I'm sitting in the midst of the kinds of things I guess expats gather around them in time of coup, the objects scattered across our living room floor by the friends and roommates who spent the day gathered around our TV waiting for events to play themselves out. There are five laptops with a tangle of crisscrossed cords, a bowl of grapes, plates scraped half-clean, the remnants of the salad I made six or seven hours ago, a bottle of gin, lemons, and a massive pile of clothes belonging to my roommate who is being evacuated from the country.
It's hard to know say what we're feeling right now. The five of us have been glued to the TV since 2 or so this afternoon. We watched hour after hour of crowds growing in Tahrir, around the Presidential Palace, by the Presidential Guard building where Morsi supposedly was, in Alexandria, and so on. OnTV wasn't showing the smaller, pro-Morsi stuff today. At some point in the evening, we started seeing photos on Twitter of the army spreading out around the city. Most photos were from the area around Maspero, the state media behemoth, which had been taken over by the army and was reportedly just playing patriotic songs (although we couldn't actually find the channel) -- as well as from the area around Cairo University where the deadly clashes had recently happened. Though there also seemed to be soldiers lined up on Dokki St. a few blocks behind my building, as well as in Medan Galaa. Word also got out that the army had put the Muslim Brotherhood's top leaders, including the president himself, under house arrest. They were banned from traveling out of the country.
Now that the initial excitement of "something big" happening -- of witnessing history being made -- has abated a little, I want to feel the same elation that my Egyptian friends feel, but somehow I feel less sure. Both my roommates and almost all of my remaining foreign friends will be gone within a day or two. CASA, Fulbright, and other programs have evacuated their students for the time being. I am suddenly keenly aware of being American, and not Egyptian. There is definitely a loneliness in this, in a way that has never affected me since I first came to Egypt. Certainly I have no warm feelings for the Muslim Brotherhood or for Morsi. He has done a terrible job, and I cannot think of anyone less appealing to vote for if I were Egyptian (except Hazem Abu Ismail and the Salafis). I would love to rejoice and feel that this is a triumph for secular liberalism over political Islam. Certainly for many people, that is indeed what this represents -- and the chance to try again to build a government that more closely resembles the noble original ideal of the January 25 revolution is one of the best things to come out of this. But somehow that just doesn't seem to tell the whole story. I feel, at the same time, frustrated with the "coup denial", accompanied by a fair dose America-bashing, that has immediately taken over during the last several hours. (Beyond this, my heart sinks when I hear reports of virginity tests being already revived by police in the Tahrir area, and the more than 90 women sexually assaulted in the square amidst today's celebration. The Brotherhood was sadly exploiting these statistics all along to portray the anti-Morsi crowd as vicious rapists, but whatever their misuse the troubling numbers stand.)
So what is all this about "coup denial"? Discussing with my friends, it seemed to us that the word for coup had been widely used in the hours leading up to the end of the ultimatum (as we increasingly began to expect it) to describe what was about to happen. After Gen. El Sisi actually gave his speech assuming transitional authority for the military and booting Morsi, the question of terminology suddenly exploded into a virtual war. One retweeted message that was passed around said:
Indeed, calling it #notacoup seems to be largely directed at the west, where people and media have been using the term pretty confidently. I don't want to be dismissive or insulting to my Egyptian friends, who are adamantly insisting that what happened is not a coup, and that the head of the Supreme Court, Adly Mansour, is taking the oath of office immediately, while the military has promised it will not govern. However "coup" has now been stigmatized by liberals and all anti-MB forces as the word used by despised western governments and the perceived western media monolith in proof of their support for the Muslim Brotherhood. MB supporters have been using the term, particularly the now famous spokesman Gehad El Haddad, who has been using the hashtag #Military_Coup in the now deposed government's messaging.
Several representative examples of what Egyptian friends are saying on this subject:
"So now they're calling it a coup. You saw the millions... Can you call it a coup?...If it's a coup it's not a military coup. It's a popular coup supported by the military."
"It's an insult to negate the role of the second wave of the revolution instigated by an unprecedented number of protesters, following a long and purely civil campaign to collect signatures against a failing political system. The army then chose to side with the people, who had already initiated change, with the consultation of a group of moderate politicians and religious figures as well. If the army hadn't intervened, the mass protesters would've then escalated to civil disobedience and still pushed for the step down of the regime."
"Celebrations aside, and for those who are saying it's a coup. If this is a coup, then so was February the 11th. The difference is that Mubarak had some dignity to "step down", while Morsi was too arrogant and stupid really to not concede. But in both cases, it really was the military that determined the outcome of both revolutions/uprisings. It's all about the deals, the blackmailings, the handshakes, and the agreements those in power have with the military, it's always the case. So, if this is considered a failure to the democratic process, then 2011's stepping down was never a victory. The last time, Mubarak "handed over" his powers to the military, he could've handed it over to his then-selected Vice President, or the Head of the Constitutional Court, but that wasn't the case. At least, this time around, it was clearly stated that the Armed Forces are not taking over, and the Head of the Constitutional Court is being sworn-in in an hour or less as the interim goverment's president. And a civilian "figure" was elected as the opposition's spokesperson (El-Baradei), something we lacked 2 yerears ago...so that's something. Again, the military will ALWAYS be in the scene, one way or another. Maybe what our next fight should be is how to have a government that will be responsive to its people without the need of a military intervention to contain the violence, or to fulfill its own political interests, or even to support the people...Let's work on that."
"Why we always need to justify our actions to the west. We know what we have down and we are capable of giving names and definitions for our actions better than anybody else. Please stop being euro or american centric. The western democracy is a mere invention but not the ultimate creative ruling system ever. And why to bother this time, western governments never believed that Jan 25 was a revolution. They called it a coup d'etat or uprising, bla bla bla. We ascitizens of Egypt know what we do ourselves. We break the rule and set the standards for ourselves."
On a different and much, much less common note, an Egyptian colleague of my roommate Miriam posted:
1) The fact that you like or support a coup does not stop it from being one.
2) The fact that there was popular demand for a coup does not stop it from being one.
3) The fact that power was handed by the military to an unelected civilian that no one even knows of (the head of the Constitutional Court) does not make it less of a coup.
...
7) This is in no way an attempt to undermine the achievement of the people in overthrowing a major authoritarian force in Egyptian society.
I guess my own feelings would fall closest to this last man's comments. Of course I can't say I'm angry at the Brotherhood being overthrown... the idea of living in a country ruled by people with their ideology was pretty depressing. It is amazing to see so many people out in the streets celebrating, people who feel great pride in having demonstrated their power over their country's destiny. It's mostly my unease with the warm, quick embrace of the military that is holding me back -- along with worry about what will happen in the coming weeks and months, and anxiety over whether this will genuinely lead to a liberal democracy. As foreigners not really sure how to react, and hoping that the resentment of America doesn't start reflecting on us, I think we've mostly being reacting with dry humor. We can't be out waving flags, nor are we going to be weeping over the deposed Islamists. So instead we stood at the window observing the McDonald's delivery motorbikes which were still running (nothing like a Big Mac to satiate your appetite while waiting for the military to announce that the president has been deposed!)
It's hard to know say what we're feeling right now. The five of us have been glued to the TV since 2 or so this afternoon. We watched hour after hour of crowds growing in Tahrir, around the Presidential Palace, by the Presidential Guard building where Morsi supposedly was, in Alexandria, and so on. OnTV wasn't showing the smaller, pro-Morsi stuff today. At some point in the evening, we started seeing photos on Twitter of the army spreading out around the city. Most photos were from the area around Maspero, the state media behemoth, which had been taken over by the army and was reportedly just playing patriotic songs (although we couldn't actually find the channel) -- as well as from the area around Cairo University where the deadly clashes had recently happened. Though there also seemed to be soldiers lined up on Dokki St. a few blocks behind my building, as well as in Medan Galaa. Word also got out that the army had put the Muslim Brotherhood's top leaders, including the president himself, under house arrest. They were banned from traveling out of the country.
Now that the initial excitement of "something big" happening -- of witnessing history being made -- has abated a little, I want to feel the same elation that my Egyptian friends feel, but somehow I feel less sure. Both my roommates and almost all of my remaining foreign friends will be gone within a day or two. CASA, Fulbright, and other programs have evacuated their students for the time being. I am suddenly keenly aware of being American, and not Egyptian. There is definitely a loneliness in this, in a way that has never affected me since I first came to Egypt. Certainly I have no warm feelings for the Muslim Brotherhood or for Morsi. He has done a terrible job, and I cannot think of anyone less appealing to vote for if I were Egyptian (except Hazem Abu Ismail and the Salafis). I would love to rejoice and feel that this is a triumph for secular liberalism over political Islam. Certainly for many people, that is indeed what this represents -- and the chance to try again to build a government that more closely resembles the noble original ideal of the January 25 revolution is one of the best things to come out of this. But somehow that just doesn't seem to tell the whole story. I feel, at the same time, frustrated with the "coup denial", accompanied by a fair dose America-bashing, that has immediately taken over during the last several hours. (Beyond this, my heart sinks when I hear reports of virginity tests being already revived by police in the Tahrir area, and the more than 90 women sexually assaulted in the square amidst today's celebration. The Brotherhood was sadly exploiting these statistics all along to portray the anti-Morsi crowd as vicious rapists, but whatever their misuse the troubling numbers stand.)
So what is all this about "coup denial"? Discussing with my friends, it seemed to us that the word for coup had been widely used in the hours leading up to the end of the ultimatum (as we increasingly began to expect it) to describe what was about to happen. After Gen. El Sisi actually gave his speech assuming transitional authority for the military and booting Morsi, the question of terminology suddenly exploded into a virtual war. One retweeted message that was passed around said:
Indeed, calling it #notacoup seems to be largely directed at the west, where people and media have been using the term pretty confidently. I don't want to be dismissive or insulting to my Egyptian friends, who are adamantly insisting that what happened is not a coup, and that the head of the Supreme Court, Adly Mansour, is taking the oath of office immediately, while the military has promised it will not govern. However "coup" has now been stigmatized by liberals and all anti-MB forces as the word used by despised western governments and the perceived western media monolith in proof of their support for the Muslim Brotherhood. MB supporters have been using the term, particularly the now famous spokesman Gehad El Haddad, who has been using the hashtag #Military_Coup in the now deposed government's messaging.
Several representative examples of what Egyptian friends are saying on this subject:
"So now they're calling it a coup. You saw the millions... Can you call it a coup?...If it's a coup it's not a military coup. It's a popular coup supported by the military."
"It's an insult to negate the role of the second wave of the revolution instigated by an unprecedented number of protesters, following a long and purely civil campaign to collect signatures against a failing political system. The army then chose to side with the people, who had already initiated change, with the consultation of a group of moderate politicians and religious figures as well. If the army hadn't intervened, the mass protesters would've then escalated to civil disobedience and still pushed for the step down of the regime."
"Celebrations aside, and for those who are saying it's a coup. If this is a coup, then so was February the 11th. The difference is that Mubarak had some dignity to "step down", while Morsi was too arrogant and stupid really to not concede. But in both cases, it really was the military that determined the outcome of both revolutions/uprisings. It's all about the deals, the blackmailings, the handshakes, and the agreements those in power have with the military, it's always the case. So, if this is considered a failure to the democratic process, then 2011's stepping down was never a victory. The last time, Mubarak "handed over" his powers to the military, he could've handed it over to his then-selected Vice President, or the Head of the Constitutional Court, but that wasn't the case. At least, this time around, it was clearly stated that the Armed Forces are not taking over, and the Head of the Constitutional Court is being sworn-in in an hour or less as the interim goverment's president. And a civilian "figure" was elected as the opposition's spokesperson (El-Baradei), something we lacked 2 yerears ago...so that's something. Again, the military will ALWAYS be in the scene, one way or another. Maybe what our next fight should be is how to have a government that will be responsive to its people without the need of a military intervention to contain the violence, or to fulfill its own political interests, or even to support the people...Let's work on that."
"Why we always need to justify our actions to the west. We know what we have down and we are capable of giving names and definitions for our actions better than anybody else. Please stop being euro or american centric. The western democracy is a mere invention but not the ultimate creative ruling system ever. And why to bother this time, western governments never believed that Jan 25 was a revolution. They called it a coup d'etat or uprising, bla bla bla. We ascitizens of Egypt know what we do ourselves. We break the rule and set the standards for ourselves."
On a different and much, much less common note, an Egyptian colleague of my roommate Miriam posted:
1) The fact that you like or support a coup does not stop it from being one.
2) The fact that there was popular demand for a coup does not stop it from being one.
3) The fact that power was handed by the military to an unelected civilian that no one even knows of (the head of the Constitutional Court) does not make it less of a coup.
...
7) This is in no way an attempt to undermine the achievement of the people in overthrowing a major authoritarian force in Egyptian society.
I guess my own feelings would fall closest to this last man's comments. Of course I can't say I'm angry at the Brotherhood being overthrown... the idea of living in a country ruled by people with their ideology was pretty depressing. It is amazing to see so many people out in the streets celebrating, people who feel great pride in having demonstrated their power over their country's destiny. It's mostly my unease with the warm, quick embrace of the military that is holding me back -- along with worry about what will happen in the coming weeks and months, and anxiety over whether this will genuinely lead to a liberal democracy. As foreigners not really sure how to react, and hoping that the resentment of America doesn't start reflecting on us, I think we've mostly being reacting with dry humor. We can't be out waving flags, nor are we going to be weeping over the deposed Islamists. So instead we stood at the window observing the McDonald's delivery motorbikes which were still running (nothing like a Big Mac to satiate your appetite while waiting for the military to announce that the president has been deposed!)
By the time El Sisi appeared on TV, the army was already everywhere in the city. Just after the speech started, our revolutionary friend Ahmed Farag appeared at the door -- because even in the middle of this historic moment, he wanted to check on his American friends. He had his headphones in, listening to the speech in the metro. We all listened together as a solemn-faced El Sisi in his khaki uniform announced that the military was taking responsibility for the transition period. In the background was the Grand Mufti of Al Azhar, the Coptic Pope, and a representative from Tamarod, along with several military figures. So what do you think? I asked Ahmed. What does one say? I want to rejoice. Wallahi mosh aaref - By god, I don't know.
Down in Medan El Mesaha, cars flew by at top speed waving flags and groups of young people walked by beating drums and chanting. Fireworks exploded both on TV and down the street in Medan Galaa. The whole city lit up. It was a massive party on a scale I've never seen before. It is doubtless an exciting time, if an unsure one, where once again there is a great sense of possibility. Let's just hope it's the possibility that the military genuinely does not want to rule, that it follows a quick path to elections, that this is a naturally rocky phase on a course to something better.
Down in Medan El Mesaha, cars flew by at top speed waving flags and groups of young people walked by beating drums and chanting. Fireworks exploded both on TV and down the street in Medan Galaa. The whole city lit up. It was a massive party on a scale I've never seen before. It is doubtless an exciting time, if an unsure one, where once again there is a great sense of possibility. Let's just hope it's the possibility that the military genuinely does not want to rule, that it follows a quick path to elections, that this is a naturally rocky phase on a course to something better.
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