Egypt: Military woos anti-Islamic forces and West

- BY DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

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Illegal rulers and international frauds behave alike. Military rulers of Egypt are slowly developing cold feet even while they use brutality to stay in power.

Popularity of ousted President Mohammad Mursi has been mounting.

Facing unrelenting pressure from Muslim Brotherhood protesters as well as world leaders, including  president Obama, Egypt's military bosses now controlling Egypt by arrogant means, sought to justify their illegal  ousting of a popularly elected president  Mohammed Mursi as well his arrest,  saying that the Islamist leader had “violated” his popular mandate and antagonized state institutions.

Bur the military in no mood to listen to world leaders or Brotherhood and it wants to rule Egypt by all means for at least a few months. Continuing its crackdown on the Brotherhood leadership, Egypt's new chief prosecutor ordered frozen the assets of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and at least 13 other senior members of the group pending investigations into violence outside the organization's headquarters in Cairo and the Republic Guard forces club.

Military is busy in putting in place a temporary government even as the designated interim prime minister pushed ahead with talks to form a new Cabinet this week.

Meanwhile, the military-backed government pressed forward with its transition plan. ElBaradei, a 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sworn in as vice president for international relations, although his exact mandate was not clear. The CIA backed former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, returned home to assume a role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and, when failed to snatch and assume power,  this guy became one of the most visible leaders in the badly fractured Egyptian liberal and secular opposition to Morsi's government.

Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front, a coalition of largely secular groups, said ElBaradei was no longer the head of the umbrella organization.

Designated Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi also met with a number of candidates for his new Cabinet. Others expected on the roster are Mohammed Mukhtar Gomaa — who works in the office of the head of the top learning institute in the Muslim Sunni world Al-Azhar — as head of the religious endowment ministry. Gomaa, who also heads the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies in Al-Azhar university, was seen as nod to moderate Islam.

In order to placate the western leaders, military want to switch  premiers and now  chose as  vice president  and  foreign minister a former IAEA chief Mohd ElBaradei who has been waiting to take over  ever since uprisings reached the high pitch and Mubarak was  thrown out.  ElBaradei was sworn in as Egypt's interim vice president for international relations on 14 on July Sunday the Church day. Military approached several secular-minded candidates to lead the foreign, finance, culture, information and other key ministries. Nabil Fahmy, who served as Egypt's former ambassador to the United States for over a decade under Hosni Mubarak, was tapped to be foreign minister, according to state media.

The fast-track transitional timetable included also appointing two panels to amend the constitution passed under Morsi. Those changes would be put to a referendum within about 4 1/2 months, followed by parliamentary elections and the presidential elections.

Violence in the aftermath of Morsi's ouster peaked a week ago when the military opened fire on Brotherhood supporters who were holding a sit-in outside the Republican Guard forces club, leading to hours of clashes. More than 50 protesters were killed and hundreds wounded. The Brotherhood claimed the military opened fire on protesters, while the army says it was responding to Morsi supporters trying to storm the Republican Guard building.

The move is to reinforce anti-Islamic forces and non-Islam liberals who are strongly opposed to the Brotherhood. The United States has called for Morsi's release. Since his ouster, Morsi has been held incommunicado at an undisclosed location.

Morsi's election came after months of turmoil following the 2011 revolution that removed autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak from office, in a rocky transition that was marred by persistent protests, political disagreements and an economy teetering on bankruptcy. The military staged a coup in a bid to undermine the rising influence of Islamists, and thousands have camped out for days near a mosque in eastern Cairo to demand he be reinstated.

The Islamist leader Mursi was the first democratically chosen leader after a narrow victory in elections last year. Many in the international community fear the ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president would undermine Egypt's transition to democracy.

President Obama should not have recognized the illegal interim government in Cairo. But the United States sent its No. 2 diplomat in the State Department, William Burns, to Cairo to meet with interim government officials as well as civil society and business leaders during his two-day visit.  The State Department said Burns would underscore U.S. support for the Egyptian people and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government. El-Sissi said the armed forces acted to remove Morsi on July 3 according to the “will of the people” as the country was sliding toward deeper polarization and more violence. The military chief el-Sissi said "the armed forces sincerely accepted the choice of the people, but then political decision-making began stumbling. The armed forces remained committed to what it considered the legitimacy of the ballot box, even though that very legitimacy began to do as it pleased and in a way that contradicted the basis and the origin of this legitimacy." The military chief said he has a right t remove the elected president. He claimed he frequently advised Morsi and finally reached out to him before giving him a 48-hour ultimatum to reconcile with opponents and address public demands. He said he sent two envoys, including then Prime Minister Hesham Kandil and a trusted legal expert, urging the president to hold a referendum on whether voters still supported his presidency, but the suggestion was rejected out of hand. El-Sissi appealed to all parties, in an apparent nod to Morsi's supporters, to participate in the new transition, saying it is overseen by an unbiased leader and will restore the right of people to choose.

The Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad responded to el-Sissi's remarks, saying that the military had no right to act on behalf of the people of Egypt except through "orders of their elected commander in chief," meaning Morsi.

Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power, has called for massive protests Monday to escalate pressure on the military. Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for el-Sissi to be removed, and put on trial accusing him of treason.

Egyptian  crisis has spilt out into nearby nations. Freedom fighting “militant” groups in Jordan have lashed out following the military ouster of Morsi, targeting police stations and security checkpoints and vowing to drive the military out of the area. In the past 10 days, at least eight security officers have been killed. Christians in the area have also been targeted. Two Christians were killed, one a priest. A gas pipeline to Jordan was bombed, ending a lull in such strikes.

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 Observation

The military also has no right to decide which protest is worthy enough to represent the people. President Morsi was ousted by the military after four days of protests by millions of his opponents.

Human Rights Watch said it appeared that "the military and police used unnecessary force" and that prosecutors have investigated only Brotherhood supporters and leaders for their alleged roles in the clashes, but not security forces. The army responded with lethal force that far exceeded any apparent threat to the lives of military personnel.

Enemies of Islam say Morsi "entered into a conflict with the judiciary, the media, the police and the public opinion. Then (he) also entered into a conflict with the armed forces." He didn't elaborate on the nature of the conflict with the military, but said that comments about the military offended "and were considered a stab to the national pride."  the armed forces could no longer stand on the sidelines as millions of Egyptians took to the streets to call for the Islamist leader to step down over allegations he was abusing his power.

Americans must revise their constitutional law  to include  a new clause: whenever a military take over happen s by  ousting an elected government, the  US president of the time  must step aside sympathizing with the  illegally removed  leader from power to enable a speedy democratic  process starting in that country.  Obama need not resign now without amending the constitution, though that would be ideal to assure humanity of peace. . 

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