The Making of Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood

The making of the Muslim Brotherhood, President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi started after it was announced that he ended the services of Egypt’s strong military leaders ‘Tantawi and Anan’ and appointed a new general “Sisi” to head and lead the armed forces.

My own analysis of the events in Egypt makes me need to correct the record of events and give the actual picture. From my perspective of what took place on the day when, technically and on surface the regime of the 1952 revolution was completely removed and retired was that, Morsi did not appoint or order anything, he was handed the retirement requests and the appointment. Morsi would not have known who to appoint, just to simplify the matter. The military decided for itself the change, so the Mubarak team would not be the one that would end Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood a year later.

The Muslim Brotherhood did not have anything to do with the Jan25, 2011 revolution that brought an end to Hosni Mubarak presidency and the regime of 1952. The Muslim Brotherhood candidate though won the presidency by 51.5 %( approx.). This is a normal percentage in many democratic countries around the world including the United States.

Egyptians who stayed home passively and boycotted the presidential elections last year (including opposition leaders like ElBaradei, the current vice president of Egypt after the May 30, 2013 revolution), never forgave themselves (for losing something that was theirs) or the Muslim Brotherhood for winning something that they believed did not belong to them but belonged to the millions of the 2011 revolution.

Since then, the opposition has evolved, became more aggressive and staged almost weekly protests across all levels of the state, with the military cheerfully observing and secretly encouraging.

The ‘State’ in Egypt never really came under control of the Muslim Brotherhood; the military has been in charge of the state behind the scenes, basically, Morsi never had a chance to control anything in the past year, he had a government but it was useless and headed by someone the Egyptians considered a joke, for some reason. Maybe he was not given a chance to actually govern exactly like his boss at the presidential palace.

The military, Intelligence, Police, the Presidential Republican Guards and the complicated Egyptian bureaucracy have all been under the command of the armed forces, Morsi was told who to appoint for Intelligence and the Republican Guards, even the change at the intelligence that was made a day after he was toppled, was not as it was reported that the military removed ‘Morsi’s man’ from intelligence, not at all, the former intelligence chief moved up to become the temp president’s adviser for Intelligence-he was rewarded, and a new chief was appointed.

The military all along decided to give Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood a certain period, say one year, to let the steam off the street and to show the Egyptians the incompetence and lack of ability and lack of leadership of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Along the way Morsi was left alone, the Egyptian state really was not under his control, he was at the presidential palace with a government that did not have the wheels or the mechanism to function.

The Egyptians got more and more frustrated, the state was collapsing, and no electricity for hours, no gas in a country that exports energy, lack of security everywhere and in Sinai, but above all, the Egyptians in general felt lack of respect, lack of self-respect.

They were ashamed that someone like Morsi is their president, they even longed to the dictatorship of Nasser- who fooled them and brought defeat on them and the Arabs for generations- they longed to anything that reminded them of an Egypt that they loved and hated at the same time and wanted to forget everything that reminded them of their daily lives now and that someone they considered a joke, does not speak good English, does not know how to behave- according to some journalists interpretations, at a meeting last year with the former Australian prime minister, Morsi appeared  touching his trousers in a way that was interpreted as if he was touching his genitals.

In the midst of all these things going on, Morsi could not show respect, maybe because the Egyptians were not used to see a normally elected civilian as head of state, maybe the Egyptians were afraid not of him but of the organization behind him, the Muslim Brotherhood and that there is a ‘Morshed’, ‘Supreme Guide’ above Morsi technically at the Muslim Brotherhood that reminded them of Iran.

Over 50-60% of Egyptians, based on elections results and my own analysis of the two back to back revolutions of 2011 and 2013, The Muslim Brotherhood to millions of Egyptians is nothing but a strange complicated weird suspicious political/ religious body. The Muslim Brotherhood on its part could not reach beyond their traditional 20-30% strong loyal base mostly in the countryside of Egypt. At least 60% of the Egyptian population is not with the Muslim Brotherhood, with around 10% undecided.

This is how I personally see the electoral map of Egypt, and I claim that based on events on the street, this picture could very well be realistic. Now Those 60% of the population are in love with their armed forces. They look at the officers with respect that they do not share with any other sector of the society, forget about judges, religious figures, ministers, the Egyptian people so far have respect only for the leadership of the military and the military in Egypt returns the love to its people.

This will change and evolve eventually but it will not change now, and obviously it has not changed. Accordingly and realistically and factually the Muslim Brotherhood has no choice but to show respect for the generals in Egypt- this is how the Egyptian political system works. Any attack on them, will only complicate the Brotherhood possible return to the political life in Egypt soon. And it happened, on 07/08/2013, the Muslim Brotherhood eyeing and targeting mostly foreign press and Al Jazeera Network to charge the emotions staged a deadly attack on the Egyptian Republican Guards, the president’s guards, over 54 people died, hundreds got injured and The Muslim Brotherhood got more distanced from their dream of the presidency in Egypt and from their impossible dream of restoring Morsi.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood for now are done. Their return to the Egyptian political map will depend on how pragmatic they can be in handling the current revolution, and their ability or willingness or not to stage protests in public and at the same time going along from behind closed doors with Egypt’s powerful street and the military. Egypt with or without the Muslim Brotherhood is moving forward and not backward.

Originally piblished in WSN on 07/10/2013
http://www.wespeaknews.com/world-speak/the-making-of-morsi-and-the-muslim-brotherhood-223295.html (link no longer active)