By Mohamed Salmawy
That which stirs up the most suspicion with regards to the west’s increased interest in what is currently happening in Egypt is the west’s insistence on the need to protect democracy and human rights and prevent new outbreaks of violence. This interest does not adhere to the traditional rule in diplomacy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.
While such insistence appears noble and is founded on legitimate political convictions, it brings up the following question: where were all these noble stances during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood itself, in which a number of social, political and human rights violations occurred, in addition to those being perpetuated on a religious basis?
Where was the west when former president Mohamed Morsi released his constitutional declaration which protected him against all legal accountability? Where was the west when Brotherhood members took to surrounding the Supreme Constitutional Court, the country’s highest judicial institution, and the source of state power, preventing its members from entering and performing their duties? Where was the west when the President of the Republic flouted decisions taken by the Judiciary and reinstated the previously dissolved and illegitimate People’s Assembly which was dominated by a Brotherhood majority?
Why was the west not weeping over democracy when the Brotherhood excluded all other factions from participating in political life, not creating a democratic system at all, except for perhaps the existence of a ruling party and an opposition?
Where was the west when the Brotherhood expressed its hostility towards entire segments of society, including media personalities and intellectuals, doing so in official television addresses?
Where was the west, which is now so keen on avoiding the use of violence when dealing with protesters, when martyrs were killed in front of the presidential palace and Moqattam in addition to a number of other streets and squares throughout the country during the Brotherhood’s rule, whose numbers have been estimated to total in the hundreds? Among them were Jika, Al-Hosni Abu Dayif, Mohamad Al-Gindi, and Christy.
This increased level of concern, which never existed previously, not in the days of Mubarak or that of the Brotherhood’s reign, has pushed us to claim that if the west exercised half as much concern over democracy, human rights and avoiding a new plunge into violence during the days of the Brotherhood as they do now, then we may have been able to avoid a number of catastrophes which recently took place throughout the country.
Who knows? Maybe if such concern was exercised then, millions would not have taken to the streets to protest against the rule of the Supreme Guide, and perhaps Morsi would still be in power today.
