Between the Brotherhood and the Military: a revolution deferred

Events unfolding in Cairo, Alexandria, the Sinai and other parts of Egypt are sad to watch but they are not unexpected. Raw, bloody and full blown crisis has returned to the unfortunate country, in many ways because of the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood to build bridges with secularists and minorities such as the Coptic Christians once they achieved power. Yet such a prospect was entirely feasible and completely desirable.

Instead using their slim majority the Muslim Brotherhood swiftly and blindly moved to enact a constitution that placed minorities and women at a disadvantage before the law, and in every other respect. Under Mohammed Mosi and his Muslim Brotherhood Egypt was on its way to becoming another Pakistan; where contempt and intolerance by those in the mainstream directed against everyone else that don't share their world view, stand center stage, while the country groups towards becoming a failed state.

If Mosi and the Muslim Brotherhood had taken the path that the Freedom and Justice Party took in Turkey, they had a good chance of wrenching Egypt free from wanton and backward prejudice and its unenviable status as a client state of the United States, and of building instead a free and prosperous nation. This is what makes the tragedy playing out in Egypt in which the military is once again center stage a double blow not just for Egypt but for the entire region. Egypt is a revolution deferred!