The silence about this from American public opinion "leaders" is deafening--or it's not reported here, as it should be. Part of the national need to recover values needs to start with outing such dictators for what they are. We know "The Great Divider" Trump represents the worst of us and will do nothing good re Egypt. Who among our celeb public officials represent the best of us and will publicly stand up against the likes of el-Sisi? We are all connected on this earth.
Silence about Egypt in our public squares--and Assad's Syria (for 8 yrs), Thailand, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, South Sudan, Algeria, CAR, DRC, Hungary, Belarus, Venezuela (until it's too late), Honduras--reverberates until the authoritarians come for us. Some might say they're already coming.
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Awful! Hasn't Egypt suffered enough, under strong men removing any chance of dignity of it's own people, the essential constructive criticism to make things better for all and not just for those subservient to a tyrant dictating his personal whims, and the unravelling of the potential ingenuity and entrepreneurship and inventiveness of it's own people?
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Trump says:
“I can just tell you he is doing a great job.”
In fact the US has supported this dictator prior to Trump.
The US supported free elections in Egypt...until the "wrong" people were elected. Then the US is okay with "our" dictator as long as he is going a "great job."
One can easily find other examples like this in US foreign policy. The US hypocrisy is stunning.
What ever happened to the US as being the "shining city on the hill"...?
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@Maison Was it ever the "shining city on the hill"?
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". . . analysts speculate that he is setting himself up to rule for much longer." - after all, Ramesses II ruled for more than 70 years.
Now the Arab Spring has turned into an Arab Winter.
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Meanwhile Egypt's last two presidents, Mubarak and Morsi, who was legitimately elected, remain in custody.
Maybe Sisi can emulate China's Xi and declare himself president for life.
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I don't believe the results of the vote. I was in Egypt this past December. People there are saying that the economy is worse now under e-Sisi than under Mubarak who was thrown out of office. People have become aggressive and desperate. When I walk down the street, which I rarely did on my own, shopkeepers demand that I come inside to look around but I "don't have to buy anything." One had lots of spices. Another had different types of oils. Another had artworks of the ancient Egyptians. Every time I use the restroom someone is always there with an outstretched hand with fingers moving --I guess the international sign of wanting money--this happens in the national Egyptian museum in Cairo, and just about all the exhibits I had to pay to enter. One has to ask why do I need to pay someone to use the restroom who did nothing for me? Even the security guard at one hotel wanted money for getting a sandwich for me when all the restaurants were closed on a Friday. Also there is a lot of scammers at Giza Plaza. I saw an article I believe only last week about how badly the animals are treated at Giza Plaza. I truly wish there is time machine I could step into to take me back to the time of the original ancient Egyptians before the arrival of the Arabians 800 years ago. The ancient Egyptians appeared to have been highly intelligent. I can't imagine them trying to scam me if I could have visited ancient Egypt.
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Arab summer follows Arab spring, more oppressive because of worldwide political climate change inspired by you-know-who.
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Time to schedule that trip to see the pyramids... after 2030.
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Egypt's new Pharaoh Abdel el-Sisi engineered a military coup against the only democratically elected Egyptian leader in the 5000 years since the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into Kemet aka the Black Land.
Backed up by Barack Obama's America..And in defiance of the Arab spring people's uprising interests and values that rid Egypt of it's last Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak.
As the most populous Arab nation, Egypt has typically mostly successfully separated state and mosque. But the Muslim Brotherhood was born and bred in Egypt.
And the lead 9/11/01 hijacker Mohammed Atta and the current heaf of al Qaeda Ayman al Zawahri are/ were both Egyptians. Only 20%:of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims are Arabs.
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Having spent several month in Egypt working along side Egyptian Christians in a social service agency, the quick turn from any hope of democracy greatly saddens me. While it is true that authoritarian leaders often maintain a certain protection for religious minorities (in Egypt, the 10-15 million Christians), that protection comes at a terrible price. Not only are their secular freedoms limited, but the religious practice is tightly controlled as well. Christians in Egypt have long been forbidden from proselytizing; they cannot build a church within a certain distance from a mosque. The latter might sound like a non-issue, but in a Muslim country with many tiny store-front mosques, it often is.
el-Sisi's control means that Egyptians have little hope of increased freedoms for the foreseeable future. The vote turn out is striking for, to me, it shows a real discouragement. Voter turn-out is often much higher in authoritarian countries because people are afraid. I imagine they are still afraid, but just tired of the uselessness of the exercise.
It is sad, disgusting, outrageous, and mind-boggling all at once that Trump praises this dictator as doing "a great job." Plainly, our government is not currently any friend of the Egyptian people (or any people who suffer under such oppression).
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@Anne-Marie Hislop As a Christian Egyptian who lived 40 years can i give you wider point of view that might help judging the situation?
firstly i'm dreaming of a secular country where i live as a citizen not a religious minority based on try citizenship as listed in any constitution.
these are the basis of true democracy and real citizenship that took centuries in western countries to be developed through development of people's mindset and way of thinking.
do you know how far are we - and all middle eastern nations - from true citizenship and secularism ? not only as items in constitutions but as a culture that the majority of people can implement in daily life ?
have you ever read the 2nd item of our constitution ?and what perception people here have concerning secularism ?!!
western attempts of imposing your ready made democracy in what so called Arab spring resulted in nothing but massive chaos ,famines, civil wars and ruling of religious radical groups or parties like Muslim Brotherhood that reached power in what your press described as the best ever democratic elections in Egypt !!!
what happened to the Azidies in Iraq after you removed the tyrant Saddam ? who filled that gap ?why?
the essence of our problem - especially as Christians - isn't absence of democratic regimes but of citizenship culture that could bring any democratic regime and might takes decades of awareness and education to be wide spread.
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@Anne-Marie Hislop
by the way, during the past 5 years of Al-Sisi in power the biggest number ever of churches was built, Christian officials were assigned in high rank positions that Christians in Egypt has ever reached (governors, ministers, parliament members, ....)
He established a new custom of going to the Cathedral of Christmas mass every year to congratulate Christians with Christmas.
again, i'm not alleging that we are in the best scenarios of state. but relatively we are in a regime who fights the 1st enemy of any minority or true citizenship ( radical religious fascism ) which is a huge mandatory step toward secular , civilized state but it must takes decades of minor changes in culture that'll be ended up in the real democracy.
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Sad to see this dictator staying in power of course Trump likes him
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@Dale Stiffler Despots
Egypt is far more democratic than Saudi Arabia.
Egypt is far more democratic with respect to the ethnic sectarian minorities living under it's dominion than is Israel.
Egypt is much less democratic than Iran.
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What is about this area of the World.. its either somewhat secular strongman or religious strongmen. Representatives elected to represent the people (where elections are held) devolve into chaos are ineffective providing leadership. So polarized they often can't even agree on basic societal needs...invariably a strongman comes in bashing heads. If America doesn't cool the political polarization will we have a trump type Duarte or a bernie type Maduro?
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Poor Egyptian people: out of the frying pan and into the fire.
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