The circumstances are fairly unique. There was evidence of widespread voting manipulation in last years election. The Muslim Brotherhood was determined to push a modern and reasonably free society backwards into a very conservative Islamic state. The economy is in shambles. Wide spread demonstrations.
The military has a duty to protect the country. They removed Morsi just like they did Mubarak. The head of the Supreme court was appointed acting President. New elections are promised. It was a bloodless coup. Morsi wasn’t beheaded. He’s being detained until they firm up the new temporary government.
It’s not an ideal situation. But Egypt has a long history of relative stability and diversity. A lot of religions are practiced there. Women have more freedom then in most Arab countries. It makes no sense to me to allow one small faction to completely shift the direction of the country. We’ve seen that once in Iran when the Shah fell. A very modern and diverse country has been forever changed by the ruling Muslim power.
Democracy can be manipulated. Hitler and the Nazi party manipulated the system to gain power. Sometimes the military does need to reverse a mistake and protect the country from internal threats. The German military failed to act and the Nazis lead the country into ruin.
Some background. Britain’s comments are interesting. Not happy but they acknowledge the action was "a popular intervention there’s no doubt about that. We have to recognise there was enormous dissatisfaction with the government. ".
A part of me says this is the “sore loser” syndrome…I am sure there are tons of people who would love to see Obama locked out of the White House. To be honest, I would have greeted the same efforts while Dubya was in office with cheers too!
However, Egypt is a bit new to this kind of democracy and I think Mr. Morsey kind of screwed up by going overboard and foisting the hard line Islamic rule across the board, instead of letting the multi-party congress relegate the limits to these dogmatic religious rules. Egypt has been a fairly “Western” society, in terms of women’s rights and other cultural day-to-day allowances, and I can see where many were non-to-thrilled to have hard-line new rules run by religious fanatics.
So, yeah - good to lock him out and have new elections. Maybe the Islamic Brotherhood will win again, but at least they might not be so over-eager to slash and burn all of the basic rights Egyptians have become used to having.
No easy answer here - just my gut feeling. Still - sometimes it takes awhile for new democratic societies to get the hang of compromise. We’re still having issues in the USA, so I don’t think we can throw rocks either.
I voted yes but might be closer to other. Having the Muslim Brotherhood in charge of Egypt scares the shit out of me. But a cycle of revolutions is pretty scary too. The region needs a stable, strong and peaceful Egypt.
This was an object lesson for any country that holds elections. Get your butt off the sofa and vote! Apathy is democracy’s greatest enemy.
I get the impression that Egypt’s middle class stayed home during last years elections. The tiny Muslim Brotherhood party created a united voting block. Some suspected shady manipulation at the ballot box helped too.
I suspect the middle class will vote more enthusiastically in the next election. The results should be a lot different.
I, personally, don’t think Egypt is going to solve its political problems until it manages to establish a government which controls the military, rather than the other way around.
The Muslim Brotherhood reneged on their promises of inclusivity. The nation is a powderkeg that desperately needs a growing economy and a higher level of freedom, something the MB had no interest, experience or ability to provide. They were also unable to provide basic security to the population, and seemingly uninterested in doing so.
Honestly, was there ever a remote chance that they would actually be inclusive and respect diversity? What baffles me is that a) the MB was ever allowed to take office in the first place and b) that the US keeps saying “oh, this is troubling, democracy is good” when this is a clear failure of democracy, and maybe democracy is just the tyranny of the majority.
I voted “other.” I’m bothered that the MB et al didn’t try to create an inclusive, pluralistic state. I’m also bothered by the fact that the military saw fit to overthrow the results of a presumably legitimate election. I am viscerally opposed to juntas in any way, shape or form.
I also don’t expect functioning democracies to spring fully formed from the corpses of failed authoritarian regimes. It’s going to take a couple of decades (at least) for Egypt to get it’s shit together.
It’s been a while since I’ve studied the region, but if memory serves (and recent events have more or less borne this out) the Egyptian Military plays a very active and positive role in the daily life of the citizenry. For instance, when the people got serious about getting Hosni out, the Army did very little to stop them compared to say, how things went in Syria. ISTR Libya’s army wasn’t entirely obedient to Qadaffi either–maybe it’s a North African sensibility thing?
I happily invite correction, but my impression is that Egypt’s army is predisposed to respond to the will and needs of Egypt as opposed to the will of a political group who clearly does not have the best interests of the people in mind. Their role appears to be more of guardian of the Egyptians than enforcer for The State. The Army doesn’t appear interested in assuming the role of political leadership on any kind of long term basis although they could clearly take it, and I kind of admire them for that.
From a practical point of view, I’m fairly indifferent. But from an idealistic point of view, I would have liked to see the people of Egypt go through the motions of settling their dissatisfaction constitutionally. Setting aside the constitution after one year is not a good precedent.
I voted yes, because I think Morsi went to the point of no return when he announced he had supreme power a few months ago. You can’t come back from that.
Selfishly, I wish this hadn’t happened. I’ve got a trip scheduled to Egypt on the 17th. We haven’t cancelled just yet (seeing how this plays out), but I’ve got until 2 days before to invoke my 75% trip insurance refund. Still.
The results should be a lot different.