The events recently witnessed in Egypt, starting with tens of millions’ taking to the streets to protest against the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule, represented by ousted President Mohamed Morsi, through the ‘soft’ or ‘democratic’ coup the army carried out (thus getting the January 25, 2013 revolution back on its right track), to the roadmap that we should have followed since February 12, 2011, and ending with the clashes that have broken out between citizens and Muslim Brothers in more than one governorate, are all expected developments.

The events recently witnessed in Egypt, starting with tens of millions’ taking to the streets to protest against the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule, represented by ousted President Mohamed Morsi, through the ‘soft’ or ‘democratic’ coup the army carried out (thus getting the January 25, 2013 revolution back on its right track), to the roadmap that we should have followed since February 12, 2011, and ending with the clashes that have broken out between citizens and Muslim Brothers in more than one governorate, are all expected developments. It was the Brotherhood themselves who put Egypt in such a situation, with their insistence on excluding all forces from politics, developing a non-consensual Constitution, then heading towards ‘Ikhwanization’ of the state.

Neither the Brotherhood nor their allies hid their fascism which appeared early after the revolution when they objected to appointing Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa as a prime minister of the transitional government under the military council, which would have appeased the street. Then, they threatened to burn Egypt if Morsi was not declared president, which stopped investigations about the election complaints, especially those related to manipulation of ballot papers in official printing press and preventing Copts from voting in some governorates of Upper Egypt. They also cordoned the Constitutional Court off, and their militias attacked the sitters-in in front of the Presidential Palace.

Unfortunately, the political powers did not describe this issue correctly by declaring that we were literally facing a fascist group. Whenever the country experienced a problem, the Brotherhood and their allies made clear threats to destroy or to burn them. The intimidation continued for months, with threats to take up arms and mobilize fighters; one of them threatened to summon 100,000 fighters from Upper Egypt to confront the army in case the latter intervened in politics. Thus, a confrontation with fascism was inevitable; only the appropriate time and the opportunity to start this showdown were awaited.

The confrontation with fascism was expected to start after completing the ‘ikhwanization’ of the state, and thus the control of all state institutions of local bodies, ministries, police, and intelligence agencies, which would have made the confrontation even more difficult and prompted us to repeat the Iranian experience in which the confrontation with the fascism of the religious state failed.

The showdown happened at a typical date for the liberal and leftist forces— that is, before fascism controlled state agencies because the battle then would have been resolved for its benefit or been costly for both the state and the people, though under an apparent neutrality of the state solid forces: the army and police. Had not the showdown broken out when it did, the situation would have become impossible and we would have been in a situation similar to that of Italy and Germany under fascism and Nazism when it took a world war to uproot them.

The confrontation with the religious fascism occurred in a typical time because society was prepared to engage in it. It was between fascism and the society, rather than between fascism and political or intellectual forces. Why was the society prepared? Because it discovered the false slogans, which those posed and their risks to its moderate religious identity, in addition to the diverse sources of identity, which they tried to turn into religious extremism, and because of their economic failure, too.

Before starting to control society, all fascist forces achieved economic successes reflected on the people’s lives after an economic crisis, when unemployment rates increased and living standards declined. This happened in Germany, Italy, and also in Spain under Franco. But in Egypt, the Brotherhood failed at all levels; yet, they sought to ikhwanize the state and impose religious fascism on it.

Egypt is back to square one with the events of June 30 and their aftermath. It has fought a necessary battle not only because it was delayed, but also because it was necessary for the society to move forward and walk in the way of urbanism, civilization, and rationality. Thus, the way is now paved for us to draft a democratic civil constitution and build a modern state instead of the one they wanted us to live in, a state which belonged to the Middle Ages.