vedaxcool:

democracy made election as a way of legitimately removing leaders,if not any fool can claim to have gotten the signatures of million of peoples, nd say the majority have spoken offcourse no one is explaining why the military is detaining the president or his supporters who for the past week have cone under continued attacks.nothing suggests morsiwas heading towards totalitarian regime.

Maybe there should be an exception. What will you say of leaders like Gbagbo or Mugabe among many other African leaders exploiting the so called Democracy for personal benefits?. Morsi was playing pharaoh in my own opinion (or when do passing of authoritarian decree becomes democracy?) and would have turned to Mubarak if not forced out

Egypt's Democratic outlaws
Last updated: 32 minutes ago

It's deja vu for the Muslim Brotherhood and a failure of the democratic process for Egypt, writes scholar
The Muslim Brotherhood has been here before.

In the fall of 1954, the Muslim Brotherhood put its faith in the revolutionary transition in place after the 1952 military coup, backing the wrong horse in General Muhammad Naguib, and was ultimately outmaneuvered by Nasser. In one fell swoop, the organisation was outlawed, its offices burned down by angry mobs, its newspapers shut down, and its leaders imprisoned, executed, or exiled.

For the next two decades, the group was virtually absent from society and subjected to an intensive vilification campaign that portrayed it as an alien, subversive, and violent force within Egypt that had to be eradicated. It was only after his suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood that Nasser consolidated his control of the Egyptian state and society.

The group re-emerged in the mid-1970s, rebuilt its organisational structure, recruited a new generation of Islamic activists, and steadily reclaimed its mantle as the country’s leading social organisation. It continued to thrive in spite of major periodic crackdowns and the emergence of anti-state violence by rival Islamist groups into the mid-1990s.

Given its propensity for accommodation rather than confrontation, and occasional engagement with the regime, the Muslim Brotherhood was well positioned to play a significant role in a post-authoritarian political order. As such, it was not much of a surprise that Egypt’s first democratically elected president came out of the nation’s longest standing and best-organised oppositional force.

Perhaps one of the many tragedies of these latest events is that we have lost, possibly forever, the opportunity to witness the Muslim Brotherhood humbled through its preferred method of political contestation

But if Mohamed Morsi’s rise to the presidency was a remarkable achievement for a once outlawed opposition movement, his sudden fall at the hands of a military coup backed by a mass revolt in some ways signifies an unprecedented low point in the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only does it face the prospect of enduring banishment at the hands of a cold and calculating military regime yet again, it will do so to the thunderous applause of millions of Egyptians.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are undoubtedly responsible for much of the unpopularity they generated over the course of the post-Mubarak transition. There is something to be said, however, of the ways in which large swaths of the Egyptian public seem to have internalised decades of demonisation of the group by the former regime and its propaganda arms, which continued to operate unabated throughout Morsi’s term in office.

It is now clear that the Muslim Brotherhood, which judged its own reputation solely by its ability to win at the ballot box, underestimated the extent to which a significant number of Egyptians had developed a healthy reserve of revulsion for the group, irrespective of its political performance.

The visceral and disproportionate reaction with which many of Morsi’s admittedly imprudent policies were met should have alerted him early on that his presidency would be held to a far higher standard than if any of his political rivals had won. The intense presidential race against Mubarak-era remnant Ahmed Shafiq, which Morsi won only by a slim margin, was a clear sign that there were millions of Egyptians who preferred a symbol of the former regime over its chief victims.

In apprehending Morsi late Wednesday evening, reportedly on charges of escaping prison during the 25 January revolution, the Egyptian military has fulfilled one of Shafiq’s most notorious campaign promises.

The road to Egypt’s unceremonious disposal of its president was fraught with distrust, alienation, incompetence, and gross miscalculation on the part of all parties involved. When it became clear that the popular revolution called for by millions of Egyptians in early 2011 had given way to a

superior1:

Maybe there should be an exception. What will you say of leaders like Gbagbo or Mugabe among many other African leaders exploiting the so called Democracy for personal benefits?. Morsi was playing pharaoh in my own opinion (or when do passing of authoritarian decree becomes democracy?) and would have turned to Mubarak if not forced out

please stop comparing apples and oranges, it appears u r not informed about the situation iou n Egypt! does Egypt have a Parliament? no! why? becoz the court dominated by Mubarak cronies annulled the parliamentary election, and the same Egyptian opp . refuse to partake in elections they r sure too loose because of their disorganized nature. Mitsubishi had no paliment to pass laws only decrees. the same. protesters were no where to be found during referadum held in wwhich they would have registered their dislike of their constitution.

In apprehending Morsi late Wednesday evening, reportedly on charges of escaping prison during the 25 January revolution, the Egyptian military has fulfilled one of Shafiq’s most notorious campaign promises.

The road to Egypt’s unceremonious disposal of its president was fraught with distrust, alienation, incompetence, and gross miscalculation on the part of all parties involved. When it became clear that the popular revolution called for by millions of Egyptians in early 2011 had given way to a military-led transition to a gradually reformed Egyptian state, that was to graft democratic institutions onto pre-existing authoritarian ones, the Muslim Brotherhood and most other opposition groups accepted the parameters.

With the constitution suspended, the nation’s political factions consented (however begrudgingly) to the ad hoc nature of the transition. They competed repeatedly in elections to establish their legitimacy, replacing that of the ruling military council, which had not ceased its campaign of repression and continued to shield leading culprits from the old regime from public accountability.

Even as they disagreed with the electoral outcomes of these steps toward democratic governance, millions of Egyptians acknowledged the necessity of the process and the importance of a common frame of reference to arbitrate their differences, especially given the growing polarization across society and the spectre of military rule hovering above.

Even after the Muslim Brotherhood alienated the remaining revolutionary forces, contributed its fair share to the deepening social divisions, and proved unable to deliver immediate results in its brief time in power, clear mechanisms existed to take the group to task.

The millions who turned out for Morsi’s overthrow could have proven enough to reject his proposed constitution during last December’s national referendum. Failing that, they could have mobilised their energies toward upcoming parliamentary elections, won the majority, and proceeded to amend the constitution and empower a prime minister to take on a greater share of policymaking than Morsi - a key feature of the reviled constitution, incidentally.

Of course the opposition did none of these things, passing up multiple opportunities to put the Muslim Brotherhood on its heels through mutually accepted means that the group would have no choice but to accept.

Perhaps one of the many tragedies of these latest events is that we have lost, possibly forever, the opportunity to witness the Muslim Brotherhood humbled through its preferred method of political contestation. In sharp contrast to the present scenario, that development would have come with numerous advantages, not the least of which is the continued affirmation of democracy as the governing principle among all of Egypt’s political factions, and the continued semblance of unity, however fractious, in the face of relentless efforts to subvert the nation’s transition from authoritarianism.

It remains to be seen whether those elements have succeeded in destroying Egypt’s still nascent revolution but it is clear that, in forcibly removing an elected president from power, anti-democratic forces have won the day. The alarming speed and efficiency with which the military moved to repress the Muslim Brotherhood in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s events suggests a high degree of premeditation and coordination. Consumed by their euphoria, the anti-Morsi movement has failed to see the dangerous path that lay ahead.

If contending with a fierce and unyielding counter-revolution was already a seemingly insurmountable task for a revolutionary movement representing virtually all segments of Egyptian society, it will be doubly so with the impending exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Contrary to the wishful thinking on the part of the anti-Morsi opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood’s supporters and sympathizers will not be boarding a spacecraft and departing for some alien planet anytime soon. Despite all attempts to paint them as foreign invaders, they are part and parcel

Moreover, the ruling military council’s decision to suspend the constitution and rule by decree after Mubarak’s overthrow was one of its most widely detested decisions and served as a battle cry for protests against it. Yet it was cheers that greeted the defence minister’s announcement Wednesday that Egypt would be once again without a constitution until further notice.

If the military rulers proved more than capable of abusing their authority in the face of widespread opposition, they are far more likely to do so with the belief that their suspension of the constitution has popular support. It will also be critical to observe the emerging ruling dynamic, given that several of the military’s civilian partners have no legal basis to speak of, and instead owe their newfound positions of power to their military benefactors.

It is quite a thing to see Mohamed ElBaradei reject popular elections conducted under military rule, only to accept a direct appointment to a governing body by none other than the military rulers.

Among the lessons of the first transitional period was that people power, while potentially the ultimate arbiter of the revolution, is also mercurial. When the dust settles on a mass protest movement, it is the political entities whose democratic credentials are very much in doubt that are poised to determine the shape of the Egyptian state.

With the previous process now entirely undone, the same movement that cast out a crucial member of Egypt’s post-authoritarian order now stands tasked with ensuring a future that secures the rights of all to shape their country’s future. It is not off to the best of starts.

Abdullah Al-Arian is an Assistant Professor of History at Wayne State University, where he specialises in the modern Middle East. 

You can follow Abdullah on twitter @anhistorian

http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201374115114452703

Egypt's coup: a ruinous intervention

Whether the Egyptian army's actions today and over the previous two days amount to a full-scale military coup can be debated. But what is clear beyond doubt is that they amount to a ruinous intervention in the politics of a country that had breathed the air of democracy for the first time for decades.

An army that appeared to be retreating from politics after the departure of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 has stepped back into the arena again, first by issuing an ultimatum to an elected president to obey it or resign, and then by going through with its threat and laying out a road map that deposes him and suspends the constitution.

Rejecting the results of elections that were widely deemed to be free and fair and setting aside a country's basic law is a step that no army should ever take. The fact that the army's move has been welcomed by many of the revolutionaries who first had the courage to go into the streets against Mubarak in 2011 is a desperate commentary on their political naivety and shortsightedness.

This is not to say that President Mohamed Morsi is blameless. The political charge sheet against him is long and detailed, the worst offence being his issuance last November of high-handed decrees to extend his powers. But he quickly rescinded them after protests. During the latest turmoil on the streets, in spite of his defiant words about being ready to die, he again showed a willingness to compromise by offering to form a government of national unity and accelerate elections to a new parliament. But to make him entirely responsible for the disappointments of the past two years is absurd. It was not he but the supreme administrative court that dissolved the people's assembly, the lower house of parliament. It is not he but the leaders of the opposition parties who produced a government that was largely dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi invited them to join the cabinet but they refused.

It certainly isn't the president who should be blamed for the failure of the Egyptian economy to provide enough jobs for tens of thousands of young people who are graduating every year, let alone for an older generation that is out of work. Morsi went along with the International Monetary Fund's plans for an end to subsidies on food and utility prices that would only create more austerity, but so did most of the established opposition leaders who are now clamouring for power. As for the failure of the tourism sector to revive, the main reason for the chaos and instability that put off outsiders rests with the constant street provocations of demonstrators.

Much has rightly been made of the threat to Egyptian democracy that comes from the so-called deep state: the still entrenched bureaucracy made up of officials of Mubarak's National Democratic party, elitist entrepreneurs who were his cronies, and an army hierarchy that exploited state assets or profited from newly privatised industries and trading companies. Some accused Morsi of joining the ranks of this authoritarian elite. But the real charge was that he did too little to challenge them or their footsoldiers, a corrupt and brutal police force. The irony of the events of the past few days is that those who are so energetically denouncing the president in Tahrir Square and the streets of other cities are falling into the trap made by the very elite they want to bring under control.

It is true that the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters are social conservatives who may pose a threat to some Egyptians' civil rights. But the biggest and most immediate danger to the country is to the political rights that all Egyptians won with the overthrow of Mubarak. The abolition of one-party rule, the right of all kinds of political groups to organise freely, the lifting of media censorship, and the virtual curtailment of imprisonment for dissent are benefits that should not be abandoned lightly.

Those who believe that the military's main objective is to preserve the new freedoms will soon be disappointed. From Chile in 1973 to Pakistan in 1999 (and several times before that), long is the history of military takeovers that were welcomed in their first hours and days but regretted in the years of despair that followed. For Egypt to follow in that tradition is a disaster.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/03/egypt-coup-ruinous-army

Nigerians are funny people sha!!! One moment they argued that one tenure (four years) is not enough to judge the performance of a dumbo and the next moment they shout that Morsi needs to be removed for under performing in one year?? Nigerians are funny people sha!!! One moment they argued that one tenure (four years) is not enough to judge the performance of a dumbo and the next moment they shout that Morsi needs to be removed for under performing in one year??

an islamist party in power isnt d best tin 4 egypt,given this islamist party av bin fundin terrorist arts in palestin n co...the egyptians foresaw egypt bin turned into a sharia state whc isnt d best for a country wit 10-15% xtians n alot f free tinkin citizens..atleast morsi was given 48hrs 2put an end 2d protest in whc he did notin..i tink dis protest has jst justified mubarak's reason for nt wantin 2leave government..until they adopt turkey's political pattern,there ll b protests upon protests

Expect coup and chaos if Muslim Brotherhood of Nigeria aka the APC (Alhaji People's Party) were to win the presidency. I don't think God will allow it.

APC NEW PARTY LEADERSHIP AS SUBMITTED TO INEC AND ANNOUNCED BY SEN ALI MODU SHERIFF.
1] Party Leader - North, Gen Muhammadu Buhari (Muslim).
2] Party Leader - South, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Muslim).
3] National Chairman: Abdulkareem Bisi Akande (Muslim)
4] Deputy National Chairman: Aminu Bello Masari (Muslim)
5] National Secretary: Tijjani Musa Tumsah (Muslim)
6] Deputy National Secretary: Nasir El-Rufai (Muslim)
7] National Publicity Secretary.: Lai Muhammed (Muslim)
8] National Treasurer: Sadiya Umar Faruq (Muslim)
9] National Financial Secretary: Alhaji Shaibu Musa (Muslim)
10] National Youth Leader: Abubakar Lado (Muslim)
11] National Legal Adviser: Muiz Banire (Muslim)
12] National Deputy Auditor: Bala Jibrin (Muslim)
13] National Women Leader: Sharia Ikeazor (Muslim Convert)
14] Ex-Officio Member: Muniru Muse (Muslim)
15] Ex-Officio Member: Alhaji Yemi Sanusi (Muslim)

APC is a complete muslim party. Naijas should be warned!
What happened to Arab spring? As I always say, not everything that glitters is gold. The Muslim brotherhood have APC written all over it. I truly believe APC is a fraud, and at the end of the day intelligent Nigerians will not be deceived. If for some strange reason APC was to come into power in Nigeria, not likely I hope, we will be back where the Egyptians are today. And that will be tragic. The islamic composition of APC has always worried me, and for someone like me that don't really give a damn whether you are a muslim or christian, is saying a lot. And beside APC has no agenda except that PDP is corrupt.They have never been able to articulate their vision for Nigeria except that they will fight corruption. Really?

Let the Nigerian young military officers desist from pepper-souping and do something great for their homeland. They don't need to stay in power, but they can clean the mess created by the politicians and hold them accountable for the plundering of our commonwealth. Walking the corrupt Nigerian politicians to the firing squad would not be a bad idea. Don't be scared about the Western world, because they would eventually come around after the initial braggado. It is only Nigerians that can help Nigeria from political marauders.

GenBuhari:
Civilian rule can work in Nigeria but it needs to be setup by honest patriotic and sincere leaders.

Yes, sincere leaders like ''Buhari'' as far as he stay behind the door not mainstream !!!


Sincere leaders like New-Generations of Nigeria Leaders !!!

GenBuhari:
Civilian rule can work in Nigeria but it needs to be setup by honest patriotic and sincere leaders.

Yes, sincere leaders like ''Buhari'' as far as he stay behind the door not mainstream !!!


Sincere leaders like New-Generations of Nigeria Leaders !!!

REVOLUTNIS: Let the Nigerian young military officers desist from pepper-souping and do something great for their homeland. They don't need to stay in power, but they can clean the mess created by the politicians and hold them accountable for the plundering of our commonwealth. Walking the corrupt Nigerian politicians to the firing squad would not be a bad idea. Don't be scared about the Western world, because they would eventually come around after the initial braggado. It is only Nigerians that can help Nigeria from political marauders.

This will never solve the onus of the problem but escalate it unless ''federal character'' is deployed in selecting those boys who shall bell the cat and even with federal character there would still emerged everlasting problem !!!


The Military made Nigeria to be what it is today !!! Nigeria woulda been a better country without military intervention the best way for Nigeria to move forward is to Invest heavily in democracy which thus represent our Diversity and Uniqueness


Nigerian Army should never have intervened in our democracy but Just keep maintaining peace by raising against internal insurrection as Biafra and External Aggression as peace-missions which is there sole responsibilty Gaddamit,it is not there brief to usurp democratic government !!!


Military are never trained to be objective therefore Becareful what U wished for Dude

gboss4sure: This should teach the Muslim brotherhood that you cant run a country with religion. Religion needs to be afar from Decision makings when it comes to Government.

You have erred in that aspect by saying religion can't go with politics it is democracy which can't go with religion cos it is built on hypocrisy.