Imagine that an elected president is ousted by the military. That the president’s party is declared a “terrorist” organization. That dozens of protesters are shot in the streets, thousands of people imprisoned and hundreds sentenced to death.
How should a liberal democracy respond? Presumably, by condemning the coup, denouncing the violence and defending the rights of the political opposition. But not, it seems, if you are the British government.
All the events I describe have happened in Egypt. The democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was overthrown by the army last July. The Muslim Brotherhood, of which he was a leader, was declared a terrorist group; protesters were killed by security forces, and at least 16,000 people have been jailed; last month, 529 Egyptians were sentenced to death in the killing of a policeman.… Seguir leyendo »
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist movement, at least not currently. But the move by the military-led government to ban it from politics and declare it a “terrorist organization” may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The announcement followed a car bombing outside a government security building in Mansoura on Dec. 24 that killed at least 15 people; the government blamed the Brotherhood. Now, Brotherhood members and donors risk prosecution and imprisonment, and the ban is potentially crippling to the vast network of schools, clinics and other social services the Brotherhood runs and to the poor Egyptians who have long relied on them.… Seguir leyendo »
Egypt’s military leaders have launched an all-out war against the Muslim Brotherhood. American and European leaders have observed this crackdown with a sense of detachment, both because they have few tools to influence the military’s decision-making and because this conflict appears to be an internal matter.
But the belief that this intensifying conflict will play out solely within Egypt’s borders is false. As the violence increases, and the radicalization of Islamists deepens, Egypt’s crisis threatens to add fuel to the ongoing terrorist activity across North Africa and to spawn a new wave of attacks against Western targets just as the anti-Islamist crackdown that began in the late 1970s aided the rise of Al Qaeda.… Seguir leyendo »
Ever since President Obama came to office, his administration has cultivated relations with, legitimated, emboldened, empowered, funded and even armed the Muslim Brotherhood. This policy has amounted to our changing sides in what is best described as the War for the Free World.
As documented in a free online, video-based course I produced last year, one of the factors behind this strategically disastrous — and largely unnoted — reversal is the success the Muslim Brotherhood has had, going back at least to the Clinton administration, in penetrating and running influence operations against our country. The Brotherhood calls it “civilization jihad.” It has enabled them to establish not only an array of front groups to insinuate themselves into American civil-society institutions and governing agencies.… Seguir leyendo »
How will the Egyptian army’s coup against the elected Muslim Brotherhood government affect Islamism, intellectually and politically the most consequential movement in the Middle East since the 1960s? Do the brethren see their fall as a rejection of their religious beliefs? Should they?
Historically, it’s impossible to imagine Islamic militancy without the Brotherhood. Founded in 1928 against British imperialism and a rapidly Westernizing Egypt, the Brotherhood became the flagship for Sunni fundamentalism. Secretive but populist, contemptuous of state-paid clergy, intellectually syncretistic (socialism, fascism and European anti-Semitism blended into their “authentic” faith), the brethren became widely popular in Egypt as the army’s experimentation with radical Arabism and crony capitalism failed.… Seguir leyendo »
Emad Abdel Ghafour is a key aide to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the leader of a new Salafist party called Watan. He sat down with Washington Post senior associate editor Lally Weymouth at a World Economic Forum conference this past week to explain his views on Egypt’s future — including its relations with Iran, parliamentary elections and the possibility of imposing sharia law. Excerpts:
You were a member of Egypt’s Salafist Nour Party. Recently, you broke off and founded the Watan Party. Could you explain why you broke away from Nour and what Watan stands for?
I am the founder of the Nour Party, and I was the main [force pushing] the Salafists to enter politics.… Seguir leyendo »
With Egypt caught between a military reluctant to cede the reins of power and a recently elected Islamist president eager to take hold of them, a steady stream of senior American officials has landed in Cairo to nudge the two sides toward compromise. But by focusing on the struggle between ruling elites and their commitment to the peace treaty with Israel, Washington is neglecting Egypt’s larger problems — those that incited an apathetic population to overthrow a president in office for three decades.
Following the revolution last year that toppled Hosni Mubarak, the generals that replaced him forged an alliance with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood he repressed.… Seguir leyendo »
The election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi as Egypt's president temporarily puts to rest the debate about whether the nation will be secular or Islamist. Egypt is an Islamist state.
Not only does a member of the Muslim Brotherhood hold the nation's highest post, nearly 75% of the legislature's seats are held by Brotherhood members or by their harder-line Salafi cousins — or at least they were held by the Islamists before the dissolution of the People's Assembly by the ruling military council last month. Though headlines will remain focused on the struggle for supremacy between the Islamists and the military, the more important political battle in Cairo will be over what kind of Islamic state Egypt will become.… Seguir leyendo »
The election of a Muslim Brotherhood leader to the presidency of Egypt arrived in Israel like delayed thunder after a burst of lightning: It was not a surprise, but it still provoked nervous attention.
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, comes from an organization that has a long history of opposition to peace with Israel and even to the very existence of the Jewish state. And yet, the situation may not turn into a disaster — at least not any time soon.
In the face of uncertainty, there is time for Israel to prepare for the worst. Israel must remain strong.… Seguir leyendo »
On the surface, the first round of the Egyptian presidential election seemed to show that the Muslim Brotherhood and the remnants of the Mubarak regime are locked in mortal combat for the political soul of Egypt -- as Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi faces pro-military candidate Ahmed Shafik in a second round of voting in June.
Buying into this simplistic formula, however, would be a total misreading of the far more complex picture. To understand the political reality of Egypt and the strengths and weaknesses of the major political forces operating in the country, one needs to look more closely at all of the electoral results.… Seguir leyendo »
When it comes to the Muslim Brotherhood, even the irreligious evince a sudden interest in what lies within the inner reaches of the Islamists' souls. Are they really democrats? What do they really believe? It is time for analysts to leave those questions to a higher authority. For now, it is much more important to ask what they intend to do and what they could do in office.
If balloting is free in the run-off in mid-June, Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Morsi is the favourite to beat Ahmed Shafiq, President Mubarak's last prime minister. If that happens, Egypt's major democratic institutions, the parliament and the presidency, will be in Islamist hands.… Seguir leyendo »
Amid new strains in U.S.-Egypt ties, some in Washington are studying the tensions and results of recent voting for indications that democracy can take hold. Those who say the Muslim Brotherhood is showing new signs of moderation should compare its message to outsiders, in English, with its message to Egyptians and other Arabs, in Arabic.
Take the Brotherhood’s official English and Arabic Web sites, IkhwanWeb and IkhwanOnline, from one day this month. In English, the home page featured no fewer than eight articles on the solicitude of the Brotherhood toward Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority. The Arabic home page, by contrast, included just two small pieces on this theme.… Seguir leyendo »
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