IPT News
July 1, 2013
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4066/egyptians-protesters-criticize-mb-rule-and-obama
Egypt's Islamist government teetered on the brink Monday in the wake
of stunning weekend protests against Muslim Brotherhood rule.
"Theocracy failed here," Egyptian blogger Mahmoud Salem, also known as "Sandmonkey," wrote in a Twitter post Monday.
Sixteen people were killed
and hundreds were injured during weekend protests that reportedly drew
millions of Egyptians to the streets. Many estimated that the protests
were larger than the 2011 demonstrations that forced dictator Hosni Mubarak from power. Numerous media accounts describe the broad demographic base of the protesters, from young women to old men, from liberal secularists to conservative Muslims.
Several deaths took place when Muslim Brotherhood members opened fire on demonstrators who attacked, set on fire or looted Brotherhood offices.
Four cabinet ministers – over tourism, parliamentary affairs, environment and communications – resigned from the government Monday in support of the protesters.
Opposition organizers, calling themselves the June 30 Front, are asking demonstrators to wage a campaign of civil disobedience
until President Mohamed Morsi resigns, just one year into his four-year
term. That includes a continuation of protests, a general strike and
other actions.
More ominously, the Egyptian army gave Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum
to negotiate some kind of resolution with the opposition or face what
could amount to a coup, as the military promises to "announce a future
roadmap and measures to oversee its implementation."
The masses in Tahrir Square – predominantly Muslim and including many
who previously had supported Morsi – roared with approval Monday when army helicopters trailing Egyptian flags flew past.
But a Morsi aide told The Guardian
that the army wouldn't be able to carry out a coup without Washington's
approval. "The aide's comments implied that the regime was hopeful of
continued American support," the newspaper report said. "They also
suggested the presidency was banking on the likelihood that the military
would not risk upsetting America, which provides it with significant
funding."
Faced with this historic outpouring of discontent, the best President Obama could muster Monday was a tepid call for "restraint."
There was no statement of support for the protesters, but Obama did
make a point of saying Morsi had been democratically elected. "There's
more work to be done to create the conditions in which everybody feels
that their voices are heard, and that the government is responsive and
truly representative," he said.
The president's comments expose a fatal misunderstanding of the
Muslim Brotherhood's totalitarian doctrine. The Brotherhood has no
interest in being democratic or pluralistic. The very basis of its
existence is to impose Sharia and strict Islamic law upon everyone in
Egypt as the first step of establishing a global caliphate. In a rare
moment of candor, two top Brotherhood spokesmen said as much last year.
In a speech,
Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie reminded followers of the Brotherhood's
original agenda laid out by founder Hassan al-Banna. "It begins with the
reform of the individual and then to start building the family and
society, then the government; then the rightly guided caliphate, then
instructing the world; instructing guidance, wisdom, truth and justice."
That same fatal misunderstanding was exhibited two weeks when the White House hosted
a radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric. Abdullah Bin Bayyah received
high-level access even though he is a senior official of a Muslim
Brotherhood-affiliated group that had issued a fatwa calling for the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan and has routinely supported Hamas terrorists against Israel.
The president can't say he wasn't warned about the hazards of Brotherhood rule. Administration officials repeatedly have ignored concerns
that, despite its warm assurances to the contrary, the Brotherhood
would not govern democratically. After a power grab last fall neutered
the Egyptian judiciary, the Obama administration issued similarly
half-hearted statements.
Morsi and his fellow Islamists rammed through a new constitution
which sparked international concern for women's and minority rights.
Analysts at that time expressed concern the power grab pushed Egypt closer to civil war.
Egyptians who now demand that Morsi and the Brotherhood leave don't
seem to feel part of a representative government. Morsi has done little
to resolve the country's economic crisis, as infrastructure breaks down and resources become scarce. Instead, the group was seen doing more to consolidate its own power and impose religious law.
As we have reported, Coptic Christians in Egypt have faced constant threats and injustices. Morsi has stacked the government with fellow Islamists, including a recent attempt to appoint
a hardline Islamist tied to a terrorist group as governor over Luxor,
which has a tourist-driven economy and was the site of a slaughter on
tourists in the 1980s.
Elections also do not guarantee stability, writes
Eric Trager of the Washington Institute on Near East Policy. Mohamed
Morsi is "now president in name only." The United States needs to gear
its policy toward a longer vision and try to limit the damage done to
the state by the ongoing turmoil.
Protesters tried to issue a similar message Sunday. They chanted
against the United States and carried signs criticizing Obama and U.S.
Ambassador Anne Patterson.
Arabic media reports claim
Patterson held secret meetings with Brotherhood deputy leader Khairat
al-Shater last week. And many protesters carried signs with Patterson's
image crossed out alongside Morsi, or with critical comments.
An Egyptian blogger who calls himself "the Big Pharaoh," wondered "Will the State Dept. fire Anne Patterson for all the inaccurate Egypt reports she was sending back to Washington?"
The Brotherhood had a distinct advantage going into last year's
elections. It was the only organized, relatively harmonious political
movement standing after Mubarak fell. Even with that edge, allegations of fraud followed Morsi's narrow victory. Pleas to delay elections to give others time to organize largely were ignored and the Brotherhood cruised to parliamentary victories to go along with Morsi's presidential election.
Now, a grass-roots opposition group called "Tamarod" – or "Rebel" claims
to have 22 million signatures on a petition demanding Morsi step down
and allow new elections. Morsi won 13 million votes in last year's
election. In 2011, the United States saw the depth of Egypt's unrest and
called
on Hosni Mubarak to resign. More people made the same request of Morsi
on Sunday, and now the Egyptian military is poised to intervene.
The Obama administration's hesitancy this time serves only to
alienate whatever Egyptian government follows the Muslim Brotherhood.
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