How times have changed. Anti-Mubarak demonstrators and members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement pray in front of Egyptian soldiers at Cairo's Tahrir square on 7 February, 2011. GETTY IMAGES[/caption]
On Tuesday July 30, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was allowed access to former Egyptian president, Mohamed Mursi. She stated that she was not sure where he was being held, but that he was “well.” Having not been seen or heard from since his ouster by the army on July 3, the handling of Mursi’s future has proven to be one of Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s most delicate challenges. The army has said that Mursi remains in custody “for his own security”, and this past week has seen the issuing of a judicial order accusing Mursi of planning jail breaks as well as the premeditated killing of officers, soldiers and prisoners in January 2011, supposedly aided by Palestine’s Hamas.
Since the dramatic events of July 3, Egypt has been trying to find its footing in yet another twist in its post-revolution tale. There has been the return of the army to politics, fears of the re-emergence of Mubarak’s “deep state” that seeks to return Egypt to its pre-January 2011 status quo and, in the midst of it all, liberal secular forces are fragmenting even further as they disagree on whether the army can be trusted.
Perhaps more worrying, however, is that these competing forces—the army, Mubarak’s old guard and the liberals—all appear to agree that the Muslim Brotherhood should be finished off once and for all. Since July 3, Muslim Brotherhood members and pro-Mursi supporters have taken to Egypt’s streets calling for the army to return to their barracks and re-install their leader as president. Those calls have been met with systematic violence by both the army and police, who continually justify the number pro-Mursi fatalities and casualties by claiming they were attacked first.
In conjunction with the physical violence, a far more subtle yet equally dangerous war is being waged against the Muslim Brotherhood. While Egyptians exercised their right to protest in Tahrir Square and other locations around the country—first against Mubarak, then the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and finally against Mursi—pro-Mursi protesters have on the other hand been demonized and dehumanized. Since Mursi’s ouster, his supporters have occupied Rabaa Al-Adawiya square in the district of Nasr City in Cairo, just as Tahrir Square has been occupied for several weeks at a time over the past three years.
Yet, the Muslim Brotherhood is being demonized by the very same people who frequently went to Tahrir Square. My Twitter and Facebook pages are littered with insults aimed towards Muslim Brotherhood protesters—not towards their politics, but calling into question their levels of hygiene and accusing them of terrorizing anyone who ventures near their protests.
As anyone who was in Tahrir Square protesting against Mubarak’s presidency and SCAF rule will tell you, this is hypocrisy. The things the Muslim Brotherhood protest camp stand accused of were all present in parts of Tahrir Square. Unsanitary conditions, xenophobia, sexual harassment, as well as cases of theft were all present at Tahrir Square. Thankfully, some local journalists who are covering the pro-Mursi protests have sought to combat this hypocrisy.
“But they are armed, Ahmed,” I am told, to which I take the opportunity to declare that after February 2, 2011, when the infamous “Battle of the Camel” took place and I saw that, as a protestor, I could be subject to violence, a group of fellow protesters and I decided to armed ourselves. I know at least two people who were carrying firearms, and I would also happen to call them liberals. You cannot put a monopoly on wanting to defend yourself, and while the Muslim Brotherhood do have chapters of violence in their history, it is being manipulated to justify violence against them today.
Last week El-Sisi called for the Egyptian people to take to the streets to give him a mandate to fight “terrorism.” What he wanted was a mandate to dispel and break-up Muslim Brotherhood protests and carte blanche to do it with violence if necessary. Many Egyptians obliged him and the death toll of pro-Mursi supporters quickly racked up over the weekend as attempts were made to remove them by force.
Yet, this loss of Egyptian life is being mourned by few outside the Muslim Brotherhood. Mohamed El-Baradei stated that he had the “deepest sorrow” over the deaths, but went on to say that the Muslim Brotherhood “can’t help” but be blamed for the deaths. For a prominent liberal who has sought the moral high ground wherever possible over the past two years to make such a statement underlies the extent to which the Muslim Brotherhood are not only being removed from politics, but are being dehumanized ideologically. El-Baradei shamefully has something in common with Mubarak and the SCAF, who both blamed pro-democracy supporters whenever violence took place in Tahrir Square.
It is also no accident that the army has chosen to charge Mursi with a crime that associates him with Hamas, this is entirely in keeping with Egypt’s long-standing custom of engaging in conspiracy theories and packaging Mursi and the Brotherhood as conspirators who have strong ties to foreign groups that could harm Egypt. Again, we have seen this tactic before with Mubarak and the SCAF who both blamed foreign powers for causing political and civil unrest, using it as an excuse to crack down on pro-democracy protesters. Now, so-called liberals and pro-democracy Egyptians cheer on the SCAF as they do the very same thing to the Muslim Brotherhood.
This all goes beyond political rhetoric. Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood made every mistake in the book during their tenure in government which was rightly vehemently criticized. Yet the dehumanization of and physical onslaught on the Muslim Brotherhood over the past month, which many Egyptians are cheering on, serves as a warning that if it can happen to them, it can happen to you, and should the day arrive where the army or police attack you in the same way, you will not have a moral leg to stand on.
