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Apr 30, 2014 09:20 pm | Paul R. Pillar
There is ample reason to be disturbed, as are
Senator Patrick Leahy and some others, about any resumption of military
aid to Egypt at this time. Adherence to U.S. law regarding what is
supposed to happen to such aid after a military coup is part of the
reason. The mass death sentences that have been pronounced lately in
Egypt have captured attention but are not even among the leading reasons
for tailoring policy toward the regime of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi, because there always has been some uncertainty about how the
Egyptian judiciary relates to whoever is in power in Cairo. Rather, what
is disturbing is an entire campaign of other forms of harsh repression
that clearly does have the top leadership's approval.Sisi has considerable popularity right now and will almost certainly be elected in the coming Egyptian presidential election with little or no rigging being necessary. He is popular because he has charisma and political skill and because he projects the image of a strong leader who can impose some order on an Egypt that has been quite disorderly for more than three years. But his election can hardly be said to be the result of a fair democratic procedure when what would have been the strongest opposition has been banned and repressed.
An interesting additional dimension of life in Egypt today was recently reported by David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: that an officially enforced religious intolerance prevails. Coptic Christians who thought they would enjoy more religious freedom when the military coup deposed the president from the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, have yet to see improvement on that score. They as well as Shiites and atheists are getting jailed on charges of contempt of religion.
read morehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/intolerance-sisis-egypt-10370
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