The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies dominated Egypt's first free elections late last year, claiming more than 70 percent of the seats in parliament. Whereas Egypt's national assembly was once little more than a rubber stamp body, the new parliament was anything but: Its task was not simply to legislate, but rather to draft a constitution to shape Egypt for decades.

Herein lays the rub: The parliament no longer represented the Egyptian public. Muslim Brotherhood support peaked in December. Whereas the party surpassed 10 million votes in the parliamentary elections, six months later, four-in-ten supporters looked elsewhere. 

In first round voting for president, Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Morsi topped Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's old guard prime minister by just a quarter-million votes, hardly a ringing endorsement in a country of 80 million.  

Egyptians had voted for Islamists