Certainly the pressures exerted by the Americans and the stance taken by the Europeans act in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood, and certainly every criticism directed at Egyptian authorities by international organizations or foreign countries breathes new life into the Islamist movement, and gives it a boost to persist in its activity in the street. Yet the reality of the situation confirms that those who are waiting for the Muslim Brotherhood to return soon to participate in a political process, or for reconciliation to be achieved between it and the remaining parties will be waiting a long time. Yes, the Muslim Brotherhood will remain at the forefront of the scene, affecting it in a negative way. As for it making a comeback, this could only take place if the state were to collapse, i.e. if state institutions, the army and the police were to fall; if the people were to accept it once again; if foreign powers were to intervene militarily and bring it back to palaces and parliament; or if the group were to witness an internal coup that would topple its current leaders and bring new ones in their stead. The truth of the situation on the ground does not indicate that the police is nearing collapse or that the army has been affected, as had been the case after the start of the "January Revolution", when the masses of the people had been hostile to the police and had been pressuring the army. America can pressure and Europe can get angry, but the people's stance against the Muslim Brotherhood undermines the possibility of reconciling with it or of rewarding it. Yes, Egypt will be affected by foreign pressures, and could even be subjected to an embargo that would affect people's lives, but this is the price Egyptians will pay, having come out on June 30 to ask for deliverance from the rule of the Brotherhood. The matter is contingent on the political roadmap (the constitution and parliamentary then presidential elections). And as soon as transparent steps along such a map start to be taken, under local and international monitoring, such pressures will disappear and the crisis will begin to subside. The Muslim Brotherhood lost part of its favor with the people following the first parliamentary elections held after the Revolution, as a result of the performance of its MPs, the behavior of its leaders and prominent figures, and their eluding promises they had made or agreements they had reached with other forces or parties. It then lost another part of its favor after the presidential elections that brought Mohamed Morsi to power, as a result of his failure to manage the affairs of the state, and his giving preeminence to the Muslim Brotherhood and its interests over the fate of the state, in addition to the Brotherhood forsaking all the promises it had made before the elections, and opting for an alliance with Jihadist or radical Salafist groups. And now that Morsi has been deposed, the Brotherhood has grown even more insistent on building bridges to America and Europe. Although it has insisted on denying accusations of violence and attempted to lay the blame on its rivals, what is being broadcast live has made eluding it impossible and denying it futile, except for those who do not want to see, or even close their eyes and ears so as not to see or hear. About 25 years ago, current Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri wrote the book "The Bitter Harvest: The Muslim Brotherhood in Sixty Years", in which he included his objections to the group, from his own point of view and according to the radical Islamist view of the Brotherhood's stances, policies, ideas and methods, in addition to the stances taken by its leaders since its founding in 1928 and until he wrote his book. Of course, the stances of Zawahiri, his followers and fellow radicals on the Muslim Brotherhood changed after the Egyptian Revolution. Their tone of criticism and attack diminished, turning into one of advice and guidance. When Morsi was elected about a year ago, Zawahiri and his men in Egypt and in the world adopted a stance of support and alliance. And after Morsi was deposed, the matter went beyond support and alliance, reaching up to waging a war of vengeance against the army, the police and the people! The most dangerous outcome of the experience of the Muslim Brotherhood, since the fall of the Mubarak regime and to this day, has been to reveal its willingness to engage in, or say its connection to, violence – whether in terms of it turning to make use of it or of exposing what had been hidden about it coordinating in one way or another with groups that practice religious violence. The Muslim Brotherhood had, throughout its history and until right before Morsi's ascent, warded off accusations of violence, and had exerted much effort to resolve instances that had taken place in past decades, such as the assassination of former Prime Minister Mahmoud Nukrashi or of Judge Ahmad Khazendar, or the attempted assassination of Gamal Abdel Nasser. It did this not only by washing its hands of the members of the special unit who had gotten themselves implicated in terrorism, and by promoting Hassan Al-Banna's famous saying that those had been "neither brothers nor Muslims", but also by asserting its rejection of Takfiri and Jihadist ideology, in the famous book written by Brotherhood leaders from inside Nasser's prisons, "Preachers not Judges". All of this has been lost, or has been uncovered in front of cameras for the world to see. The Brotherhood has squandered its last card and missed its opportunity. It has nothing left now but international pressure, foreign military intervention or economical and political pressures by foreign parties, which will not bear their fruits or bring the group relief before seeing its leaders in prison, its youth going astray, its present drifting in the wind and its future unknown. Egypt will overcome this crisis, even if after some time, and the Brotherhood's harvest will be bitter, as a result of the failure of its leaders and of its members following their desire to exclude all other parties, except their allies who call for violence and practice it. At the end of the day, it is the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies who will be excluded, and the state will remain... as will the people.
