Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Arab Spring: Democracy's Limits

The Arab Spring and Egypt's Political Upheaval

The Arab Spring of 2010–2011, in which angry citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands to demand change, did not always result in the positive outcomes envisioned by the demonstrators. In Egypt, the chaos associated with the revolution that overthrew the dictator Muhammad Husni Mubarak did not end in a positive situation for ordinary citizens. In Ellen Lust's book The Middle East, she points out that notwithstanding the demand for reforms — which caused some leaders, including Tunisian President Ben Ali, to quickly depart the country in January 2011, and others to step down — transitions in Libya, Syria, and Yemen "deteriorated into civil war" (Lust, 2016).

The flood of refugees fleeing the violence was significant, as terrified citizens arrived in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Tunisia. In a dramatic shift that unfolded over just a few years, this Middle Eastern region — long associated with "Islam, Israel, oil and authoritarianism" — became seen as being associated with "revolution, civil war, refugees and radical extremism" (Lust).

The chapter "Egypt" in Lust's volume points out that the country has more than 81 million people and represents "practically every social, intellectual, and political movement" in the Arab world (Masoud, 2016). The author, an associate professor of International Relations at Harvard University, notes that Egypt comprises roughly a fourth of the Arab world's total population. Egypt, Masoud explains, was the "first in war" — having fought Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 — and was "first in peace" by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state in 1978.

Masoud explains that the Egyptian revolution would likely not have taken place had Tunisia's dictator not been overthrown first; that spark lit a fire in Egypt, and Mubarak was next to go in the Arab Spring's series of political upheavals. But five years after the Arab Spring was launched, there were still unsolved political problems and unsettled citizens wishing for democratic reforms.

Shortly after Mubarak was overthrown, power in Egypt was seized by an "interim government of military generals" — the Supreme Council of Armed Forces — and not long after that, Egypt held democratic elections for parliament and in the cities (Masoud, 2016). The exercise in democracy was "doomed," however, during those elections of 2011 and 2012, because the power that emerged was held by "a collection of illiberal, Islamist parties led by a semisecret religious society called the Muslim Brotherhood" (Masoud).

Why Egyptians Turned Against the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood, a "semi-secret religious society," was not politically or socially sophisticated enough to provide the leadership Egypt needed at that time. From the documentary Egypt After Morsi, it is clear that because citizens were so deeply upset — violently so in some situations — the army decided to launch a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013. "Popular discontent" was the reason the army finally stepped in, as Masoud explains. The documentary presents the anger, fear, and resentment of Brotherhood members alongside that of the broader Egyptian public.

"Sectarian tensions were destroying Egypt's economy," the narrator explains. Significant amounts of those sectarian tensions were created by the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Following the removal of Mubarak, and after the military stepped aside, the Brotherhood's leader Muhammad Morsi was installed through a popular election, raising expectations of stability and peace. But Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood failed to build political consensus and failed to be inclusive in their approach to governing. Apparently believing they had a popular mandate, they forced changes on people without broad agreement — and that exclusionary approach turned much of the population against them.

Was the Military's Intervention Justified?

No — the brutal attacks on demonstrators, most of whom were members or supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, were not justified. The army's shooting into crowds of protesters bore an uncomfortable resemblance to the Chinese government's attacks on students during the Tiananmen Square massacre. When a government's armed forces open fire on unarmed demonstrators — even those throwing rocks — it signals that civil order has collapsed and violent desperation has taken hold. There are other means of responding to mass demonstrations; killing people only exacerbated the political chaos rather than resolving it.

Works Cited

Lust, Ellen. The Middle East. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2016.

Vice. "Egypt After Morsi — Full Length." Retrieved June 11, 2016, from http://www.vice.com.