Critics who call the recent coup by the Egyptian army "undemocratic" are placing form over substance and forgetting that the election of Mohamed Morsi was itself arguably undemocratic. Because his Muslim Brotherhood party was the only organized political force running for office, there was little chance of meaningful political competition emerging in the mere six months between Hosni Mubarak's overthrow and Egypt's first free elections. That fact might have mattered much less had Morsi used his presidency to promote individual freedoms and build democratic, power-sharing institutions. But Morsi reverted to the same undemocratic policies that he was elected to change. In effect, Morsi simply replaced a secular autocratic rule with an Islamist one. Unsurprisingly, persecution of Egypt's Christian minority worsened under Morsi. According to Mideast expert Raymond Ibrahim: "the persecution of Copts [was] practically... legalized, as unprecedented numbers of Christians... [were] arrested,...(Read Full Post)