Tasneem Kabir Muhammad Morsi
A US educated engineer by education, former Professor at University of Southern California, an ex-aide of NASA in their program for development of engines for space shuttles, former Professor at a university in Egypt , a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or the Ikhwanul-Muslimeen, the first democratically elected President of Egypt and a leader deposed by a coup d’état – In this very order spanned the life of Mohammad Morsi, who passed away on June 17, 2019.
Having departed from the earth, Morsi left behind an interesting story. The whole idea of the people of Egypt wishing for a democratically elected leader finds its origin in the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was a series of protests against the incumbent government, that started out in Tunisia in late 2010, against poverty, corruption and political repression, forcing the then Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to resign and flee the country after 23 years of unchallenged power. The zeal and news of this success spread on to the Middle East and Africa, challenging even the most entrenched of regimes. The wave reached Egypt in 2011, when a popular uprising forced one of the region’s longest serving leaders, President Hosni Mubarak out of power.
The most intriguing feature of these demonstrations in Egypt was that it was organized by youth groups, which were largely independent of established opposition parties. This symbolises that the struggle for installation of a democracy was indeed genuine. These protesters called for Mubarak to step down immediately, clearing the way for free elections and democracy but were met with hostile and violent tactics by Hosni Mubarak, resulting in deaths and injuries numbering in the hundreds. However, three weeks into the mass protests, and the fading figure of Mubarak had no option but to resign.
With elections due in the country, the people of Egypt, though initially fighting for causes such as poverty, excessive government interference and repressive taxes, realised that the elections could impact drastically the foreign affairs of the country. Key features of the long-standing foreign policy under the ousted Hosni Mubarak regime and his predecessors were Egypt’s political-military alignment with the United States and the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. This peace treaty, proposing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was embraced by the leaders but highly unpopular with the Sunni Muslim majority Egyptian public who felt greatly for their displaced Palestinian brethren. With this backdrop, the political organisation called the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under the Hosni regime, started to feature in as a viable option.
The Muslim Brotherhood believed in ridding Egypt of what it deemed to be corrupt Western practices as well as restoration of Palestine as a whole and returning it to its previous, now scattered inhabitants. The Muslim Brotherhood fielded Mohammad Morsi as their candidate in the 2012 elections, as he was now politically active. As President, Morsi ended up issuing a temporary constitutional declaration in November that year, granting himself unlimited powers and the authority to legislate without judicial oversight. This move, naturally, was not very popular with the populace and mass demonstrations forced him to rescind the decrees. People were also agitated by the prosecution of journalists and attacks on non-violent demonstrators. Hastily, the Morsi government drew up a new constitution. However, come June 2013, vociferous protests started to erupt, demanding Morsi’s resignation. This time, the military as backed by the political opposition stepping in with a coup and deposed him. The one year reign of Morsi ended, as did the constitution he had framed with the military appointing Adly Mansour as interim President. Pro-Morsi demonstrations were crushed, resulting in over 800 deaths. Egyptian prosecutors then charged Morsi with various crimes and sought the death penalty, a move denounced by Amnesty International as “a charade based on null and void procedures”. His death sentence was overturned in November 2016 and a retrial ordered. Morsi died during trial on 17 June 2019.
Thus was Morsi’s life. From his political career, there are certain noteworthy points. Firstly, while serving in the capacity of Member of Parliament in 2010, Morsi stated that “the two-state solution is nothing but a delusion concocted by the brutal usurper of the Palestinian lands”, referring to the 1979 Israeli-Palestinian treaty. Clearly, he was pro-Palestinian and saw the US and Israel’s supposed attempts at a solution for what they were – efforts to legitimize an illegal and inhuman occupation. Further, Morsi had something interesting to say about the 9/11 attacks of 2001 on the Twin Towers in New York: He did condemn them as “horrific crimes against innocent civilians”. But, he also accused the United States of using these very attacks as a pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those of us aware of current affairs know how these invasions turned out, leaving the two nations in ruins.
Morsi is often quoted as having likened the 2011 Revolution to an “Islamic Awakening” in the Middle East. His policy vis-a-vis the minority Coptic Christians living in Egypt was one of acceptance and not mere tolerance, for he said multiple times that they were just as Egyptian as he was, and had as much right to this homeland as he had. He said freedom of religion is a right granted by Allah and Sharia commands Muslims to respect the rights of non-Muslim compatriots. However, the reality often differs from what was promised. In real terms, the situation of Egyptian religious minorities such as Shia Muslims and Christians steadily deteriorated during the rule of Morsi government. As for the politico-economic front, Morsi had an almost liberal approach to the free markets, comparing them to the Islamic system. However, he also maintained that Islam requires here to be an ethical code to ensure that the poor share in the society’s wealth, and he intended on following this rule.
In summary, Morsi’s story seems to be the quintessential model of a politician who starts out with the right intent, only to succumb to the temptations of power, as he did in trying to supersede the judiciary. Even if Morsi did want to build a hospitable country for people of all faiths, it didn’t translate to ground reality. Notwithstanding his faults, the one field where Morsi stood steadfast to the very end was the Palestinian cause – towards the end of his year as President, he even mediated a ceasefire to stop the incessant killings on either side under the Operation Pillar of Defence as launched by Isreal against Hamas in Palestine. He was noted for his mistrust of the West and particularly America, in that he departed from his precessors’ habit of worshipping the ground that America stepped on. He even challenged the US, saying they hadn’t provided enough evidence that those behind the 9/11 attacks were in fact Muslims. Lastly, all one can say about this man who defaulted into the very autocracy he set out to crush is that Franz Kafka’s saying applies to his case better than any – “Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind the slime of a new bureaucracy.”
