Very nice, nuanced analysis of the different and shifting positions towards the Brotherhood, the army and civil liberties of Egypt’s various non-Islamist groups and parties by Sharif Abdel Kouddous in The Nation: <\/p>\n
Opposition to Morsi grew throughout his time in office, eventually stretching across nearly every sector of Egyptian society. It also had grassroots support, manifested in more than 9,000 protests and strikes during his year-long rule that culminated in calls for early presidential elections and the unprecedented June 30 mobilization.<\/p>\n
His opponents included a broad swath of political and social movements, often characterized by conflicting ideologies and grievances. It included revolutionary activists, labor unions, human rights advocates, the Coptic Church, intransigent state institutions, former Mubarak regime members and sidelined business elites as well as the formal opposition\u2014the flock of non-Islamist political parties and figures routinely lumped together as \u201cliberals,\u201d despite the fact that many of them have rejected any notion of political pluralism, a defining characteristic of liberalism.<\/p>\n
The result has been a confusing, and increasingly atomized, political landscape. Of the disparate groups opposed to Morsi, some actively sought military intervention, fewer opposed any military role, while others\u2014like Dawoud\u2014stood by the military as it ousted the president, but eventually broke away in the face of mounting state violence and mass arrests of Islamists under the guise of a \u201cwar on terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
The military\u2014which formed a coalition of convenience with the Brotherhood for much of 2011 to manage the post-Mubarak landscape and hold revolutionary aspirations and unfettered popular mobilizations in check\u2014successfully co-opted the movement against Morsi and, along with the security establishment, emerged as the clearest winner from his overthrow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The biggest surprise for me was to read this account of what rabidly pro-military Tamarrod leader Mahmoud Badr said five weeks before Morsi’s ouster: <\/p>\n
In his opening remarks, one of Tamarod\u2019s founders, Mahmoud Badr (previously a coordinator in Kefaya), chose to focus on the role of the army. He recounted various incidents of popular mobilization and resistance against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces\u2014which directly ruled the country following Mubarak\u2019s ouster in 2011\u2014in which the Brotherhood did not take part. He concluded by ruling out a military role in political life. \u201cWe insist that the army cannot be involved in politics,\u201d he said emphatically. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Badr supports a Sisi presidency now (and generally giving the army whatever it wants). One of the most frustrating things about following and analyzing politics in Egypt is how utterly irresponsible and inconsistent political actors are, how often they go back on previous positions and statements and break their commitments. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Very nice, nuanced analysis of the different and shifting positions towards the Brotherhood, the army and civil liberties of Egypt’s various non-Islamist groups and parties by Sharif Abdel Kouddous in The Nation: Opposition to Morsi grew throughout his time in office, eventually stretching across nearly every sector of Egyptian society. It also had grassroots support, … Continue reading What Happened to Egypt\u2019s Liberals After the Coup?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[168],"tags":[221,6,191],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}