GEAB Middle East

The West couldn’t help but acknowledge the Morsi’s overthrow by the military in Egypt on 3 July last. Fortunately, everyone quickly realised that one can hardly claim democracy and greet a military coup d’état. Certainly, the appearance of a large popular movement was able, for a few days, to delude international opinion on the nature of the reversal.

The Dream for Liberty hold-up

The Egyptian Spring, and the hope of political renewal that it symbolised in the Arab world, is dead and buried. We estimate that the Middle Eastern democratic process has lost between five and 10 years… time gained for all kinds of interests which have gorged on the region for the last 60 years. In fact, one can imagine the protagonists’ extreme bitterness from the first hour: all these young people dreaming of liberty who took enormous risks and showed such perseverance are certainly not prepared to return to fight whatever it may be for. They had already had the disappointment of seeing an austere government established, very far from their aspirations to freedom, but at least the process which had begun still belonged to them, and it was democratic. Of course, the Muslim Brotherhood was the one and only organised political force capable of forming a government. They reluctantly agreed[1]  to stand for election and they inevitably won.

End of the debate on Islam’s place and role in Arab Society