The Dark Art of Demonization: How Did the Regime of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt View its Opponents?

They joined the January 25 Revolution late.  Sat on the fence, waited for the young revolutionaries to gain a momentum with the armed forces in their defense, then they bounced.  The Brotherhood, suppressed by Royal Egypt, then by the so-called Republican Egypt since 1954, was back to the surface.  Their reputation unsullied by the corruption of public life in Egypt; their grass roots organizational ability enabling needy Egyptians, and their message simple: "Islam is the solution."

When they ran for the post of President, after Mubarak downfall in February, 2011, I voted for them twice from New York City: First for Abdel-Monim Abu-Elfotooh, then, in the run-off between Muslim Brotherhood Morsi and General Shafik, both from my home province of Sharkia, my vote went for Morsi.  Why?

Like many like me, I did not wish to have another military man back in the Presidential Palace in Cairo.  I was not turned away from the Brotherhood (I have never joined any political party either in Egypt or in America) by their "Islam is the Solution."  I teach Islamic jurisprudence; follow Al-Azhar definition of Islam as inclusive, diverse and tolerant; value my late father's advice, an Azhari, when he admonished me not to even think of suggesting to my American Catholic spouse to convert ("It is unislamic," he used to say); and I felt sympathy for the downtrodden, the Brotherhood.

But 368 days of Morsi's rule convinced me that the seeming angels of the Brotherhood were not what I had perceived them to be before they took over the reigns of power.  For they turned their slim majority in the presidential elections (50.50% to 49.50%), and their plurality of 50% in the House of Representatives, enhanced by the Salafis to a total of 70%, into a dictatorial iron grip.  To them "legitimacy" meant excluding the opposition, and inventing a constitution depicting Egypt as an "Islamic" State.  Democratic means were quickly subverting the democratic ends.

So when Morsi was pushed out of power on July 3 by the screams against him by 23 million citizens, and by the near collapse of the State, I sighed in relief "Good Riddance."  Some outsiders, judging by pro-Morsi demonstrators, described that corrective reset of the Egyptian Revolution as a coup.  Among those was Senator McCain, who has rendered to his country historic services.  Such services should not excuse his intervention in Egyptian internal affairs.  If he is basing such intervention on the US aid to the military in Egypt, he should keep in mind that such aid is tied to the Egypt/Israel peace treaty of 1979.

Let us now examine the Muslim Brotherhood's outlook on its reign of one year of the Morsi regime.  This is not to vilify them as a major mass movement in Egypt.  We shall look in their little book in Arabic to discover their failure at uniting Egypt behind the Morsi collapsed presidency.  Yes, they issued in early 2013 a little book entitled "The Achievements of Dr. Mohamed Morsi, the President of the Republic."  Its small size of 24 pages reminds me of the "Green Book" of Qaddafi in the early 1980s, and of Nasser's "Philosophy of the Revolution" of the 1950s.  I read those three tracts in their original Arabic and reached one conclusion: Each one of the three booklets was a harbinger of the fall of their Zaim (Boss/President).

In "The Achievements" (Injazat) I found the Brothers demonizing their liberal and secular opponents.  Their opponents were depicted as "enemies of the Islamic project."  What is the Islamic project?  Egypt itself, being folded, with its Copts, its judges, its women, its diversity, its authors of the January 25 revolution, in to an "Islamic Project." 

That was the tip of the iceberg, or the early hotwinds of the sand storm (khamasin) in the Brothers honing of their dark art of demonization.  "The Achievements," published in April 2013, less than 3 months before the uprising of June 30, has one frightening message:  "If you are not with us, you are against us."  And us meant also Islam itself.

It is difficult to cover all of "The Achievements" in one single issue of this blog.  We may come back again to it to fathom its weird advocacy of "The Islamic project 'uber alles' -above all."  Here follow some of its main propositions: (my translation)

• Why doesn't President Morsi communicate his plans to the citizens?  Because such concern with dialoguing with the Egyptians will keep him away from focusing on solving Egypt's problems!! (p.3)
• What is wrong with sharing with the citizens the President's concerns and aspirations?Because presidential responses to the dust of public questions and to the fog of accusations and allegations, even by those who pretend to be "supporters of the Islamic project," would be against the Sunna (the path of the Prophet).  Then a quote of one of the alleged sayings of Muhammad: "God does not wish for you three things: polemics, wastage of resources, and an avalanche of questions (addressed to the Ruler)." (p.5)
• How is the conflict between the Islamists and their opponents perceived in the context of the Morsi presidency?  That conflict is waged by elements eager to serve their own personal ends.  They are sectors of the public which have benefitted from the Mubarak regime, and have united with other elements brainwashed over 60 years.  The results is that these sectors of the population do not know right from wrong.  (p.6)
• What is the ultimate objective of the opposition to the regime of the Brotherhood?  Through their coalitions, the opposition intends to confuse the general image of the Egyptian scene, produce an atmosphere of violence, chaos, terrorism, and destruction.  Such objectives, if attained by the opposition, are meant to confuse President Morsi and his helpers.  The result would be postponing the projected parliamentary elections, delaying the institutional reconstruction of the new Egypt, and convincing the public that Morsi has no achievements.  The opposition's goal is to cause the populace to turn their backs on the Islamic experimentation pursued by the Muslim Brotherhood.  Rejection of the Islamic project, leading to rejection of the Brotherhoodization, is the path of the opposition to perpetuate the environment of corruption which had enriched those opponents. (p.7)
• What shall be history's characterization of the Morsi's presidency?  The President shall go forward without giving his opponents any attention to their judgement of his governance.  Thus the President shall inflict on them a fatal blow.  Out President is going forward with his plans in order to prove that he is a powerful president.  History, Inshallah (God Willing), shall regard him as the most powerful President the country has ever known throughout its entire existence."  (p.7)

The above reflects only the statements contained in less than one third of the book issued by the Brotherhood on Morsi's achievements.  A retired Egyptian senior diplomat told me when I reached him at his home by phone on July 4, following the removal of Morsi from power:  "The Muslim Brotherhood had failed to read the map of the New Egypt."  Indeed they have failed the test of democracy, and thus brought upon themselves not only the collapse of the Morsi presidency.  Their calls to violence against the present transitional government are leading to the Brotherhood's gradual suppression and exclusion from the remaking of the new Egypt.

Let those who are mistakenly grieving for the ouster of Morsi as undemocratic and a coup remember an essential fact: What was ousted was the abbreviation of Egypt as "the Islamic Project."  There was nothing about it that was truly Islamic.  It was a shameful masquerade abusing the banner of Islam and its main tenets of diversity.