Egypt’s institutions are so weak the army is all that’s left

There’s a joke doing the rounds in Tahrir Square which goes like this: ‘Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak all tried to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood, but only Mursi succeeded’. As protests against the world’s oldest Islamist party intensify, the Brotherhood is now learning the price of power after decades of being confined to the political wilderness.

On the one hand there are very obvious reasons for the current discontent. Egypt’s fortunes have tanked since the revolution with its economy stagnating, rising inflation, increased corruption, and the near disappearance of its tourist industry. For all those invested in the revolution that swept away Hosni Mubarak it was never meant to be like this.

But there is a more significant undercurrent to Egyptian unrest too. Arab Muslims are also protesting against political Islam – an historic development – condemning Mohammed Mursi’s attempts to inflect a greater Islamic tone into Egyptian politics. When he ran for the presidency, Mursi promised to appoint both female and Coptic Christian representatives to the highest posts in his government (vice president and deputy vice president, respectively).