ABSTRACT
Former air marshal Husni Mubarak, had ruled Egypt for thirty years when his military colleagues forced him from office in 2011. The pre-political brigadier-general of 2006 anticipated the somewhat contradictory chief of staff, defense minister, and president. Sisi is a pious Muslim ambivalent about Islamists; a fan of the caliphate in theory who rejects it in practice, a critic of Mubarak's who permitted the revival of his political party. Sisi even states that Islam as such creates political problems for rulers: "The religious nature of the Middle East creates challenges for the governing authorities". Although Sisi represented the Egyptian armed forces at the Army War College, his paper included some brave and accurate statements critical of his country's leadership. In parallel, Sisi accepts the free market because it works better than socialism: "many Middle East countries attempted to sustain government-controlled markets instead of free markets and as a result no incentive developed to drive the economy".
