Egypt's military regime is getting away with murder
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Washington must not miss this opportunity to show that it is ready to stand up for ordinary Muslims by punishing the dictators
After being held incommunicado for the past four months by a military regime that ousted him from the post of Egypt’s president last July, Mohamed Morsi has finally surfaced.
It brought a sense of relief to some, who were wondering whether Morsi had disappeared from the face of the earth for good.
But the situation doesn’t look hopeful for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who is facing charges of incitement to murder.
Besides Morsi, about 2,000 high- and mid-ranking leaders plus 6,000 ordinary members of the Muslim Brotherhood are being detained in this power play between the military – which has the gun – and the Morsi’s camp – which has the people.
The military has promised to return the mandate to the people soon, but latest reports strongly suggest that the Constitution currently being drafted will exempt the armed forces and its expenditure from civilian oversight. Moreover, it will authorise the military trials of civilians to continue.
Opposition media has been shut down and the space for criticism is quickly disappearing. It is against this grim backdrop that democracy is supposed to be returning to Egypt.
Unfortunately, the US, one of the few countries that can influence positive change in Egypt, is not doing enough. Last Sunday, following a quick trip to Cairo, US Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted as saying, “The roadmap is being carried out to the best of our perception.”
Kerry’s perception is faulty. A blind man could see that the military-led “new democracy” in Egypt has turned the last elected president and thousands of his supporters into political prisoners. On his Cairo trip, Kerry failed even to mention Morsi’s trial.
Egypt’s “new democracy” has also silenced the opposition, shut down media critical of the government and chased leading secular liberal politicians, such as former presidential candidates Mohamed ElBaradei and Ayman Nour, out of the country.
International powers need to ask themselves whether their engagement with Egypt is only in the narrow interest of commerce, or also for the sake of the Egyptian people.
US laws compelled the Obama administration to suspend the sale of several weapon systems and jet fighters to the new regime in Cairo. At least that’s something – though other countries have no such legislative mechanisms to curb their arms trading with Egypt.
Last July, a wave of popular opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule translated into support for the coup.
But when the military showed it had no qualms about gunning down its own people – in August more than 1,000 demonstrators were shot and killed – the dividing line between the people and the oppressive military became clear.
For the US, a country whose foreign policy has angered large sections of the Islamic world, this is an opportunity to show that it is willing to stand up for ordinary Muslims in their fight against military dictators. To do so, Washington needs to go beyond passive legislative moves, and punish Cairo’s dictators for their actions.
