Because for some time now I have realized that democracy and a 'new dawn' in Egypt has been nothing more than smoke and mirrors and wishful thinking. An excellent article by Chris Hedges posted on Monday on the Common Dreams website has offered me the insight into the Egyptian situation that I have been wanting and know that I have been missing.
Things have come to a head in Egypt with the first round voting for the country's new Constitution, which formed the basis for Hedges' article, and which is entitled. "Morsi: Egypt's New Pharaoh."
Courtesy of Carlos Latuff at Latuff Cartoons
President Mohamed Morsi has been unsettling more than just a few million people in his own country. Many liberal and progressive thinkers and activists, both within Egypt and worldwide, now know that Morsi is part of a much wider and deeper and malevolent conspiracy to achieve absolute power in Egypt - power that is anything but democratic. As Hedges reports:
"It is the story of most revolutions. The moderates, who are crucial to winning the support of the masses and many outside the country, become an impediment to the consolidation of autocratic power. Liberal democrats, intellectuals, the middle class, secularists and religious minorities including Coptic Christians were always seen by President Mohamed Morsi and his Freedom and Justice Party—Egypt’s de facto political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood—as “useful idiots.” These forces were essential to building a broad movement to topple the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. They permitted Western journalists to paint the opposition in their own image. But now they are a hindrance to single-party rule and are being crushed."
So that is what all the 'brotherhood' on the streets of Cairo last year was a ll about - it wasn't about the brotherhood of men trying to topple the odious Mubarak regime, but the Muslim Brotherhood of men trying to topple the odious Mubarak regime. Except they were behind the scenes rubbing their hands with glee as they used their "useful idiots" and now manipulate their puppet, Morsi, to do their political bidding.
As Hedges states:
"The referendum masks the real center of power, which is in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. The party has no intention of diluting or giving up that power. For example, when it appeared that the Supreme Constitutional Court would dissolve the panel—stacked with party members—that was drafting the new constitution, the Brotherhood locked the judges out of the court building. Three dozen members of the panel, including secularists, Coptic Christians, liberals and journalists, quit in protest. The remaining Islamists, in defiance of the judges, held an all-night session Nov. 29 and officially approved the 63-page document."
He continues by adding:
"The draft constitution is filled with disturbingly vague language about democratic rights, civil liberties, the duties of women and the role of the press. It gives Islamic religious authorities control over the legislative process and many aspects of daily and personal life. One reason the constitution is expected to pass, apart from voting fraud, is because many liberals, secularists and Copts have walked away in disgust from electoral participation."
Hedges is of the opinion that the Brotherhood were reluctant when the Arab Spring took hold in Tahrir Square and spread all over Cairo and beyond in early 2011, only to seize the opportunity as events unfolded. I am not so sure. Hedges definitely knows his Middle East politics far better than I, but somehow I feel that the Muslim Brotherhood may have very well manipulated this whole 'Spring' far more than he thinks, probably from the very outset.
How very, very nifty and cunning of the Brotherhood. And how very stupid I feel - the gullible, naive Westerner so convinced that real, meaningful change was coming to the nation of the Nile. Stupid, naive me.
And now the Muslim Brotherhood orchestrates their grand takeover of Egyptian politics, society and life. And up in smoke will go the aspirations of a democratic, secular dawn for Egypt. Now all it seems is that an authoritarian, Islamist nightmare awaits that nation.
What a waste all of that emotion and jubilation and blood of Tahrir Square, as yet another nation is laid waste to the grubby, vicious fanaticism of religious fundamentalism.
What a great, great shame.
Do you get my point?
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