"They hate us for our freedom"

It must be true (eh, Rudy?), because it certainly couldn't be because the U.S. government props up corrupt, anti-democratic regimes in the Middle East:

(Reuters) Police Prevent Egyptians From Voting

Police stopped Egyptians voting on Monday in areas where the opposition Muslim Brotherhood is strong, in the first elections under an amended constitution designed to push the Islamists out of politics.

Brotherhood candidates in the upper house elections complained that government agents beat them up inside polling stations and committed electoral abuses such as stuffing ballot boxes before voting started.

The elections are a test case for constitutional and legislative changes which ban religious slogans and symbols -- seen as a way to drive the Islamists out of mainstream politics.

Riot police sealed off at least two polling stations in Ausim northwest of Cairo and a bystander said: "It's because there are lots of Brotherhood supporters here." A police officer who asked not to be named cited "national security".

Police used the same method to reduce the Brotherhood vote in the northern coastal town of Baltim, where women in Islamic headscarves said police had turned them away, witnesses said.

"What freedom are they talking about?" said Amani, a woman who refused to give her last name. "No freedom! They won't allow us in," several women chanted.

Election Commission spokesman Sameh el-Kashef said: "Nothing happened to disturb the serenity of the election process." But human rights groups reported the same malpractices by the authorities as witnesses and representatives of the Brotherhood.

LINK (Javno English)

(AP Photo) An Egyptian veiled woman stands in front anti-riot policemen who block the entrance of Manshiyat al-Qanater polling station in Giza, Egypt, Monday, June 11, 2007, where a Brotherhood candidate is competing for a seat, during the mid-term Shura elections to elect 88 deputies for the Shura Council, the upper house of Parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, accused the government of arresting some 100 of its members Monday, barring many more from polling stations and rigging the vote, as Brotherhood candidates competed for the first time in Shura Council elections.