Egyptian Islamism

It has taken fundamental Islamism almost a hundred years to take power in Egypt after it first surfaced as a movement that insisted a return to the basic fundamentals of early Islam would regenerate Muslim life and take it away from the deplored degeneration seen under the influence of the West, with its values and priorities unreflective of those of Islam.  And now that time has arrived.

The Muslim Brotherhood spread its political tentacles underground since its activities were viewed with suspicion by the authorities that ruled Egypt.  Their activities were outlawed, they had no lawful presence as a political party.  To gain acceptance it set out a social agenda to offer both spiritual direction and material aid to the indigent populations that existed both in Egypt and throughout the Muslim world; in Somalia, for example.

Many of its leaders were imprisoned for opposing the military government.  An arm of its political wing was responsible for the assassination of former President Anwar Sadat in October 1981 for the unpardonable sin of signing a peace treaty with Israel: "Peace is much more precious than a piece of land ... let there be no more wars", he said pithily. 

The base of support that they enjoy is among the underprivileged, the uneducated, and diehard fundamentalists although there are more fanatically fundamental Islamists than the Brotherhood membership.  Their goal is to restore modern Islam to its original purity, to ensure that wherever they are able to govern, a pure form of sharia law becomes the law of the land.

Their credo is clear enough; complete subjugation to Islamic law, surrender to Islamic values at their very basic level, to control and to entirely encompass Muslim lives from the cradle to the grave.  "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."  In short, "Islam is the solution."

And for Egypt that salvation has arrived thanks to the energetic and determined young western-oriented secularists and Christians whose opposition to the military-backed government of former President Hosni Mubarak, a military dictator-successor to Sadat who thought of himself as a benevolent benefactor of the Egyptian people, a grandfatherly figure whose every decision was based on his view of what was best for Egypt and its people.

Domination by a military figure was not how the Egyptian leftists, secular students and Christians saw themselves needing to be governed in the 21st Century; they had the technological communication means and skills to measure for themselves how more advanced countries of the world managed their affairs, and this was what they wanted for themselves. 

Their alliance with other segments of Egyptian political society was meant to be brief and at a distance, to help achieve their goal.  The representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood are skilled at pronouncing themselves smitten by democracy and their joining the protests in pursuit of the public good gave heft and hope to the poorly organized democracy-besotted left.

What Egypt has succeeded in attaining for itself is a theocratic tyranny which has, ironically enough, modelled itself on the regime they helped bring down, a military dictatorship.  The Brotherhood has been astute enough to co-opt the loyalty of the Supreme Military Command by promising them their own budget and their own oversight for alliance and loyalty to the new government. 

How well that works will become obvious enough in the near future.

The first tranche of the pro-Islamist draft constitution has passed its Brotherhood test, not overwhelmingly, but passably; the strength is with and remains with Islamism.  The next half of the votes representing the other half of the country, mostly rural, and steeped in fundamentalist Islam, will swell the 'yes' votes and there will be no room for doubt.

The ultra-conservative Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, eastern and western deserts will cast the decisive, deciding votes and there will be no looking back on what might have been.  Will skirmishes result out of frustration and despair?  Likely enough, but hardly anything to compare with the brief violence that broke out in early December.

And nothing to resemble the civil war in Libya and Syria, despite the strength in numbers of those who rumbled the streets around Tahrir Square early in the month.

President Mohammed Morsi has initiated his new regime with controversy and outrage.  And he will now consolidate it; appointments reflecting the Brotherhood membership and agenda.  Including control of the newspapers, and even banning inappropriate music from state television.  University leadership will undergo an inevitable alteration in priorities and personnel.

Ten percent of Egyptians representing Coptic Christians and secularists will soon acknowledge their new realities and hope for the best; Islamists will dominate state organizations as the autocracy is transferred to a true theocracy.  "This is a sad day for my country.  I supported Morsi for president but I could not bring myself to vote for him today so I abstained.  There will be more trouble, for sure", one dispirited Egyptian mourned.

"They want to pull us down, not understanding that we are actually protecting them from Salafis and other extreme Islamic groups who want to do them great harm.  And what the hell kind of democracy is it when they say they will fight us if they lost the vote on the constitution?" was the response from the polarized end of the equation.