Green Energy
From Barry Rubin:
- Good News For America? Who Knows, Maybe? Egypt’s Army Takes Over
There can be no doubt that the political aspirations of the large majority of Egyptians have just been snuffed out.Egypt’s highest court on Thursdaydeclared the country’s parliament invalidand cleared the way for a member of former President Hosni...
-
My Way: Egypt's Islamists win 75 percent of parliament CAIRO (AP) - Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president...
-
Al Arabiya: Egyptians back in Tahrir for anti-military protests, 10 months after Mubarak’s ouster Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians rallied Friday in Cairo’s Tahrir square with Islamists in the forefront to protest against what they say are attempts...
-
BBC: Egypt uprising: Islamists lead Tahrir Square rally Jon Leyne at the protest: "It seems the Islamists and the military rulers have a shared interest in maintaining the old order" Tens of thousands of people have packed Cairo's Tahrir Square,...
- About Face
Nothing good will come of this. Newsmax: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Plans to Set up Party Tuesday, 15 Feb 2011 Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it will set up a political party once restrictions are lifted that prevented it and other groups from...
Green Energy
The Arab Winter in Egytp: Massive Violence on the Horizon as Egyptian Army Takes Control
From Barry Rubin:
The Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court has just invalidated the parliamentary election there. The parliament, 75 percent of whose members were Islamists, is being dissolved. The military junta has taken over total authority. The presidential election is still scheduled for a few dozen hours from now.Go read the whole thing.
In short, everything is confused and everything is a mess. All calculations are thrown to the wind. What this appears to be is a new military coup. What is the underlying theme? The armed forces concluded that an Islamist takeover was so dangerous for Egypt and for its own interests that it is better to risk civil war, a bloodbath, and tremendous unpopularity than to remain passive and turn over power. I believe this decision was made very reluctantly and not out of some lust for power by the generals. They have decided that they had no choice.
Yes, it is under legal cover, but nobody is going to see it as a group of judges — appointed by former President Hosni Mubarak, remember — looking deep into the law books and coming up with a carefully reasoned decision based on precedent. In theory, this will be seen by every Islamist — whether Salafi or Muslim Brotherhood — and by most of the liberals — who feel closer to the Islamists than to the government — as if the 2011 revolution has just been reversed. In preparation, the army prepared a new regulation allowing itself arrest anyone.
Prediction: massive violence.
Still, there’s something strange going on. So far, the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists have not reacted so strongly. Is it that they were caught unawares, or want to keep quiet because they think they’ll win the presidential election, or maybe there will be some kind of deal in which the Muslim Brotherhood backs down, most of the parliamentary members will be allowed to stay on, and the military will retain a lot of political power? Everything is up in the air? So far the Brotherhood doesn’t seem so upset by the decision. Why is that?
With typical journalistic “neutrality,” CNN’s Ben Wedeman reported from Cairo: “Those who don’t want to see a return to the oppression of the past … are very unhappy with this ruling.” What about the people who don’t want a radical Islamist regime and a Sharia state to become the oppression of the future?
- Good News For America? Who Knows, Maybe? Egypt’s Army Takes Over
There can be no doubt that the political aspirations of the large majority of Egyptians have just been snuffed out.Egypt’s highest court on Thursdaydeclared the country’s parliament invalidand cleared the way for a member of former President Hosni...
-
My Way: Egypt's Islamists win 75 percent of parliament CAIRO (AP) - Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president...
-
Al Arabiya: Egyptians back in Tahrir for anti-military protests, 10 months after Mubarak’s ouster Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians rallied Friday in Cairo’s Tahrir square with Islamists in the forefront to protest against what they say are attempts...
-
BBC: Egypt uprising: Islamists lead Tahrir Square rally Jon Leyne at the protest: "It seems the Islamists and the military rulers have a shared interest in maintaining the old order" Tens of thousands of people have packed Cairo's Tahrir Square,...
- About Face
Nothing good will come of this. Newsmax: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Plans to Set up Party Tuesday, 15 Feb 2011 Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it will set up a political party once restrictions are lifted that prevented it and other groups from...