A late Ramadan Karim for our Muslim readers. An unfortunate issue with our internet prevented us from sending this newsletter Thursday and earlier today. 

 

A month of fasting has started. Cairo’s streets are full of colorful Ramadalanterns. Work will be slowing down.

 

Retired naval captain Amir Fouad explained in a letter to the editor that he believes the verdicts against former president Morsi to be fully justified since Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood had brought the country to the brink of a civil war. The sentiments Amir Fouad expresses are often heard among many Egyptians. To read Captain Amir Fouad’s letter click here.

 

An Egyptian court upheld on Tuesday the death sentence against Morsi and other members of the Muslim Brotherhood for the jailbreaks on January 28, 2011 that released both Muslim Brotherhood members and criminals and plotting attacks on the Egyptian police during the 2011 uprising.

 

The same court also sentenced Morsi to life in prison on charges of spying for the Palestinian Hamas movement, Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah, and Iran.

 

Muslim Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party spokesman Nader Oman, based in Istanbul, called  the charges “groundless,” stating “there is no chance for any of the defendants to defend themselves." 

 

Yet, the verdicts can be appealed. Morsi has rejected thus far to do so since that would imply a recognition of the court which he refuses to do. His rejection to recognize the court and government could possibly cost him his life but also make him a martyr to his followers. 

 

Captain Amir Fouad points out to the high number of casualties on both the sides of the Muslim Brotherhood as the Egyptian police and army and calls this “a war.” This is, unfortunately true. This war extends to the arguments we hear by political activists and in various media.

 

Argument 1: President al-Sisi brings stability and is focused on strengthening Egypt’s shaky economy. Without the focus on stability the country could fall apart like so many other Arab countries and if this would happen it would result in civil war and tremendous bloodshed. This is true.

 

Argument 2: Egypt represses the opposition of the Muslim Brotherhood and various other groups and violates human rights. This truth is linked to the repression of violence that Egypt has witnessed since the deposal of Morsi. It is a sign that both parties, government and anti-government opposition, have not been able to find a political solution for their differences. It is either this or that party wins without compromising to the other. 

 

Contributor Khaled Hassan reported in our newsletter of June 9 about the consequences this had during president al-Sisi’s visit to Germany on June 3 and 4. Pro and anti-Sisi Egyptians clashed on several occasions.  

 

Khaled Hassan, unfortunately mistakenly, wrote about Egyptians shouting in the Bundestag for which we apologize. This shouting match did not happen in the Bundestag but in a meeting at the German Green Party. Alliance '90/The Greens issued a statement titled “Stability versus human rights in Egypt,” condemning the German government’s decision to stand by its invitation of Sisi “despite its repressive policy and despite the highly controversial death sentence of his democratically elected predecessor Morsi.”

 

Khaled Hassan based his Bundestag claim on Facebook and a YouTube film of Kolena KhaledSaied, a leftist group formed after Egyptian policemen beating Khaled Said to death on June 6, 2010, which became one of the reasons for the revolt against President Mubarak in 2011.

 

The experience of Khaled Hassan shows the continuous need to check sources.

 

But the experience also shows that many Europeans are sensitive to the arguments of human rights, insufficiently seeing that these are used in a political tug of war between the Brotherhood and the government and probably are partly the result of Muslim Brotherhood provocations that result in responses violating human rights that in turn can be used in arguments against the Egyptian government. 

 

The media war the Brotherhood is waging against the Egyptian government was also seen in a news conference Chancellor Angela Merkel has hosted for president al-Sisi.  An Egyptian female reporter, fully aware of the media attending, addressed al-Sisi yelling "He's a murderer!" Others who were present cried "down with the military rule" while reporters from Egypt responded with yelling "long live Egypt!" The female reporter and others crying did so to convey their political message. Media did not report who they were but it would not be surprising if they were members or sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

The war between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Government is thus not only carried out in ongoing violence but also in provoking police, army and judiciary to responses that in the West are widely seen as human rights violations and then using this to pressure the Egyptian government in Europe.  This war has escalated much too much. There are, at least not known, no attempts to find a political solution. Since so much blood has flowed on both sides such a political solution will, unfortunately, be extremely hard to achieve.