by Kelsey P. Norman
On last year’s anniversary of Egypt’s Revolution, January 25, 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood held power in Egypt via former President Mohamed Morsi. One month prior, the group had successfully passed a new constitution through a nation-wide referendum vote. While last year’s revolutionary celebration saw protests and dissent – predominantly from liberal activists who accused the Muslim Brotherhood of usurping the 2011 revolution – the group incontrovertibly held command over the country.
Just one year later, on the third anniversary of Egypt’s revolution (which occurred last Saturday), the political organization has been officially labeled by the current military-run government as a terrorist group, and ousted president Mohamed Morsi is on trial for crimes against the Egyptian state.
How did this drastic shift happen within such a short span of time?
Last summer, following a popular campaign to demand that Morsi step down from power, millions gathered in Egypt’s streets on June 30 calling for the end to his one-year rule. Four days later, on July 3, the Egyptian military forced Morsi out of office, accompanied by mass celebrations. Addressing the controversy over whether Morsi’s ousting constituted a revolution or a coup d’etat, journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous explains, “That a popular revolt facilitated Morsi’s ouster is undeniable. But it has also solidified the military’s role as the final arbiter of power in Egypt … The country’s new constitution was suspended. In effect, Egypt had gone back to square one.”
Following Morsi’s ouster, the rest of the summer saw violence and unrest as Muslim Brotherhood supporters and ‘anti-coup’ protesters staged sit-ins throughout the country, decrying what they deemed to be the illegitimate actions of the military. This culminated in the bloody dispersal by security forces of the Rabaa Al Adawiya sit-in in Cairo on August 14. While the military attempted to justify the dispersal by alleging that the individuals at the sit-in were heavily armed, approximately 1,000 people were killed by state security forces.
Since that day, now known as the Rabaa massacre, the military-led government has tried to erase any memory of the event, erecting a monument on the site in tribute to the Egyptian police and military. As Kristen Chick writes for The Christian Science Monitor, “To the families of those who died that day, it’s a bitter reminder of the state’s denial of the August 14 killings, and the willingness by much of society to endorse the killings or simply look away.”
Following Rabaa, the government has waged a media campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood in addition to formally banning the group in September and targeting its leaders by freezing their assets. With the Muslim Brotherhood leadership under attack, Egyptian university campuses emerged in the fall of 2013 as the new battleground between students protesting the crackdown and security forces. In December, the government took the drastic step of declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, meaning that anyone found supporting the group politically or financially would face criminal charges.
The campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood has been largely successful. As Sharif Abdel Kouddous explains for The Nation, “Much of Egypt is awash in conformist state worship, fueled by the shrill narrative of a war on terror and the age-old autocratic logic that trades rights for the promise of security…. The Muslim Brotherhood has been the primary target. Hundreds of members have been killed and thousands imprisoned.”
Kouddous also argues that when voting took place on January 14-15, 2014 for the new government-backed constitution, replacing the previous constitution written under Muslim Brotherhood rule, many who flooded to polling stations saw their ‘yes’ vote as one that would count against the Muslim Brotherhood. And when bombs went off last Friday throughout Cairo and Giza, onlookers were quick to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood, despite any evidence linking the group to the explosions.
But this targeting of the Muslim Brotherhood cannot be read outside the larger narrative of events unfolding in post-coup Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood members and anti-coup protesters are one faction among others – including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, liberal activists, and dissenting voices generally – that the state has labeled as ‘security threats’ in order to legitimize the expansion of its policing apparatus.
Last Saturday, on the third anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution, Muslim Brotherhood supporters and anti-coup protesters were on the streets en mass, as were liberal activists, though members of both groups were harassed, beaten by security forces, arrested, and killed. The only groups that seem to have emerged from the anniversary ‘celebrations’ unscathed were supporters of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whom millions of Egyptians now regard as their savior from the reign of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Egypt’s ‘next great leader.’
Kelsey P. Norman is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine where she researches migration and citizenship. She is a research fellow with the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada doctoral fellow. You can find more about her writing and research on her website and blog, or follow her on twitter at @kelseypnorman.