The courtroom collapse and death of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, has provided a stark reminder of how much his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement has been reduced since the military removed him from office in 2013.
Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, sits in a defendant cage at the police academy courthouse in Cairo in May 2014.
Security agencies prevented Morsi’s family from burying him in his hometown of Sharqiya, his son said. Instead, his remains were quietly laid to rest around 5 a.m.Tuesday, amid heavy security, in a cemetery in east Cairo. The press was denied access to the short funeral. The next day, nearly every newspaper reported the story using the same 42 words that were sent by officials to news editors via the messaging platform WhatsApp, the independent news website Mada Masr reported. Morsi was not referred to as the former president and the short news report was placed on the inside pages of the papers.
But Morsi proved polarizing and was accused of authoritarian tendencies and a strict religious agenda. After mass demonstrations in the summer of 2013, he was booted out by the armed forces led by Gen.A harsh crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood’s activities has forced the group underground. Tens of thousands of its members, including senior leaders, are in prison while others are in exile in Turkey or Britain.
The Muslim Brotherhood has experienced rounds of repression and arrests since its founding in Egypt in 1928. For many years, the Muslim Sisters kept the movement going in the absence of the men, but its members too haven’t been spared jail under Sisi. But public support for the group is hard to measure. Press freedoms have been battered under Sisi’s rule and the media are largely under state control.On the streets of Cairo, looks of unease are all too common among people asked for opinions on politics, especially on topics as sensitive — or taboo — as the Muslim Brotherhood.
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