This was not just a coup. Mursi’s ouster is the tip of the iceberg, demonstrating the conspiracy that has been enacted against the Egyptian people and state since “military rule” began in Egypt. This “military rule” has been in place since the 1950s, and it has hijacked revolutions and uprisings that the people paid dearly for.

Military coups came to impose false leaders who exploited certain incidents and events to come to power. These leaders operated under cover of such incidents to suppress people’s freedoms and limit the scope of religion until it was a mere formality. In fact, religion was only summoned on formal occasions, while anti-religion slogans were spread under the guise of false secularism in order to fight true faith, destroy the economy, push the country into fruitless wars with its neighbors, subject Egypt to the will of foreign elements, and strip the Egyptian people of their identity and sense of belonging.

Today, Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is trying to revive military rule in Egypt. Sisi, like his predecessors, is not the real mastermind, and perhaps he and those who are backing him have failed to realize that life in Egypt has changed, and it is now easy to expose the secrets behind such military coups.

Thank God, the announcement of this coup—which they wanted to appear as being merely the ouster of Mursi and his group from power, rather than against the political system itself—proved to be nonsensical and shortsighted. The fact is that up until today, more than 40 million Egyptians have taken to the streets across the country, confronting the bullets of the putschists. This demonstrates that claims that the military leadership intervened in response to the will of the Egyptian people is patently false.

This fascistic coup was a complete miscalculation, particularly as its leader is completely unlike other military figures who staged coups in the past. The historical figures who staged coups had some political experience, because they were allowed to be involved in politics. This is completely contrary to Sisi, who was graduated from and advanced in a military system that prohibited involvement in, or even thinking about, politics. Sisi—whose opinion was shaped in line with what the leadership says in public—is well aware that many of his military colleagues and contemporaries had been isolated by the regime for possessing such ambitions.

However, accompanied by other figures that do not enjoy mass approval, Sisi staged his coup, violating the oath he had swore to Mursi, Egypt’s first civilian and democratically-elected president, in addition to betraying the constitution that he swore to preserve.

To make things worse, he immediately violated the democratic system that he claimed to be championing. Sisi’s first decision was to shut down all Islamic TV channels, while he left a number of other channels that had publicly attacked Islam and President Mursi on the air.

Thus, Sisi immediately consolidated the concept of a military coup by first bringing in the head of the Supreme Court to be sworn in on a non-existent constitution which will be drafted later, while the same applies to the oath of office that he took. How can an official swear allegiance to something that does not exist?!

Second, by calling for the implementation of a roadmap in Egypt that is precisely the same as the one President Mursi had announced two days before this coup.

Third, fabricating accusations against Muslim Brotherhood figures that are known—by Egyptians as well as all Arabs and Muslims—for their transparency, sacrifices and criminalization of violence. In fact, Sisi relied on the same government apparatus that had acquitted former president Mubarak and his aides of charges of killing protestors in order to convict Muslim Brotherhood figures.

It is insane, even for an opponent of the Brotherhood, to seek to arrest Mohamed Saad El-Katatni, the first freely elected speaker of parliament in the history of Egypt, just 12 hours after a coup that he had refused to take part in.

Fourth, was appointing a judge whose integrity as head of the Supreme Court has been challenged, as the country’s new interim president. Following this, the new president issued a constitutional decree dissolving the Shura Council, which had been democratically elected by the Egyptian people.

If all this does not constitute a coup, then what does?

The counterpoint to this piece can be read here