Egypt's Islamist Democratic Performance

"The dismal performance by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood undermines the Islamist image, standing and narrative throughout the region in Egypt, in Jordan and even in Turkey. It raises questions about their competence, their ability to manage.
"Everything in Egypt is worse as a result of Morsi's policies. His authoritarian ways, his economic mismanagement ... clearly they don't have ideas. It is basically an emperor with no clothes. The Islamist movement is naked. This will have major implications for movements in the region.
"It is a disaster. It is a hard blow to the entire Islamist movement."
Fawaz Gerges, professor, Middle Eastern Politics, London School of Economics

According to Essam el-Haddad, Mohammed Morsi's foreign policy advisor: "The message will resonate throughout the Muslim world loud and clear: Democracy is not for Muslims." That an elected Islamist government in Egypt was summarily deposed by the country's military would end in fuelling increased violent terrorism. "The silence of all those voices with an impending military coup is hypocritical...and that hypocrisy will not be lost on a large swath of Egyptians, Arabs and Muslims."

But is the failure of democracy in Egypt democracy's fault, and by extension blamable on the West for which this is the system of governance? Western social democracy is legislatively separated at least in theory and for the greater part in fact, from religion. The West had its own establishment pains with democracy and religion seated side by side in authority, until it weaned itself away from the latter and relied on the former, leaving both respected but differentiated.

Perhaps, if that is indeed the message that comes through. On the other hand, perhaps it's the realization and understanding that Islam and democracy are indeed incompatible. Islam formally instructs its faithful how they must manage and live every moment of every day; this in and of itself is rather undemocratic in its intrinsic nature; free will is denied. Islam treats of fully one-half of its faithful as inferior beings; equality of persons despite gender is a cornerstone of democracy.

Justice administered through the lens of Islamic jurisprudence is not a justice equally administered to all. Islam clearly differentiates between the devotion of Muslims to their overwhelmingly social-political religious heritage and cultural adaptation and the subservience to Islam of other religions, the inequality of worthiness of infidels and Crusaders, Jews and insufficiently-observant Muslims alike. The fierceness of pure Islam is undemocratic in its very nature.

What has occurred in Egypt is not a dismissal of democracy but a very overt and observable trial episode of a religious party purporting to act in a democratic manner, and failing utterly, (and deliberately) while at the same time declaring itself wedded to the concept of democracy. What occurred in Egypt with the removal of yet another dictatorial regime is that the general consensus of Egyptian social-secular hopeful democrats hauling along with them dissatisfied Salafists jealous of Brotherhood rule, rejected faux democracy.

The reputation of Egyptians has not been sullied by their rejection of Islamism. On the other hand, the Muslim Brotherhood has suffered an irreparable slight to their public relations image within greater Egypt, portraying themselves as the responsive and responsible and reliable antidote to the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who in fact governed the country in a far superior manner to anything that the Brotherhood managed to achieve in their arrogantly divisive administration during a year of fumbling incompetence.

In Tunis, Tunisians who toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in the initial advent of the Arab Spring, came together before the Egyptian embassy. They were prepared to celebrate the ouster of Mohammad Morsi, calling out "Today Egypt, Tunisia tomorrow. Down with the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, down with the rule of Ennahda. It's a revolution until victory!"

Tunisians who had Facebook presence sent this message to Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of Ennahda: "Morsi is gone and you Ghannouchi when?"