CAIRO – Loud praise was expressed by the Muslim Brotherhood for the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Cairo International Airport calling for a kind of unity between Cairo and Ankara as a nucleus for restoring the Muslim Caliphate. This has turned into bitter criticism when Erdogan urged the Egyptians to have a secular new state. Apparently, the Muslim Brotherhood, intended to exploit Erdogan's visit in propogating their vision of a Muslim state that fully enforces the Islamic Sharia (religious law), depending on the Islamic nature of Erdogan's party of Justice and Development. However, the Turkish Premier has turned the tables against them, when he called for creating a secular state and urged the Egyptians not to fear secularism and to differentiate between a secular state and a secular people. By this Erdogan's intention was to emphasise that a secular state means separation between the state and the religious institutions, without impacting the religious culture and tradition of the society. This is what most Egyptian Muslims seek when talking about having a civil democratic state even if its constitution includes an item noting that the Islamic Sharia is the main source of legislation. However, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists groups seek to have an Islamic state of Egypt that enforces the Sharia according to their own vision, which is close to the Wahabi (fundamentalist) understanding of Islam that violates moderate Islamic values adopted by Egyptian society for centuries. Naturally, this vision of Erdogan was not to be welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists who considered Erdogan's advice as interference in Egypt's domestic affairs! Erdogan's visit to Egypt was timely, reflecting the real wisdom of a noted politician that wished to convey a clear message to the world in general and the US and Israel in particular. Its content was that Turkey would stand by the side of post-revolution Egypt to restore the country's leading position in the region so that they could work together to form a strong front changing the image of the Middle East. All of the Egyptian people and the government should be committed to this concept. Post-revolution Egypt should follow in the steps of Turkey in having a strong economy, grounded in well established industry, agriculture and tourism, to enable it to acquire a strong position on the world map and so enjoy an independent political vision, similar to that of Turkey. No one heard a single comment from Tel Aviv and Washington when Erdogan took such a strong stand on Israel, even when he announced sending parts of the Turkish fleet to the east Mediterranean region to curb Israeli harassment in the region. Meanwhile, when some angry Egyptian youths broke into one of the offices of the Israeli Embassy to pull down its flag, Israel rushed to ask Washington to put pressure on Cairo to show strong stand towards demonstrators under the pretext of respecting the Vienna conventions on protecting diplomatic missions. In its turn, the Egyptian regime mobilised a large number of security forces to restore order to the area in a fierce confrontation, which ended in killing three demonstrators and injuring more than one thousand persons. Shortly afterwards, the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] announced that they would activate the State of Emergency law to restore order to the street describing the Friday 9 September events as acts of terrorism. Curiously, such an act from SCAF would have triggered criticism from the West in general and the US in particular if had been made following any other event not related to the Israeli Embassy. What is more ironic is that the American immediate response to Israel to pressurising Cairo into protecting its embassy contradicts its suspicious silence on the killing of six Egyptian border guards by the Israeli army. Some Egyptian activists have called on SCAF to take a stand similar to that of Turkey and, arguably, they might be right in the context of defending the Egyptian dignity. However, one could still find an excuse for SCAF not taking such a strong stand because of its concern to protect the domestic front against any further external challenge. Additionally, the ruling military council wishes to pave the way to having peaceful parliamentary and presidential elections so as to fulfil the army's promise of handing over rule to a civil authority. Nevertheless, the fierce public anger expressed at the killing of the Egyptian border guards has effectively conveyed a clear message to Tel Aviv that its brutality and terrorist acts on the Egyptian borders are no longer acceptable to the Egyptians. It is no secret that the Egyptian public reaction aroused the concern of different political parties in Israel as much as the Turkish stand did. Israel, the US and the whole world have surely realised that Egyptian public opinion is to play a vital role in drawing up Egypt's foreign policy from now on. However, Egypt needs to restore its leading role in the region by adopting clear stances on the different regional causes and by enjoying a strong economy to enable it to be politically independent, which condition could not be achieved other than by creating a strong civil democratic state.
