Reuters on Friday published a wide-ranging analysis – headlined “Egypt’s [Abdel-Fattah El-] Sisi turns Islam on the Islamists” – documenting a range of moves and statements being made by the country’s presumptive next president suggesting that Sisi appears to be positioning himself as a “religious reformer”:
With references to God and morality, Sisi may turn out to be the most outwardly pious of any of the military men to have governed Egypt since the republic was founded in 1953.
This does not mean he will inject more Islam into the government of a state whose laws and culture have long been shaped by religion. Sisi has said there is no such thing as a “religious state” – challenging a central Islamist concept.
The wire assessed that the former defense minister’s near-certain victory in upcoming presidential elections “could bring a sustained effort to reinforce state-backed, apolitical Islam, providing clerical cover for destroying his Islamist foes.” Reuters pointedly noted consistent statements from Sisi flat-out rejecting the concept of a “religious state” and blasting “religious discourse” for preventing Egyptian growth.
His first televised interview as a candidate saw him bemoaning the degree to which “hardline religious rhetoric” had undercut Egypt’s critical tourism sector.
The insidery security bulletin KGS Nightwatch commented on that interview – and evaluated other statements that Sisi made about the Brotherhood:
Egypt: Presidential candidate and former army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has vowed that the ousted Muslim Brotherhood group “will not exist” should he win. In his first interview with Egyptian TV, he also said that two assassination plots against him had been frustrated.
Most analysts expect him to win the presidential election on 26 and 27 May.
Comment: Outside interests that advocate on behalf of the Brotherhood are out of step with the political turn Egypt has taken.
The Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday that the Obama administration had formally picked Ambassador Stephen Beecroft to take the helm at the U.S.’s Cairo embassy, which has had a vacancy at the ambassador level for nine months. The AP described the declaration as “a routine but necessary step [by the White House] toward smoothing its stormy relationship with Cairo.” The Obama administration had steadily degraded bilateral ties after the Egyptian army – led at the time by Sisi – last summer overthrew Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked then-president Mohammed Morsi.
[Photo: Ahm3ed Mostafa / YouTube]