The sins of Egypt's Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood

Since the Military coup in Egypt, I have been firmly in support of Morsi and against the coup that took place. This is especialy so on .

However that does not mean I am immune to the mistakes made by Morsi.

If you look online at the opponents of Morsi and the MuslimBrotherhood, there is a level of hate and vitriol that is startling. While all of this may not be the fault of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, some of it is.

So here are some of the mistakes by Morsi.

1. Getting lost in useless and stupid debate.

After the winning the parliamentary elections before Moris was elected to president, the parliament had a lot to deal with - a country mismanaged for 60 years, an economy in freefall.

When the Judiciary dismissed the elected parliament what was parliament debating? Necrophilia.

There have been any spheres where the Muslim Brotherhood government has been found to be out of its depth and incompetent, which has surprised many.

2. Falling into the Old regim's traps.

When Morsi was elected into power, he promised an inclusive regime with a woman and a coptic Christian for vice presidents. I cannot recall either happening.

Since the Muslim Brotherhood had won big and the Salafist Al Nour party came in second, it was considered politically expedient to ally with the Al Nour party and exclude others.

To be fair, the others also excluded themselves by refusing to take part, but that should have been shown and extra effort taken to show the poison being peddled by the alliance between ELBaradei and the old regime.

3. Protecting the old guard.

In order to secure power, the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi wanted the Military on board. So they wiped the slate clean for their past crimes and put them above the law with the idea that a soothed military will not rise up against him. That worked out well.

Morsi should have chosen the right path and chosen to dismantle the old pwoer bases instead of giving them power and protection for political reasons.

The Police which had been sulking during Morsi's era is now back to its old tactics (hunt, shoot Muslim Brotherhood supports has been its favourite pastime for the last few decades) and the Military deposed him.

He did challenge the corrupt Mubarak era judiciary, but it was too powerful to be moved and its leaders now lead the country.

4. Worshipping false idols.

Morsi believed that the Army could not move against him as America wouldn't allow it. There is evidence to suggest that some of the opposition was directly funded by the American government - which is even agains American law!

It is absolutely stupendous to look to the likes of Obama or the USA to defend the MuslimBrotherhood in Egypt - they are in ir for their own interests and will only support them if it meets their desires and goals. When these no longer align, America will move onto the next group that gives them what they want.

In November, before the troubles began for real for Morsi, Egypt intervened in Israel's assault on Gaza and brokered a peace deal. I doubt this went down well with many powers as Egypt's historical role had been to not only allow Israel to act with impunity, but to actually either covertly or overtly support Israel's actions.

So far the American administration has even failed to call the coup a coup - mainly because that would mean the Americans will have to stop sending aid to the Egyptian Military under American law. Instead they decided to reward the coup by donating some F16 fighter jets.

5. Falling into opposition traps.

In November 2012, Morsi issued a presidential decree giving special powers that stopped the Mubarak era Judiciary from overruling him or closing the Constitutional commision.

The people revolted, the opposition took to the streets, and it refused to negotiate. This was the start of the slippery slope.

Now Morsi didn't really have much of a choice here, as even though three elections had been won, the old guard especially in the judiciary were not moving and were trying to undo anything the president did, but the end result was ugly.

6. Approved a constitution that was divisive.

Now, the new coup regime is actually using the same constitution, probably because how how much protection it gives the military, but it will also table some amendments, which Morsi had also said he was open to.

However the process of creating it was divisive, mainly because it was rushed. As people were out on the streets at Morsi's powers, the constituion had to be rushed so that Morsi could rescind his decree giving him special powers to protect the constitional assembly from being dissolved by the Mubarak Era Judiciary.

There was no representation for the minorities and the constitution has been the basis for many criticisms, fair or unfair.

7. It's the economy, stupid!

This is the biggest failing of Morsi's govermment, but once again it was not Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood's - as can be seen that since the coup, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have already pledged $12billion in support of egypt, and the IMF have alsostated that they will probably approve their loan.

However under Morsi, the Arab  kingdoms were afraid of the revolution spreading and apart from Qatar, no aid was given. The IMF was the only option but it had such stringent hoops to jump through, it was next to impossible for Egypt to obtain the aid. Since the coup however, the IMF has miraculously eased the conditions for Egypt to recieve the aid.

However these are short term band aids and the Egyptian economy has 60 years of mismanagement to deal with.

A direct impact on the fall of of the last government was by one of the riched men in Egypt is a coptic Christian called Naguib Sawiris who felt excluded by the last government. He lived mostly in self imposed exile and has admitted to channeling funding the the "Tamarod" movement in order to manipulate and support it into the overthrow of Morsi.

Since the coup he has stated that he is willing to invest heavily in Egypt.

There were also other individuals and groups that used to undermine Morsi, such that there was a shortage of power and utilities running up to the coup. After the coup, these shortages miraculously evaporated and Egypt returned to being a land of the plenty.

However in support of Morsi's government, in the early part of 2013, the Egyptian economy actually grew by 2%, gains which will have been lost since the revolution.

The Egyptians are angry, because they did not see security or prosperity under Morsi and they blamed him for it, not the sabotuers, not the 60 years of mismanagement before him. They were easy to manipulate into coming onto the streets and they did in large numbers (though not the numbers bandied about by the coup supporters).

8. Appointing the most innapropriate governor for Luxor

Back before the revolution, all the way back in 1998, there was much militancy in Egypt. one act of a militant group called the Gemaa Islamiyah was the murder of around 58 tourists in Luxor, which the group boasted off.

Skip forward 15 years and when Morsi had his back to the wall, he thought it would be good to appoint a new governor to Luxor, from an allied party as the Salafists groups were the second biggest block grouping and securing their support was vital to his political interests.

His appointment was the leader of the Gemaa Islamiyah in 1998, which naturally led to uproar and eventually the governor resigned.

Did the Salafist parties that Morsi had so cultivated in his predidency support the president in his hour of need? No.

Once again, it showed that making a judgment/decree for political expediency instead of choosing the clear and righteous path.

On a final note, on the social web there is a popular video of a , and this video is doing the rounds in social media. The problem with this video is that its from October, when the first major misstep taken by Morsi was in mid November.

This child had been taught about a bogeyman and he said what he had been taught. Now that it is convenient that the coup leaders are saying the same thing, a lot of people are trotting out this "cute" video to support their stance.

In short Morsi was not perfect, and the Egyptians have some reasons to be angr. However not all the problems were of his making and he did not really get a chance to make any changes.

I do not have any hopes for the interim government - Reports from Israel suggest Israel was informed far in advance of the coup, and Israel and the Egyptian Army are currently cooperating over an Egyptian army operation into the Sinai Peninsula. The Gaza strip was one of the first places closed off and the Syrian refugees in Egypt have been left in limbo.

On the Egyptian front, opposition voices have been silenced, Morsi is being held incommunicado as a political prisoner and the new athorities are flexing their muscles against the Muslim Brotherhood through clamping down on its leaders, supports financially, legally through the old Mubarak era judiciary and through violence - the police that had failed to protect the people after the election of morsi has suddenly been seen again, but its back to its old tactics.

There are claims of massacres by the Egyptian Military and there is footage of Egyptian army snipers shooting at protesters, even video from a journalist recording a sniper taking shots, who turns around and shoots him dead.

Morsi may have been incompetent but the Coup regime is worse. Worse of all, many people are jubilant and do not even recognise this.

Comments

To Allah we belong and to Him we wil return, [couldnt remember the end so googled it:]

قَدَّرَ اللهُ وَمَا شَاءَ فَعَلَ
qaddar-allaahu wa maa shaa’a fa‛al
“Allah has decreed and what He wills, He does.”
إِنَّا لِلهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ ، اللَّهُمَّ أَجُرْنِي فِي مُصِيبَتِي ، وَاخْلُفْ لِي خَيْرًا مِنْهَا
innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji‛oon, allaahumma ajurnee fee muṣeebatee, wakhluf lee khayran minhaa
“To Allah we belong and unto Him is our return. O Allah, recompense me for my affliction and replace it for me with something better.”

right now all i can think of is "if only if only" but as the page where igot the above quote said:

…for verily (the word) ‘IF’ lets in the work of the devil.

we despair so much, and raising our hands to make duah feels so insignificant. but it isnt. we have to remember that. and if we want to do something "difficutl" then let's wake up in the last third of the night and pray, pray pray pray.

 

because

“Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls). But when (once) Allah willeth a people’s punishment there can be no turning it back nor will they find besides Him any to protect.”

Holy Quran – Surah Al Ra’d – Ayah 11

 

EDIT: just browsing the net (was going to say happily but that wouldnt be true) looking for the above ayah and fell on a site that looked slightly interesting (after all i did find my ayah there) so i scroll up and click onthe "about me" section and i read this:

 

There can be no more time for rest.

This is a call to arms.

This is Akh The Angry Academic Activist and I approve this message!

and im like WOUAW! STEP BACK! if i am to bookmark, or do anything slightly related to this blog i could be in big trouble. i dont mind trouble per say but i got parents and siblings so i try to be careful on the net so  as not to get my family into trouble. (as i also know someone who's been taken to court for downloading things and being a bit too muslim or something - dnt know said person personally)

then i keep reading curiously, to see the comments, if anyone mention the above quoted bit...

and iread this:

What if you are called a moderate?

Would that be considered a compliment or an insult?

I do however disagree with: “extreme illness can not be cured with moderate medicine” as Islam through the qur’an and hadith requires us to be the median nation.

When I see the uses of extreme medication in the world, what I see mostly is Muslims murdering other Muslims. Who needs enemies when friends are like that?

interesting i think

then i read the last sentence:

I have added your feed to the aggregator at

SO THEN I SCROLL UP TO READ THE NAME OF WHO POSTED THIS, and it says

You

and my brain does this weird, ME?! I NEVER DID! NO WAIT....ah..i see..wait, how did i get on this site again? *pause* oh yeah i remember, alright let me edit my comment. and so we are back to the present, well to the beginning of this post kinda present.

 

 

Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?