In the follow up to President Morsi’s announcement of a number of constitutional edicts and a referendum on the highly controversial constitution, the level of political dissidence has risen considerably. It reached one of its highest moments yesterday when Muslim Brotherhood militia groups attacked peaceful protestors demonstrating in front of the Presidential palace, and which so far has caused five deaths and several hundred injuries.
All totalitarian regimes use similar tactics of oppression: brutal use of force by the security apparatus, encroachment on civil freedoms, clampdown on the press and media, use of propaganda and lies to influence public opinion etc.. However, what we are witnessing in Egypt today is a particular kind of totalitarian rule far worse than military authoritarianism or dictatorship. It is in essence a kind of Islamist fascism. It is Islamist in its ideological and political commitment to the instatement of an Islamist state irrespective of the scope of opposition. It is fascist in three respects, first the use of the mobilization of the masses in favour of the ruler, second the strong ideological underpinnings of the political project, and third, the language of “cleansing” the undesirables.
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