As soon as Gen. Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi finished reading his dramatic declaration on live TV that Mohammed Morsi had been deposed as president of Egypt, it was obvious that this was a full-fledged military coup.
The army’s seizure of the reins of government was supported by millions of Egyptian citizens, who demanded the overthrow of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi was surrounded by civilian and religious leaders such as Sheikh al-Azhar and Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Church. And yet, the future of Egypt still remains hazy.
No one can predict what kind of government will emerge in Egypt after the coup, who will be elected in the upcoming elections once they are announced, what the power of the Muslim Brotherhood will be and even if the Brotherhood will wage an all-out war now that the government has been seized from them.
I visited Egypt just over a year ago, and was able to get a sense of how it felt after the revolution and the aftershocks of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s removal from power had subsided. It was a riveting experience, at least as far as I was concerned. Mubarak was gone and a military council led by Gen. Mohamed Tantawi managed the country, but the demonstrations continued with almost the same enthusiasm. Every taxi driver, bureaucrat, the receptionist in the hotel where I was staying, the owner of every falafel stand and every other run-of-the-mill citizen I spoke to felt like he could, and should, make history himself.
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