For those who have watched the turning of the page in Northern Africa and the Middle East with renewed hope for democracy and an evolution to a new age of openness, the news coming from those areas are ones that bring a deep sense of dismay.
All the countries that have striven for democratic rule, from Tunisia to Egypt are now engulfed in sectarian strife.
Once considered a medium threat, the deep division between Sunni and Shi'a has now become and unfillable rift, a chasm whose depth and width bring horror to the citizens and foreigners alike.
Why then, have countries who sought to destroy totalitarianism turned to such hatred and division? The answer might be one of simple opportunism, of grabbing a chance in the unstable vacuum left by fallen dictators.
That vacuum, who many thought would be quickly seized by democratic supporters, has instead been fully and skillfully exploited by Muslim extremists, as is evident in both Egypt and Tunisia.
Egypt is and has been a case in study. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has been trying to overturn both the military rule and the previous rulers for decades, has always wanted to seize power. And its claim of having become less radical have been misguided and woefully dishonest. Even though there are undoubtedly those in the Brotherhood who wish a less radical rule and are more moderate, the majority of its core constituents are very radicalized, and want both the expulsion of any non Muslim religious presence in the country and Sharia law.
That said, Al Qaeda has seized the situation both in North Africa and the Middle East to its advantage. It has neatly and effortlessly infiltrated groups both in Egypt and other countries that have sought democratic rule and are now creating the type of conditions that are destabilizing Iraq, Turkey, and all the other Arab spring countries, by turning brother against brother.
The Brotherhood in Egypt is particularly important in illustrating how quickly sectarian violence can spread and how deep it can run. When the Morsi presidency was terminated, the discourse was one of returning Morsi to power, or to recognize the fact that the previous elections had given the Brotherhood a decisive role in government. That however, was all thrown into question when the Brotherhood declared all out war on the military regime, and on its fellow Muslims, and the military returned in kind.
The military pushed too quickly and too forcefully from the beginning. The immediate roundup and indictment of Brotherhood leadership destroyed any chance at a meaningful settlement of the post Morsi crisis. But the Brotherhood now is no longer interested in dialogue. They expect and want to regain power by any means.
Enter Lebanon. There, sectarian strife, always simmering below the radar has reignited thanks to the civil war in neighboring Syria. There are now not one, not two, but half a dozen countries who are being torn apart by sectarian violence. And that's not even counting the Asian neighbors.
What is astounding however, is how some of the more moderate voices in Egypt have turned so vehemently against the Brotherhood, and see the military's bloody intervention this weeks as a necessary evil to eradicate what they perceive as a radical organization, hell bent on imposing Sharia on the storied nation. And these are the voices of the intellectuals, the lawyers, the civil rights proponents and defenders.
For their part the Brotherhood is even more radicalized and hateful that it led people to believe at the beginning of Egypt's 'spring', and especially so after the Morsi removal. There is no civil protest here: from the beginning, the Brotherhood made it clear that it was calling for jihad.
The irony of the Egyptian crisis is that the military, which once was akin to the devil in the eyes of moderate, democracy seeking citizens, has now become an ally to the same people, even as the worst repression every suffered in Cairo is playing out. With more than 600 people now dead, almost all civilians, whether or not they brought the skirmish onto themselves or not, the appalling reality is that many see the Brotherhood as a cancer that must be vanquished, and they consider the deaths already occurred as almost insufficient to deal with the problem of the radicalization of the group. In that sense, the worm has turned, but it might well be biting its own tail.
OP-Ed
Partial Source - Spiegel Online/ 8.16.13
The irony of the Egyptian crisis is that the military, which once was akin to the devil in the eyes of moderate, democracy seeking citizens, has now become an ally to the same people, even as the worst repression every suffered in Cairo is playing out. With more than 600 people now dead, almost all civilians, whether or not they brought the skirmish onto themselves or not, the appalling reality is that many see the Brotherhood as a cancer that must be vanquished, and they consider the deaths already occurred as almost insufficient to deal with the problem of the radicalization of the group. In that sense, the worm has turned, but it might well be biting its own tail.
OP-Ed
Partial Source - Spiegel Online/ 8.16.13
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