Source: Brookings Institute
Author(s): Shadi Hamid
Editor’s Note: Shadi Hamid testifies for the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on how repression in Egypt is undermining the country’s stability and what the United States can do. Read the full testimony below, learn more about the hearing, and watch the proceedings.
INTRODUCTION
I will make four main arguments here. First, the level of repression under President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi surpasses that of President Hosni Mubarak and even his predecessors, in terms of the number of Egyptians killed, wounded, detained, and “disappeared” since the military coup of July 3, 2013. Meanwhile, the nature of repression is more dangerous – and therefore of greater concern for U.S. policymakers – because it enjoys a significant degree of popular support, drawing on media and mass hysteria, cult of personality, and the dehumanization of political opponents. Second, Sissi’s heavy-handed approach to Sinai security has fueled the extremist insurgency there, calling into question Egypt’s role as a reliable counterterrorism partner. Third, state institutions that were previously seen as “national” organizations – namely the military, judiciary, and religious establishment – have, for the first time in decades, become partisans in a bloody civil conflict…
Read the full paper by following the original link.