When about 77% of Egyptians voted YES in the referendum on constitutional amendments on March 19th, they might have assumed that with adopting the changes the further proceedings would be clear. Reality coukldnt be further from that. The military is now speaking of postponing elections, announcing a constitutional statement that only „includes“ the amendments accepted in the referendum, and is very active in various ways...For example they appointed a committee which is supposed to solve the dispute between the first commitee which drafted the amendments and the second commitee which was established in order to amend the amendments ....Clearly "governing a country" was not part of the training schedule in their boot camps...
Military's actions intransparent and contradictious
Paradoxically enough the Military council is now at parts implementing demands the opposition had voiced before the referendum, such as drafting a constitutional declaration which is supposed to form the legal foundation for the remainder of the transistional period and potponing the parliamentary and presidential elections to a later date. A Foreign Policy Article by Nathan J. Brown draws attention to this paradox development and the Military Council's way of working and (not)communicating.
Religious authorities calling for dialogue, Salafis fighting democracy in grassroots activities
While Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark (whatever this means) and an also among Muslims well respected figure, embraces dialogue with Al-Azhar, the leading Islamic university, and the Salafis, Salafi grassrout activities give reasons to worry about the country's future. Recently the movement had announced to abandon its previous (supposedly) apolitical stance and get involved with political processes.
On Monday AlMasr AlYoum reports Salafis where seen handing out anti-democracy flyers in Cairo. According to the article, the flyers called for people not only to become Salafis but also to refrain from embracing a political order that violates the law of God. Little surprising they call for the return to Sunna and Quran and warn that a secular state (they probably rather mean a secular state with a particular legal order and notion of citizenship, but nevermind these nitty-gritty details) would not differentiate between people who were created with differences. One cannot help but think of women's rights and gender equality here, who obviously are a thorn in the side of many Salafis.
Who's afraid of Salafis?
Also I cannot help to always be slightly amused by the ramblings of extremists, their argumentation often lacking any appeal or simple connection to the thinking of those who are not yet on board anyways. The meshing of religion and politics, the (ab)use of Islam to push for certain political goals is despised in particular by many believers. As I had mentioned in an earlier blogpost there was even critique from within the Muslim Brothers against the instrumentalisation of Islam. Yet, it is really hard to judge how dangerous and how powerful the religious extremists really are. In the MB for example, there's clearly various wings, ranging from a conservative strand to the more liberal reformers. And clearly the MB does not always speak in unity.
MB youth calling for internal democratisation of the Muslim Brothers
Just recently the Youth of the MB organized a conference which was officially not approved of by the MB's leadership. AlMAsr AlYoum has a very interesting article on the conference. It describes open debate on whether MB should form a party which also reaches out to non-MB or whether thy should stay out of politics completely and instead focus on dawa. Also demands have been voiced to give more authority to the elected body, the Shura Council rather than the guidance committee, an executive body which has led the MB rather autonomously in the last year. Besides the general demands for democratisation of internal organisation, participants also asked for better representation of women and youth within the MB. On the other hand there was an incidence in South Egypt when Salafis reportedly cut off the ear of a coptic teacher, accusing him of facilitating prostitution and referring to Sharia law to justify their self-imposed punishment.
Calls for renewed protests against corruption and loosing the revolution
But not only the religious forces are stepping up their activity. The youth Coalition is calling for another Million men march on Friday, in order to protest that leading figures of the old regime who allegedly are responsible for much suffering before and during the days of revoultion are still running around Egypt voicing their opinion and pledging their innocence in talkshows and other public fora rather than being put in jail.
Also the postponing of court cases against other former NDP leaders might fuel the youth anger. Last weekend, court cases against big former NDP figures were referred back as judge has family ties to one of the accused. The case against former Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid, and steel magnate Ahmed Ezz was supposed to be opened on Sunday, but due to family affiliations had to be postponed. Also, the 6th April movement calls for new protests against corruption.
Wiki-Leaked cable likely to boost El-Baradei's standing in Egypt
Meanwhile a wiki leaks released cable is likely to boost elBaradei's standing in Egypt. The cable basically states that US officials where unhappy with Baradei in the last year of his term as head of the IAEA. The Daily Telegraph reported on this issue already on the 9th of February, in essence displaying it as a disagreement of the US and ElBaradei on how to proceed with Syria and Iran, but also depicting ElBaradei as kind of out of touch with reality and self-centred. The Egyptian Daily News and AlMasr AlYoum on the other hand picked it up just now in its online coverage
In the respective articles, Daily News and AlMasr AlYoum read the cable as stating that Baradei was problematic „because he supports the views of developing countries on the Middle East and other issues.“ Considering that to many Egyptians elBaradei is too much Westernized, „not an Egyptian“ and has paved the way for the war on an Arab country, Iraq, with his work for the IAEA, a beneficial reading of the cable might well rehabilitate him in the eyes of some.
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