Crackdown leaves Egypt bloodied

The decision by Egypt’s military-backed caretaker government to deploy the security forces to disperse Muslim Brotherhood organised encampments demanding reinstatement of deposed president Muhammad Morsi was not taken lightly.

The authorities were well aware that there could be hundreds perhaps thousands of casualties, a violent Brotherhood backlash, widespread distress on the home front, and international condemnation.

Nevertheless, the security forces, neither reformed nor retrained since the authoritarian era of toppled president Hosni Mubarak, went ahead and 595 civilians and 43 policemen died during the clearing of the camp sites on August 14.  Since then hundreds more have been killed, thousands injured and more than 1,000 Brotherhood supporters arrested in the most comprehensive crackdown against the 85-year old movement in the country’s history.

The sit-ins involving thousands near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City district and at Nahda Square in Giza south of the capital had been in place for six weeks. The protesters were largely but not entirely peaceful. A minority were armed and bent on causing trouble. The camps disrupted life in these areas, protesters left the gatherings to stage marches that often led to clashes, and there was constant incitement from preachers and political figures from platforms erected in the sit-ins.

Stage attacks

The incitement was against the country’s military chief General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who is blamed by the Brotherhood for removing Morsi on July 3, the caretaker government, the West for, allegedly, backing the move, deemed a “coup” by the Brotherhood, and Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, 10 per cent of the population. Speakers also called upon the 35,000 radical fundamentalists, "jihadis," based in the northern Sinai Peninsula to stage attacks against the police and public offices.

The Brotherhood was repeatedly warned that action would be taken against the encampments at the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on August 8. Instead of proposing dialogue and compromise the Brotherhood demanded the return of Morsi, the revival of the suspended Brotherhood-drafted constitution, and the reinstatement of the dissolved upper house of parliament where fundamentalists held most seats.

European Union and US envoys put forward a staged proposal for the gradual disbandment of the camps in return for the freeing of detained Brotherhood leaders. It appeared to have won the support of the interim government and the Brotherhood but, at the last moment, the legal authorities objected to the release of men under indictment. 

Academic and activist Madiha Doss observed that the Brotherhood could not be trusted to abide by the terms of the plan. She said there were divisions in the Brotherhood and secular camps as well as the military among hardliners, moderates, and conciliators.

The crackdown was reminiscent of action taken against the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who revolted against the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, the Arab Spring uprising for democracy that inspired other Arabs to rise up against dictators and was seen as a fight for freedom round the world.

That fight has not yet finished, say Egyptians, who argue that the country is going through a “revolution.”

The action against the Brotherhood is seen by outsiders as suppression of a movement that won power legitimately through elections.  Egyptians argue that, having secured control of parliament and the presidency, the Brotherhood did not rule for all Egyptians but focused on entrenching its hold on power by installing loyalists in key positions and imposing a constitution with a fundamentalist bias. Morsi did not meet the demands of the people for bread, fuel, security, justice and clean governance.

The ultimate goal of the Brotherhood was the transformation of Egypt into an "Islamic state," the imposition of Islamic law, Sharia, and conservative social practices, and, ultimately, the dissolution of the modern state of Egypt into an Islamic caliphate that would stretch from the Gulf to the Atlantic.

On June 30, millions of Egyptians went into the streets to demand the ouster of Morsi and reject the Brotherhood scenario which was even more authoritarian than was Mubarak’s rule.

Veteran commentator Hisham Kassem said that relatively free elections did not make Egypt a democracy. “We are not yet a democracy. We have been liberated from authoritarianism.  Our democracy is progressing.” But he observed that Egypt would not take as long or inflict as many casualties as Europe did to achieve democracy.