It was less than a year ago that Mohammed Morsi, then Egypt's newly elected president, ousted Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Many described this move as brilliant coup, believing that with Tantawi out of the way, the Muslim Brotherhood would be able to rein in the military, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had done in Turkey, and further anchor their grip on power.
Morsi, however, seems to have fallen into his own trap and instead of dealing with Tantawi -- a veteran, elderly officer who had become synonymous with the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak -- he found himself on a collision course with Col. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a vital and feisty officer, full of energy and ambition.
With Sissi at the helm, the Egyptian army regained its footing and it has risen against the Muslim Brotherhood, staging a two-step coup: first, it removed their candidate from power and now it is removing their supporters from the streets. In all likelihood, the Muslim Brotherhood will soon be removed from the public sphere and from the media as well -- just as they were during the Mubarak era.
The dispute between the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood dates back some 50 years, to the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser. It is a fight between the secular camp, led by the army, and the Brotherhood's Islamist ambitions, for the very nature of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has lost every battle so far, but they enjoy massive popularity.
Mubarak's ouster divided the secular camp and paralyzed the military. The void that was created was quickly filled by the Muslim Brotherhood, who exploited their rivals' weaknesses and won the parliamentary and presidential elections both. But the Brotherhood has gone too far by trying to install -- under the guise of a democratic process -- an Islamic republic that would ensure their rule forever.
Egypt's lack of democratic tradition was the Muslim Brotherhood's downfall. Cairo has yet to adapt to the fact that a regime should be changed via elections -- not mass demonstrations.
Removing Morsi from power, as well as dispersing the protesters in Cairo on Wednesday, seems to have been done with relative ease. As long as the people assembled in Tahrir Square -- the same ones who toppled Mubarak -- continue to silently support the military, it will, in time, be able to repress the Muslim Brotherhood despite their popularity. That was the nature of things during the Mubarak era and that will be the nature of things during the Sissi era.
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