CAIRO — Mohammed Morsi, in office only a year as the first democratically elected leader of Egypt, was rousted from power by the military Wednesday as a euphoric crowd in Tahrir Square cheered his exit.
The former leader was placed under house arrest at the Republican Guard Club, a senior adviser to the Freedom and Justice Party and spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood said. Most members of the presidential team have also been placed under house arrest.
At the end of the day — actually, three of them — Egypt may not have the functioning, open, and vibrant democracy it thought it would have a year ago, but it probably has its first genuinely moderating and constituent-oriented government ever: General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi did not appoint himself president but rather a judicial appointee of Morsi’s choosing, Adli Mansour.
For Egypt, I believe this is a new dawn and more true to the formation of a sound democracy than the mere deposing of an old dictator with dynastic ambitions and the replacing of the same with the nearest available surviving spoiler, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Also changed forever today may be the perception of Egypt’s presence in the modern world, for not only did Egyptians take to the streets by the millions, and not only did tens of millions watch them do it, but no more thorough a display of indigenous political culture and popular will has the world so broadly experience before this.
This revolution is not something I read about in a newspaper down at the coffee shop.
The experience of this revolutionary moment I shared with friends from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan by way of Facebook, by tweeting, and through this blog, and that experience multiplied by the tens of thousands similarly engaged (maybe not — I might be a unique act, but I doubt it) makes Egypt’s unfolding story larger than Egypt by far.
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I’m watching a live feed on the World News link and hearing honking horns and sirens while watching the crowds, fireworks, and green laser lights.
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When Egyptians who have actually slept into July 4 wake up in a few hours, it may be in a changed cultural environment, one met by the largest live international audience and press ever.
With the rape stories associated with the event and related abuses relayed during the now truncated takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood, we’ll be wondering how Egyptians address their gender-related issues from this point forward.
With the psychology and style of an Islamic autocrat laid out in the sun, if lightly on this site, if implicitly elsewhere, the world watching may want to see how the relationship between constituent and political and other authority may change as well. Most certainly, while the Muslim Brotherhood may have wrangled a majority in Egypt’s first election, it has not won the hearts or minds or loyalties of all of Egypt.
In one year of abysmal and egotistical power grabbing, it had practically all of Egypt up in arms and ready for a fight — God forbid those passions now go further than this occasion.
As pro-Morsi students chanted anti-Semitic slogans at Cairo University today, and such hate has been a part of the Muslim Brotherhood character and agenda, the world as witness may wonder if Egyptians will move on to question their attitudes about Jews, the Jewish-majority State of Israel, and the spirit of Judaism itself, with which region in thought perhaps they may have been manipulated, misguided, or unfamiliar.
Finally, in light of the want of a good, responsible, and responsive democracy and the discrepancy between a state subject to military oversight and what a democratic system should be, we who may have no other role than witness may wonder if Egyptians will exchange polarized divisions in favor of a broad, civil, and open conversation about everything, so many things, that need to be discussed, explored, understood and more soundly addressed for themselves and for others beside whom and with whom they may live in peace for a long time.
Reference
Balousha, Hazem. “Hamas Lies Low on Egypt Crisis.” Al Monitor, July 3, 2013.
JTA. “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood tops anti-Semitic rhetoric list.” Haaretz, December 28, 2012.
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