Tag Archives: Egypt and Muslim Brotherhood

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Morsi stands ‘trial’ (whatever for?)

04 Monday Nov 2013

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Morsi at Trial, 4-11-13

TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The democratically elected President of Egypt stood before the world, behind bars in a cage – his crime that he had ‘incited’ the murder of demonstrators.

If those who had orchestrated the coup to oust Mohamed Morsi from power expected him to cower they were to be disappointed.

Morsi is not the monster that was the military dictator Hosni Mubarak, the former leader who now lives in virtual freedom after the military apparatus he left behind orchestrated demonstrations, and committed mass murder against their own people.

If this is not a coup, then what is the Egyptian military doing on Tahrir Square?

And what is Morsi standing trial for?

The Muslim Brotherhood have shown they will not accept the actions of the Egyptian military who were backed by a noisy well-heeled elite who were furious at the prospect of losing their privileges to the poor who make the majority of the country.

They have also shown that despite the considerable risk of being killed they are prepared to stand up for a principle – namely that if you don’t agree with a government, wait for the next election and vote them out.

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Did Mubarak ever Leave?

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

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TEMPLATE REPORT

An Egyptian court has ordered the release on bail of former President Hosni Mubarak in a corruption case.

Reports from Cairo suggest he may be freed from prison on Thursday, but the prosecution may still appeal.

The 85-year-old is also being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power in 2011.

He was sentenced to life in jail last year, but a retrial was later ordered after his appeal was upheld.

That retrial opened in May but Mr Mubarak has now served the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in the case.

https://nayabchohan.com/2013/07/03/did-mubarak-ever-leave/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23783055

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EGYPT – The West will never be taken seriously again

16 Friday Aug 2013

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Egypt Protests 16-08-13TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

If Washington and London allow the gruesome events that are unfolding in Egypt without acting decisively, then any claims that they are champions for freedom and democracy will never be believed again.

Since the events of 9/11, America and her allies have always said their actions were dictated by the desire to bring democracy to the Middle East and further.

That was the rationale behind the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It was also the reasoning behind supporting rebels in Libya and more recently Syria.

And now those very countries are offering little more than lip service when a military conducts a coup against a democratically elected President, and a bloody crackdown aimed at breaking the largest single political group in Egypt.

Friday has been designated as a ‘March of Anger’ by the Muslim Brotherhood, a response to the appalling putsch on Wednesday in which at least 638 people were killed.

If the Brotherhood are to believed that figure could be more than 2,000.

Already, the Egyptian authorities have been preparing the world for more bloodshed by choosing which pictures are broadcast live.

Alongside images of walking protesters, shots of armed men firing into where it is not clear, are being shown. This is, according to BBC correspondents a defining day, a fight for which narrative gets heard and accepted.  It is also an attempt to restore order and get Egypt back onto a stable economic footing following the turmoil brought about by political crisis. It is none of this. Today is a protest against a military coup that has killed hundreds, and promises more bloodshed.

And if the powers that can influence the Egyptian military do not act, then they will send the Arab world’s most populous country into a downward spiral of never-ending chaos and anarchy. And in the process, they will reveal the bankruptcy of their own foreign policy.

That will mean the end of any future talk of humanitarian interventions.

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Massacre in Egypt means Army’s Counter-Revolution has failed

15 Thursday Aug 2013

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Egypt massacre 15-08-13TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Egypt’s ambassador to London has denied the force used by his country’s military was excessive. He denied the use of sniper fire, and argued that the measures taken in the massacre were necessary to restore order and to protect the people of Egypt.

He drew parallels with the British police breaking up demonstrations in London two years go.

To make his point, he distributed videos probably compiled from Youtube which he says shows Muslim Brotherhood members firing at the police.

That was the tactic used by protesters who first gathered at Tahrir Square to oust the long-standing dictator of Egypt.

Unverified footage, was good enough then, why is not now?

Of course, as Sky News showed today, there are videos of the Egyptian security forces shooting arbitrarily and hitting protesters.

From day one of protests, as BBC’s Jeremy Bowen observed, the army has fired directly into the crowds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

The death toll is at leat 500 and if the Muslim Brotherhood are right is in excess of 2,000, and that does not include the injured.

As the casualty figures mount, Egypt’s military and government who successfully convinced the Americans that they were acting for the people when he overthrew a democratically elected President, are fighting a propaganda war.

The obvious parallel to these horrendous events is the putsch conducted by Gamal Nasser against the Muslim Brotherhood during the fifties.

Egypt’ suffered for decades afterwards with incompetent miliary rule headed by first Sadat and then Mubarak, who was only ousted two years ago.

Yesterday’s heavy-handed tactics has taken the Arab World’s most populous nation to into a new and more frightening direction.

The Muslim Brotherhood got what they wanted, Sky’s Dominic Waghorn said the Egyptian military is currently thinking, that is martyrs for its cause.

If that is indeed the case, then the bloodshed on 14/08/13  could well have ensured that the Egyptian military’s attempt at a counter-revolution to push back the ‘Arab Spring’ and to restore military-led control of the country has failed

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Egypt Massacre – When Words are not Enough and Silence is even worse

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

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Egypt 14-08-13 army fires at ProtestsTEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Britain has condemned the barbaric actions of Egypt’s Security Forces in the strongest possible terms, whilst in Washington whose government provides 1.2 billion dollars in aid, most of which goes to the very military that is employing machine gunfire, snipers and tear gas on its own people, there’s a reported air of resignation, that this was bound to happen.

Words, or worse still passive acceptance of the unfolding massacre in Cairo, will not do – not if Western governments ever want to be taken seriously went they decide to lecture others about human rights or attempt to seek allies in future interventions on humanitarian missions.

Islamists – including the Muslim Brotherhood – won 75 per cent of the vote in the country’s first ever election.

The army, backed by groups who had everything to lose by allowing a party whose sole cause is greater social justice to prosper overthrew them, caged the elected President, opened fire directly into crowds from the first day of protests against the coup and are now committing murder against its own people.

Some have said this is Algeria all over again, it is worse.

Of all the Arab countries in turmoil – Iraq, Gaza, Syria, Libya – Egypt looks the most likely to go the way of Sudan.

And if no one acts now, Egypt will collapse into at least two, the elite backed by the army and the Islamists.

And that could be three, if the Christians feel they are better protected by outside Western powers rather than the blood-stained armed forces of Cairo.

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The West must reject the coup in Egypt

29 Monday Jul 2013

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

On Saturday, more than seventy people were killed as Egyptian security forces attempted to disperse a large demonstration by supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

And yesterday, thousands more camped in three parts of Cairo in defiance of a warning from the army, the very army that claims to have their interests at heart.

Today, Catherine Ashton, from the EU, met the installed President, the head of the army and the current leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who would do well to keep his head down, given the current soundings from the military about what they intend to do with the ousted democratically elected head of the Arab World’s most populous nation.

Ashton urged an ‘inclusive’ process.

That like other soundings from commentators – referring to realpolitik – will not do.

For Egypt is at a crossroads – if the Muslim Brotherhood are not allowed to complete their democratic mandate, no one in Egypt that is not from the army or the elite will ever have faith in the ballot box again.

That means 75 per cent of the population who voted in last year’s historic election for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, will have no voice in their own country.

And that’s a recipe for a civil war.

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Struggle for the soul of Egypt as army cracks down on Muslim Brotherhood ANALYSIS

05 Friday Jul 2013

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_68572111_68572110TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

Friday has been designated as the day of rejection by the ousted government of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The military who say that their actions are not a coup almost immediately fired in to protesters who had gathered outside the building where they believe to be where the toppled President Mohammed Morsi is being held.

Three people were killed as a result.

And the newly appointed interim President has suspended the upper house of parliament which was the only functioning arm of government, after the suspension last year of the lower house.

And still this is not a coup.

Key figures of the Muslim Brotherhood are also under arrest, as the supporters of the largest political and social party in Egypt gather on the streets, many no doubt wondering whether they will come back alive.

What we are seeing unfolding on our screens is the struggle for the future of Egypt.

If no one says anything, the military will have been allowed to stage a coup which by any standard makes a mockery of the idea of democracy.

What we are also seeing is struggle for the soul of Egypt, a nation which has known decades and decades of corrupt and incompetent military rule and which after one year may never see democracy ever again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-23202818

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From Arab Spring to Arab Street – Egypt’s military overthrow Morsi TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

04 Thursday Jul 2013

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TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

The Arab street has spoken, and the army has listened.

Now, we are seeing the aftermath: Morsi is under house arrest,  key members of the Muslim Brotherhood are being round-up, TV stations loyal to the ousted President are closed down.

An interim President is sworn in as the army says it hopes the Muslim Brotherhood will participate in a fresh electoral process.

What that exactly is, they have not said.

Commentator after commentator is now appearing on TV to say how unpopular the Muslim Brotherhood have become within a year of winning the country’s first ever national election.

Of course, this was an electoral process that had been initially created to make it near impossible for the Islamist party to win outright.

Those looking for parallels need look no further than Venezuela whose own democratically elected President, Hugo Chavez was also ousted by a coup.

He was also put under house arrest and faced the prospect of a long jail term or even death.

Then, the people who voted for him refused to accept the outcome.

They took to the streets and peacefully brought a reverse.

It’s not likely  that the Egyptian military will allow the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to do like wise.

And that means the people of Egypt making a trade – a watered down democracy in exchange for stability and the promise that things will get better.

That was, of course not what the people who first protested against the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak had taken to Tahrir Square to ask for.

(Pictured above, interim leader,  Adly Mahmud Mansour, who is the  top judge of Egypt’s Constitutional Court)

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03/07/13 – the day democracy died in Egypt

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

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_68536313_68536312TEMPLATE ANALYSIS

No one has benefited from the army’s decision to oust the country’s first democratically elected President – not the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters who took 51 per cent of the vote in the national elections, nor the celebrating mob who at best can conjure up 25 per cent at the ballot box.

Already, there is talk of putting in place a strong man, someone who will be able to deliver stability. And that may well be the best solution to prevent this nation from breaking apart.

For no election can ever be regarded as anything more than a sham, after what has just happened in Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood must have known they were living on borrowed time, but not even in their worst nightmares could they have imagined that they would last just one year.

Egypt has taken a step back today – the journey to modernity championed by Arab intellectuals has succumbed to the power of the mob, that Arab Street that the West has so warned us all of.

Perhaps, intellectuals in the West are right – the Arab mind is not capable of understanding a process as brilliant, yet as nuanced as democracy.

It hasn’t worked in Iraq, and now it’s completely failed in Egypt.

No one forced the crowds out on the street, they came of their own accord, and they will have to live with the consequences of their actions which could reverberate for decades to come.

Egypt may never recover from the army’ s prehistoric actions.

And as a result, we may just seen the beginning of the break-up of this north African state.

(Pictured above – the head of Egypt’s army Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi on state TV announcing that the constitution had been suspended and that the chief justice of the constitutional court would take on Mr Morsi’s powers)

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Did Mubarak Ever Leave?

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

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imagesCA3X63FWTEMPLATE ANALYSIS

With the army’s ‘sort it out’ deadline approaching, the democratically elected government of Mohammed Morsi remains defiant.

The Muslim Brotherhood did after all win elections for the presidency and the prime minster’s office, with turn out high.

That was history – the first time Egypt had ever allowed its people choose who leads their nation.

And yet a year on, some people are trying to bring it to an end.

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This is not the birth pangs of a new democracy in Egypt, but rather an attempt by a mob to overthrow a ruler chosen by the majority of people.

As a result, those of the street will set back a process that had only just begun, a process that was taking this third world country into the modern age.

At best, Egypt will become another Tunisia or Algeria, with weak governments who answer to the military.

Perhaps, the best indicator of who is behind the scenes we are witnessing on television comes from the demeanor of the fallen dictator, Hosni Mubarak.

At his trial, he lay in bed, a man said to be dying.

At his retrial, he seemed to have miraculously recovered.

In fact, he seemed to know something that the rest of us didn’t.

Perhaps that it’s still the country’s military that rule the roost and that they were finding allies quickly.

Those who believe that the hated dictator never left may well be right.

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