This madness has to stop. Egypt is edging toward all out civil war while leaders from all sides squabble. There’s blame to go round, but Muhammad Mursi bears the brunt. He was a failed president, polarizing his nation and dragging it toward bankruptcy, even those who now support him have admitted that. Yet, they insist that he should have served out his term for the sake of democracy; an unrealistic argument when you consider Egyptians were becoming increasingly impoverished and 33 million decided they’d had enough. If Egypt had a mechanism in place to impeach the president, they would have used it.
Mursi stubbornly refused advice from his own advisers, military chiefs and the US ambassador to Cairo to seek political inclusiveness. Until the nth-minute he had no idea he would be deposed because, as he announced, he had the backing of the US and Israel. When his trusted Defense Minister Col. Gen. Abdel Fatah El-Sisi suggested he step down, he replied “over my dead body.” Is this a person who loves his nation? Is this a patriot or a would-be dictator clinging to his seat no matter the cost to the people he pledged to protect?
The Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party are adamant their man must be reinstated. Their protests in Nasr City and around Cairo University were peaceful until their Murshid (Supreme Guide) Mohammed Badie visited Rabaa Al Adawiya to insult Egypt’s most respected Islamic institution Al Azhar that’s existed since the 14th century, telling the Sheikh of Al Azhar that he doesn’t speak for Muslims. He said, “We will remain until we carry President Mursi on our shoulders,” and exhorted his following to lay down their lives for him. More craziness!
Who is Mursi that anyone should die for him? He’s just an engineer who became president by default when the MB’s candidate of choice was barred from election. He won by a 1.7 percent whisker. He isn’t a cleric, he isn’t a war hero. He’s no Nasser, Gandhi or Mandela that’s for sure. Nevertheless, the Murshid has openly incited warfare in his name, changing a political dispute into a militant jihad. He is using people who look up to him as fodder, uncaring that they have wives, children, or elderly parents who need them.
The MB’s helmeted tough squad fronted by wooden shields wasted no time. They marched over the 6th October Bridge en route to Tahrir looking for a fight; their Alexandrian counterparts following suit. A distressing video aired on Arabic networks shows a group of those men, one carrying a black Al-Qaeda flag, climbing up a water tower in Alexandria to topple two young boys, barely out of childhood. They fell onto the roof below amid women’s screams. One died, the other is critical. One of the perpetrators was arrested in a flat housing guns and crude small bombs; the other fled to his father-in-law’s flat where he attempted to alter his appearance by shaving his beard.
In the meantime, the interim president Adly Mansour was doing his best to appoint an interim prime minister to form a Cabinet. Representatives of the Rebel movement as well as those speaking for opposition parties rallied behind Nobel recipient Mohammed ElBaradei, whom they believed was well connected internationally to jolly along the kind of economic assistance Egypt urgently needs. However, the Al-Nour Party, that held its nose before blessing the military’s intervention, blocked that appointment on the grounds that Elbaradei was too liberal to be a unifier. Ziad Bahaa El-Din, a lawyer from the Social Democratic Party, was subsequently proposed but Al-Nour refused him too.
Scenes from Cairo’s squares, illuminated with firework displays and lasers on Sunday evening looked like shots from a special effects movie. Liberals came out in large numbers all over the country to sing and chant support for the army. The mood was depressed on the other side of the Nile. Al Jazeera’s reporter in Rabaa Adawiya confirmed that part of the crowd was splitting off to head to the Republican Guard H.Q.
Egyptians awoke this morning to learn a tragedy has ensued.
Al Jazeera and CNN, whose coverage has been heavily biased toward Mursi from day one, showed rolling coverage of the MB’s dead and injured starting 7 am yesterday announcing victims had been fired upon by security personnel while praying. Neither channel aired a single account from an army spokesperson or neutral witnesses before they pointed fingers. At the time of writing, the only explanation from the army was the Republic Guard was stormed by 250 “terrorists.” The truth will no doubt emerge, but, frankly, I find it hard to imagine that the police would gun down people in prayer without provocation. For the sake of argument, let’s suppose security services were trigger happy, it should also be said that not all MB members’ hands are clean.
One TV has been airing videos this morning of injured soldiers being carried on stretchers; men within the pro-Mursi protests bringing guns out of their pockets and quietly shooting their fellows; Brothers on rooftops chucked concrete blocks, flaming spears and toilet seats, setting balconies aflame with Molotov cocktails during their attack on the Republican Guard.. Local TV stations report that the occupants of two minibuses loaded with firearms and grenades began firing into the Al-Ittihadiya crowd before they were set upon by demonstrators. Homes of Christians have been burned and a young Coptic priest assassinated.
Egyptians are literally digging their own graves because of a new political paradigm that went badly wrong. The only way forward is compromise. Hands have been extended to the Freedom and Justice Party, but it stubbornly refuses dialogue until Mursi is reinstated. Stalemate! A worrying escalation is the withdrawal of Al-Nour from the liberal coalition citing yesterday morning’s deaths. This will translate into increased polarization and will energize Mursi’s cheerleaders.
I never imagined that I would ever advocate emergency law, hated by Egyptians ever since it was imposed by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Free Officers. But is there an alternative to the imposition of curfews on a strictly temporary basis to stop people bashing each other’s brains out until both sides can reach some sort of political accommodation?
Al Jazeera, CNN and Western newspapers should quit misreporting and bias. The US, Britain and Europe should stop condemning the army, and help to find solutions. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates can do much to help in terms of upping morale and providing financial aid.
Will passions cool during Ramadan or will they be inflamed? The Egyptian people await the answer with fear and trepidation — and, yes, hope.
