Darker Skies Ahead: Egypt's Future of Uncertainties
The battle for middle earth has begun as the forces of tyranny and the forces of freedom are colliding for one decisive battle. This a memorable scene from J.R. Tolkien’s the third bestselling novel of all time The Lord of the Rings resembles the situation now in Egypt. The forces of freedom have once again reunited under one banner in manner unseen since the first 18 days of the January 25th revolution. This time they rallied for one last decisive battle for freedom in Egypt to fight and they don’t intend to give concessions to tyranny any longer.
Egyptians of all creeds and political affiliations gathered3 times on the November 23rd , 27th and 30th2012 defying the new tyrant in the making president Morsi’s Edict and affirming that they didn’t go this far for tyrant to take away their freedoms under any pretext. Will Egypt emerge as a free country and retain its historical position as a beacon of culture for the region and the world or will it succumb to the dark ages under Islamist tyrannical rule? Only upcoming days and weeks will answer that question.
Egyptian president Dr. Mohamed Morsi who just edged his contender Dr. Ahmed Shafiq by 1% in a controversial election in June 2012, have self proclaimed himself a demigod in every sense of the word. Not since the time of the Pharaohs who even had consultants, has any Egyptian ruler assumed all powers in his/her hands like Morsi have claimed in a dark day in Egypt’s 7000 years. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group have single handedly euthanized the long awaited Egyptian dream for a free democratic life and a long sought after freedom.
Morsi’s Edict and constitutional declaration have surpassed any authorities accumulated any other tyrant even during Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. It’s an unprecedented instance in the Egyptian political life that a president has the audacity to sideline the Judiciary system as well hold the legislative, executive and judiciary power in his own hands.
The Constitutional Declaration also immunized the Upper House of Egypt’s Parliament, Shura Council, and the predominantly Islamist Constituent Assembly from the dissolution or contending any court of justice. Furthermore the “unconstitutional” constitutional declaration have included the sacking of the General attorney and replaced him by another thus triggering an unprecedented event in the history of the Egyptian Judiciary system.
Furthermore, the edict have established a new judiciary body called “Revolution Protection” with its announced aim is to suppress the Mubarak regime figures and sympathizers but in reality it will the President and brotherhood legal arm to suppress any opposition by witch-hunting their political opponents utilizing the Iranian Mullahs’ regime modus operandi.
In response, The Egyptian Judges club that represents that represents the main judges body in Egypt have called all operating courts to suspend their operations till the president withdraws the unconstitutional edict and the ousted Attorney General to return to office. Also, the Judges Club declaration demanded the reformation of the constitution committee to include all factions equally to chance its Islamist predominant nature.
This courageous stance from the Judges has saved Egypt from a tyranny under the pretext of a constitutional declaration and kept the president in his place while reminding him of the limits of his authority. Whether the president will realize the gravity of the situation or not, it will be up to him and his group of consultants to undo the harm they caused an already divided and near bankruptcy nation. But each day the president defies the judges, he is bringing his short life reign to a closer and darker end with most of the country now being vigilant against him judging by the deterioration conditions in all sectors in Egypt.
Egyptians have a uphill to fight, against a tyrant president who is backed by a group that is the mother of all Political Islam groups which later adopted. The president is all backed by former terrorist groups namely the so called “Gamaa Islamiya” or Islamic Group. The Gamaa Islamiya are directly responsible for various political assassinations and terrorist bombings in the past 4 decades. These same factions that vowed to go to the streets and clear Tahrir from the protestors in move that could ignite a civil conflict and end up in a civil war.
It’s noteworthy that many experts have warned before that the Muslim brotherhood and Islamists are treating democracy as a single serving recipe for power. It seemed like over 50% of Egyptians didn’t understand the negative signals about the danger that these groups represent on the Egyptian identity and the national security. However, the same Egyptians who fought hard for their freedoms before will fight the religious tyranny represented by Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group.
Morsi’s reign of disasters:
“It’s not titles that honours men but men that honours titles” – Niccolo Machiavelli
Lack of proper services and security has never been so prevalent in recent Egyptian history like it was clearly manifested during the 6 months of Morsi’s reign. Even during the years of wars with Israel 1949-1973 the Egyptians hardly felt the agony and burdens of daily life like they did in the past period. The prices of the simplest commodities are on a continuous rise and unemployment is reaching record levels with the sense of insecurity prevailing in the Egyptian society. Ironically those who voted for Morsi claimed that Presidential candidate Shafiq victory would turn the country into chaos however the exact opposite happened.
Never in Egypt’s modern history had daily electrical power cuts and water shortages becoming a norm in the average Egyptian’s life more than any time in recent memory. There is no excuse for the incompetence in all facets of life even for formely functioning services like the underground metro which has witnessed countless problems on Morsi’s newly selected government watch.
In addition, the president seemed more concerned about the welfare of Hamas who turned Gaza into a modern version of Tortuga the 17th century pirates’ haven in the Spanish Main than his own people. Hundreds of casualties on daily basis occur in the country be that through clashes, deteriorating mass transit system or infrastructure. Yet, the president didn’t act as efficiently in any of these issues as much as he did for Hamas which is the Muslim brotherhood franchise in Gaza. This carelessness in handling matters that concerns Egyptians’ lives compared to those of Hamas have turned the average Egyptians more Vigilant towards him and his policies especially when it concerns domestic issues.
Furthermore, Morsi main election campaign propaganda project called “El Nahda Project” or renaissance project that they claimed over 1000 scientists have planned to push Egypt to the 21st world was a fiasco and the mastermind behind that fake project Khairat El Shater (Brotherhood former and main candidate for Presidency) declared after Morsi’ victory that the project is simply just ideas and sketches and nothing material to build on. Egyptians who voted for Morsi based on this fiasco were duped by the biggest Elections’ scam of all time. This is enough to put Morsi on trial for perjury and misleading the public.Morsi Misled the public further when he promised that over 200 Billion Dollars as direct investments upon his election as president have also vanished among a long list of promises.
Furthermore, another fiasco was Morsi’s so called the first 100 days plan whereby he promised that he will urgently solve Egypt’s transportation, food shortages, lack of sanitation in many areas and other daily life problems in the first 100 days. Nothing was attained and another instance of perjury takes place.
Yet another Morsi promise was to reform the committee for constitution writing which he didn’t do and on the contrary he immunized the committee from any Constitutional court verdicts against it that can dismantle it since its predominantly a Muslim brotherhood and their Islamist allies and serves his interests. Another shameful act was the rushed method of writing the most horrendous constitution in Egypt’s modern history happened as a defiance to the will of the people and included articles that exudes with sectarianism , bigotry that befits a medieval kingdom not a 21st century republic which is a shameful day for Egypt. It remain to be said that this constitution is null and void and no referendum can take place or abided with without the Judges monitoring it and as mentioned before they are on strike till the dictatorial and unconstitutional edict is withdrawn and the constitution committee is reformed.
Finally, Morsi had promised all his campaign allies that he will form a new government headed by a publicly recognized national figure that will lead the country through these turbulent economic and political stage. People were surprised by the appointment of Dr. Hisham Kandeel an unknown figure who didn’t excel in his former position as the minister of irrigation and water resources.
Dr. Kandeel lacks the political charisma, tact and economical expertise to handle a country’s economy that is on the verge of collapse and his statements are usually out of touch since his oratory skills are limited side by side to his vision. For more than 4 months Prime Minister Kandeel has not presented a sound plan for the economy, development and works on the basis of reactions to crisis containment than long term planning. Kandeel has become the laughing stock of Egyptians in many occasions. The most famous would be when he asked Egyptians suffering from daily power shortages during the hottest summer in several decades to turn one air condition while sitting one room gathered and dressed in light cotton clothes. That was his solution to the striking power shortages problem.
The president is still defying the nation in every step and giving priorities to issues on Gaza and supplying gas, food and electricity while most Egyptian cities are suffering the abudance of such commodities and services recently. Even during the Assyut train catastrophe which resulted in the death of 51 people out of which 49 in November 2012 and he didn’t bother to do more than 2 minutes short speech contrary to a long hour one for the Gaza support in the same period. These kinds of actions have led to further distancing between Morsi and his own voters some of which vowed to remove him in any upcoming elections despite voting for him willingly.
Finally, the president not content by failing to extinguish the fires speeding across Egypt but also setting fires of his own when he publicly accused the Egyptian Constitutional Court , the highest court of the land of plotting against him to overthrow him and also admitted that implicitly that he is recording conversations for some of its members representing breach of constitution and protocol unprecedented in any country or regime. The court have issued a strong worded statement in response to these allegations and demanded Morsi to show the proof which he failed to do as well.
Unsurprisingly the liberals, leftists , centrists and even few wise Islamists who rallied around this president when he took the power are jumping the ship now since he failed to deliver any of his promises and also is turning to be a worse tyrant who is only compared to the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Morsi is consolidating his powers furthermore to recreate an Iranian model in Egypt will is likely to fail more sooner than he expects.
The Sellouts redemption:
Now the regime lost its last allies in the form of the Islamist sympathizers among the pseudo-liberals, politicians and journalists who fought the entire country for Morsi rise to power after some pre-elections arrangements and promises by the Muslim Brotherhood . But when the brotherhood sidelined these sympathizers as expected they attempted to appear as heroes again among the liberals but have been so far from successful.
Examples of these pseudo liberals are the likes of Amro Hamzawy a liberal researcher and former defunct Parliament member who despite not voting for Morsi and annulled his vote had the audacity to call his liberal critics “Stay at home Liberals” just days after his election for a seat in the ill fated Egyptian parliament as they criticized him for his approval and giving concessions to extremists to have internet censorships. Others like former 2005 Presidential Candidate and Ghad El Thawra Party Leader Ayman Nour thought that he would outsmart the Islamists by conceding to their wills and insisting to be a part of the predominantly Islamist constitution writing committee that have sidelined all the non-islamist political figures eventually.
Hardcore Liberals and Libertarians have already shunned those who betrayed their cause, sold out their principals and even pledged allegiance with them to approach the ruling Islamist regime. Public figures like Novelist Alaa El Aswany and journalist Hamdy Kandeel and Political Analyst Waheed Abdel Mageed have all played the devil’s advocates role and in the past 2 years despite being warned about the consequences of this and their support of Morsi candidacy and Muslim Brotherhood on the country’s Future. But they took no heed to these calls and till recently when they have been shunned by their new allies and apologized to the Egyptian populous of their endorsements for such extremists. However, despite their daily apologizes none could care less about what they say or do and they are dubbed unforgiven.
Despite the above incidents by some pseudo-liberals, it may not be the time to settle the scores with any of them as the liberals and all the free Egyptians have a greater task now is to unite against the bigoted and tyrannical forces of the Islamists who believe that Egypt belong to them and only them. Yet, it’s worth mentioning that the above names and many others who followed suit cannot be entrusted as leaders or even thinkers for the upcoming period.
New leaderships must emerge to replace the current ones who are disillusioned, indecisive and unable to inspire the masses. That will take time but it’s bound to happen eventually. The new leaders should be savvy politicians with strong causes to defend and on top of them is the real freedom of Egyptians from any tyrannical forces. The focus now must be resisting the tyrannical regime , yet there is lesson that can be extracted for the future and that is conceding to extremists will never turn them to moderates but only more vicious and powerful extremists.
Almost all Islamists in power and political spectrum now in Egypt are fascists in nature be that the Salafist groups, Jihadists or the Muslim brotherhood. They have proven time and again that they have used the name of a great religion to serve their political agendas through the decades. Giving these groups any concessions in the name of unity have proven to be the wrong path from the beginning because as like all fascists do they can never be appeased by the gains they have acquited and they will always ask for more power and more authorities.
The religious frenzy in Egypt:
Egypt nowadays is witnessing a religious frenzy that is sweeping large sectors of the society. It’s becoming apparent that more men are letting their breads grow the size of Santa Claus beards as a sign of piety More women are encouraged to wear Niqab (Full Veil) and unveiled women are being targeted by groups of predators including women wearing Niqab. 3 incidents reported of Coptic women had their hair cut by Niqab wearing women; these attacks happen in public places and among them the Cairo Underground which was one of the safest mass transportation systems in the country before Morsi’s rule.
The frenzy extended that the so called leaders of the Salafist movements are threatening everyone against the president by physical and verbal abuse.
The government and Morsi hardly denounced these mad constant attacks on liberals except in one instance when a prominent actress was verbally attacked by a Salafi cleric on a private TV network. The hate mongers are having a field day during Morsi’s reign of religious extremism. One Salafi sheikh had the audacity to say that once the jihadists take over the rule in Egypt, they till tear down the Pyramids, the sphinx and all ancient Egyptian monuments for he believes they are idols and must be removed.
The sheikhs and clerics are becoming the traditional guests in most Egyptian TV talk shows and issuing one controversial Fatwa (Islamic Opinion) after another that left the public disillusioned and confused about their own religion. Furthermore, a new wave of clerics asking people to abide by what Morsi decrees as he is a righteous man is done during TV , Press interviews and worse during traditional Friday prayers sermon.
This religious frenzy fuelled by the president himself who chooses to conduct a weekly tedious Friday speeches himself is turning the country into a replica of Iran . The difference is that many Egyptians are mocking him publicly and protesting about the president who is pretending to be holier than thou in every possible chance and forgetting his main role to improve the conditions of their lives.
Furthermore, Religious freedoms are under serious threats and the Coptic church under the new pope Tawadros as well as the Catholic and Anglican ones in Egypt have withdrawn their representatives from the Constitutional committee in protest against a bigoted and sectarian constitution is numerous. Morsi didn’t even as much tried to calm the fears of Christians and other minorities except through clichéd statements that hardly come to practice in reality.
Obama Administration support to the Muslim Brotherhood:
On former President Jimmy Carter’s watch, a tyrannical and theological regime seized power in Iran in 1979 and on President Obama’s watch the same is happening in Egypt with full support and applause from the Obama administration.
In fact, it’s not a coincidence that with every visit from Hillary Clinton to Egypt is always followed by further tyrannical power seizing edicts from President Morsi who seized the opportunity of her visit in August 2012 to oust the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) from power.
During the second visit following the short lived Hamas-Israeli war, Morsi issued the second edict with constitutional declaration gathering all powers in the land in his own grip , denying any Egyptian citizen the right to seek courts to revoke any presidential decision. Morsi now holds the entire country by the throat as he gathers executive, legislative and judiciary powers thus a new demigod tyrant is born in Egypt.
The reactions of the Obama administration as usual were slow, incohesive and hesitant like most of the international crisis that occurred during his reign. He still believes that his charm and wit will solve the world problems without having to get involved decisively. Obama attained some success in Libya but still failing on the Syrian conflict as well as transitional periods in Egypt and other Arab Spring countries where has chosen to stand next to the Islamist powers hijacking the Arab spring revolutions like in Tunisia and Egypt.
Obama administration infatuation by Morsi’s role as a mediator a role that Mubarak have played to perfection for 30 years have seemed to give Morsi and the brotherhood the impression that they have USA on their back and Egypt is fair game for the Islamist rule to dominate. As mentioned in a previous article again Obama appears to resemble British PM Chamberlain who appeased Hitler in several occasions and turned his head away from a crisis brewing that eventually led to Hitler annexing one country in Europe after another and eventually leading to a very costly World War II.
The myth that the Obama administration believed that Muslim Brotherhood control the streets is now debunked by the November 27th protests that swept Egypt from corner to corner.. That same myth which led Obama’s administration to forge an unholy alliance with the Muslim brotherhood and endorsingtheir rise to power throughout the past year and half which is manifested in the countless meetings in USA and Egypt with their leaders and the obscure arrangements.
USA interests in the security of Israel and the free passage through the Suez Canal have blinded them from the fact that the security of Israel will never be reached through having a fascist dictator in power who is willing to retract from any agreements, election promises or declarations even with his own people let alone a country that Morsi’s group always called a mortal enemy and vowed with his followers to free Jerusalem through Jihad during his election campaign.
It’s up to President Obama in his second term to undo the harm that his first term policies caused in Egypt and at least try to act neutral instead of providing more support to democracy not through democracy NGOs working in Egypt but keeping Morsi to his promises and providing aid to demcoracy through an electronic voting system that prevents fraudelent activities during elections which is expected in any upcoming elections or referendums on Morsi’s watch.
President Obama is still enjoying the euphoria of a landslide victory and domestic economical issues that is still keeping him away from curing a situation that he helped to deteriorate.
The Muslim Brotherhood group is still proving to be a disease and not a remedy to the Middle East problems and they are drawing more extremism by the day. This was evident in the growing anti-sentiment towards the USA itself and manifested in the violent protests that occurred following the release of the Anti-Islam movie last September that result in the storming of the American Embassy in Cairo by the incitement of leaders from the Muslim brotherhood and their Islamist allies themselves despite denying that later . These groups have managed to break all the promises to their own people let alone to a country whom they deem as the “Great Satan”. Wagering the American Middle Eastern policies fate on the Islamist regimes is proving to be a fatal historical mistake.
Finally, The American Press and Media infatuation with Morsi seems like an organized propaganda campaign of facelifting the ugly real face of Egypt’s new tyrant and it’s shameful as much as it’s insulting to millions of Egyptian freedom fighters who already paid their lives and willing to pay more for unrestrainedfreedoms.
Conclusion:
“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles” - Sun Tzu
The enemies of freedom cruel intentions are now publicly known and the masquerade of piety and righteousness has fallen from the Muslim brotherhood faces and their holier-than-thou radical Salafist parties. No longer the fake piety will fool any rational Egyptian regardless how pious is that Egyptian. That doesn’t mean that these groups will vanquish overnight. On the contrary, they are more likely to be more vigilant and return to their bloody roots that they terrorized Egypt with since 1940s all the way to the Early millennium and still through their franchise Jihadist groups in Sinai and upper Egypt. Their leaders are still threatening their opponents with violence and in absence of any reaction from the President or regime.
History has countless amounts of events and cases when the people of a nation go in a frenzy to believe in a leader or political group with an extremist ideology and they would be willing to give their lives and family for it . Even the welfare of their own country becomes a small price to pay for the ridiculous ideology to thrive and in the end it’s always the demise of the nation that serves as a late wake up call for everyone who got involved.
The word purification seems to be in the rhetoric of Muslim Brotherhood on daily basis and usually it means eradicating their opponents in the most unorthodox of ways. This represents a resemblance of everything fascist and racist regimes have done in history. The free world might need to open their eyes at what Egypt is turning to before it’s too late and if the situation continues to escalate it will no longer be an Egyptian problem but regional one if not an international one.
Morsi is probably now setting a new Guinness world record for a presumably elected president as his people revolted in only 6 months after his presence in office. Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood believing delusionaly that they are the real force behind the revolution led them to believe that they know the streets vibe and can control the public support in their favour effortlessly. That fatal perception of grandeur resulted in a series of fatal mistakes that will be the beginning of the end for this Islamist group and on top of that their president reign.
Time has proven that all the fake opposition practiced by the Muslim brotherhood was a charade and just power seeking games that fooled the naïve among some politicians who aligned with them and many others who believed their fake piety.
Furthermore, Morsi’s edict is not just a breach for the freedom of the Judiciary system, freedom of speech and all other human rights but also an infringement to 4 international treaties protecting the independence of the Judiciary system that Egypt signed before. Thus this declaration pushes the Egyptian state to be under scrutiny and possible condemnation from the international community thus adding further constraints on Egypt at time that the Egyptians are seeking assistance from the international community. Morsi as president and his obscure Islamist group didn’t put in account Egypt’s highest interests or image abroad but only their power mongering activities when that shameful edict was issued.
Even if the president under pressure from the public and the freedom fighters will withdraw that shameful assault on the constitutional rights of the Egyptians to curb public outrage, the damage is already done and the Egyptian society is more split now than any time in recorded era modern or ancient. The “C” word or the civil war symptoms are becoming more apparent day by day and can already be observed in several main Egyptian cities though till this moment they are still limited .
The worst case scenario would a Syrian or Algerian like conflict that could extend for years if measures are not taken now to contain the situation or it will would turn into a fully fledged conflict with all factions being on edge now. Morsi would do Egyptians a great favour that will be recorded in history and might save his legacy if he steps down and calls for an early presidential election monitored by the UN and international NGOs.
The last recorded civil war was a limited one which was the Alexandrine Civil war circa 47 BC Between Cleopatra VII and her brother Ptolemy XIII which ended up in the Roman commander Julius Caesar intervening in favour of Cleopatra and defeating Ptolemy forces. A series of events led to Julius Caesar assassination, Cleopatra committing suicide and Egypt becoming a Roman province and effectively ending the Pharaonic civilization after more than 4500 glorious years. While that is not likely to happen but Egyptians’ solidarity has been their chief weapon to combat any foreign invaders throughout their history and they even managed to Egyptianize their invaders to their ways, the same can’t be said now and Morsi legacy will be tainted forever for being the president who divided Egyptian’s unity.
Finally, The current position of the army is still unknown with the newly appointed Minister of Defense El Seesy have declared that army will always protect the people and uphold stability. As understood from the statement that the army is not very keen on getting involved and will not get involved unless the situation spirals out of control like the events that took place in January 28th 2011.
While it’s not far from that melting point now the questions on how the army will respond exactly and what will be the response of the revolutionaries who don’t trust the army based on what the nation have witnessed during the past two years still pose themselves.
As regardless whether one can agree or not, it is SCAF and the army commanders who paved the way for the Islamists and the brotherhood to take over the country and handed the country on turnkey basis to the current tyrant regime through a series of steps that started by the ominous 19th March 2011 referendum that effectively split the nation and rendered the first revolution goals unattainable. Yet, it will be quite interesting to follow the army commanders’ reactions in case the situation deteriorates even furthe as a result of the new protests.
Mubarak had ruled with “emergency” law for over 30 years and promised repeatedly that he will revoke it given the right chances; that situation remained for 30 years and even extended for a year after his ousting in 2011. Morsi declaration represents a much worse infringement for human rights than anything happened during the 30 year emergency law during Mubarak era. Morsi’s new proclamation is an invitation to destroy the fragile judiciary independence that Egyptian judiciary system enjoyed through the past decades.
The impeachment of Morsi would seem to be a very logical consequence of this situation since the president have broken the oath which he was sworn to abide with in June 2011 and the constitution declarations based on which he was elected.
Moreover, he overstepped the boundaries of his authority and combined unconstitutionally all the legislative, executive, and judicial powers under his authority thus breaching the same oath he has taken to respect the separation of powers in the Nation thus impeachment is warranted.
Egypt which was even during years of dictatorships was a oasis of peace needs the efforts of every able bodied patriot to pass through this critical stage of its modern history and the moral and political support of freedom fighters all around the world. For if Egypt is in trouble the whole region will be in turmoil just a short while after.
