Egypt’s military reportedly is attempting a massive roundup of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that helped propel Morsy to power a year ago. Arrest warrants have been issued for 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and an operation to arrest them is under way, according to the state-run Ahram newspaper website on Thursday, which cited an unnamed security source.
President Obama’s statement Wednesday evening about the Egyptian military’s seizure of power from President Mohamed Morsy is as telling for what he doesn’t say as for what he does: he doesn’t mention the word “coup.” He doesn’t call upon the Egyptian military to restore power to the “democratically elected civilian government,” but rather to a“democratically elected civilian government” – in other words, it need not be Morsy’s.
The thinking of the president and senior Obama administration officials, according to a knowledgeable source, is that while the administration is not explicitly supporting the removal of Morsy from power – it expressly did not support the move – it is seeking to now push the Egyptian military in a direction.
If the Obama administration were to use the word “coup.” that would have legal ramifications that would result in the end of U.S. aid. If White House officials were to pull the plug completely, they would be removing themselves from the picture altogether.
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Get ready for an extremist backlash to Morsy’s ouster, says Mohammed Ayoob, Michigan State University professor emeritus of international relations.
“The major lesson that Islamists in the Middle East are likely to learn from this episode is that they will not be allowed to exercise power no matter how many compromises they make in both the domestic and foreign policy arenas,” Ayoob wrote for a CNN.com opinion piece. “This is likely to push a substantial portion of mainstream Islamists into the arms of the extremists who reject democracy and ideological compromise.”
CNN’s Ben Wedeman, reporting from Cairo, also said there’s a danger that some members of the Muslim Brotherhood will break from the main group and “challenge (Egypt’s new leaders) with violence.”
They may take the attitude of “we tried to play the game, our leaders were jailed, our media have been shut down … so we’re going to destroy the system,” said Wedeman, who is a CNN senior international correspondent and had previously been CNN’s Cairo bureau chief.