Egyptian supporters of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo on July 31, 2013. (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)
It appears Egypt’s military-backed government has finally lost patience with ousted president Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Information Minister Dorreya Sharaf el-Din announced on Wednesday that police were being ordered to clear Cairo sit-ins organized by the Islamist protesters because of the “threat” they posed to “Egyptian national security.”
The only thing that should be surprising here is that it took this long for the government to officially announce their decision to clear the sit-ins, which have dragged on since Morsi’s ouster in early July. The action against Islamist opponents of the country’s current leadership has been a long time coming, with the military ominously flexing its muscles in recent days. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s call for demonstrations to give the military a “mandate” to fight terrorism came exactly a week ago, heralding the impending crackdown. Since then, protesters have been targeted with violence, with at least 80 killed this last Saturday.
However, the decision to entirely clear the massive sit-ins, which are concentrated in front of Cairo’s Raba’a al-Adawiya mosque and Nahda Square, is a big step. It will be no small undertaking — and will necessarily involve violence. The move not only abandons any sort of pretense that Egypt’s post-coup leadership is committed to an embrace of democratic principles, it also signals an alarming escalation in the already tense security situation, one that will foreclose on any future political engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.
Despite conciliatory gestures designed to ease international pressure, such as allowing E.U. Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton to meet Morsi on Tuesday, it’s becoming increasingly clear that al-Sisi and the country’s military leadership have no intention of allowing for a future role for the Brotherhood in Egypt’s government. A full-blown security crackdown on the group’s largely peaceful protesters will put the last nail in that coffin — and put the kibosh on any meaningful political resolution to the current crisis.
