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| Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and the battle for the soul of Egypt | Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and the battle for the soul of Egypt |
| (3 months later) | |
| I don't feel either Jonathan Steele (A ruinous intervention, 4 July) nor your editorial (4 July) shows much understanding of the Egypt situation. The inevitable fragmentation of the many different constituencies which had agitated for change in 2011 led to the wholly predictable situation in which the two top winners of the initial elections were representatives of the only two parties which had existed before the revolution: the followers of Mubarak and of the Muslim Brothers. Many of those who backed neither party but wished for a secular, liberal and democratic Egypt, voted in the run-off for Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, who at least promised change and the respect of human rights. | I don't feel either Jonathan Steele (A ruinous intervention, 4 July) nor your editorial (4 July) shows much understanding of the Egypt situation. The inevitable fragmentation of the many different constituencies which had agitated for change in 2011 led to the wholly predictable situation in which the two top winners of the initial elections were representatives of the only two parties which had existed before the revolution: the followers of Mubarak and of the Muslim Brothers. Many of those who backed neither party but wished for a secular, liberal and democratic Egypt, voted in the run-off for Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, who at least promised change and the respect of human rights. |
| Elected by a small but clear majority, Morsi had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show Egyptians and the world that the Brotherhood were not the fundamentalist ideologues the rulers of Egypt had always painted them as, but an Islamist party ready to work for the whole nation to establish human rights and respect for the rule of law, and to set Egypt on the road to prosperity. Instead, Morsi squandered all the goodwill within months and has seemed determined to do everything in his power to forward the agenda of his party alone, while at the same time failing spectacularly to do anything to get the Egyptian economy working again. It is this double betrayal which led so many Egyptians, including many devout Muslims, to agitate for his removal before things got even worse; women were stripped of all their rights and the economy deteriorated further as tourists stayed away. | Elected by a small but clear majority, Morsi had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show Egyptians and the world that the Brotherhood were not the fundamentalist ideologues the rulers of Egypt had always painted them as, but an Islamist party ready to work for the whole nation to establish human rights and respect for the rule of law, and to set Egypt on the road to prosperity. Instead, Morsi squandered all the goodwill within months and has seemed determined to do everything in his power to forward the agenda of his party alone, while at the same time failing spectacularly to do anything to get the Egyptian economy working again. It is this double betrayal which led so many Egyptians, including many devout Muslims, to agitate for his removal before things got even worse; women were stripped of all their rights and the economy deteriorated further as tourists stayed away. |
| The army decided to act, partly, one imagines, out of self-interest, but partly too out of an awareness that Morsi was growing ever more authoritarian and intransigent even as he was destroying the delicate social and economic fabric of the country. How it will pan out no one can foresee. Much will depend on whether the Brotherhood has lost any sense of reality and are serious in their threat of turning this crisis into a dire religious conflict for the soul of Egypt. Professor Gabriel Josipovici Lewes, Sussex | The army decided to act, partly, one imagines, out of self-interest, but partly too out of an awareness that Morsi was growing ever more authoritarian and intransigent even as he was destroying the delicate social and economic fabric of the country. How it will pan out no one can foresee. Much will depend on whether the Brotherhood has lost any sense of reality and are serious in their threat of turning this crisis into a dire religious conflict for the soul of Egypt. Professor Gabriel Josipovici Lewes, Sussex |
| • Morsi and David Cameron were elected in democratic and free elections to govern in the interests of the whole nation, but Morsi chose to govern solely in favour of the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Cameron solely in favour of the brotherhood of the wealthy. The Egyptians realised this after only a year – it still doesn't seemed to have dawned on the working people of this country after three years that Osborne's austerity is aimed solely at them – and at the poor, the disabled and the unemployed. Surely it is time for a few mass protests here, to show we realise our election has been hijacked too. Tony Cheney Ipswich | • Morsi and David Cameron were elected in democratic and free elections to govern in the interests of the whole nation, but Morsi chose to govern solely in favour of the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Cameron solely in favour of the brotherhood of the wealthy. The Egyptians realised this after only a year – it still doesn't seemed to have dawned on the working people of this country after three years that Osborne's austerity is aimed solely at them – and at the poor, the disabled and the unemployed. Surely it is time for a few mass protests here, to show we realise our election has been hijacked too. Tony Cheney Ipswich |
| • Western governments might use this as an opportunity to review what are seen as the necessary steps to democracy. It is clear that "free and fair elections" do not in themselves lead to democracy. Political leaders who govern for the benefit of all the people – but with different views about what that means – must be a prerequisite, and an electorate willing to vote for such leaders. These things evolve over time; surely by now we have seen enough historical models to work out how to support and encourage the first steps rather than blindly backing only the final one. Phil Wells Hadleigh, Suffolk | • Western governments might use this as an opportunity to review what are seen as the necessary steps to democracy. It is clear that "free and fair elections" do not in themselves lead to democracy. Political leaders who govern for the benefit of all the people – but with different views about what that means – must be a prerequisite, and an electorate willing to vote for such leaders. These things evolve over time; surely by now we have seen enough historical models to work out how to support and encourage the first steps rather than blindly backing only the final one. Phil Wells Hadleigh, Suffolk |
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