Restoring order to Egypt after the Arab Spring that toppled U.S.-friendly dictator Hosni Mubarak Feb. 11, 2011, former 60-year-old Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi defies his critics, relentlessly pursuing what’s left of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hope sprang eternal when U.S.-educated Mohamed Morsi became the first elected president in Egypt’s modern history June 24, 2012, sworn in June 30, 2012. While pro-Democracy protesters celebrated Morsi’s election in Cairo’s Tahrir Revolutionary Square, the euphoria turned sour after Morsi suspended Egypt’s High Court Nov. 24, 2012, declaring himself above the law, allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to takeover Egypt. No one imagined that Morsi at the time of his election and inauguration was a puppet for the radical Islamist group, clearing all legal hurdles in Egypt to impose strict sharia law on world’s most populous Arab state.
Since toppling Morsi, incarcerating, trying, convicting and sentencing him to death May 20 for the mass prison breakout in 2011 and deaths of protesters in Tahrir Square, el-Sisi has relentlessly pursued what’s left of the Muslim Brotherhood, including arresting the group’s 71-year-old leader Mohammed Badie Aug. 20, 2013. Causing untold deaths of Egyptian police in the Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Zone, the Muslim Brotherhood is now and outlawed group in Egypt, punishable by imprisonment or worse. Since taking office June 8, 2014, el-Sisi has been criticized by foreign rights groups, railing against his martial law, banning all radical groups seeking to undermine the Egyptian government. While condemned by foreign leaders for his strong-arm tactics, el-Sisi won high praise from U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for restoring order in Egypt.
Foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been shy to warm up to el-Sisi since he toppled Morsi July 3, 2013. “Sisi is very good, that is one of the very good things that’s happening. He’s so much better that Mubarak ever was and certainly than Morsi,” said Schumer. Schumer was especially impressed with el-Sisi going after Hamas’s smuggling tunnels near Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Instead of siding with Palestinians against Israel, el-Sisi took a strong stand against Hamas, a division of the Muslim Brotherhood, closing tunnels, ultimately designed to smuggle in arms and terrorists to topple his Cairo government. While Schumer tends to think of what’s good for Israel, el-Sisi has stopped the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempted takeover of Egypt under Morsi, in what was sold free democratic elections but was really a radical coup.
When you look closely at the May 24, 2012 election, it’s clear that the Muslim Brotherhood rigged the election to seize power. Given Morsi’s sold academic credentials, no one expected him to let the Brotherhood’s leader Mohamed Badie and his hand picked lieutenants call the shots. By the time the dust settled, Morsi was a puppet of Badie to once-and-for-all control of Egypt. When protesters flooded Tahrir Square in the millions to protest Muslim Brotherhood rule, el-Sisi took action, ending Morsi’s year-long reign. Had Morsi acted independently of the Brotherhood, he wouldn’t sit in prison facing the death penalty. Despite criticism from human rights groups and Mideast countries, the White House has refrained from criticizing el-Sisi, knowing that he’s the only buffer between order and anarchy. Military rule was the only way of keeping Egypt from radical Islam.
Experiments with democracy haven’t succeeded in the Middle East, where more organized Islamist groups tend to win elections in the Gaza Strip and Egypt. When Hamas won free elections in Gaza Jan. 27, 2006, it led to the Hamas coup in Gaza June 14, 2007, partly because the U.S. State Department, under former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, rejected Hamas rule. Morsi mistakenly took his May 24, 2012 election as a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood. In the run up to the election, Morsi played down his Brotherhood affiliation. Once elected, he let the Brotherhood seize power, suspend the Egyptian constitution and Supreme Court and declare sharia law in he Arab world’s most progressive state. Most heads of state, in or out of the Mideast, know that el-Sisi’s military rule was necessary to restore order Worth about $5.3 billion annually or 12% of the Egyptian economy, tourism has been crippled in Egypt since Morsi took power June 30, 2012.
Foreign governments and human rights groups need to recognize that el-Sisi saved Egypt from descending into chaos. Muslim Brotherhood rule opened the floodgates of terrorism from the Suez Canal to the Sinai Peninsula, undermining Egypt’s tourism industry. Protesting el-Sisi’s June 3 visit with Merkel, human rights groups, most likely backed by radical Islam, showed no love for Egypt’s military dictator. “These . . . countries now realize that their greatest enemy is not Israel but Iran,” said Schumer, focusing more on Israel’s security than Egypt’s problems with the Muslim Brotherhood and radical groups. “They are more willing now to deal with this and not make Israel a pariah state,” said Schumer, simplifying the problem. El-Sisi’s critics need to consider what Egypt would look like under the Muslim Brotherhood, including the backing they’d give the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
