The beheading of Democracy in Egypt.
In 2011 it was a year of trial and tribulation, and uneasiness for the dictatorships in the muslim Arab world. The Arab Spring as it came to be known instigated in Tunisia. A young man set a fire on himself in Tunisia to highlight the suffering and frustration most Tunisian people face.  Many Tunisians came out to protest against the former regime which led to the overthrow of Ben Ali within weeks. This phenomenon has spread to other countries in the region like Egypt, Libya, Syria and many more. The dictatorships of Egypt and Libya soon followed. The whole world was thrilled with the idea of having democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. After elections took place in these countries an islamists governments came to power which frightened the west. Especially Egypt because its relations with America and the peace treaty with Israel. Moreover, Egypt is crucial to the west and muslim Arab world as it’s the largest populous nation in the Middle East. Egypt’s economy was in a terrible state after Mohamed Morsi became the first democratically elected president in the history of Egypt. Morsi then pursued an islamist agenda having the majority of the parliament members on his side. Many people inside and outside of Egypt disapproved his policies arguing Morsi was not serving the interests of all Egyptians.
Although Morsi tried to rescue the economy from the brink of collapse by asking millions of dollars from the IMF, the situation on the ground was devastating for the ordinary Egyptians. There was no foreign investment, and on-going daily demonstrations in Cairo have not help on already economy on its knees. Furthermore, the state of the economy has worsened and, it was extremely difficult situation as unrest ensued most of the country. This has led to the dawnfall of Morsi by the military after millions of Egyptians protested in Tahrir Square on the 30th of June against the back drop of Islamic rule, and economic hardships. It is worth noting there was no justification to overthrow Morsi as he was a freely-elected president.
On the other hand, there are those who argue that Morsi has lost his legitimacy according to the number of people who came out on the streets against him. This argument is an utter baseless to justify Morsi’s overthrow, and does not solve the problem. There is no one denying that Morsi has lost some of the support he had when he was elected, but he still had sizeable followers. They should have waited the ballot box to remove him. It seems the military had a justification to topple Morsi not because of the number of people demonstrating around the country. But they did not like the Muslim Brotherhood’s policies as they were wholly Islamic driven. After Morsi’s toppling democracy was beheaded in Egypt in a broad daylight after Egyptian security cleared two sit-ins in Cairo. The police had killed more than 900 hundred people in cold blood, and have been arrested many more including top senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders. Those are against Morsi should know that two wrongs does not make right. Killing an innocent people will only deteriorate a fragile situation. And it may be true that Morsi made mistakes but we are all human, and we are born to make mistakes. At least Morsi did not authorise killing an innocent people. Those in power today are making far greater mistakes than Morsi. Moreover, the west should not even dare to promote democracy as they failed to oppose the military coup. And the military should know that cracking down an innocent people will not bring about a lasting peace and resolution to Egypt. It may bring in short term but the same polarisation will be there in the future.Â
Mohamed Dawlad
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