Egyptian Model: Has 'Moderate Islam' Failed in the Middle East?

With the Free Officers Coup in 1952, the military became an economic power in Egypt. This power was further consolidated during Anwar Sadat's term in office. It was specified in the 1994 constitution that the means of production belonged to the state acting on behalf of the people.
 
The means of production have been held by the state since then; the military and political elites, by seizing power over the state apparatus, became the owners of these means. This led to the emergence of a class of executives and administrators (Russians, who experienced a similar state of affairs in the Soviet Union, called this new class “nomenklatura.”)
 
Nearly 250,000 military officers who retired in the Mubarak era and their families have become part of the army's economic system. Military enterprises were exempted from the privatization of public enterprise, a process that began with the coercion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in 1992. Retired officers were appointed as board members or owners of privatized public enterprises.
 
The Egyptian army is also the guarantor of the Egyptian-Israeli peace, which is based on obedience to Israel. The main axis of the Middle East policies of the US, the EU and Russia is the security of Israel. Russia became the main defender of Israel's Middle East policies after the start of the Syrian civil war. The security of Israel is the main reason for the ongoing war in Syria and the return to the military guardianship regime through the military coup in Egypt.
 
The Egyptian army has created an unchecked gray market that is based on unfair competition. Reactions against this resurfaced during Morsi's term. Groups favoring the rights of the people started a campaign to boycott goods produced by the army on April 6, 2013. Moves were made in parliament to introduce a system of oversight for military spending. Egypt's army, police, civilian bureaucracy and oligarchic capitalist groups remained part of the old order. Artificial economic chaos was created in the Morsi era through power outages and oil shortages. An artificial security crisis was also created by stirring up sectarian and religious conflicts. The military coup staged in the aftermath of this economic and security chaos revealed that the military was not willing to abandon the privileges secured for it by the former regime.
 
In the aftermath of the Gezi Park protests and the Egyptian coup, some argued that moderate Islam had failed in the Middle East. Let's assume it failed. But I have two questions. First, what does “the Middle East” mean for those who argue that moderate Islam failed? Obviously not the Gulf States or Iran. They're referring to the North African countries where the Arab Spring succeeded and Turkey, which is being governed by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). In other words, this is the Sunni Middle East of the Mediterranean.
 
Secondly, if moderate Islam failed, what is the alternative, and what do they have in mind? Salafism? A new anti-imperialist Islamic movement? A new Islamic movement consistent with the West? Social democracy? Communism? Kemalism or Baathism? No. Those who argue that moderate Islam failed are aware that none of these options would be sufficient to win the people's support and come to power in the current political landscape. I will tell you what they have in mind: What is desired is a new postmodern military guardianship era in Turkey and Mediterranean Sunni Middle East in the aftermath of economic and security chaos cooked up in a lab.
 
They want a period of rule by military guardianship that is consistent with the US, the EU, Russia and the Gulf States, in favor of peace with Israel, that supports intervention in Iran and reduces Islam to its five pillars and nothing more. What will the new ideology be in this setting? Nationalism? A new synthesis of two opposite ideologies, nationalism and Salafism?
 
Will the idea of military guardianship attract support? No repressive regime that fails to win the support of the people can survive long. Instead of redesigning the Middle East for the security and future of Israel, efforts should be made to ensure that Islam and Judaism become brother religions once more.