The wind of revolution caught Egypt by surprise on 25 January 2011. When the wind gusted fiercely, people naturally sought the nearest shelter and what they found was the Muslim Brotherhood, (MB), ready and waiting. One year was time enough for many Egyptians to discover that the MB shelter was not really a peaceful or protective refuge. The shelter may have kept out the wind, but it definitely was the source of far more deadly danger. All those who sheltered with the MB thought it flew the Egyptian banner, but that assumption was not quite accurate. The people of Egypt found that the peril they were facing was the collapse of their original shelter, Egypt. The shelter that a state provides can only stand firm when the pillars that support it, namely the constitution, national sovereignty and identity, are sturdy. The refuge the Brotherhood offered lacked all three; and the MB immediately started to work hard to demolish the pillars of the state. Constitution On 24 June 2012 Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood was elected president. He took the presidential oath on 30 June and solemnly swore to respect the state's constitution and the law. The steps that he took immediately after the swearing in ceremony did not conform to this commitment, to say the least. This link http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/50274.aspx to the ahramonline website clarifies the legal impact of his actions it says: "Senior judges and other legal experts argue that Morsi's decision to revoke the June constitutional addendum contradicts the presidential oath he took before the High Constitutional Court." That was the end of the first pillar: Constitution. Sovereignty Soon after the first pillar was smashed, came the attack on the second. President Morsi used the constitutional right of his post as never before, to pardon several convicts. The ALMONITOR website http://www2.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2012/07/release-of-islamists-convicted-o.html# demonstrates the total bias of his actions that degrade the country's sovereignty by disrespecting its law. The sequence went thus, firstly the oath-protected constitution was negated then the judicial sentences passed in the name of the people, were shredded. It is a fact that all those who were released from prison were related to the Brotherhood or were actual members. That was the end of the second pillar: Sovereignty. Identity Egypt's identity is a rather complex issue. The simplest analogy to sum up Egypt's identity is manifested in Egyptians' oneness with their land. The people of Egypt consider their land to represent their honor and pride, the core of their being. Taking away any part of it would be like kidnapping their identity. Morsi did exactly that, although his constitutional oath declared that he should protect the land and Egypt's territorial integrity, he ventured to surrender parts of Sinai and parts of southern Egypt (in an attempt to attach to Sudan border areas in the South and to detach them from Egypt). The Agora Island project for ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was a plan that Morsi intended to implement. Abdel Rehim Aly, an expert on Political Islam, wrote the article, "Why Sinai? Why Now?" (http://www.albawabaeg.com/50489), uncovering the details of this scheme. Giving away Egyptian land is like taking away a chunk of its identity. That was yet another of the Brotherhood's objectives. The third pillar was about to be smashed too: Identity The Rise June 30, 2013 was the day when Egyptians felt that their identity was being stolen. They also saw the inevitable, that soon, their beloved Egypt would vanish; their only identity would perish. There was enough adrenaline in their veins for them to take to the streets to express their patriotic passion, in an unprecedented way. That was a day of which modern history has not seen the like. What was really amazing about that day, in my opinion, was that the general spirit of the public on the streets was ultimate pleasure, celebration and optimism. Their gut feeling was that hope was alive and kicking, it only required a wake-up call. The cracking of the last state pillar woke Egyptians up, just in time. In the Middle East, (ME), region, countries have vanished, leaving only a few traces, but Egypt has decided to remain as solid as it has always been and though wounded is as proud as ever. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has mentioned in his speeches, that the terrorism we are fighting today has removed and taken the place of many regimes in other countries. These countries did not rise in time and they may take a while to recover. History has already recorded what happened to them. In the case of Egypt, history will highlight a memorable and solid stand in the face of adversity and a determination to survive. Egypt has chosen to fight its battles and to meet its challenges, without compromising its identity. The states of the region must make that choice; otherwise they may not be able to maintain their identity. Egyptians found this out the hard way; they made their choice and are determined to remain Egyptian.
