Understanding Egypt in Year Three  The Muslim Brotherhood’s
political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), gets most of
the attention these days when discussing Egypt. Criticism flows
easily and the FJP’s reputation has definitely been sullied and
bloodied because of their numerous sectarian and undemocratic
policies. But, what appears most remarkable is that the military
establishment has been relatively unscathed in the polarized
battles that have erupted the last several months. In fact, this
is not accidental. It is the result of very clever political
maneuvering by the country’s military leaders. It is certainly
true that FJP leader, President Mohamed Morsi, made himself an
easy target by recklessly misusing his extensive constitutional
authority to appoint cronies and to issue unilateral decrees.
Just in the last few months, he stacked the Constituent Assembly
with an unrepresentative majority that wrote a very
controversial new constitution lacking internationally
recognized rights for women and f