Where did Nick Kristof get the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate?

Policy-wise, the most important Qur’anic prohibition that the Brotherhood wants to implement is the ban on interest-based banking. The platform of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party explicitly speaks of “fighting” usury, though the Brotherhood MPs-to-be that I interviewed tried to soft-pedal this language a bit. “We won’t ban [interest-based banking],” said Alexandria MP Sobhi Saleh. “But we will aim to decrease the interest rate to zero through economic growth.” Initially, the MPs said that the Brotherhood would simply broaden Islamic banking options and “let the people choose what they want.” But this gradualism will likely be challenged by the Salafists, who support implementing interest-free banking more rapidly. It hard to imagine the Brotherhood bucking them on this very basic Islamic issue.

Two other Qur’anic principles that the Brotherhood intends to implement are those banning alcohol and calling for modesty in women’s dress. Thus, Brotherhood political leader Saad el-Katatny, who previously chaired the organization’s parliamentary bloc, declared in August that Egypt “should not allow beach tourism,” railing against the bikinis and alcohol consumption that drive Egypt’s Red Sea tourism. Some of the Brotherhood’s future parliamentarians expressed support for these ideas. “Sharia controls our morals and we have a religious community here,” said Ali Fath al-Bab, a former MP who is now running for the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper parliamentary body. “Our rules and constitution should come from our tradition to express our religion.”…

Yet perhaps the most telling indicator of the Brotherhood’s theocratic outlook were the future parliamentarians’ comments on whether they would permit those who do not believe in the sharia to criticize or challenge it. The answer was, without exception, no.