Wisdom that vanished in Egypt appears in Saudi Arabia

Those who do not call the coup in Egypt a coup, who tried to tolerate the coup on the grounds that the people wanted it, and who thought they would obtain great gains through a coup are rapidly moving toward being unable to defend what the coup general Sisi has done. Those who even deemed the coup fitting because Morsi, who was elected with 52 percent of his people's votes in the most normal and fair election Egypt's history has ever seen, did not embrace the opposition enough and owned power by himself were able to swallow quickly even the coup killing thousands of people in a single day by opening fire on civilian demonstrators. What else have they not swallowed? In Morsi's time, when they deemed a coup deserved by him for not listening to the opposition enough, not even one journalist had been arrested or tried; yet Sisi, who was supported in the name of more democracy, as soon as he came, lined up all the opposing journalists to be excluded, jailed or pushed abroad. The pressure initially applied only to pro-Brotherhood broadcasts has now begun to include also the opposition that answered the Tamarod call to legitimize the coup. From the April 6 movement to the Kifaya movement, almost all the elements of Tamarod have begun to take on their own heads, in all its harshness, the iron fist that came down on the Brotherhood first of all. Sisi now pretends not to know those whom he encouraged and insistently invited to Tamarod against Morsi, and who answered his invitation.

Those who saw Sisi as a hope for deliverance from the Brotherhood and from Islamist democratic movements are beginning to feel that the alternative to the Brotherhood is a movement that is becoming ever more radicalized and turning to violence as a result of Sisi's own repression.

After carrying out a coup in Egypt and, on top of that, a massacre, Sisi, who promised that he would suppress the opposition and would bring stability to Egypt in a short time with the financial support to come from the Gulf, let alone stability, is facing in the country opposition and protest movements that grow ever larger each passing day. Although he has blocked entry to the main avenues through great repression, demonstrations continue every day in all of Egypt's neighborhoods and streets.

It is understood better with each passing day that Sisi is nothing but an opportunistic warlord who observes no principle in order to seize power. He is someone who will not shrink from starting an endless civil war among his own people in order to remain in power.

Those who invested in Sisi are slowly realizing what kind of monster they have given way to. Egypt is moving toward a spiral of violence with each passing day. If it has not moved faster and has not become Syrianized, the Brotherhood and other Islamic circles in Egypt, who insisted on the line of legitimacy, have a large share in this. Despite this, Sisi, in order to fight the Brotherhood better, provokes them to be drawn into an atmosphere of violence and to retaliate.

In a speech he made some time ago, referring to the Brotherhood members whom he had declared "terrorists" on his own, he even said that he would understand "the people's right to take their own measures against terrorists and fight." This cannot be understood as anything other than an invitation to an extremely dangerous civil war. This is not a word that could come from the leader of a country that is not an enemy of its own people.

A great anxiety has arisen in everyone in Egypt who heard this word. From now on, everyone can kill whomever they want, even to settle their own personal scores, and produce the excuse of "fighting terror" for it. Such a development can be expected to drag all of Egypt, and in fact, beyond Egypt, all the Gulf countries as well, into a complete social chaos.

That, by comparison, not even as much criticism as the criticism that came from Western circles against Morsi is coming for Sisi is probably the product of a kind of guilt feeling. Western circles will ultimately be obliged to engage in self-criticism because of the credit they have extended to Sisi and to his flawless coup. For the Westerners, who try not to let anyone snatch the banner-bearing of democracy from them, must now be realizing the risk that their names will be written together with an Arab Hitler who was not given the opportunity.

In Saudi Arabia, which had openly given the greatest support and encouragement to the coup in Egypt, a completely sensible view has returned with the new king. Saudi Arabia's new king, Salman, from the very first hour he took office, began to make felt that he is putting distance between himself and the old policy toward Egypt. He removed Khalid al-Tuwaijri, who was seen as the most important person responsible for the process, from all his posts even before King Abdullah had been buried. All the signs indicated that the king would undertake a serious revision of Egypt policy.

Finally, yesterday, Salman said in a statement to the Al-Watan newspaper: "Saudi Arabia played a role in Egypt with which I was never content. We oppressed many people there, many innocent people died and many were imprisoned." While saying in his speech that "Saudi Arabia should remain in the position of an elder brother to all Arabs and Muslims," he has also promised that from now on, in Egypt and in the other spring countries, he will repair this damaged position and policy of Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi Arabia that supported coups against the Arab revolutions had indeed made both itself and the Islamic world lose a great deal. Yet now we hear and see, with great joy, the difference of a wise ruler who sees the good and the bad of his country, of the Islamic world, and even of the whole world.