The ‘New Egypt’

Al-Monitor’s writers last week described a perilous and uncertain transition in Egypt, including an emerging Egyptian nationalism which is a mix of old, new and the unknown.  There appears to be little sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood and deposed President Mohammed Morsi, but a growing concern about the role and direction of the military in the process. 

Marwa Awad comments: “In backing Sisi and the military, millions of Egyptians have forgotten that the army under the authoritarian leadership of [Defense Minister Gen. Hussein] Tantawi held back the revolution’s goals through continuous military trials of activists and by placing itself above any legal accountability despite accusations of abuse by troops.” 

Zenobia Azeem characterizes the secular parties’ alliance with the military with the Brotherhood as a “pact with the devil.” She writes: “There is a truth to be learned from the last two years: Whenever the military has felt threatened, it has exercised no restraint, violently subduing dissent. Every side in Egypt knows and has experienced this. The masses of people who have filled the streets, many of whom have traversed labels since the 2011 revolution — the revolutionaries, the pro-democracy demonstrators, the SCAF protesters, the Brotherhood protesters, the Islamists — have all had their blood shed on military orders. Yet, in spite of having witnessed each other’s downfalls, Egypt’s political factions still continue to deal with the devil, even though they, too, will likely suffer from the military’s heavy-handedness in the near future.”