September 24, 2012
Today Egyptian President Muhammed Morsi, the country’s first
democratically elected president, arrives in New York for the United Nations
General Assembly. He will be coming to a United States that is increasingly
wary of the Arab uprisings. Washington was willing to temper its displeasure at
Hosni Mubarak’s shortcomings and the interim ruling military council’s faults,
but has been much more vocal about Morsi’s equivocations. The recent spat of violence against U.S.
embassies has been labeled, “Muslim rage” by Newsweek, overshadowing the people power movements that the Arab
Spring were really about.
A cartoon in Shorouk,
a daily Egyptian newspaper, neatly sums up the predicament of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
at this juncture. It depicts a bearded businessman speaking into a red
telephone: “I’m very busy… I need to
protest this afternoon and sign contracts with U.S. companies in the evening.” Last week the Brotherhood was even busier, conducting damage control. Tahrir Square,
the heart of downtown Cairo and Egypt’s revolution, has been razed and
securitized. Workers are frantically planting trees and grass where the
families of martyrs had previously set up tents.
Hints from the White House suggest that Washington is
craving the consistency of Egypt’s deposed despot. Take, for instance, Mr.
Obama’s remark in the midst of the embassy protests—that Egypt is not quite an
ally, “but we don't consider them an enemy.” It’s a surprising criticism given
the $1.3 billion earmarked in military assistance to Egypt. Further, it
contradicts what U.S. officials have said as recently as August 29.
Visiting Cairo on a high-level business delegation, Robert
D. Hormats, the State Department’s Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy
and the Environment, praised Egypt’s head of state. “President Morsi, through his Renaissance
Plan, has indicated his desire to adopt a serious and impressive economic
reform agenda,” said Hormats. “The American government wants to be your
steadfast partner…"
While the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has called
for the rebirth and revival of Egypt, it has yet to clearly articulate what
that future would look like. For most Egyptians, the oft-touted Renaissance
Plan is more of a buzzword than a policy. For Americans, Morsi’s message is simply
unknown, a canvas that pundits and politicians use to paint Egypt as
anti-Semitic and anti-American, conveniently leaving out the facts.
In June 2009, President Barack Obama had the opportunity to
speak to the Egyptian people, over the head of then-President Hosni Mubarak. Even
as the goodwill won by Obama’s Cairo University speech has dissipated, the
level of engagement pursued early in his term suggested a reevaluation of how
America does business in the Middle East. Morsi deserves his own chance to win
America’s goodwill, and he’ll have that very opportunity this week at the
General Assembly.
How can Morsi tell the world that the still unfolding
revolution shares the same democratic values as America and Europe? First, Morsi
should state clearly that in the “new” Egypt, the right to protest—against an
anti-Islam video, the military, or his own administration—will be respected. On
the flipside, violence, by demonstrators or the security apparatus, will not be
tolerated. Then, Morsi must convey the obvious: clashes before the U.S. embassy
were simply not representative of how Egypt views America. He should emphasize
that the Egyptian people love American culture (Sponge Bob is ubiquitous in
Cairo storefronts, and McDonalds is as common as falafel).
Next, Morsi should be honest about Egypt’s emerging international
posture. His country’s policies are now dictated by public attitudes rather
than the top-down influence of Mubarak. Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon will no
longer oversee Egypt’s foreign policy. Still, he should promise that Egypt is
not only open for business for major multinational corporations but also
non-governmental organizations, many of which were scared away by last year’s
crackdown.
Unless Morsi can demonstrate to the United Nations, and to
the American people, how his country’s renaissance will look, expect his
administration to continue to be a punching bag, bumping from crisis to crisis.
But Washington must tread equally as carefully. Otherwise Morsi might not be so
quick to view Washington as an ally.
Jonathan
Guyer is associate editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and a Fulbright fellow researching
political cartoons in Egypt. He can be followed on Twitter at @mideastXmidwest.