The situation in Egypt is complicated. Demonstrators against the government of Mohammed Morsi caused the military to depose him. The demonstrators appear to include moderate Muslims, secularists, and Coptic Christians.
Morsi’s organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, is now in open warfare and demonstration against the police and military.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the results of the ideas espoused by Sayyid Qutb. In 1949, Qutb traveled to Colorado to study. He didn’t like what he saw. From his experience he auth*ored The America I Have Seen. While we would consider the work ridiculous, our grandfathers found Shickelgruber’s My Struggle ridiculous. Except, that both men meant what they said, and meant what they wrote.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the progenitor of most of the Arab Islamist movements, outside of Saudi Arabia including, but not limited to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbo’Allah.
Ayman al Zawahiri, the present head of al Qaeda, developed his Islamist ideas while with the Brotherhood. His brother, Mohammed al Zawahiri, is the head of an offshoot of the Brotherhood, the Jehadi Salafists, and is now under arrest in Egypt.
Ending support for the Egyptian military should be carefully considered, not just demanded in a reflexive, knee jerk left wing manner. During the 1930s, the left demanded complete neutrality between Germany and our WWI allies France and the UK, while Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-von Ribbentrop non-aggression pact. After Operation Barbarossa, front groups such as Youth Against War, became Youth Against War and Fascism.
The Muslim Brotherhood at play. Things change, but remain the same.
FYI, there are two major Islamist movements in Saudi Arabia – Wahhabis and Salafists. Wahhabism dates from the late 18th century and called for a return to strict early precepts of Islam in reaction to contact with the West. Salafism dates from the late 19th century and, while similar to Wahhabism, allows some modernity and was influenced by Qutb. One thing they all have in common – they wish everyone to either convert, to their belief system, or die.
