The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t win even one seat in Egyptian parliamentary elections held Thursday. Of course, the group’s leadership blames the Mubarak government for its losses and, in true Islamist tradition, has threatened bloodshed as an expression of sour grapes:

“The people’s frustration and loss of hope, the feeling that peaceful change is blocked… will result in more violence.”

These are the perils of Egypt’s experimentation with democracy. But the question remains: Should terrorists be allowed to participate in elections?

The Brotherhood, “a clandestine but militant group,” has “given rise to a number of more militant and violent organizations, such as Hamas, Gama’a al-Islamiya, and Islamic Jihad,” and engages in “continued ideological and personal participation in terrorism,” according to Answers.com.

Hosni Mubarak may not be the touchy-feely-ist of Arab dictators, but he’s not an Assad or Qaddafi. After Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Jimma (colloquial) Carter engineered a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, Sadat was killed by the Jew-hating Muslim Brotherhood for betraying the Islamist “cause.” That was when Mubarak took over the reigns of power in the land of the Pharaohs.

While not maintaining the warmest peace with Israel, things have never come to blows with Israel since the treaty was signed in 1979. There’s some trade between the two neighbors (with a very long history together, just check the Bible/Torah). There’s tourism, but mostly Israeli, American, and European vacationers coming from/though Israel into Egypt — not vice versa. Yes, there are formal diplomatic relations. But relations can be at best described as cool between Egypt and Israel. The cold political air flows mostly from Egypt.

The Egyptian press can be down-right anti-Semitic. Not subtly, but with Elders-of-Zion-blood-libel and cartoon-character Jews with big noses forcefully standing on the heads of oppressed Palestinians.

So our choice is between an Arab strong-man like Mubarak, who doesn’t do too well by his own Coptic countrymen, and the Muslim Brotherhood, who would likely slit all Copts’ throats if it came to full power, and try to turn Egypt into an Islamic state and full-fledged haven for terrorism.

The Brotherhood lost in semi-transparent elections. Maybe the results aren’t as accurate as would be in a more democratically developed country, but the Islamists are terrorists, a fact that should not be forgotten.

At least Mubark has started to experiment with democracy, and is taking a tough stance against the Islamists, as it should be. Would Mubarak be my choice for Egypt’s leader? How about the Muslim Brotherhood? It is an imperfect world.