Democracy advocates worldwide and the Obama administration are outraged by the recent raids of NGOs by Egyptian authorities. The Egyptians are claiming that the raids were the result of evidence found suggesting that the organizations, some of which were backed by the United States, were participating in activities to incite riots and organize demonstrations within Egypt. 

According to the Washington Post, a total of seventeen individual organizations were raided by the Egyptian authorities. The raids were not peaceful; the Egyptian officials stormed the offices and seized both documents and “devices.”

The United States and the Obama administration are taking a tough stance on the Egyptian raids; the administration is requesting that Egyptian officials list everything that was seized in the process of the raids and that everything taken in the raids be returned to the rightful owners. 

The United States’ request may be taken seriously by the Egyptian government because congress recently passed legislation which links all United States aid to Egypt based on Egypt’s participation in the Democratic process. The United States is warning Egypt that the raids and any further action of a similar nature could jeopardize aid to Egypt. 

Egyptian officials are taking a different tone entirely; the Egyptian government does not like how foreign aid is reaching the country. They believe that the Egyptian government should have control of all of the funds coming from foreign sources and not the NGOs within the region. 

The Egyptian government has not been peaceful since the Supreme Council of Armed Forces took over. There are reports of as many as 100 deaths of Egyptian citizens as a direct result of military crackdowns on protests. The raids appear to be just the latest in a string of actions by the Egyptian government and military intended for the purpose of keeping the Egyptian citizens from having the ability to protest. 

Some of the members of the organizations who were targeted by the military raids believe that the raids were nothing more than acts of vengeance against anyone who played a role in the Egyptian revolution and are not in fact the result of any new intelligence gleaned by the authorities within Egypt. 

The consequences of the raid are serious for all of the NGOs and the members of their organizations; the NGOs could be shut down, fined, and the employees of the NGOs could be jailed indefinitely. 

If the Egyptian government has responded to the international outcry from the American governments and democracy advocates already, I haven’t read anything about it. The Egyptian government’s current stance seems to be the antithesis of the American position and I am guessing that it won’t change easily.