The Obama administration is mistaken in its support for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as it is aiding the regime crack down on political opposition, creating an even more unjust and violent Egypt, argues the Washington Post in an editorial published Sunday.
“The world has seen this dynamic play out many times before: A violent regime breeds more violence,” said the Post.
Sisi and his supporters maintain that the current military-backed regime is the only force that can restore stability and keep Egypt from being led down the path of Syria and Iraq. The editorial says, however, that the country has in fact become more violent, with more people dying from terrorist attacks, not to mention the tourist sites that are now being targeted.
The reason for the increased violence, the Post argues, is the increased indiscriminate oppression on all political opposition, not just the Islamists. The regime has locked up anyone who voices dissent or offends Egypt's generals, even journalists and secular liberals, and made peaceful protests a prisonable offense.
The main justification behind Sisi’s rule is that the main political opposition group is a violent terrorist organization, the editorial says, but the leaders of the group renounced violent tactics decades ago.
The Washington Post spoke to Amr Darrag, head of the executive committee of the Freedom and Justice Party, who told the newspaper, “We are against any kind of violence from a very practical point of view. We don’t want our country to go through what Syria and Iraq have gone through.”
He did, however, acknowledge that younger elements of the Muslim Brotherhood have gone against the leaders and adopted violent tactics, but said it has due to with an environment where all peaceful outlets of dissent are illegal and a desire for revenge pervades in the complete absence of justice.
