Tunisians chant slogans on July 30 in front of the Constituent Assembly headquarters during a protest against the country’s Islamist government in Tunis.
(Photo: Salah Habibi, AFP/Getty Images)
CAIRO – Under the cover of a recent night in the Egyptian capital, security forces battled with demonstrators in lengthy clashes that killed dozens of supporters of deposed president Mohammed Morsi.
Egyptian prosecutors have referred three top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s fugitive spiritual leader, to trial for allegedly inciting the killing of protesters last month.
The decision Wednesday by Cairo prosecutors is the latest move in a crackdown by authorities on the Islamist group following the July 3 ouster of Mohammed Morsi in a military coup, the AP reports.
“They are killing us,” said Waiel Yahya, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, in the aftermath of the bloody conflict.
Egypt is not the only place where Islamist groups are facing wrath. In the past few days Muslim Brotherhood offices have been ransacked in Libya, and thousands marched against the Islamist-led government in Tunisia.
MORE: African delegation meets Egypt’s Morsi
The unrest is seen by some as a backlash against Islamist groups that emerged politically powerful in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions but are spurring anger and disappointment with their governance.
“It’s going to be a messy period, but it’s also natural and to be expected,” said Firas Abi Ali, a Middle East and North Africa analyst at IHS in London. “Reconciling Islam with modernity will result in a lot of unrest.”
At the root of the region-wide turmoil are struggles between opposing political camps, particularly in the North African nations that are navigating turbulent attempts to shift to democracies from authoritarian systems.
In Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, groups across political and social spectrums that united to overthrow ruling autocratic regimes in 2011 are now engaging in bitter conflict and competition that has left hundreds of people dead.
“The major thread that runs through what is happening in Egypt, Tunisia and all these other places is contentious politics and a revolutionary moment,” said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. “It’s really a struggle of narratives. It’s a struggle for power.”
A majority Islamist government in Turkey has not been swept up in revolutionary zeal, and its economy has been doing well. However, protests blew up last month against the government over the planned destruction of a park and its edicts on the sale of alcohol to comply with Muslim strictures.
The demonstrations continue and now revolve around a range of concerns including the harsh crackdown by the government against protesters and threats to civil liberties.
“Turkish Islamists and secularists have a very uneasy relationship,” said Hamid Akin Unver, an assistant professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.
“Yet what is different in Turkey than Egypt is that Turkish Islamists took about nine years to engage in serious infrastructure construction, municipality works and good governance before they tuned to their Islamist agenda,” he said, noting that this is why the ruling Justice and Development Party, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, still has political legitimacy.
“In Egypt, however, Morsi dived straight into Islamist policies without having convinced non-Islamists about his ability to deliver service,” Unver said.
Egypt’s weekend violence stems from ire directed at Morsi, who comes from the Muslim Brotherhood – the 85-year-old movement that succeeded in every election it has participated in during the past two years.
Anger boiled over in June, when on the one-year anniversary of Morsi’s presidential inauguration, millions of people took to the streets to demand his resignation, complaining of dictatorial policies and a poor economy.
“The people were disappointed in the Islamists, and they didn’t like the way they behaved,” said Mohamed Abou El Ghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, a liberal group.
“They talked to the people from above – they neglected (the people),” he said.
For decades the Muslim Brotherhood was repressed by authoritarian governments in Egypt and elsewhere, its members considered a threat. Its message is that Islam as practiced by its adherents is the answer to the ills of the Muslim world, be they economic, spiritual or societal.
But the Islamists’ record in power in some countries has not impressed everyone.
On July 3, Egypt’s army chief, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, stepped in and forced Morsi out with the aid of secular, leftist and liberal opposition to the government. Even former supporters turned on them amid persistent unemployment, rising prices for basic foods, power cuts and fuel shortages.
“The Muslim Brotherhood brand has been damaged for good,” Gerges said. “It’s turned a significant part of Egyptians against them.”
Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said the current tension will probably worsen. But this phase will likely ease and pass. The Muslim Brotherhood does not want a civil war, he said.
In Tunisia, where the Arab uprisings began more than two years ago, a wave of weekend protests and clashes with security forces brought the country to a halt as secular groups demanded the Islamist-led government resign and the Constituent Assembly be dissolved, putting intense stress on the democratic transition.
The turmoil followed the murder of leftist politician Mohamed Brahmi – the second victim of political assassination in six months – who was killed last week outside his home. Many blame the government, led by the Islamist group Ennahda, for failing to ensure security and rein in fundamentalist Islamists.
“We need a radical change,” said Selim Kharrat, head of Al Bawsala, an independent organization that monitors the work of the now-criticized Constituent Assembly.
“Ennahda was already isolated before the assassination of Brahmi,” she said. “It is even more isolated today.”
By Monday, at least 70 out of 271 members of the Constituent Assembly withdrew from the body, according to local media. A sit-in outside the assembly building continued for a third day, and demonstrators called for a “national rescue government” and accused the Islamist leaders of lying to people in the name of religion.
“We can’t trust them anymore – their work is nothing but a big failure,” said Sihem Ben Aissi, 49, a housewife in Tunis. “We can’t go on like this anymore. We are going in the wrong direction.”
A secular party in the ruling Islamist-led coalition has demanded a unity government to help resolve the conflict.
In Libya, offices of the Muslim Brotherhood were attacked – as was the headquarters of a liberal coalition – after protests erupted in the eastern city of Benghazi over the weekend. The Brotherhood’s political wing is the second largest group in the nation’s legislature and was believed by some to be behind a wave of recent assassinations, a local Libyan news report said.
Political activist and outspoken Brotherhood critic Abdelsalam al-Mosmary was shot and killed Friday after leaving a mosque in Benghazi, according to Libyan press, and two military officials were assassinated.
“Many of the protesters were in tears, mourning the loss of a political figure who, they say, consistently made a stand against militias and Islamists,” the Libyan Herald said. “He also frequently appeared on television to encourage the residents of Benghazi to stage protests in response to bombings and assassinations in the area.”
The unrest prompted Libya’s prime minister to say he would reshuffle the cabinet, Reuters reported.
As emerging democratic systems with strong Islamist presence face challenges, collapse or waver, some Islamists are losing faith in the ballot box, which could lead to radicalization in the region, analysts said.
In Egypt, “the Islamists are eventually going to splinter, with some factions launching more attacks in Sinai and also in Egypt proper,” said Abi Ali.
In Cairo, disenchantment among Morsi supporters was palpable as they saw their votes washed away and Morsi was swept into detention.
“I voted for the parliament, president and the constitution,” said Ragab Shaban, 47, at a pro-Morsi rally earlier this month. “Do you think I will vote again? I will never vote again.”
Contributing: Brian Bonner in Berlin, Aida Alami in Paris, Victor Kotsev in Istanbul, Akram Khelifa in Tunis and Racha Haffar in Dubai, Associated Press.
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Racha Haffar 