Dear All
Egypt is in turmoil, as the country sees renewed
protests by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, we should remember
that the previous government was so unpopular that the army had to step in and
remove it.
The Egyptian Army decided to side with the
people, President Mohammed Morsi was leading Egypt to ruin. The failure to
address the economic situation was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Muslim Brotherhood has taken to the
streets and set up protest camps in Cairo, however as is the way of Middle East
politics, violence has flared up with the loss of at least 638 lives.
At present a state of emergency and is
expected to continue for at least a month.
Due to extreme violence, police have been
authorised to use live ammunition in self-defence.
This is regrettable; the solution to the
current problem is and always was the ballot box. If the Muslim brotherhood do
not back down, there will be a long drawn out civil war which will plunge the
country into years of darkness.
The Americans have condemned the violence,
however, their policy lacks credibility when you look across at the Syrian
situation; the Americans condemn violence but want to supply weapons to the
Syrian rebels. Whether our American cousins like it or not, they goofed on
Syria, and they are goofing on Egypt.
Although the idea of Western style
democracy is seen as the best model, the cultures in the Middle East haven’t
quite gotten round to it as we would expect.
Meanwhile, Egypt's interim leaders have
criticised remarks by President Obama. Obama is condemning the government's
actions in ordering security forces to break up the protest camps.
His move in cancelling joint military
exercises is of course gesture politics, which everyone will see through with a
bit of reading, he stopped short of cutting $1.3bn (£830m) in aid that the US
gives to Egypt.
As I said gesture politics, and not a
helpful gesture, Americans need to rethink foreign policy and stop blundering
in feet first.
The Egyptian presidency response came by
way of a statement that stated that Obama's words were "not based on
fact" and would "embolden armed groups".
Perhaps he should start watching RT, the
Russian television channel, they are putting out quite good material, however;
there is a slight slant in coverage when they mention American involvement.
Egypt’s position is that it is facing
"terrorist acts".
The Muslim Brotherhood tactic is to call on
its supporters to gather in mosques for Friday prayers and then take to the
streets of Cairo in a "march of anger".
The Brotherhood will be responsible for
many deaths of its members; they are also in danger of being frozen out of any
future government, how long will it be before they become a banned organisation.
The Brotherhood's leaders say they will
hold marches under the slogan "the people want to topple the coup".
What they are saying is that they want to topple
the people’s coup, the Army only stepped when it looked like the breakdown of
law and order was imminent. This isn’t a military coup as the military want fresh
elections for a civilian government.
As well as the Muslim brotherhood taking to
the streets, members of groups opposed to Mr Morsi such as the National
Salvation Front and Tamarod are calling for counter-demonstrations in response.
The country must be secured, the curfew is
a start, but it rather looks like the Army will have to for the foreseeable
future be a permanent fixture as a de facto police force. Armies are a blunt
instrument, so it is likely that many people will lose their lives if the
Muslim brotherhood doesn’t back down.
During this time; there has been a call for
people to protect their neighbourhoods and churches throughout the country. This
isn’t an ideal situation as this usually ends up with people arming themselves
with automatic weapons.
Egypt's Coptic Christian community has been
targeted by Islamists. The Islamists accuse the Church of backing the army's
overthrow of Mr Morsi, the Muslim brotherhood must ensure that there are no
such attacks on minority communities.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal
Rights, an NGO, says 25 churches, along with private homes and businesses
belonging to Copts and other Christian denominations have been subject to
attack.
The Egyptian authorities have taken the
unusual step of authorizing the use live ammunition so that police can protect
themselves and the key state institutions from attack. Although this is a defensive
position, it will only be a matter of time before they go offensive in nature.
People need not die, the Morsi government
drove Egypt into a desperate state by their lack of understanding of economics;
hence they were removed by a popular uprising by the people.
US Republican Senator John McCain told BBC
Newsnight that the ousting of President Morsi was a "coup" and
President Obama should have cut off aid to Egypt as a result.
Luckily for Americans, McCain hasn’t become
President, if he had things and America’s standing would be much worse than the
dire straits they currently are in.
The US like Britain has been careful not to
use the word coup, under US law this would mean stopping aid.
McCain added:
"I am confused that we would not
enforce our own laws. That sends a message of tolerance of brutality, of ineffective
American leadership to the Muslim world, that the United States of America at
least condones this kind of behaviour, which we cannot."
So regime change by America is okay but a
people’s coup isn’t?
The Muslim brotherhood is endanger of
starting a prolong civil war which they will find allies scarce, they can’t
win, but they will cause a lot of people to be killed and effectively see them
branded in Egypt as a terrorist organisation.
And in the Middle East, AK 47 justice on
semi automatic still plays a role.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow
University
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