The Muslim Brotherhood root canal

Egypt has taken another giant step back to the past: The Egyptian legal system has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood movement. It is hard to believe that the army -- the most powerful body in the country right now -- was just an uninvolved bystander in the process. It is safe to assume that Defense Minister Col. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi had something to do with this court ruling.

This decision reeks of a strong desire to restore the old way, without even a hint of democracy. The liberals are applauding. As of today, they are faced with a choice between democracy without Egypt or Egypt without democracy. And on the opposing side, the Muslim Brotherhood have not made their final move yet.

Under the new legal decision, the Muslim Brotherhood no longer have a legal right to exist. But that doesn't mean that they will cease to exist on the street. The legal system cannot erase years of grassroots activity in the neighborhoods of Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood will now feel even more deprived and frustrated than before, which will only intensify their motivation for social activism in the streets.

That is precisely why the court decided to outlaw the movement's non-governmental organization as well. The objective is not only to prevent them from participating in the political arena, but also from having a key influence in the streets. How? The movement's NGO, which was established during the reign of now-deposed President Mohammed Morsi, was a means of obtaining funding.

The brotherhood are furious, and they are committed to preserving their political power on the street. I tend to believe they will succeed. They have done it in the past, and they have already weathered difficult times as an underground movement. The only problem is: how does one go back underground once they've spent time in power?

Most likely, the next step will be to outlaw the Freedom and Justice Party, which swept the Egyptian streets in the last parliamentary and presidential elections. This party, which was established for the benefit of the Muslim Brotherhood, has so far won every possible election since the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Another likely eventuality is that the alliance against the July 3, 2013 military coup that saw Morsi removed from power, comprised of Muslim Brotherhood loyalists, will also be outlawed. The army will also make sure that the legal system indeed confiscates all the Muslim Brotherhood assets, as they began to do on September 17.

There is no doubt that the Egyptian army has decided to give the Muslim Brotherhood a root canal.

The reality in Egypt must be very frustrating for the young demonstrators of Tahrir Square -- the revolutionaries who took to the streets, at times paying with their lives. Now, nearly three years later, they are learning that there is no "third way" in Egypt. First it was the Muslim Brotherhood who won the election and foiled their plans, and now it is the military that is more concerned with exacting personal revenge than cultivating a civilian leadership.

In the meantime, Egypt is working on a new constitution that is supposed to be complete by the end of November. The Egyptian people will be called to the polls once again, this time to ratify the constitution in a referendum. The new constitution, now that the Muslim Brotherhood have been outlawed, is supposed to pave Egypt's path to a old-new future.

And until the third way becomes a real option, there is little point in talking about democracy in Egypt.

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