The military leadership's action "really signals it's moving very sharply against the political process, " Trager said.

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Morsi was also "an icon of the extremists in the Muslim Brotherhood, " pushing for an "extreme agenda, " Trager writes.

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Morsi was also "an icon of the extremists in the Muslim Brotherhood, " pushing for an "extreme agenda, " Trager wrote.

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Taken together, the military leadership's actions indicate "there's a high likelihood of Shafik being aided to victory by the military, " Trager said.

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Right now, the military and the Muslim Brotherhood have ongoing conversations, but it is not yet clear what they may produce, Trager said.

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He was the Brotherhood's primary point man for state security -- "the repressive domestic security apparatus through which the Mubarak regime monitored and infiltrated opposition groups, " Trager writes.

CNN: Egypt's new president: U.S.-educated Islamist

Morsi has served as a central behind-the-scenes player for much of the past decade, Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy writes in a column for The New Republic.

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Morsi has served as a central behind-the-scenes player for much of the past decade, Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in a column for The New Republic.

CNN: Egypt's new president: U.S.-educated Islamist

With the Muslim Brotherhood's increasing hold on power, non-Islamists may increasingly walk away from that process, leaving the path open to a constitution embracing the Brotherhood's view of an Islamic state in Egypt, according to Trager.

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