As might be expected, events in Egypt continue to be in the news. Also as expected, supporters of ousted President Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood have reacted and there has been violence. A Coptic Christian priest was murdered early Saturday and as of this writing there are over 30 deaths reported.
After several days of having millions of protestors lining the streets of Egypt, the Egyptian military stepped in and removed Morsi from office. This is ordinarily what we would call a coup, and many are calling it that. I prefer to think of it as a revolution. First, it does not appear the military is seizing power for itself, but rather they are setting up an interim government and will be holding elections. Second, they actually gave Morsi warning and allowed him to make concessions and give a speech. That is not normally how coups are done. Third, it appears they were reacting to the will of the people and just wanted stability.
For those still not up to speed on Egypt, I found an interesting youtube clip that does a good job of simplifying things..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=US&v=Y5suNtLwbBw&feature=youtu.be&nomobile=1
And then an excellent article by Carina Kamel on the subject of Egypt, a coup and why "It's Complicated".
english.alarabiya.net/view-renderer?mgnlUuid=560e6020-94b5-4fa0-8efd-036ab9437a5b
An article in The Guardian explains why the failure of this experiment in Islamic Democracy could be a dangerous thing, and could have reverberations around the world. The Muslim Brotherhood was always driven underground, and the Morsi government was their first real chance to set up their ideal; a society based on Islam and Sharia law. Morsi was headed toward that end, and that is exactly why the people became so angry. He took power upon himself, and started restricting Liberty. Now they are once again out of power, and a new generation of radical Muslims could be born.
m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/05/failure-egypt-islamist-experiment-violence
And then an article in The Economist on the anger in cities around the globe. Looking around, you see people everywhere rising up against perceived tyranny and protesting in the streets. An excellent read.
www.businessinsider.com/is-2013-the-year-of-the-protest-2013-7
Indeed, there is a lot of anger around the world, and it is not going to be an easy time ahead.
There is a big difference between Democracy and Liberty. It is true that Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood were democratically elected. Democracy is important, and as much as possible the will of the people is to be respected. In that sense it is true that the democratic will of the people of Egypt, as expressed at the ballot box, was technically overturned by the military. On the other hand, it could be said that given their choices that was never truly their will. It could also be said that once their government started taking away their liberties, the will of the people changed. In any event, the people always have the right to take back their government at any time for redress of grievances. The government derives it's power from the people, not the other way around.
As we have seen in places like Turkey, or China or Russia, sometimes once you give up your Liberty, you then lose your Democracy as well. The people of Egypt, IMHO, realized what was going on. Their precious liberties were systematically being taken away, and had they waited they may not have had another chance to reclaim them. The memory of their last revolution was fresh in their minds, and they rose up once again and said "let's start over". And THEN the military stepped in, as a reaction to the people and not as what I would term a coup.
Stay tuned, this is not over.
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