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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com
New letter signed by four dozen leading US academics and a dozen past presidents of MESA on behalf of alaa abdel fattah and egyptian detainees In an unprecedented statement, over forty senior academics including more than a dozen former presidents of the most important professional association for scholars of the Arab and larger Muslim world, the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), have signed a letter to US President Obama and Secretary State John Kerry calling for the Administration to demand the immediate release of blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah and other political detainees in Egypt, for Egyptian officials to suspend the protest law of 2013 and end the repression of free speech rights guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution and international law, and end the regime of violence, including torture and extra judicial execution, that still governs Egypt after the electoral victory of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as President. Even as Iraq is engulfed by violence and Syria continues its brutal civil war, these scholars and officials, with literally centuries of experience in Egypt and the broader region between them, warn that growing political violence in Egypt epitomized by the recent reimprisonment of Alaa Abdel Fattah and ongoing rights abuses, risks permanently destabilizing Egypt, and with it, the region more broadly. They call upon the Obama administration to suspend non-humanitarian military, security, political, and economic cooperation with Egypt until the government heeds these demands. * * * * * * * To President Obama and Secretary Kerry, We, the undersigned academics and policy-makers condemn the intensifying assault on basic political and civil rights in Egypt, most recently epitomized by the June 11 sentencing of two dozen activists associated with the No to Military Trials movement, including well-known blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, to fifteen years imprisonment. The sudden conviction in absentia and incarceration of activists while police blocked them and their attorneys from entering the courtroom on a day scheduled for lawyers' briefs, is the latest and most glaring example of the systematic violations of internationally recognized rights of assembly, of freedom of expression, and of due process characterizing the political environment in Egypt today. They are accompanied by the ongoing and widespread use of deadly violence by security forces on Egyptian citizens exercising their internationally recognized right to protest, the application of mass death sentences after severely flawed and politicized judicial processes, and the use of torture, long-term detention without trial and other forms of mistreatment of detainees by the government. Such practices and policies undermine whatever positive impact elections and other formal democratic processes may bring to Egypt. Instead, they lay the foundation for deepening marginalization of ordinary citizens, intensifying social and political conflict, and ultimately even more violence. As we watch with great alarm the descent of Iraq into a potential civil war, and the even greater carnage next door in Syria, we note that beneath the sectarian and ethnic tensions considered to be driving these conflicts lie the long-term denial of basic rights to citizens, systematic corruption, and violence by governments against their peoples—dynamics that continue to define Egypt's political environment even after last month's Presidential elections. The present regime of political violence, which began with and remains most fiercely directed against the Muslim Brotherhood, is increasingly focused on silencing all remaining revolutionary voices associated with the January 25-February 11, 2011 uprising. As we have seen in so many other countries, these policies require the demonization of more and more citizens as "terrorists," "traitors" and "enemies," against whom all manner of violence and repression are justified. In Egypt as elsewhere the end result of such policies, which have occurred with the acquiescence and even support of Egypt's regional and international allies and patrons, will inevitably be the disintegration of bonds of common citizenship and intensifying of social, political and economic conflict. Such an outcome is unfolding in Iraq, as it did in Syria before it—and closer to Egypt, in neighboring Libya. It is also increasingly and dangerously evident in the Sinai Peninsula. The costs to Egypt of such destabilization, and through it regional and even global security and stability, are almost impossible to calculate. Yet the steps necessary to prevent such an outcome are clear. The Egyptian government must immediately release not only Alaa Abdel Fattah and other protesters most recently sentenced in absentia, but all political prisoners and detainees. At the same time, it must end the politicization of judicial proceedings, halt the still rampant use of torture and other forms of violence and mistreatment of Egyptian citizens, and suspend the protest law issued on November 24, 2013, whose severe restrictions on the right of assembly and political expression violate core principles of both the Egyptian Constitution and international law. Such measures are the sine qua non for any meaningful transition to democratic accountability in Egypt. We call upon President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and the Administration in all its capacities, to demand these moves and, moreover, to suspend normal cooperation with the Egyptian government—including the provision of military aid or sales and non-humanitarian economic assistance—until such practices are in place. Ignoring or excusing gross violations of fundamental human rights in Egypt, particularly with other countries in the region in the midst of dangerous political meltdowns, cannot be considered constructive or sound policy, or justified on the grounds of realpolitik. They will serve only to produce enmity, violence, destabilization and chaos on an ever-wider scale across Egypt, and through it, the region. The world community, and particularly Egypt's most important ally, the United States, cannot afford to sit by while this happens. Sincerely, Nezar AlSayyad Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies University of California, Berkeley Paul Amar University of California, Santa Barbara Barbara Aswad Wayne State University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Beth Baron Graduate Center and City College, City University of New York Director, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, Graduate Center, CUNY Editor, International Journal of Middle East Studies Joel Beinin Stanford University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Sheila Carapico Coordinator, International Studies Program University of Richmond Juan Cole Director, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan Past President, Middle East Studies Association Elliott Colla Georgetown University Michele Dunne Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Alexander E. Elinson Director of the Hunter College Summer Arabic Program Hunter College of The City University of New York John L. Esposito Georgetown University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Michael Gilsenan Director, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies New York University William Granara Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard University Frank Griffel Chair, Council on Middle East Studies (CMES) Yale University Bassam Haddad George Mason University Editor, Jadaliyya Yvonne Haddad Georgetown University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Sondra Hale Outgoing Director, Center for Near Eastern Studies University of California, Los Angeles Coordinator, California Scholars for Academic Freedom Mervat Hatem Howard University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Steven Heydemann Georgetown University Eric Hooglund, Editor, Middle East Critique Nubar Hovsepian Chapman University Michael C. Hudson Georgetown University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Adel Iskandar Georgetown University Toby Jones Rutgers University Suad Joseph University of California, Davis Past President, Middle East Studies Association Amb. Richard Kauzlarich (ret.) School of Public Policy, George Mason University Mark LeVine University of California, Irvine Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University Ann Lesch The American University in Cairo Past President, Middle East Studies Association Zachary Lockman New York University Past President, Middle East Studies Association Kevin W. Martin Indiana University Norma Claire Moruzzi Director, International Studies Program University of Illinois at Chicago Karen Pfeifer Smith College William Quandt University of Virginia Past President, Middle East Studies Association Hesham Sallam Stanford University Laila Shereen Sakr University of Southern California Jillian Schwedler Hunter College, CUNY Sherene Seikaly Director, Middle East Studies Center The American University in Cairo Jonathan Shannon Hunter College Samer S. Shehata University of Oklahoma Jeannie Sowers University of New Hampshire Joshua Stacher Kent State University Christopher Stone Hunter College, CUNY Ted Swedenburg University of Arkansas Chris Toensing Editor, Middle East Report Jessica Winegar Northwestern University I William Zartman The Johns Hopkins University—SAIS Past President, Middle East Studies Association Stephen Zunes University of San Francisco Affiliations are provided for identification purposes and should not suggest institutional endorsement of this letter.
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