On This Fourth of July Egypts Fights On a Second Revolution
Supports of former president Mohamed Morsi gather outside of Cairo University, July 4, 2013.
Egypt’s sudden military-enforced transition from the reign of former President Mohamed Morsi continued on Thursday as Adli Mansour was sworn in as interim president while the security crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhooddeepened with the arrest of most of the Brotherhood’s senior leadership.
Mansour, a 67-year-old longtime judge with a previously low public profile, was originally meant to be sworn as new head of the Supreme Constitutional Court on July 1. But that was delayed after massive nationwide anti-Morsi protests on June 30 tipped the country into political crisis, so Thursday’s ceremony was turned into a double header.
During the swearing-in, military jets flew in formation over Tahrir Square trailing colored smoke to form an airborne Egyptian flag.
In his subsequent address to the nation, Mansour—who many Egyptians had never heard speak before today—tried to paint the transition as a necessary adjustment to bring Egypt back onto the path set by the January 2011 revolution, which ousted entrenched dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Mansour said he had been given the authority and the mission, “to amend and correct the revolution of the 25th of January 2011.”
“The most glorious thing about June 30″—referring to Sunday’s massed anti-Morsi protests—”is that it brought together everyone without discrimination or division,” he said. “I offer my greetings to the revolutionary people of Egypt.” When asked if the Muslim Brotherhood would be included in whatever future coalition government is created, Mansour said, “Nobody will be excluded, and if they respond to the invitation, they will be welcomed.”
But that inclusive vision seemed increasingly unlikely on Thursday as the venerable Islamist organization vowed not to recognize or work with the new government. Thousands of Brotherhood supporters remain gathered outside the Rabaa Adaweya Mosque in the Cairo district of Nasr City, and the group announced plans for an indefinite sit-in.
Security forces surrounded the site Wednesday evening; they have made no moves to disperse the estimated 10,000 Brotherhood supporters, and appear to be allowing new people to join. At least 10 people were killed overnight Wednesday in clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi around the country. The total death toll since the crisis began on June 30 is at least 35 — including 16 in a particularly bloody clash near Cairo University on Tuesday.
Morsi and most of his senior advisers remain detained by the military at an undisclosed location. At least a dozen senior Brotherhood officials have been arrested or detained. No formal charges have been filed. And the public rout of the Brotherhood leadership accelerated further on Thursday with the news that Supreme Guide Mohammed Badea and his deputy Kheirat Al Shater has also been arrested. Badea—the ultimate decision-maker inside the Brotherhood’s paramilitary internal structure—was reportedly arrested in the northwest corner of Egypt not far from the Libyan border. Libyan media reported that he was detained in a failed attempted to flee Egypt into Libya.
The arrest seem certain to deepen the paranoia gripping the Muslim Brotherhood—which, after decades of existence as an oppressed, clandestine movement dramatically rose to power last year. Their sudden overthrow has left them isolated and embittered. Nine cabinet ministers belonging to the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party announced their resignations Thursday in protest over what they labeled an anti-democratic military coup.
The Brotherhood also called for mass demonstrations Friday in support of Morsi, but a statement on the group’s website asked its cadres, “to show restraint and commitment to peacefulness.” But there are already signs that this loss is radicalizing elements of the Morsi support base and driving some to talk openly of violence. On one of Egypt’s satellite channels last night, an unnamed man in the Morsi crowd openly told his interviewer: “I tell Al-Sissi: know that you have created a new Taliban and a new al-Qaeda in Egypt … You’ve created new mujahideen and new martyrs.”
The Brotherhood purge is already drawing negative attention in some international circles. Human Rights Watch released a detailed statement decrying, “A return to Mubarak-era practices of mass arrests and politically-motivated imprisonment of Muslim Brotherhood leaders.”
The group also noted that several Brotherhood-affiliated satellite TV stations were taken off the air immediately after Defense Minister Abdel Fatah Al-Sissi announced Morsi’s ouster Wednesday night. The Freedom and Justice Party complained on Thursday that its daily newspaper had been prevented from publishing.
Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said, “One test of whether Egypt can return to a path of democratic development will rest on whether the Freedom and Justice Party can operate without political reprisals against its members.”
Other international reaction to Morsi’s removal was decidedly mixed.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” by the developments and called on the Egyptian military to “move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process.” Obama also called on the military to “to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsi and his supporters.”
Washington’s concerns have been duly noted (and angrily dismissed) by many of the activist forces that called for Morsi’s downfall. Opposition groups here have bristled for months over what they perceived as American support for the Morsi administration and the Brotherhood.
On Thursday, the daily newspaper Al-Tahrir took the unusual step of printing a front page headline in English that was clearly directed straight at Obama: “It’s a Revolution … Not a Coup, Mr. Obama!”
Other foreign governments were far less circumspect.
“This is a major setback for democracy in Egypt. It is urgent that Egypt return as quickly as possible to the constitutional order… there is a real danger that the democratic transition in Egypt will be seriously damaged,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said, “The power change in Egypt was not a result of the will of the people. The change was not in compliance with democracy and law.”
And no less an international relations authority than Syrian President Bashar Assad also weighed in on the abrupt downfall of the man who recently severed relations and repeatedly called for Assad’s own removal.
“What is happening in Egypt is the fall of what is known as political Islam,” Assad said in an interview with Syrian state newspaper Al-Thawra. “After a whole year, reality has become clear to the Egyptian people. The Muslim Brotherhood’s performance has helped them see the lies the [movement] used at the start of the popular revolution in Egypt.”
~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ Many on the media criticized the coarse correction taken by the army in Egypt calling it a coup. My definition of a coup is when the military takes over and remains in power or through a figure head. It doesn’t look like anything is going that way. Recent history showed how well behaved the militaryis been getting rid of the dictator Mubark without killing him and setting the stage for election and new constitution. But elections don’t guarrantee that things are going to go well. This is the perfect example of how it can go array.
First we had the campaigning if you will in which the usually quiet Moslim Brotherhood stopped being quiet and became very loud, Moslims from other parts were welcome! The other arm of the revolution, the artists, the teachers, professionals and lowered wage workers together with the gay community and the secular communities started fighting within each other and they ended up with an election in which many seculars avoided, others were victimized and fraud, well fraud is always there whether Egypt or the USA.
So the secular side and the religious side(not moslim) that feels religion is for them not everyone else or else, lost the election and being pissed about they didn’t show in great numbers to make a difference in the constitution vote but in all in fairness everything was stock by this time against them and pro the moslims with their strict religious dogma with their newly elected Moslim Brotherhood President.
That was the real coupe-d-Etat!
Thingsd went from downhil to warp speed to an economic and possibly miltary dissaster. The military again took Morsi out, Installed a Superior Judge as the interim president and the process will begin again but I think everyone is learnt their lesson and there would be a lot moslims missing. They would probably be in jail. As the day of Indpendence is celebrated here 500 or so top leaders of the Brotherhood and Morsi’s government are in jail.
These things that revolutions usually go bad particularly if done by the military is so much bull. These people I read today are saying that they had their elections(Egypt) and now they should wait for the next one like England or the US would do but... Egypt is neither and they did not have the politcal or economic time to wait. Wait for what? The more time these moslims stayed in power the more political power they accumulated and more entrenched.
The revolution happened and it was the right thing. The elections went bad because they were not fair to at least half of the population. That is a recepe for another revolution which it has happened under the watchfull eye of the army. I think the worse is over. The army has the power and as long as you have the seculars and the people that went to the streets for the right reason. Employment, freeddom of speach, assemby, press. Not religion and to make the country a theocracy like other moslim countries like Iran and all the other nations sorrounding them with the exception of Jordan and Israel.
Egypt has a sopisticated military and well educated politicians. It’s a matter of what type of Egypt they want. An Egypt like the USA in which is top heavy and the econmic progress goes to the top few percent and the other can just vote for whomever, it doesnt changes. Or they can vote taking in to account the workers and to have fair wages and for the time bein g less mansions and superrich people. A taxation system to be is fair. Public servants to be servants of the people.
With the way things are happening of not having tanks fire at people like in China, as long as they have a firm rule and more important the backing of the people that were left behind in the name of fairness. Have your new election not in a rush but have this acting government act with the power like they were to stay. In other words to make changes.
Adam Gonzalez
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