David Siddhartha Patel, Cornell University professor of government, studies Middle Eastern politics in Egypt. He comments on President Mohammed Morsi’s decision to dismiss his defense minister and curb military power.
He says: “Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s surprise move on Sunday to replace the heads of the country’s armed forces and annul a June constitutional declaration can be analyzed in two main ways. The first is as a power-grab by the Muslim Brotherhood; the second is as a major step in the democratization of Egypt.
“Both perspectives are largely true. The Egyptian armed forces and the previously banned Muslim Brotherhood have often disagreed on how to delineate powers in post-Mubarak Egypt. Morsi took advantage of popular outrage about militant violence and intelligence failures in the Sinai Peninsula to replace the country’s most prominent military leaders. Yet, this was also a bold move by a democratically elected president to end military rule in a country where officers served as head of state from 1952-2012.
“Many Egyptians today are both celebrating the forced retirement of Field Marshal Tantawi and worrying about the Muslim Brotherhood dominating the institutions of government. The military, the public and the Supreme Constitutional Court will all now closely watch Morsi to see if reinstates the Islamist-dominated parliament that the military dissolved in June, calls for new parliamentary elections, or moves to create a panel to write a new constitution while power is concentrated in his and the Muslim Brotherhood’s hands.”
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