The political scene in Egypt has changed completely since the coup against Mohamed Morsi; a trend that, according to new Cairo officials, is moving towards political and security stability, but the Arab media has different views on it, with some arguing that history should wait to be judged.
While some Arab media outlets have spoken out in praise of the event and its aftermath, citing al-Sisi’s achievements since coming to power, others have covered the suffering of Egyptian citizens due to economic policies; the policies were brutal in the eyes of these media, and after Al-Sisi came to power, there was a wave of popular protests.
From Al-Jazeera’s point of view, the political process in Egypt since July 3, 2013, when a military coup overthrew former President Mohamed Morsi has witnessed major changes, and new Egyptian officials confirm that after Sisi came to power , Egypt is moving towards political and security stability.
June 2013, on the anniversary of the inauguration of the fifth Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, various Egyptian cities protested against the new government. The opposition, led by Mohamed ElBaradei, called for Morsi to step down and hold early elections in Egypt, amid growing protests by the interior, foreign, defense, environment, tourism, justice and planning ministers, as well as the prime minister of the Morsi government.
The protests eventually led to the coup d’état of the Egyptian army ousted Mohamed Morsi on the evening of July 3, 2013, and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power.
Although Morsi was the first president to be democratically elected following the 2011 revolution, he was imprisoned after the coup.
In an analysis of the media and digital media regarding the July 3 coup in Egypt, the Arab BBC put on the agenda the attack of some writers on the political current in the region, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
People like Hussein Youssef, in their extreme views of the events of June 30, 2013, in an article on Yom al-Sabeeh, consider that coup the greatest revolution in the history of Egypt and believe that it was a revolution that witnessed the birth of a new Greater Egypt.
Also, the Egyptian writer Ahmed Mukhtar in Al-Ahram newspaper describes this event as a turning point in the history of his country, which, according to him, the Egyptian people regained their kidnapped homeland with this victory.
In the same newspaper, Sharif Aref described the June 2013 demonstrations as the largest in the history of Egypt against the “occupier occupier”, who he saw as a means to change the identity of a moderate society.
“Bakr Ovida” in Middle East London also sees June 30 as a turning point in the history of the Egyptian popular protests that will remain.
Mustafa Bakri, journalist and former member of the Egyptian parliament in 2012 and current member of the House of Representatives during the “Akhar al-Nahar” program on the Al-Nahar channel noted that Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Mohamed Morsi and Hisham Qandil on July 1, 2013, to discuss the protests of millions of Egyptians in the streets of Egypt. Al-Sisi asked Morsi to respond to the demands of the people, but Morsi assured Al-Sisi that the number of demonstrators did not exceed 120,000 and that the published images were in Photoshop.
Bakri said that the current head of the Egyptian intelligence service, Abbas Kamel, contacted Mohammed Salim al-Awa, Ahmad Fahmi and Hisham Qandil on the morning of July 3, 2013, and asked them to persuade Morsi to respond to the demands of the people following the call to arrest Morsi.
The Egyptian politician calls al-Sisi the son of Egypt and says that history will remember that al-Sisi saved Egypt from the danger of civil war, and that history will continue on this path forever.
But Egypt also witnessed popular protests after al-Sisi came to power; since the ouster of Egypt’s first civilian president, Mohamed Morsi, protests have erupted in which thousands of opponents of the coup have been jailed and dozens have been sentenced to death.
The Sisi government called the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that ousted Morsi’s newly-founded Freedom and Justice Party, into power a terrorist group after it came to power in 2013, and a Syrian court tried most of its leaders, some of whom were sentenced to death and others to life imprisonment.
Egyptian human rights activists report over the past few months that more than 40 executions have been carried out in the country since 2015. An Egyptian appeals court recently upheld the death sentences of 12 Muslim Brotherhood leaders. They were accused of organizing sit-ins in Rabia Adawiya Square and rallies in support of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
The court also reduced the sentences of 31 other defendants in the case, whose names are not mentioned, from death to life imprisonment.
Last year, a non-governmental human rights organization announced the execution of 16 Egyptian political prisoners. They were accused of taking part in attacks on the country’s military.
Criticizing the economic policies adopted by the Egyptian president, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar believes that the new republic is not for all Egyptians, while the army, police and judges in this government have achieved unprecedented privileges.
According to the media, as a result of these policies, Egyptian citizens continue to complain about the deteriorating situation on the streets of this country.
The Wael Qandil in the London-based Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed newspaper also called the June 30 events a “coup d’etat on the Nile” and wrote why it had been the Nile’s constant tool of political pressure on Egypt.
He believes that for Nisi, the Nile is just a winning card in a political game that he uses to his advantage.