海角大神

The day after at least 74 Islamist protesters were killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces, none of Egypt鈥檚 main newspapers on Sunday showed the injured, the dead, or even the vast crowds staging a sit-in against the coup that deposed former President Mohamed Morsi.

One newspaper went so far as to blanket the front page with regal photos of Egypt's military chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and revered nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser with a headline roughly equivalent to, 鈥淪pot on, chief!鈥�

The elevation of General Sisi to almost legendary status when well over 200 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in clashes since he led a July 3 coup has raised cries of anguish from a small but vocal segment of Egyptians. They openly wonder how their fellow citizens 鈥撎齣ncluding so many who fought for democratic government in the 2011 protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak 鈥� have become so deliriously in love with the army, and worry they are blind to the potential for a return to dictatorship.

鈥淧eople of Egypt, political parties, where are you?鈥� asked Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader who quit to run for president in 2011, on Al Jazeera today. 鈥淗ow can it be that there is no reaction condemning this massacre and mourning the people who died? I don鈥檛 know what is wrong with Egyptians.鈥�

Hossam al-Hamalawy, a member of the far-left Revolutionary Socialists and a long-time activist, describes the atmosphere as similar to America鈥檚 鈥減ost-9/11 frenzy.鈥� While the Muslim Brotherhood are not 鈥渁ngels,鈥� he says, the media and army are whipping up hysteria against them.

鈥淭he media is lying, exaggerating, and picturing this like Islamist demons with horns creating havoc everywhere,鈥� he says, describing the country as infected with a 鈥渮ombie鈥� virus. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e getting responses on the social networks when you tweet or post pictures [of those wounded or killed] like, 鈥極h yeah, they deserve that. I wish Sisi would kill more.鈥� 鈥�

Protests, mandates, and crackdowns

After three weeks of unrest, Sisi called last week for the public to give him a mandate to crack down on violence and "terrorism," prompting dueling protests in Cairo and elsewhere Friday. Just before 1 a.m. Saturday morning Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim announced the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda would be cleared 鈥渟oon.鈥�

Clashes broke out at the edge of Rabaa as protesters moved to expand the sit-in toward the 6^th of October Bridge, a major thoroughfare, and security forces fought back. By 1:45 a.m., bodies began arriving in the field hospital at Rabaa and within two hours many of those arriving bore gunshot wounds to the head and chest, .听

Doctors at the field hospital told Human Rights Watch that the killings appeared more targeted than in a previous massacre at a Republican Guard office in Cairo, where Morsi was believed to be held, on July 8.

鈥淭his time it was like 80 percent were shot by snipers targeted from above,鈥� versus 10 percent on July 8, a doctor named Fouad told HRW.

The Ministry of Interior held a press conference hours later and blamed the Rabaa protesters for instigating a 鈥渃risis鈥� and throwing tear gas canisters and Molotov cocktails at the security forces. The ministry insisted that no live fire was used by the police.

Apart from a small circle of human rights activists and leftists, much of the country beyond Muslim Brotherhood supporters seemed ambivalent about or even supportive of the security forces鈥� action 鈥� and rebuffed criticism that it represented a violation of basic freedoms.

鈥淎fter we鈥檝e seen the real side of those Islamists and how much they hate the country and the citizens of the country, they don鈥檛 have a right to protest or a right to protection,鈥�听Lt. Hamdy Bokheet, a military spokesman, was quoted as saying in Al-Akhbar newspaper. On the same page, prominent lawyers were featured asserting that the army had a legal right to clear the protests by force. Bokheet said he expected the protesters would be removed within 72 hours.

In addition to such press reports, flyers are being distributed in the Nile Delta calling for evacuating the Brotherhood from their homes and shutting down their businesses, says Wael Abbas, a blogger and human rights activist. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like the Kristallnacht of Egypt.鈥�

A wider campaign against dissent?

While the Brotherhood is taking the brunt of such hatred, some see them as just the first target in a wider campaign to crush opposition that might be abetted by a restoration of the Mubarak-era Emergency Law, which was used to stifle political dissent for decades.

鈥淣ow they are using the war on terrorism card in order to more or less cement the counterrevolution,鈥� says Mr. Hamalawy. 鈥淭his emergency law is not going to be just against Islamists 鈥� also trade unions, leftists, human rights activists, against anyone later who will raise the banner of dissent against the government.鈥�

Even the Tamarod (鈥渞ebel鈥�) movement that gathered 22 million signatures calling for early presidential elections, which led to the massive protests that ended in the coup, called Interior Minister Ibrahim鈥檚 comments Saturday 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� and a contradiction of the 2011 revolution. Among other things, Mr. Ibrahim announced that state-security departments in charge of monitoring political and religious activity, which had been closed after the 2011 revolution, had been reinstated, .听

For at least some young revolutionaries who swelled Tahrir Square to oust Mubarak in 2011, only to see the interim military government (SCAF) detain and kill protesters in the tense months that followed, the public embrace of the army is at best strange.

鈥淭hey killed us before; how can we trust them again?鈥� asks Eve Radwan, an artist and video editor. On the other hand she understands why many people blame the Muslim Brotherhood for heavy-handed rule and responsibility for more recent violent protests, including in Port Said this winter. 鈥淢uslim Brotherhood actions made people cold-blooded. They don鈥檛 care about the Muslim Brotherhood anymore.鈥�

Terrorists?

Public anger toward the Brotherhood goes well beyond disapproval of their politics, and is driven in no small measure by fear that they are behind jihadi violence in Sinai and are plotting a wave of violence in Egypt proper. Many freely characterize it as a terrorist group, and denounce its members as outsiders.

鈥淭he Muslim Brotherhood are not Egyptian, they are not even human at all,鈥� says Abbas Abbas Mahmoud, an engineer kicking back at Caf茅 Riche, where Gamal Abdel Nasser planned the 1952 Free Officer鈥檚 Coup that deposed the monarchy, paving the way for him to become a wildly popular president.

Sisi is 鈥渆xactly like Abdel Nasser,鈥� says the caf茅鈥檚 owner, Gen. (Ret.) Magdy Yacoub, who has a poster of a radiant Sisi surfing atop his cluttered desk.

Indeed, the comparison is sweeping through the media, with Sisi emerging as a symbol of the yearning for dignity and security that many feel has been lost since Nasser鈥檚 pan-Arab nationalism made Egypt a powerful regional leader.

鈥淗e鈥檚 something beautiful,鈥� says Mahmoud, a 20-something running a kiosk at the edge of Tahrir featuring Sisi and Nasser memorabilia. He says he鈥檚 sold 25,000 posters in the past month. 鈥淗e made all our dreams come true.鈥�

In one of the more prominent odes to Sisi, Al Masry Al Youm columnist Ghada El Sharif wrote in a column last week titled 鈥淪isi, you just need to wink鈥� that if the general wanted to take on the Islamic quota of four wives, she was available. 鈥淭his is the way we want to implement sharia,鈥� she said, deriding the Brotherhood as men with six-foot beards and donkeys and comparing Sisi to Nasser, who cracked down on the Brotherhood after surviving an assassination attempt.

Indeed, one of the reasons for Sisi鈥檚 enormous popularity is that he鈥檚 seen as a man who has the will and the ability to protect the country from the Brotherhood.

鈥淗e came in and rescued people from the Muslim Brotherhood who in many people鈥檚 eyes destroyed the economy and society,鈥� says army supporter Mohammed Ahmed Ismail, noting that when Sisi threatened Morsi with a 48-hour ultimatum, he kept it. 鈥淪o he was like a knight on a white horse.鈥�