by JASMINE ELSHAMY Staff Writer
President Barack Obama has recently been attacked by the Egyptian media for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, a move that has caused much controversy.
Just two years ago, Egypt had been thought to be on its way to a fresh start with a proper democracy now that ex-president Hosni Mubarak was ousted out of his position as president during an almost 30-year term. Now, the country is in a state of utter chaos, verging on anarchy.
The first legitimately elected president Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political organization, was impeached by the people on July 3, 2013. This caused a lot of confusion considering the fact that he was properly elected into his position by the people.
Most Americans do not know the real reasons why Morsi was driven out office – he was only concerned with being a president to his people (his people being the Muslim Brotherhood), not all of the people in Egypt.
Under his rule, the country went from bad to worse, economically and socially. He was not doing what the people elected him to do. Not only was he being a selfish president, his party members were engaging in brutality against anyone who was against the party.
A shocking video was posted on YouTube in July showing a group of kids throwing rocks from the top of a building at members of the Muslim Brotherhood standing below. Some of the men proceeded to go up to the top of the building and throw the children down. One of the men had the flag of Al-Qaeda draped around his back. Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiS-H4mtkc
Another part of the problem with the first election was the fact that the other candidate in the election had been a part of Mubarak’s regime. How could the people re-elect someone who had supported and been a part of what could be described as a dictatorship? The citizens were stuck between a rock and a really, really hard place.
Morsi promised in his campaign to be a “servant of the Egyptian people” and that he would “not betray his country.” Millions of people were thinking the contrary when a movement called Tamarod was founded to remove Morsi from power.
Tamarod means “rebel” or “disobey.” A group of young people began it, and they had originally aimed at gathering 15 million signatures – they ended up with more than 22 million.
These signatures represented each person who was going to go outside of their house and hold up a red card, the way a referee does in a soccer game, to show their opposition to Morsi.
The Tamarod joined a campaign to call the United States to stop interfering in Egyptian political affairs. Of course, here in the great states we think it is our business and calling to go play superhero to any country that is seemingly in trouble.
“I don’t like how the U.S. tries to intervene with all these different countries. I understand that it’s usually with a good intention, but Obama is trying to do what FDR tried to do, which was to spread democracy to every country, no matter the cost,” says senior Krissy Lassiter.
What our government, mainly the Obama Administration, is doing is supporting a group of people who the Egyptians now want nothing to do with! Both pro- and anti-regime citizens want the United States to butt out.
“Mr. Obama, it doesn’t matter that you have lost your principles,” Kamal Abdul Al Fatah said in the Al Wafd daily, an Egyptian newspaper. “The worst thing is that you have removed from America its covering of honor and principles of freedom, leaving it naked in the world.”
Many articles being written in the Egyptian media see Obama’s support of the Brotherhood as the support of terrorism. Egyptians would probably be much more open to hearing what Obama or any U.S. official had to say if they were thinking with the best intentions of the Egyptian people in mind.
It is most important for Americans to realize that what has happened in Egypt has not been a coup, the way that every single American article has described and called it. It really is a continuation of the revolution. Just because the Egyptian army was the force that brought Morsi out of office, does not mean that it was entirely a militia movement.
The Egyptian army consider themselves the army of the people, not the army of the regime, or any regime for that matter.
“I feel like America should embrace democracy instead of trying to spread it and then proceeding to mess things up even worse in the process,” says junior Shannon O’Scannell.
The United States should be supportive of the people, not the regimes or rulers. They should make sure that they are completely informed about the situation before they get involved.