US Secretary of State John Kerry came to Cairo amid a wave of protests, sit-ins and confrontations that have plagued Egypt since the constitutional declaration of 22 November 2012. It is generally understood that the US placed pressure on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in early 2012 to hand over power to civilians. The subsequent election of President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's control of parliament were greeted with satisfaction by US officials, including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and hailed as a sign of democracy by major US publications, including The New York Times. American excitement about the ascendance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo was motivated by two things. One is the assumption that the Brotherhood is capable of bringing extremist Islamic groups, such as Al-Qaeda and various Salafist and jihadist organisations, under control. The other is the expectation that once in power, the Brotherhood will honour the agreements both Anwar Al-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak signed with Israel. Despite the Muslim Brotherhood's fiery rhetoric against Israel when it was in the opposition, the Americans were right in their assumption. Since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power it has given repeated assurances that it will maintain peace with their foremost rhetorical foe, Israel. The Brotherhood also agreed to mediate in the case of Hamas, pressuring the latter to stop lobbing rockets into Israel, a development received with great joy in the US. Banking on their improved ties with the US, the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi removed the very army chiefs who had sided with them in the past. Hussein Tantawi and Sami Anan, who were instrumental in arranging elections before the writing of the constitution, were both dismissed from their posts. The dismissals were preceded by attacks on army positions in Sinai by jihadist fighters, serving to portray the army chiefs as weak and indecisive. The elections brought the Muslim Brotherhood more power than it could have ever dreamt of, nearly 60 per cent of the seats in the People's Assembly. This whetted the Brotherhood's appetite for power. From then on, the group went about filling top government positions with its supporters in what came to be known alternately as tamkin (empowerment) or akhwana (Brotherhoodisation). The first step in the tamkin drive was a 16-hour session to pass a constitution deemed lopsided by the opposition. Earlier, members of the opposition had withdrawn from the Constituent Assembly, saying that the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies were not interested in writing a consensual constitution or one that upholds commonly accepted democratic and constitutional principles. Since November 2012, confrontations between the Muslim Brotherhood and the opposition have been fuelled by the president's dismissal of the prosecutor-general without seeking the customary approval of the Judiciary Council, by the siege of the Supreme Constitutional Court, by the siege of Media Production City, and by the appointment of Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers in top posts in government-owned newspapers, such as Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhuriya. Reacting to the wave of protests engulfing Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, and other cities, the Muslim Brotherhood argued that its opponents were either foreign hired or working for the old regime. They were paid thugs, Brotherhood officials said, bent on burning down the country and blocking the revival schemes the group had in mind for Egypt. While the Muslim Brotherhood directed a steady stream of abuse on the opposition, the presidency kept calling the latter to dialogue, which is rather odd. If the opposition was really on the payroll of the country's foes, does it really deserve an invitation to dialogue? The opposition, especially youth organisations, rejected dialogue, saying that it lacked sincerity and was designed to waste time. The opposition also said that no one has the power to control the street and that it is the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order. To retaliate, the Muslim Brotherhood sent its militias to attack protesters at Al-Ittihadiya palace, leading to a particularly lethal encounter. Extreme forms of sexual harassment were also used to deter women from taking part in protests against the Brotherhood. As the violence escalated, turbulence became a daily occurrence in several cities, especially along the Suez Canal. This was the scene that greeted Kerry in his recent visit, during which he made an effort to meet representatives of the government and the opposition. Many opposition groups refused to meet Kerry, citing disapproval of US cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood. In his talks, Kerry is said to have sought and obtained reassurances that Egypt is abiding by its peace treaty with Israel. The secretary of state also advised reconciliation between the Islamists and the opposition. The Muslim Brotherhood doesn't have any problem with Israel. In fact, when a Palestinian prisoner died recently of torture in an Israeli prison, the whole world voiced fury but the Muslim Brotherhood said absolutely nothing. The Brotherhood is also keeping quiet about Israel's settlements in East Jerusalem, and doesn't seem bothered by Israel's nuclear arsenal. The economy, however, is harder to ignore. Kerry is said to have warned his Egyptian interlocutors that the country is suffering from an economic “haemorrhage” and that unless action is taken bankruptcy will follow. It is hard to fix the economy in the middle of political turmoil. And the political turmoil is not going to end unless President Morsi agrees to rewrite the constitution, form a coalition government, pass a sensible elections law, and refrain from appointing Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers in all crucial posts across the country. So far, the Brotherhood has appointed its members and sympathisers in local government and the education and health ministries. According to Salafist sources, the Brotherhood may have already appointed up to 1,200 Brotherhood sympathisers in the Interior Ministry. In the Ministry of Waqf (religious endowments), the Muslim Brotherhood is replacing outspoken preachers with ones that are more loyal to its policies. Desperate for cash, the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to borrow from the IMF before the elections. The IMF loan doesn't seem to be coming through, the talks having been suspended since November. Even in the unlikely event that the loan is secured, the scale of the austerity measures to follow will not be particularly amenable to political stability. Questioning the constitutionality of the recent elections law, the Administrative Court has just ordered the elections placed on hold. The current elections law would have had parliamentary elections held in four stages over a period of two months, from 22 April to 22 June, not on a single day, as is standard practice. If Kerry had hoped to redress the mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi, he must know better by now. Unless the Muslim Brotherhood abandons its tamkin schemes, political and economic reform will remain out of reach.
