The Egyptian Presidential Election 2014

The Egyptian presidential election this time is between former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and longtime Nasserist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who finished third in Egypt's 2012 presidential poll.

Egyptians living overseas started lining up to vote in the presidential election, but many are boycotting the presidential election altogether. I’m one of these people.

The decision to boycott the presidential election very much depends on whom you ask. People from the  Muslim Brotherhood who support Morsi believe that his ousting was a coup, and they still believe that Morsi is the president of Egypt.

On the other hand most activists don't see that the election is going to change much in Egyptian politics. It is just an election like other elections we have had since the removal of Mubarak in 2011. This election is designed to give control to another ex-military man who believes that freedom of speech is not necessary right now, and it might hurt the country.

However I boycott the election because I don’t see any sign of change. I also think that this election is forcing every Egyptian to choose between the bad and the worst; by the worst I mean former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

I know that sometimes you don’t get what you want, but we have been getting the bad end of the bargain all the time. Therefore we have to demand change and we have to get our voices heard.

People didn’t sacrificed their lives during the uprising so former army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi could become the president of Egypt. They lost their life seeking change and democracy. However we are too far away from that goal.

Egypt Holds Yet Another Referendum on a New Constitution

The 2012 constitution, that was passed during Morsi's presidency, was suspended after Morsi's removal on July third. It was widely criticized by secular political figures and activists alike for being shaped to the islamist view, and rushed. Despite its unpopularity the final text passed a referendum in December 2012.

Egypt is yet again facing another referendum on a new constitution; the second since the removal of Mubarak. A year ago Morsi pushed forward a vote on his Muslim Brotherhood version of the constitution, and now there's an attempt to push forward the military version. Not only are the interim president and many of Mubarak's friends behind this constitution, but also the military is backing this constitution, and working hard to crack down on any protest against it.

Although Morsi's supporters are not the only ones unhappy with this constitution, they are the only people who are boycotting it and protesting against it on the street, creating scenes of instability and chaos.

Egyptian activists believe that the new constitution has many improvements when it come to freedom, but still it is far from perfect. Where Morsi’s constitution fell short on basic freedom, the 2013 version seems to push for freedoms and holding Egypt to its obligations under international human rights treaties, but may apply more restriction on labor rights.

According to human rights activists, freedom of expression seems well-addressed in the amended document, however many fear that the loose definition could lead to possible limitation in future laws.

"The provision is okay, but it is weakened by the fact that it fails to define limitations or how to balance potential conflicts with other articles," Heba Morayef, Egypt director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Ahram Online.

Many political and economic experts argue about whether the draft constitution will help meet revolutionaries' demands for greater social justice. On the positive side, the new constitution may offer a true chance at social justice for Egyptians, especially farmers and workers.

There is also good news for Education and Health Care research. For example the 18, 19, 21 and 23 articles require that the state give a specific percentage to Education and Health from the Gross National Product (GNP).  The 2012 constitution, which was drafted under the presidency of Morsi, required the state only to allocate “an adequate amount" for these items from the state budget.

Despite the pros and cons for the new constitution, there is huge media coverage and a push for getting people to vote yes. A friend of mine counted over 60 billboards and posters in neighborhoods in Cairo alone encouraging people to vote yes. On the other hand, the Muslim Brotherhood has been instigating violence all over Egypt, and many people were killed or arrested as a result of clashes with the security forces on the first day of voting.

No End to Islamist Violence in Sight

Even though the Muslim Brotherhood leaders are losing ground and Egyptian public support, they are still insisting on unrealistic demands. While they have no upper hands, the Muslim Brotherhood are demanding to sack military leaders, reinstate the deposed president Morsi, and restore the constitution Morsi pushed through.

While the Muslim Brotherhood trying to send a message to the world that they won’t accept what they call a military coup that ousted Morsi, they are paying a high price in human lives that they lose every time they take their show of support for Morsi to the street.

Eager to take over Egypt's political scene after the toppling of Mubarak in the January 25 popular uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood did everything they could to lead the country. Their political party, Freedom and Justice, was a brand new front for the Muslim Brotherhood that won the majority in the parliament in 2012, followed by electing a Muslim Brotherhood president who has been unknown to most Egyptians until right before the election.

With all these successes under their belt, the Muslim brotherhood didn’t care about the Egyptian people's security, economy, or the demands they made during the 2011 revolution. Morsi was only interested in what the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, advised him to do every step of the way during his short-lived one year presidency.

Although Morsi was very popular among his party and group members, he wasn’t very popular on the street. People mocked Morsi and made fun of his many gaffes on Egyptian TV and during his trips to other country.

The Muslim Brotherhood is continuing to defy the military. However the crackdown is targeting the top heads of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and prominent members. One of the latest arrests was the Senior Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Essam el-Erian. He was arrested in a Cairo suburb in late October. Today thousands of Morsi supporters demonstrated nationwide on Friday against the military-backed government ahead of his planned trial on Nov. 4.

Mohamed Morsi, who was removed from the presidency by the military amid nationwide protests against him is still in custody and accused of many crimes, such as inciting violence and of failing to protect protesters who were killed outside the presidential palace in El-Etahadya.

The Muslim Brotherhood rallies people to go out and protest and sacrifice themselves for the selfish goals of increasing the group's own political power, and restoring their control over Egypt again. However I think Egyptian people are becoming smarter every day, and with no end to Islamist violence in sight, Egyptians are getting more familiar with Muslim brotherhood rhetoric, and their truly violent nature.

Civil War Propaganda in the Making

I woke up today to terrible news. Forty people were killed by the military in front of the Republican Guard headquarters. 

However other news by the BBC included different details. They say the military attacked the unarmed protesters in the mosque at 4 AM today while they were praying. That seems odd to me, because by 3 AM the prayer is over and people are no longer in the mosque.

On the other hand, Al Jazeera had footage of people showing the camera empty bullet shells. Others showed unfired unused bullets. This is supposed to be evidence that unarmed people at prayer were attacked. But the bullets are easy to debunk; the empty shells fall off next to the shooter. If you are  in a protest where the police or the army is shooting at you, any empty bullet shells were probably fired by people standing next to you, not people firing at you. And they don’t fire unused bullets either; those have to come from somewhere else.

Another eyewitness who was awakened by the gunfire said that the whole thing took place in front of the Republican Guard headquarters on the street. the Muslim Brotherhood were trying to infiltrate the Republican Guard headquarters, and the military had to use force to get them out of there. So reports that it happened inside a mosque are very unlikely.

One of the famous people in the Muslim Brotherhood, a middle-aged woman named Oun Lymen, showed up on BBC Arabic to tell her side of the story. According to her she was raped for three hours by the military.

The news was bad to begin with. And it is being badly reported.

Friday of Rage Muslim Brotherhood Style.

Violence broke out as thousands of Islamists marched in several cities across Egypt in what they Called the "Friday of Rage" to protest Wednesday's crackdown on pro-Morsi protest at Al-Rabawiya and Nahda square sit-ins, which left more than 600 people dead and thousands wounded.

Health ministry sources said four were killed in clashes in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia and eight in Damietta.

A makeshift hospital in Cairo's Ramses Square, where Morsi supporters are converging, has put the death toll at 42.

Earlier, Egyptian state television reported that at least 7 were killed so far in Cairo. At least one person has been reported killed in Giza, according to the health ministry.

Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported clashes between security forces and pro-Morsi protesters at Giza Square in the Giza district, saying security forces fired teargas in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

The Egyptian Military's Agenda

June 30 showed the amazing unity among the Egyptian people, who took to the streets all over Egypt to hold the Morsi administration accountable for its failure to meet their demands. The largest single organized protest in human history was a direct result of a year of Muslim Brotherhood rule, with Morsi as a president.

Walking in a rally, hearing people chanting “the people want to topple the regime,” reminded me of what happened on Jan 25 2011; the initial revolution days, when people were chanting the same slogan to end the Mubarak regime.  We still trying to answer the question of whether what happened on June 30 is a second wind for the revolution, or a military coup.

Let’s examine the situation. After winning the presidential election, Morsi tried to control the country and gather all kinds of power for himself and his Muslim Brotherhood party. The Muslim Brotherhood tried to become the sole political player in Egypt, ignoring and suppressing any opposition. But in the one year of their regime, Egypt suffered electric, gas, and water shortages, along with rapidly increasing inflation. In the end, the people were feeling worse than they felt under Mubarak's regime. And Morsi ended up losing everything in only one year.

On the other hand, the military has been in power no matter who was in the presidential chair. And their power was not always beneficial to the will of the people. Even in the recent past, over 1200 civilians have been tried before military courts, and repressive tactics were used by the military in 2012 against protesters, including killing protesters.

But when Morsi came to power, the military worked with the Muslim Brotherhood, and put them in the forefront, so it would appear as if the military were not responsible for anything that might happen. They also made sure that no one would be allowed to review the military's financial affairs, their factories, and their assets. The constitution that Morsi rushed into place in just 48 hours late last year, with the support of the military, included terms that secured that deal.

Morsi did shuffle some military heads in 2012, but the military has been and will remain the strongest player in the Egyptian political scene. The military succeeded in controlling what happened on June 30, just as they did on Feb 11, 2011. For the military, it was not about the freedom and democracy the people were demanding, or supporting the activists who are working hard to bring that to Egypt. It was about protecting their interests in the huge economy they created in Egypt.

As with the start of the revolution in 2011, it was important on June 30, 2013 for the military to convince the people that the military's heroic intervention was crucial to removing Morsi, perhaps even more so than the millions of people who showed up on the streets all over Egypt. Many people discouraged any chanting against the military during the June 30 rallies on the basis that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This was helped by another slogan that was popular in the 2011 revolution: “The people and the army, one hand."

At the same time, the popular opposition to Morsi grew stronger every time he failed to listen to people's demands. So the people were encouraged to rally around the military, and forget the military's past mistakes. The military was smart to focus on gaining the people's love and support during the June 30 protests. They used a variety of clever tactics such as securing the safety of the protesters, overseeing and even orchestrating the rallies and celebrations, and throwing flags to the crowd from military helicopters overhead to show that they were backing the people's cause.

I've started to notice that the state police are also using a similar strategy, and are gaining some popularity on the streets from the people who have already forgotten what the police used to be like. The police force in Egypt is best known for detaining innocent people, torturing them, and then killing them. The classic example is Khaled Said, whose death at the hands of the police was one of the key issues in the initial 2011 revolution. Like the military, the police are being praised as heroes, without any accountability for what the did to thousands of protesters before. Sadly, people forget too easily that the state police force is still the same one that left Egypt lawless and without security for two years. That state police is being transformed in the minds of the people from a tool that regimes used to terrorise protesters, to a bunch of heroes and revolution protectors.

The awful truth is that both the Military and the Police served Morsi when it was beneficial for them, and they will serve the future regime, without regard to the will of the people.

The important question is whether there was animosity between the the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. The reality is that the military worked directly with the Muslim Brotherhood when it suited their needs, but ultimately sacrificed the Muslim Brotherhood because they did fail, on many levels, to manage the country.

We do have to remember that the Egyptian military helped us to get rid of Morsi. However we are facing new challenges. With the popular support of the people, the military could quickly return to repressing popular opinion and getting rid of anyone in the future who might challenge or disagree with them.

Egyptians are starting to realize that, without a true democratic process, the ballot box is just a different way for the few elites to control the masses. Our responsibility is to keep watching, and to use the power of organized peaceful protest to remove anyone who doesn’t serve the interests of the people.

No Apologies

For the people who are talking about reconciliation with Muslim Brotherhood, I have to say no.

If you want to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood, that means you've forgotten what they have done: inciting violence, persecuting non-muslims, and driving a wedge between themselves and other Egyptians.

You should just let them be. Go back to your corner wait for them to make the first move toward real reconciliation. The Muslim Brotherhood's history is filled with aggression, partisanship, and lies. The Muslim Brotherhood chose to alienate the rest of the Egyptian people who disagreed with them, and to make enemies out of them.

Getting together with the Muslim Brotherhood now means that you can live with their way of doing business, and agree with their ideology. That's how they see it. Up to now none of the Muslim Brotherhood members has offered any apologies for the way they have been leading the country, brainwashing their supporters to go on rampages, and attacking protesters, the military, or the police.

What we need to do is to hold the Muslim Brotherhood leaders accountable for all the violent protests that broke out after June 30.

So stop talking about making good with Muslim Brotherhood. Just get them out of politics altogether, and make sure that nobody else will use religion in politics the same way Muslim Brotherhood did.

The Argument Over Morsi's Legitimacy as President

It has been over two weeks since the Egyptian military ousted former president Morsi. However his supporters still claim that Morsi has to come back and stay for three more years. The pro-Morsi people are still clinging to the notion of Morsi's legitimacy as the elected president of Egypt. But I think they are misunderstanding the term legitimacy.

Lets explore this legitimacy they are holding on to. Morsi won the election, and let's leave all the bickering aside about whether that election was manipulated, and grant for the moment that he did win. He received over 13 millions votes last year out of 50 million registered voters in the final round of the election, against Ahmed Shafiq, a representative of the party of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

At the time of the election, the constitution of the country was not finalized, and the terms of the election stated that the winner was to be an interim president for one year, until a constitution was finalized and a new election could be held. But that all changed when Morsi issued a last-minute decree, forcing the constitution to be altered giving him, among other powers, a four-year term.

A year later, the Egyptian people didn’t see any positive changes. In addition, their needs seemed to be ignored by Mr. Morsi and his Freedom and Justice Party. All Morsi was interested in over the last year was getting his friends from the Muslim Brotherhood placed into positions as ministers and heads of government, whether they were qualified or not.

Political activists took notice of the bad job Morsi was doing, and they started thinking of ways to show what the Egyptian people felt about Morsi’s performance over the one year he had been in office. They created the Rebel campaign, which invited people to have a second chance to vote in a way, now that they knew whom they were dealing with. People were asked to sign a petition to remove Morsi from office. And over 22 millions people signed the petition in less than two months. Then they took to the street on June 30, which was the deadline the campaign had established to collect as many signatures as they could. People were asked to come out and participate in a peaceful protest at Tahrir Square and the Etihadya presidential palace in Heliopolis to let Morsi know how they felt.

And the people responded. They signed the paper, and they showed up on June 30 in the mIllions all around the country.  In all, 33 million people took to the streets, and chanted a slogan showing their deep disappointment in Morsi and his administration. They also called for his resignation.

Of course people in power tend to act the same, so like his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Morsi chose to ignore the whole thing. It wasn't even covered on the official media initially. But the Egyptian people didn’t back down easily. For three days they took to the street, peacefully asking Morsi to leave.

The Egyptian military was watching closely as the situation escalated. When they saw how massive the protest had become, they asked the Morsi administration to issue some response to the protests that were taking place everywhere in Egypt. They gave Morsi 48 hours to address the Egyptian people. When Morsi finally addressed the crowds for an hour, he offered no concession. Morsi said that he would hold on to his legitimacy, and he wouldn’t be leaving before the end of his four-year term.

But Morsi was never elected to serve a four-year term. He used his position to force that into the constitution. So everything else about Morsi and his behavior as president aside, I think that the pro-Morsi people are mistaken about the question of Morsi's legitimacy after the end of his one-year interim term.

Effective Mainstream Media

While I was going through customs to return to the USA, the customs officer asked me if I participated in any of the rallies on June 30:

Me: Yes, of course. It was beautiful, and I took tons of photos.

Customs Officer: There's a lot of talk about hating Obama and the USA over there now.

Me: Many people disagree with some of the US policies in the middle east, and its hypocrisy when it comes to democracy. It wasn’t a coup by the way

Customs Officer: (raising his eyebrows) What was it then?  

Me: It was the people rejecting a failed president. They called on their military to remove him, since Morsi wasn’t doing a good job.

Customs Officer: (in a sarcastic tone) Well I guess you know more than CNN, since you were there.

Me: Yes, I was there. What happened on June 30 was a peaceful demonstration.

Customs Officer: Well if it was so peaceful, and it wasn't a coup, what do you call what happened between the people and the army a few days ago?

Me: That was between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. They attacked the army, and the army defended itself. When was the last time an angry mob directly attacked the police in the USA without the police responding?

For the record, what happened on July 8 was that a bunch of Morsi supporters, upset over the removal of Morsi on June 30, attacked the military guard outside the presidential palace in the early hours of the morning. The military tried to disperse the crowd with announcements, tear gas, and finally a few warning shots. But the crowd didn't back down. Then some people in the crowd pulled out weapons and fired directly on the army. So of course the army fired back. As a result, there were casualties and injuries to both the Muslim Brotherhood protesters and the military.

It's impressive how the mainstream media can make up a story, and convince so many people to believe it.

Pointing Fingers

There is always a tendency to point fingers and blame someone else for your problems. However when you do that, you're really only making it worse.  What you need to di is to own the problem and try to fix it.

On major social media platforms, Egyptian people from all walks of lives are starting to point fingers at the USA for having a role in the mess Egypt in right now. “The USA supported Morsi,” or “Obama support terrorists.”

These statement have been going around, and they are only letting us avoid discussing the big elephant in the room: we need to start our own democracy down the right path; a new constitution, and electing a truly representative president. Then under the supervision of the president and the army we can establish new way of voting. The system we have had since Mubarak's time is what Ikhwan used to get 60 percent of the parliament seats in 2011, and what Morsi used to become president.

We have to step back and look at our history. Our leaders after Nasser are to blame for the state we are in right now. Why? Sadat and Mubarak started the trend of getting the USA involved in our internal affairs. The USA is, of course, only interested in their own concerns, as we should be too.

The USA cares about their own security, and Israeli security. Sucks for us that we share a border with Israel, and we also have the strongest army in the whole arab world. The USA needs to keep us in peace with Israel, and keep the Camp David agreement 1978. That deal was made in the time of Carter and Sadat to end war between Egypt and Israel, and give back Sinai land to the Egyptians. With the USA involved in the agreement, of course some parts of the agreement favored the Israelis against the interests of the Egyptians. However Camp David did end the war between us and the Israelis, and that is a good thing.

People are saying online that the USA and Obama supported Morsi. Did they really? The USA would support anyone that will secure the border between us and Israel, no matter who he is. This time it happened to be a Muslim Brotherhood member who won the vote somehow.

The problem was that after the January 25 revolution, we didn’t remove the whole regime. We just got rid of the head of the regime, Mubarak. Then we were not ready for an election. Due to people's ignorance, we were forced to participate in a premature referendum, and then election after election without oversight. That is how we ended up with Morsi in power. And just like the president before him, he had to get on the good side to the USA. In addition, Morsi chose to work only from the playbook that was provided to him from his own Muslim Brotherhood party, ignoring the real needs of his own people.

So stop blaming the USA. The people who want you to blame other countries for our problems are the people who don't want you to realize what we are doing to ourselves. We have helped by being silent for too long, and we still get fooled by the people who use religion to get what they want. But no more! On the June 30 I saw new Egypt, and its people rose to the challenge and demanded the military to help us get rid of another corrupt regime.

Egypt is a civilization that has been amazing people from all corners of the world for thousands of years with its rich history and amazing people. I know our road ahead is full of bumps, but we are on the right track to rebuilding this great country of ours.

Retaliation by the Muslim Brotherhood Turns Bloody

While the whole world is worried about whether what is going on in Egypt is a coup or not coup, the Muslim brotherhood is vowing to bring Morsi back to power over the dead bodies of the Egyptian people.

July 5 was a bloody day in many cities in Egypt, but in Cairo it was just crazy. The Muslim Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters went to have their Friday prayer in the Nasser city mosque. After the long prayer, they marched to the Republican Guard headquarters, where they believed the military were holding Morsi, to free Morsi and install him in power again.

When they got there, the military was on high alert and ready to protect the building. The Morsi supporters turned to attack mode. That's when the military started shooting over their heads to scare them, and disperse the crowd. However the angry mob didn’t seem to be fazed by the military action, and they didn’t leave. So the military shot tear gas to scare them away.

The Islamists keep spreading rumors that the military killed three islamists during these clashes. With the chaos of conflicting reports, these rumors have even made it to the headlines on the BBC. But we have not seen the dead people up to now.

However this wasn’t the only rally in Cairo. Anti Morsi demonstrators also gathered in Tahrir square to show support for the military, and to show that they are content with the decision to get rid of Morsi. This gathering in Tahrir was attacked by a Muslim Brotherhood rally, resulting in more than 30 confirmed dead and over a thousand injured so far.

What I don’t get are all the rumors from all the external mainstream media about how the Egyptian army is creating a danger zone. The international press seem to be trying to make it sound like the military is the attacker, even though the Muslim Brotherhood is obviously the aggressor here.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a sore loser.They point to the election as proof of their legitimacy, but they overlook the fact that the legitimacy of any elected representative of the people comes from the people. When the people elect a person, that doesn't mean it is a lifetime vote. In a true democracy, it doesn't even mean that the person can stay in that position till the end of the term, if public opinion turns a different way.

Egypt may not have a formal recall process for elected officials yet, but thanks to the intervention of the military, the people can still make their voices heard when those who are in power are not meeting the needs of the country.

The people elected Morsi, yes, after waiting through a year of no political progress and in a total leadership vacuum. But the people who elected him can say we don’t want you anymore. Just because the cook delivered a bad meal, that doesn't mean we have to eat it too.

The Egyptian military understood that, and stood by the Egyptian people against an elected president who failed to gain the support of the people.