Massacres and Mobilization in Egypt 2011-2015

• In Event: Legitimacy, Repression and Mobilization

Abstract

Egypt is currently undergoing a wave of state repression unprecedented in recent history. The period since 2011 has been the most violent period in the history of post-colonial Egypt, including numerous massacres. Many of these unlawful killings were conducted by security forces in response to protest events. The Maspero Massacre in 2011 was directed mainly against Coptic Christians who were engaging in a peaceful protest. The Port Said massacre in 2012 and Air Defense Stadium massacre in 2015 both targeted Ultras football fans who were active in the revolution. The Rabaa and Nahda massacres in 2013 were directed against supporters of the former President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Each of these brutal crackdowns occurred in a public, urban environment. However, the nature of these events and the challenges they posed to the state varied considerably: Copts petitioning that their churches be protected, football fans assembled in a stadium to watch a game, and Islamists demanding that President Morsi be re-instated after the coup. Why did the state view each of these disparate groups as threatening enough to warrant a massacre? And why have each of the targeted groups responded to state violence in such dramatically different ways? This article presents what we believe is the first dataset of all state-sponsored killings in Egypt between January 2011 and December 2016. We then zoom in to provide an in-depth comparison of the four above-mentioned massacres and their aftermath. We argue that while the state “learned” how to execute and justify each new massacre based on its past experience, the targeted groups have so far not learned the survival skills of other victim groups. Rather, they have adapted to the harsh wave of repression through a process that is largely internal to each group.

Author

• Amy Austin Holmes, American University in Cairo