Revolutionary Fervour

"Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi has been transferred into retirement from today.  The decision was sovereign by the president to pump new blood into the military establishment for the sake of developing the new, modern state."  Yasser Ali, presidential spokesman

The new, modern state of Egypt is on the horizon.  And it appears that it will become an unblinkingly Islamist one.  It has been a long time coming, and the Muslim Brotherhood has exhibited extraordinary patience, carrying out its mission to 'win the hearts and minds' of its supporters through compassionate and caring programs to help lift ordinary Egyptians out of squalor and despair, while battling government hostility and prison terms.

With a parliamentary vote that garnered the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party 50% of the vote, and installed Mohammed Morsi as president, the locked horns between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which, under Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi had helped former President Hosni Mubarak's removal, and installed Tantawi in his stead, has come to a head.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the military, and made a move to dismiss the parliamentary vote and to remove presidential privileges from Mr. Morsi, and it seems now that the Brotherhood, having temporarily defanged the military is prepared to do the same with the Supreme Court, challenging their dismissal of parliament and apprehension of the re-writing of the country's new constitution.

Egyptian Presidency, via Associated Press   President Mohamed Morsi, right, accepted the oath of office from his new defense minister, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, on Aug. 12

Sheriff Abd El Minoem/Egyptian Presidency, via Associated Press

Mr. Morsi talking last month with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The field marshal, who had led Egypt for more than a year until Mr. Morsi’s election, was pushed into retirement.

President Morsi took the step of reversing the military's action to nullify a constitutional declaration that had removed the authority of his office as president.  He replaced it with his own declaration, giving himself the broad legislative and executive powers that the military sought to deny him to ensure that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces remained in control over a puppet government.

And he has set forward for himself and his new appointees the task of drafting a new constitution that will give him all the powers that the military determined to hold on to.  It does appear as though by crafty and careful manoeuvring, the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi have succeeded in having their cake and eating it with relished icing.

How the military will now react will be instructive.  To those waiting for the military to rebuff Mr. Morsi and restore themselves to the position he's dislodged them from, the wait may be long.  The Arab and Muslim countries of the Middle East and beyond have long been restively turning inexorably toward a purer vision of authentic Islam.  Islamism is on the rise, and it is rising, in fact, everywhere.

This appears to represent a new reality whose end product is anyone's guess.  A fairly clean sweep has been made: President Morsi has summarily removed the chiefs of the navy, the air force and the air defense branch.

 

These moves are making some insiders and onlookers fairly nervous.  Fearful that the Brotherhood is too busy consolidating its strengths.  "I see the kind of power amassed in this one person, and I think it's pretty scary", said one critic.  He appeared to have made a move to stop a planned opposition demonstration that included Mubarak supporters.

"He's been gaining power with time.  He was sending a message to whoever thinks the Mubarak regime is still able to come back:  The SCAF is not going to do anything for them.  A military coup is not going to happen."

 And, explained Omar Ashour, professor at the University of Exeter, with the purge of the military command, he's going after hard power as well as the soft power he has attained by appointing 'revolutionary' figures to critical cabinet posts.