Nation suffers not because of their ill-fate but because of their fallacious unwise strategies. It is judicious celebrating the differences than glorifying them. The move for change brought relentless turmoil in Egypt and it seems as if struggling for change is in vain. Undoubtedly, this is the feeling at present in Egypt, which saw the worst violence it has experienced in decades on August 14, as security forces resorted to shooting and the use of bulldozers and helicopters to break up gatherings of tens of thousands of supporters of former president Mohamed Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
More than 700 people have been killed and thousands injured, in four days of violence with witnesses describing terrible scenes as bleeding bodies, including those of children, tumble to the ground. That has earned Egypt stiff condemnation from Western nations, uncomfortable with the organization’s rule but also with the overthrow of a freely elected government.
The supporters of Mr. Mursi had been camping at two locations in Cairo since before he was overthrown on July. The authorities declared a state of emergency and killed hundreds of people in raids on two protest camps set up in Cairo to demand Morsi’s reinstatement. At least 173 people were killed on Friday during a “Day of Rage” called by the Brotherhood two days after police destroyed its protest camps. Police have since arrested more than 1,000 Brotherhood “elements”. The state news agency said 250 faced possible charges of murder, attempted murder or terrorism.
Brotherhood leaders accuse the military of deliberately sabotaging their time in office and plotting their demise. Blaming a defiant Brotherhood for the bloodletting, Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has proposed banning the 85-year-old movement and effectively forcing it underground.
The horrific action taken by the security forces ends a long confrontation. It also ends Egypt’s brief meeting with democracy, which was achieved after months of protests with a presidential election held in May 2012. That election was, of course, won by Mr Mursi, a result reluctantly accepted by the country’s powerful military, which has now regained a hold on power. It is to be seen if the fact that it has done so at the cost of so many lives is something that will be tolerated, within Egypt and beyond its borders.
Military must not resort to violence ending political turmoil instead should facilitate imminent re-election with all political parties taken into on board. The fragile political upheaval might worsen, if not tackled vigilantly. The endless uprising might lead to widening rift between liberal and conservative furthering greater polarization of Egyptian society. The superfluous rift may yield extremism and continued violence that serves none interests except the human losses.