Arab Spring Backfires In Egypt

Democracy in flames: protesters in Alexandria ransack the offices of President Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement

The "Arab Spring" in 2011 swept across the Arab part of the world and resulted in the overthrowing of a number of long standing dictators and powerful families that ruled Middle Eastern countries. The western media praised this uprising as a democratic revolution, and the US government widely supported the large-scale demonstrations and even militia groups that went to war with their governments in areas where a more peaceful resolution did not happen (ie. Syria, which is still locked in deadly violent civil war). The media praised the revolts against long standing governments as a new modern democratic wave, one that would pull these countries into the direction of freedom, civil rights, accountable government, and overall social progress. Egypt was the biggest and most notable country where these protests against a long-standing dictatorship rose up.

However, while the mainstream media was falling all over itself praising the wave of government toppling protests across the Middle East, many conservative writers were warning that this was looking all to familiar to what happened in Iran decades ago. Iran turned into a theocratic nightmare where extremist Islamists took over from a generally moderate leadership in massive social protests that the United States supported under President Jimmy Carter. Iran has been one of the most repressive and backwards Middle Eastern countries ever since. Instead of freedom, government accountability, civil rights and social progress, Iran stepped farther and farther back into heavy-handed government repression of the general populace. Iran traded bad and suppressive leadership for evil and cruel leadership. It traded generally stable dictators for radical terrorists. The same thing happened in the Gaza Strip when democratic protests broke out years ago there, also supported by the Western Media and many governments. The result? The terrorist organization Hamas won elections and slaughtered all opposition and has ruled with an iron fist ever since.

But that wouldn't happen THIS time, the mainstream media assured everyone. Egypt was going to be the beacon of new Middle Eastern freedom, a new wave of liberty and modernity... The former government was thrown out and protestors celebrated in the streets! Democratic elections were held all across the country and for the first time in decades, political parties other than the ruling dictator had a real chance of winning! Signs indicated before the elections that the Muslim Brotherhood, a large group of Islamic opposition to the former President of Egypt and heavily suppressed under his rule, would become the bulk of the new Egyptian government. Again, conservative writers warned that this was starting to look more and more like Iran, Lebanon and Gaza. But the media told everyone in the west that this was not the case, that the Muslim Brotherhood was these days a much more moderate, secular and progressive group, not at all similar to the hardlined religious leaders that had taken over Iran decades before. Anyone who's done any research into the Muslim Brotherhood and that was not blinded by starry-eyed dreams would know that this was mostly garbage. The Muslim Brotherhood very clearly wants the return of a powerful Muslim Caliphate like what existed centuries ago throughout the Middle East when Islamic government reigned supreme. The Muslim Brotherhood also has ties to Hamas, Al Qaida and other well known Islamic terrorist groups. Only the progress of time would tell which side in this debate was actually right.

So far, things do not look good.

The Muslim Brotherhood won the elections quite handily, easily taking the majority of the national vote. Minority groups such as the Coptic Christians and secularists barely made any splash at all, despite the mainstream media claiming that the Arab Spring was largely secular (non-religious) in nature and intent. President Morsi, of The Muslim Brotherhood, has recently been a beacon of terror, repression, religious intolerance, and government domination over its citizenry. Minorities such as the Coptic Christians have been fleeing Egypt in record numbers. Morsi recently passed government legislation that effectively makes him and whatever he does untouchable by the new law and justice systems of Egypt.

[Daily Beast (Dec 3, 2012)]:  Egypt To President Morsi: No Dictators Allowed

On Nov. 22, as Americans sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, Egypt’s first post-revolution president, Mohamed Morsi, issued a decree exempting all of his decisions from legal challenge. The move was a stunning power grab that quickly earned him the nickname “Egypt’s new pharaoh”—a title once bestowed upon his defunct predecessor. Hundreds of thousands of disbelieving Egyptians flooded city streets from Alexandria to Aswan with a familiar cry: “The people want the fall of the regime!” Tahrir Square came alive once again with tents and bullhorns and a howl so loud—so impassioned—that it was dubbed the “19th Day” of last year’s revolution. Angry female protesters returned in masses to Tahrir, resilient after months of deteriorating security that included repeated incidents of harassment and sexual assault.

Because of this and the severely deteriorating conditions of safety and law in Egypt under the new government, many people have once again returned to the streets in mass protest of the new government that they just elected into power with a huge democratic majority. Why? Because the promises made are evaporating in almost every single direction. Protesters are saying that at best, absolutely nothing has changed since President Mubarak was ousted. The reality, however, is that freedom and safety has significantly decreased and government repression of the masses has greatly increased. An example of how the government is running things in Egypt now can be summed up in a few very recent news reports.

[Daily Mail (Dec 1, 2012)]: Muslim Brotherhood 'Paying Gangs To Go Out And Rape Women And Beat Men Protesting In Egypt'

Egypt's ruling party is paying gangs of thugs to sexually assault women protesting in Cairo's Tahrir Square against President Mohamed Morsi, activists said.
They also said the Muslim Brotherhood is paying gangs to beat up men who are taking part in the latest round of protests, which followed a decree by President Morsi to give himself sweeping new powers.

[The Blaze ()]: Mob of 300 Reportedly Strips, Assaults 3 Women Near Mosque In Tahrir Square

... it is difficult to ignore the overwhelming number of sexual assaults reported not by lone criminals, but by frantic mobs.  The vicious attack on U.S. journalist Lara Logan during the advent of the so-called “Arab Spring” nearly two years ago has only been followed by a further deterioration of the rights of women and minorities under Muslim Brotherhood leadership, it seems.

[Telegraph (Nov 29, 2012)]: Egyptians Want Democracy, But Is Their Country Turning Into Iran?

Islam and democracy are not natural bedfellows, and Mr Morsi’s insistence, particularly in his meetings with Western politicians, that he has no desire to become Egypt’s “new pharoah” and is fully committed to upholding the country’s new democratic principles, does not square with his recent pronouncements. These assurances have been undermined by Mr Morsi’s blatant power grab, in which he announced that, in future, all presidential decrees will be immune from legal challenge.
The timing of this declaration is troubling, as the country is engaged in drawing up a new constitution which, in normal circumstances, would require the approval of the establishment. By placing himself above the judiciary, Mr Morsi has awarded himself the power to sanction the new constitution irrespective of any objections secularists may raise.

A similar pattern of behaviour was evident in Iran following the overthrow of the Shah, when Ayatollah Khomeini, the founding father of Islamic Republic, succeeded in imposing a new constitution on the Iranian people which was based more on the will of God than the rule of law. At a stroke, the pro-democracy aspirations of ordinary Iranians were crushed by the creation of an Islamic theocracy. As Khomeini himself warned secularists when the new constitution was drawn up: “Revolt against God’s government is a revolt against God, and a revolt against God is blasphemy.”

Essentially, President Morsi's government has made itself immune to any challenges to its power and authority. It gets the final say in everything, no matter what the democratic parliament says. Since people have returned to the streets to protest this, the government has sent in gangs of violent attackers to rape women and beat men in the streets to shut them up and terrify them into silence. On top of all this, Morsi's government is now rushing through Egypt's new constitution which reads like a large scale religious fatwa, based mostly on Islamic Sharia Law and NOT in any way conducive to western principles of liberty, freedom, civil rights, or anything else that the western world has appreciated for the past few centuries and more.

Egypt is very quickly becoming another Iran, exactly as conservative pundits and writers warned from the very beginning. The signs were strongly there from the start. Maybe now the governments and mainstream media will finally wake up to the monster they've gleefully and blindly supported.

[Reuters (Dec 6, 2012)]: Egypt Demonstrators Reject Mursi Call For Dialogue

Thousands of supporters and opponents of Mursi had fought well into Thursday's early hours, using rocks, petrol bombs and guns. Officials said 350 were wounded in the violence. Six of the dead were Mursi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.