How Iraqis Assess Egypt's Coup
Iraqis who view the Middle East’s developments from a purely sectarian perspective would do well to reconsider that approach as regional events play out.
In the Middle East’s overlapping and complex demographic, cultural, geographical and historic structure, we should not view a local crisis as having internal causes and effects. The region is aflame in crises that come from similar sources and spread just like a liquid spills from one container to another.
Iraqis see the latest changes in Egypt from different angles, and, as usual, they are split on the matter. Some Iraqi Sunnis who sympathize with the Muslim Brotherhood for sectarian reasons also sympathize with deposed Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and describe what happened as a coup. Some Shiite parties that do not sympathize with the Brotherhood for sectarian reasons rejoice over what happened to Morsi.
The Iraqi rift is growing. Those Iraqi Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, secularists and leftists who support a military government that imposes security by force have backed the Egyptian army. On the other hand, some religious Iraqis believe that what happened in Egypt was a setback for the application of Islamic law, regardless of the doctrine, and sympathize with the Muslim Brotherhood. Within the latter group are also those who believe that democracy is not brought about by guns, but by the ballot box.
In truth, what happened in Iraq over the past ten years did not allow for the birth of a popular civil movement that could stand in opposition to a popular religious movement, as happened in Egypt.
