Brothers in Arms
By: Malia Potter
Egypt has never been a democracy, and in the past, it is clear that they have a dictatorship. In Egypt most of the population is either Muslim or Christian 90% of those people being Muslim and the other 10% being Christian. In Egypt there is currently a political party called the Muslim Brotherhood. It was founded in 1928 by a school teacher Hasan al-Banna. It is a religious, political, and social movement. Their goal is to create a state governed by Islamic law. Their slogan is "Islam is the solution." Over the years, the Brotherhood has suffered major destruction and government repression due to the belief that the organization was a terrorist group. They were accused of assassinating the president in past years, and being accused of violent killings during the Egyptian Revolution. (Laub, 2014)
In 2011 the people overthrew their dictating government. This included riots, civil resistance, and boycotts. They fought for freedom of speech and free elections (David, 2014) They wanted to become a democracy. After so many people fought for this, the president at the time, Hosni Mubarak stepped down from his post and turned it over to the Egyptian army. That same year, the first presidential election was made(Laub, 2014). Along with this, the Brotherhood legally became a political party.
The Muslim Brotherhood's own Mohammed Morsi won the presidential election. This is lead to believe that the killings that the brotherhood were accused of were made to other religious groups and political groups that did not follow the Brotherhood or Morsi. Although Morsi was democratically voted president, the people did not agree with this decision. Soon after he became president, Morsi failed to keep violence and crime under his control. The people started to protest and boycott to get Morsi taken out of presidency. After a year of being president, Morsi had been overthrown by the military (Laub, 2014). As a result of Morsi's poor judgement and being president, the Egyptian military had an uprising on their hands, and were forced to overtake the government. This is where Egypt stands today, with the military at the helm. In 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood was then accused of being a terrorist organization yet again (David, 2014). At this time, other groups had then started to become more violent, bombing churches, schools, etc. The Egyptian military is now currently in charge of Egypt and doesn't seem like it will be a democracy any time soon.
Currently, Mohammed Morsi of the brotherhood is under trial for conspiring with foreign groups to commit terrorist acts in Egypt. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood helped him in the 2012 presidential election but has been driven underground since the army took over in July ("Mohamed Morsi Trial," 2014). After mass protests against his rule, the Muslim Brotherhood remains a political influence, but is no longer in power.
Sources:
David. "Saudis Put Terrorist Label on Muslim Brotherhood." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/world/middleeast/saudis-put-terrorist-label-on-muslim-brotherhood.html?_r=0>.
Laub, Zachary. "Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.cfr.org/egypt/egypts-muslim-brotherhood/p23991>.
The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mohamed-morsi-trial-in-chaos-as-lawyers-for-deposed-egyptian-leader-stage-walkout-9132103.html>.
Pictures:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/173
http://www.yalibnan.com/2013/03/13/how-the-muslim-brotherhood-hijacked-syrias-revolution/