josh stacher

What a violently insecure little wanna-be regime. Just cowards with an army. Al-Sisi is not stable. It’s all an act to disguise the irreparable structural weaknesses. #Egypthttps://twitter.com/arabist/status/1140869882998919169 …

A playful @meriponline piece that I wrote about Kimmy, #Egypt, and hanging out with @AbuMrouj. #MohamedMorsi makes an appearance in this one as well: https://merip.org/2013/01/booyah-growing-up-amidst-revolution/ …

I have no idea if I know how to properly do a tweet thread. Il-mohim

I’m thankful for his memory. RIP #MohammadMorsi

When they arrested him, I knew I’d never see him again. As flawed & frustrating as he was, he cared deeply about #Egypt. So do I. Perhaps that was our connection despite differences on politics & values. I am thankful for our times together & all he taught me. It’s sad though.

Muhammad Morsi was not a friend. But he was more than a research contact in the Ikhwan to me. I loved the tension in our relationship. I was shocked when he won the presidency (spare tire or not) and worried about them when the military couped him out and arrested him.

“The neighborhood was dangerous. There were gunshots & drugs. Two of my kids were born in LA. I would rather bring them to Egypt than have them live there.” I slowly just said, “South central LA in the 1980s?” He said “yes.” I felt my privileged white suburban upbringing exposed

There are so many stories I want to share but I will keep them private. Sometimes his opinions infuriated me. Sometimes he’d make me laugh. I asked him once, “why did you dislike living in America?” His face grew frustrated. He said “when I was at USC, I felt alone....

I understood Muhammad Morsi was a bureaucrat in the guidance council. He wasn’t a thinker like Abd Al-Meinum Abul-Fotoh or a political animal like Muhammad Habib. He was not powerful like Khairyat al-Shatir. But he’d show up for me @ teach me. I can’t explain the connection.

I learned from him as a result. He was not the most powerful Brotherhood member I met but I enjoyed seeing him and listening to him. He always answered my phone calls. He would say, “Joshua, how you been keeping? How long have you been here? Why didn’t you call sooner?”

Some Egyptian could have cared less. They participated and voted anyway. I met some of Morsi’s kids. He was a real person to me. He was never an object of study. He was kind to me and warm. I disagreed with him on some values. But he’d listen. And I’d listen to him.

My thoughts on #MohammedMorsi: I wouldn’t call him a friend. But I met him dozens of times. I interview him several times. I walked with him in his town of Zagaziq during elections. We smelled tear gas on the streets there as the Mubarak regime tried to stop people from voting.

Maybe the biggest irony is how concerned many were that Morsi’s presidency would “Brotherhoodize the State”. No one ever said that al-Sisi’s “presidency” would “militarize the state”. And guess which one happened. #Egypt

Here is the last piece I wrote about Morsi for @meriponline. It’s called “Establishment Mursi” - I wrote it in the @TheWilsonCenter in the winter of 2012. The Wilson Brass bothered me the whole year to get Mohamed Morsi to speak at the Wilson Center. https://merip.org/2013/01/establishment-mursi/ …

Read to the end of this 2007 @meriponline piece I wrote w/Samer Shehata - “Boxing in the Brothers.” It’s easy to say Morsi didn’t get it or misread the situation (and I think he did in 2011-2013), but back in 2007, this analysis seemed right: https://merip.org/2007/08/boxing-in-the-brothers/ …