The American and Western attitudes towards the Egyptian Revolutions

When the Egyptians rose up against the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, the Western countries objected to his removal from office under the pretext that he was democratically elected in fair elections. Therefore, he should complete his term and his ousting should be based on ballot results. What happened in July 2013 was considered a coup. Also when the Egyptian security dismantled the sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda, protests came from Washington and other Western capitals. The questions are: was the removal of Morsi a coup´-or-a reaction to a popular revolution? was the dismantling of the two encampments justifiable´-or-not? This article is an attempt to answer these questions.

A popular revolution is defined as a diverse and large popular movement to obtain changes in the social, economic and political fabrics of a certain country. Egyptians took to the streets in January 2011. The army immediately sided with the people and declared that it did support the objectives of the Egyptian people who occupied the squares in several cities. The United States, after a few days of hesitation and contradictory statements, asked Mubarak to step down. After 18 days, the president gave in to the demands of people and agreed to relinquish power and went to his resort in Sharm ElSheikh. Note that the junta took over power and the people cleared the squares. Nevertheless, the American and western countries and media never used the word coup whenever they referred to the event in 2011. The junta observed parliamentary and presidential elections which paved the way for the Islamists to dominate the scene. As soon Morsi was elected president, he started to take certain decisions that contributed to the political unrest in the country. Some of his presidential decrees went against the decisions of the Supreme Constitutional court of Egypt. He even did not interfere when his supporters besieged the court, preventing the judges from assembly for several months. Egyptians grew more and more impatient with the performance of the islamist president. They felt that he failed to achieve the objectives of the revolution: bread, freedom, and social justice. Egyptians took to the streets in all cities. The number of people who were disgruntled and took part in the demonstrations was estimated to be over 30 million people, the number being greater than the number of people who stood against Mubarak. The Egyptian armed forces chose the same step taken in 2011, that is, they sided with the people and immediately forced the president to leave office. This step was inevitable because the Egyptians were insistent to remove the president who was not responsive to their demands. If the army had not taken this procedure, Egypt would have plunged in a severe civil war. Thus the army saved the country which was on the brink of destruction. In spite of the imminent dangers that threatened the country, the American officials chose to support the brotherhood organization and objected to the toppling of president Morsi. The same attitude was adopted by the EU officials who were blind to what happened in Egypt. The American and European media kept calling it a coup. Remember they did not object to the removal of Mubarak and never attempted to call what happened to Mubarak a coup, although the armed forces took over power then.If we compare these attitudes with the reactions against the removal of Morsi, we note that the armed forces did not assume power after ousting Morsi. Rather they chose to obey the constitution which transfers power to the chairman of the constitutional court.

As for the second question concerning the dismantling of the sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda, these two encampments were anything but peaceful sit-ins. Rather the two encampments were full of weapons of different sorts: shot-guns, rifles, Molotov cocktail bottles etc. The people participating in these sites used to publically threaten security forces. They threatened the military, saying that they would invade the military camps and search for the president. They carried out the threat when they attacked a military compound near the Rabaa camp, an event that resulted in the deaths and injury of hundreds from both parties. The security officers and soldiers warned the people in the two encampments before they entered the sites. The police was shot at and several injuries and deaths were reported. In stark contradiction. The brotherhood-supported media started crying over the crushing of peaceful people. Several protests came from western and American countries.

The Americans failed to behave peacefully under similar circumstances.
I would like to remind the reader of the Waco siege in 1993. Waco is a city in Texas where a group of a Christian sect called Branch Davidians ´-or- the Branch lived in compounds near Waco in 1993. The group was led by David Koresh who claimed that he was the coming Messiah and he was preparing for the Armageddon war by storing weapons in the compounds. The police received reports that the group abused children and women and were storing illegal weapons. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) decided to raid the compounds. The raid resulted in the death of 4 members of the cult and 6 officers. The FBI surrounded the compounds for 51 days and then invaded the compounds with tear gas. The invasion resulted in the death of 76 cult members, among them children and women. What happened in Egypt is more´-or-less similar to the Waco incident in that the encampments were full of weapons. In addition, the encampments obstructed and intervened with the lives of people in the vicinities. The people of Rabaa, for example, kept complaining of the threats and noises that the encampments produced.

I hope that I have answered the two questions. The answers have shown the West and the US have double-standards. In fact, they do not care for human rights and the third world. The concept of human rights is raised whenever their interests are threatened.

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