.
Surprisingly low, if you ask me.
and overwhelming majorities want stonings, floggings and the death penalty for apostasy,
Yeah, this is pretty much straight-up bad.
I'd say the prospects of Egypt becoming a liberal democracy are about as likely as America becoming a Marxist state.
Even with Obama in charge?
Anyway, as I've said before, the chances of Egypt becoming a liberal democracy because of these protests is pretty small. But the chance of it becoming an Islamist theocracy isn't really that much greater. The most likely outcome as things stand currently (especially now that the Army has basically decided to sit tight and declare the protests "legitimate") is that another variant of a military dictatorship will be established.
It is notable that the above linked survey has 59% of Egyptians preferring a democratic government, and another 16% not caring one way or the other. Of course, there are different levels of "democracy" - even Iranians can vote on their president from among a pool of candidates, but it sure as hell isn't a
democracy there.
The Arab world is notoriously hard to predict though, even for regional experts.
This I completely agree with.
