30th June, "Revolt", Egypt

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Some updates on what's happening since Morsi's ouster.

The debate is on of was it a military coup or was it a continuation of a revolution. It's both actually and not either or. It was a popular uprising against a democratically elected President who over reached power in his first year and was ousted by a military backed coup by the very definition of it. It was an undemocratic way to dispose of a democratically elected leader. There is no ambiguity about this. The ambiguity comes from thinking that it's one way or the other instead of recognizing the facts and accepting it's both. The difference between this time and last time is Mubarak was a dictator. Morsi was freely and fairly elected by the people and a newly formed democracy was established. Academics say to ignore that it was a military coup sets a precedents that this is acceptable in a democratic society and that holds larger implications for the Arab Spring countries struggling with their new governments. This also fuels hatred by Islamist for the West for appearing to support the coup. What happened in Egypt has wider implications for the surrounding region which is explained in Egypt crisis stirs wide debate on democracy's hold. For diplomatic reasons the West is in a bind because it does support the popular uprising but to say it was a coup would mean cutting off aid with military allies who keep the peace treaty with Israel, and possibly further damage the relationship with the new government that they're for, and causing the rest of the world such as countries in the UN to follow foot with international sanctions on Egypt when it needs the aid and economic help in order to restore the democracy that everybody wants. In short they see it as a good thing though it wasn't done the proper way through democratic means and they're sticking to that.

This 12 year old boy's video about Egyptian politics is going viral.

The spotlight is on sexual violence during the protests too. More women were sexually assaulted and raped this time around than people were killed.

However since the transfer of power the military issued 200-300 arrest warrants for members of the MB and travel bans on them. Many MB members that were high up have been arrested and Morsi is still under house arrest. They also issued a travel ban on him so I'm under the impression he's going to be released soon. They explain the detentions as a necessary security measure until things calm down and to prevent the incitement of violence.

The new interim president was sworn in almost immediately. Chief justice Adly Mansour takes oath hours after democratically elected Mohamed Morsi overthrown by military.

Then the interim president appointed ElBaradei as Prime Minister but the Islamist didn't accept that. Mainly the al-Nour party that was backing Morsi's ouster objected and said they were going to back out of the group if ElBaradei was PM. They couldn't have that so they picked a top economist for PM as a compromise with the Islamist. Economist Hazem el-Beblawi

Islamist gunmen stage multiple attacks in Sinai Peninsula. Also they hit the gas pipeline again. Explosion hits gas pipeline in Sinai peninsula between Egypt and Jordan

The MB is rejecting the transition plan and they still want to protest to reinstate Morsi as the President. At one of the protests clashes between the military and the brotherhood erupted and 51 MB were fired upon and killed.

The massacre lead to the MB calling for their own Islamic Uprising and revolt. I can hear the drum beats of war with this call to battle.

Dh is very concerned there is going to be bombings now. He said maybe not civil war but he does believe there may be some acts of terrorism like the bombing that happened five months ago on the US Embassy in Turkey.

Meanwhile Egypt is imposing visa rules on Syrians because of the current political climate.

Also Ramadan is starting. Ramadan to begin in UAE, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday July 10 Some in the news are saying it will be a tense, violent Ramadan with political themes. True people can get hungry, irritated and irrational by fasting but also more lighter and spiritual. I plan to take a break from the over saturation of the media and online activity on Egypt myself. There is just so much happening and it feels like there is little we can do about it. It's up to them.

This Ramadan let us meditate and pray on peace in the middle east for the people, and for our friends and family there.