Writing in The National, Marc Lynch of George Washington University cautions against slamming the door on democratic currents within Islamist movements.

"Moderate Islamist movements across the Arab world have made a decisive turn towards participation in democratic politics over the last 20 years," he says. "They have developed an elaborate ideological justification for contesting elections, which they have defended against intense criticism from more radical Islamist competitors. 

"But rather than welcome this development, secular authoritarian regimes have responded with growing repression. Again and again, successful electoral participation by Islamists has triggered a backlash, often with the consent – if not the encouragement – of the United States."

After examining in some detail the efforts to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and Egypt, and alluding to western rejection of Hamas's electoral victory in 2006, he concludes:

The Jordanian, Egyptian and American governments may see all this as something of a success story: the influence of the Islamists has been curbed, both in formal politics and in the social sector, and the restraint exercised by the Brotherhood leadership has meant the states have not faced a backlash. 

But this is dangerously short-sighted. The campaigns against Islamists weaken the foundations of democracy as a whole, not just the appeal of one movement, and have had a corrosive effect on public freedoms, transparency and accountability ...

Sowing disenchantment with democratic politics in the ranks of the Brotherhood could forfeit one of the signal developments in Islamist political thinking of the last few decades. The failure of the movement’s democratic experiment could empower more radical Islamists, including not only terrorist groups but also doctrinaire salafists less inclined to pragmatic politics.