Egypt coup against Morsi is rooted in a decades-long struggle

LATimes ^ | July 3, 2013, 5:24 p.m. | By Jeffrey Fleishman

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Since 1952, Egypt's identity has been in a tug of war between Islamists and a secular military state.

CAIRO — The passions fueling Egypt's political turbulence arose directly from the "Arab Spring" of 2011, but they have deeper roots in a decades-long struggle over the nation's identity between two authoritarian forces — Islamists and a secular military state.

Egypt won its independence from Britain after a 1952 revolution by army officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. From the start, the military was set against the Muslim Brotherhood, a growing and at times violent underground Islamist movement. Strong in the provinces and among professionals, the Brotherhood espoused sharia, or Islamic law, and went so far as to attempt political assassinations to wear down the military-backed government.

The Brotherhood's vision inspired both moderate Islamist groups and terrorist organizations across the region. It renounced violence decades ago and concentrated on social and religious programs, but the group was both co-opted and persecuted by successive military leaders who regarded it as a threat to the westward-leaning secular state they envisioned.

The organization's bitterness simmered through six decades as military men ran the country, until a popular uprising overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The army quickly seized control, but the Brotherhood began a political ascendancy that culminated with the election last year of President Mohamed Morsi, the nation's first Islamist leader.

The young protesters and opposition figures who led the revolt against Mubarak were outflanked by the Brotherhood and unceremoniously sidelined by political naivete, conflicting visions and lack of organization.

[Billthedrill]

The author left out one thing the Egyptians haven't forgotten - the Islamic Jihad members who assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981 were associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. One of their leaders was a fellow we've come to know and detest, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

And yes, the Turks are watching this thing very carefully.