It took Egypt 60 years to form a democratically elected government and one to dissolve it

Not a fan of Mohamed Morsi or the Muslim Brothers, because I believe they are dangerous. As far as I’m concerned they are a sophisticated version of Al Qaeda. They share similar believes and objectives yet the brotherhood has a different approach and methodologies, or so they seem to be on the surface.

To see Morsi and his party removed from office is welcome news. However, a military intervention, a coup on a democratically elected government is not and should never be.

A coup d’état, ousting a constitutionally elected government no matter the reasons, is autocratic and wrong, wrong, wrong. It sends the wrong message and sets Egypt back. It sets her back to where she struggled for decades to change and just very recently managed to peacefully achieve.

This takeover is no different to other military takeovers. Now, it is welcome and might even feel liberating. But no matter what it promises today, in months to come it will be business as usual. Why? Because that is the nature of military seizures, they start as a response to a public cry and grow into an autocratic rule with all its controls.

In months to come, it will be as if the up-rising, the long awaited democratic election and the whole Arab Spring did not even happen.

Mohamed Morsi, with all his faults and shortcomings, was constitutionally elected by a majority vote. Call on him to call an early election, peacefully protest against him, and lobby the world to sway or even put pressure on him to step down, to change his ways, but do it legitimately and lawfully with the backing and the blessing of the street and the world. Let the people who voted him remove him, same as they did Mubarak a little over two years ago. But never overthrow him with military force.

The precedent of the army removing a democratically elected leader regardless of the reasons will deeply damage the democratic process in Egypt. And the Americans saying they are “reviewing” their aid to Egypt, rather than suspending it, legitimises this coup and sets an even more dangerous precedent.

Democracy is not easy. Its cost is high. Attaining and keeping it is even costlier. But like all precious things it requires patience, care and determination to never again lose it.

I have one question to those who excuse this coup as the will of the people. Will a western government allow the military to detain their elected president in undisclosed location and appoint an interim leader in his place because he said horrible things or reneged on a promise?