OTHERS SAY

Target: peaceful demonstrators

The Arab Spring swept across the Middle East in 2011 and with astonishing swiftness sent dictators packing. Chief among them: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak.

Vast crowds of demonstrators filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square day after day until Mubarak had no choice but to leave.

But one democratic election and one Muslim Brotherhood president later, military rulers are again tightening their grip on Cairo:

Egypt’s military-backed government has issued a law that effectively bans gatherings of more than 10 people without government approval.

The new law requires demonstrators to notify the authorities three days before any protest. It specifically bans demonstrations at places of worship. That’s an attempt to blunt the marches and protests that often launch after Friday services at mosques.

Those who defy the law face jail time or hefty fines.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said that “the right to protest is a human right” but those “practicing this right must be met with a sense of responsibility so it won’t damage security or terrorize or assault establishments.”

A few days after the new law was announced, a determined band including some of Egypt’s most prominent human rights activists tested it by mounting a peaceful protest without prior government approval.

Result: Riot police broke out their batons and beat protesters. The police groped women demonstrators. At least 60 people were detained. This was ugly. How were a few dozen human rights protesters damaging security or terrorizing anyone?

Egypt’s generals have defended their crackdown by explaining, correctly, that Muslim Brotherhood hard-liners threatening violent jihad are a threat to Egypt’s security. The Brotherhood’s Islamists demand the return of democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi faces trial on murder charges that could bring the death penalty.

But this new law restricting free assembly, and the military’s apparent intent to enforce it, is a vast government overreach.

U.S. officials can keep reminding the generals that we’ve all seen this movie before, and we know how it ends.

The U.S. doesn’t have the power to change Egypt’s laws or the people who make them. That power is vested in Egypt’s citizens, millions of them, seeking freedom, democracy, fairness.

They toppled one dictatorship. They can topple another.

Editorial, Pages 16 on 12/03/2013

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