Death Sentences that Probably Aren’t

Mohammad Morsi (above right) was elected President of Egypt in 2012. His faction was a group that many nations in the West had labeled a terrorist group – the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi claimed that he represented all Egyptians and that severely Islamist policies were not to be the new Egypt. Still, he attempted to ram through a new constitution that shifted once-secular Egypt severely into an Islamist mode while simultaneously walking a more moderate path in his application of Egyptian policy on regional politics.

With Egypt’s economy in shambles and rising fear among both the more sophisticated educated young, those slammed by harsh economic realities and, finally, the all-powerful military, the nation became increasingly unstable. Peaceful protests rapidly became violent. Egypt was teetering on anarchy, when the military followed an all-too-familiar pattern of post-World War II history, deposing Morsi and his party. A year after taking office, he was arrested and has been put on trial as the military began a purge of the Muslim Brotherhood itself. The party was banned and protests from adherents were viciously prosecuted.

Caught in the middle, the United States, trying to show the Muslim world that it could tolerate a moderated Islamist presence in the Middle East, continued to show support for “lawfully elected” Morsi despite a rather clear new direction in Egypt that seemed to want to crush such Islamic fundamentalism. US military aid to Egypt was cut back, even as the new military government seemed to be embracing an anti-Islamist path that had been US policy since the early 1990s. But as Morsi and his followers seemed to be permanently pushed out of Egyptian politics (again), the United States began to downplay its rhetoric and let the changes simply unfold.

Any government that claims legitimacy based on a mandate from God – the very definition of Iran’s form of religious governance as an Islamic Republic – will sooner or later override any other power voice in any government. After all, how can you overrule God – conveniently dictated by those “ordained” to speak to the Deity, often self-appointed or appointed by a narrow elite? So as Morsi attempted to Islamize his ascendency to power, locking this reality into a new constitution, secular and military leaders realized that sooner or later their voices would superseded by those claiming religious legitimacy and supremacy. Morsi’s fate was sealed by these powerful incumbents.

But the purge of Muslim Brotherhood operatives has continued. Blamed for any damage done or people killed in pro-Morsi demonstrations, about 1200 adherents were tried for all kinds of criminal activity with the penalty for most being the death sentence. The verdict (all but 147 in absentia) against 529 supporters (including senior leaders) was just announced: death. “The verdict now goes to Egypt's supreme religious authority, the Grand Mufti (a senior Islamic scholar), for approval or rejection, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo… Campaigners say that while death sentences are often handed down in Egypt, few have been carried out in recent years.

“The final trial session will not be held until 28 April, so there is some time left before the sentence is confirmed and there will be time to appeal in that period, our correspondent adds… The Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman in London, Abdullah el-Haddad, told the BBC the sentences showed that Egypt was now a dictatorship.” BBC.co.uk, March 24^th. Another 700 supporters of the Brotherhood began a new set of trials on March 25^th. Spokespeople for the Brotherhood called such trials flatly illegal conducted by “Kangaroo courts.” The trials were all done in two days, defense lawyers mostly not there either.

But for democracy fans, there’s “good” news: “Egypt’s powerful military commander Abdel Fatah al-Sissi formally announced his plan to run for president, in a long anticipated address to the nation on [March 26^th].” Washington Post, March 26^th. Kind of “déjà vu” all over again, huh? And trust me, al-Sissi is no friend to the Brotherhood, to put it mildly. Still, ultra-conservative Islamists press and more modern secularists push back, all across the region.

We are watching a strong movement of Muslim fundamentalists in their commitment to impose Islamist rule under harsh Sharia law in increasing number of countries or sections of nations. You can see the violent attempts in northern Nigeria as Boko Haram Islamist adherents slit throats and set fire to civilians who engage in acts (like getting a western education) they oppose. And as radical as al Qaeda might be, its spin-off, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is even more violently committed to the imposition of religious governance on the world. Taliban have their eyes set on ruling Afghanistan and perhaps Pakistan. The clash of civilizations continues.

Even in relatively democratic and secular nations, signs of creeping Islamist policies and practices becoming the law of the land are growing, with strong push-back from those who have more modern leanings. You can see the struggles in Turkey as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself under a cloud of possible corruption, uses government power to crush dissent and turn off as much critical social media as he can in an effort to claw back his country into conservative Islamic practices and laws.

Radical conservatism has accelerated well-beyond the Islamic faith and is present in popular right-wing anti-immigration parties in the Netherlands and even parts of liberal Scandinavia. As our own middle class is eroding and there are perceived threats to traditional, rural American values from a more liberal and ethnically-diverse urban population, the rise of uncompromising, gridlock-committed Tea Party candidates is threatening to bring our own government to its knees. To many in the US, it is a battle of ethnic Europeans (read: traditional whites) against immigrants and people of color. Such political macrotrends are fascinating to study and understand… but when the conflicts and polarization rise to current levels, they are amazingly difficult to live with or live through. The unwavering commitments to specific courses of action are so rigid that such movements often undermine the political system itself.

            I’m Peter Dekom, and while such changes are the very definition of history itself, kindness and looking at the world from your opponents’ perspective is a reasonable place to start to mollify the pain.