Friday, August 16, 2013

"Obama-Endorsed" Democracy: Update

08/16/13


On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces began forcibly dispersing the six-week-long sit-ins by supporters of ousted president Muhammad Mursi and of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) near Cairo's Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque and Al-Nahda Square. The move came after all local, regional, and international efforts to broker an agreement between representatives of the ousted regime and of the current regime had failed.

The issue of the dispersal of the sit-ins has been disputed in Egyptian society for several weeks. Many MB opponents, including columnist for the Egyptian Al-Ahram daily Ahmad Moussa, claimed that the central sit-ins, at these two sites, were being run like an independent entity separate from the state, and were stockpiling weapons, torturing activists seeking to leave, exploiting women and children, and inciting violence; therefore, he said, the sit-ins must be broken up.

MB supporters rejected these claims, insisting that the protests were strictly peaceful, and even called on the public to come to see for themselves. Dr. Hilmi Al-Qa'oud, columnist for the MB website, compared the current regime's decision to break up the sit-ins to Hitler's "final solution," and warned that doing so would only make the protests expand countrywide and fan the flames of the uprising against the current regime.


The following are translated excerpts from the columns, both published August 14, 2013, by Moussa and Al-Qa'oud:



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