Senator McCain's visit to Egypt Raises Several Concerns

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Tawfic Hamid Ýí 2013-08-12

Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham visited Cairo in a bid to help resolve the standoff between the military-backed interim government and supporters of ousted President Morsi. The U.S. senators urged Egypt's interim leaders to release jailed members of the Muslim Brotherhood. They also strongly urged an all-party national dialogue, which should include the Muslim Brotherhood. Senator McCain described the ousting of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi as a coup, in direct contradiction of the official White House position.

Irrespective of the real intensions of his visit, Senator McCain needs to explain the following rather glaring inconsistencies in his thinking:

Why did he regard the Military removal of "secular" Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak-in response to popular demand-as a "revolution," while he now regards the Military removal of "Islamist" Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi-also based on popular demand-as a "coup d'état?"
If the Jan 25 Revolution was made legitimate by sheer numbers of protesters (i.e., the fact that millions rather than, for example, hundreds of demonstrators called for Mubarak's removal gave legitimacy to the military response-in preference to a more traditionally democratic "throw out the bums at the ballot" response), then why is the same principle-sheer numbers-not applied to the removal of Morsi, who enjoyed even less public support than Mubarak?
Why the 180 degree shift in his views on the Muslim Brotherhood? On February 6, 2011, in an interview withSpiegel, Senator McCain was asked: "What is your assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood?" Senator McCain responded thus: "I think they are a radical group that first of all supports Sharia law; that, in itself, is anti-democratic-at least as far as women are concerned. They have been involved with other terrorist organizations and I believe that they should be specifically excluded from any transition government."As mentioned above, however, on his recent visit to Egypt, Senator McCain strongly urged an all-party national dialogue, which should include the Muslim Brotherhood. What's changed since early last year?
If a democratically elected American president were to break his presidential oath by issuing a decree that gave himself sweeping powers, such that all his future decrees became uncontestable in any court, and then he used this new power to allow his violent supporters to surround the Supreme Court, threaten the Justices, and prevent them from convening so as to prevent any judicial review of his decision (which is exactly what Morsi did after assuming power in Egypt), would Senator McCain regard it as legitimate to remove such a president from power or not? Sic semper tyrannis, and all that.
How can he inexplicably describe himself as "proudly pro-Israel," while supporting an outspokenly anti-Semitic Morsi, who has described Jews as "descendants of pigs & monkeys" and has asked Muslims to nurse their children's hatred of Jews?
Senator McCain also needs to clarify his position on how the Egyptian government ought to respond to the violent Islamist demonstrators. Should the Egyptian government allow them to kill innocent anti-Morsi protesters (as they are already doing)-or should the government of Egypt crack down on these Islamist Radicals, even if this necessitates the use of violence?
Senator McCain has portrayed the situation in Egypt as a question of reconciliation between two equal factions. The truth of the matter is very different indeed. In fact, there are only a few thousand Morsi supporters demonstrating in the streets versus literally tens of millions against him.

Unlike Michelle Bachmann's strong support for the revolution against the Islamists, which was perceived in a very positive manner by many-if not most-Egyptians, Senator McCain's bizarre support for the Muslim Brotherhood has caused extensive damage to the image of the U.S. in the region. Fortunately, Secretary of State John Kerry characterized the recent troubles as a military takeover to" restore democracy" rather than as a coup. His statementhas done much to ameliorate the negative reaction to Senator McCain's comments.

It is also fair to mention that Senator John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham latest comments in the Washigton Post that called Morsi by the word "former" President and blamed both sides for the current conflict in Egypt were more balanced and helpful than their initial remarks in Cairo which has created an uproar against the US.

To conclude, Senator McCain's recent comments in Cairo on the June 30 Revolution in Egypt have empowered the Islamists, complicated the problem in the country, caused further damage to the relations between the American and Egyptian people, and raised serious concerns regarding the senator's apparently pro-Islamist position.

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بطاقة Tawfic Hamid

تاريخ الانضمام	:	2011-03-09
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بلد الميلاد	:	Egypt
بلد الاقامة	:	Egypt