Human rights include even those whose views we despise

I’ve been receiving negative feedback from people about my post protesting the Egyptian military crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood (MB) partisans in Cairo. I am not promoting or defending the political views of the MB & wrote several posts in the past several months criticizing those views. What I am protesting is the military’s crackdown which looks very much like a massacre. I oppose it because I oppose military rule & support the historic & monumental movement for democracy in Egypt.

The relationship of forces between the MB & the democratic movement is now distinctly to the disadvantage of the MB. If the democratic movement is under assault from the MB it should defend itself--& its activists proved more than capable of doing so over the past few years in repeated conflicts with military tanks, tear gas, & truncheons--& in street conflicts with the MB for the past many months. The military is not entering the fray on the side of democracy but to establish military control of the streets & reverse the democratic thrust of 14 million people.

I usually avoid posting gruesome photos because they can demoralize people. This is an exception. These bodies are described as MB partisans fired on by the military & cops as they staged a sit-in outside the Republican Guard building in Cairo where they believed Morsi & other arrested MB members were being held. This is how military juntas handle dissent. And it is criminal--no matter what we think of MB ideology.

(Photo by Wissam Nassar/AP)