Maha Azzam is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, an independent think tank on international affairs in London. Azzam specializes in Political Islam with particular reference to Egypt.

Profil: Is Egypt slipping into Civil war?

Azzam: We certainly see an escalation of violence, but not necessarily a civil war. The military is using violence against protesters. The full force of the army is spent in order to quell the protests. We will see growing resistance to the tactics of the army and the level of the violence might go up. And there is another level: The sectarian violence between Muslims and Copts is getting stronger as always in a situation like this. We saw this under Mubarak and Sadat. But all this is not a civil war. It is mainly one group – the army – cracking down on protesters.

Profil: Is this the official end of the Arab Spring?

Azzam: The Arab spring was the beginning of a break with dictatorship and authoritarianism in the Middle East. It was always bound to be a long struggle given the history of the regimes in the region. Maybe some were too euphoric and thought it would be easier and take less time. But essentially the old system in Egypt now has fought back and done so brutally. This is a counter revolution. The old regime operates with the instruments of the state - judiciary, military and media. But the need for change in 2011 is still there in 2013. The return of the old regime will not make a difference.

Profil: How will Egypt influence the region?

Azzam: I am fearful that Tunisia might be next. It is a very possible scenario that the army cracks down there, too. Brutal force is also used in Syria. All this is an attempt by the regimes in the region to see, if the heavy handed policies and the politics of the iron fist still work. If they can, they will then have succeeded a final blow to the Arab Spring. But the Arab Spring is not something that can be completed in a matter of a year or two. If it is a fundamental change to bring about democracy to the region - clearly the process will take much longer. We have to take into consideration how strong the resistance against democratic change is.

Profil: Was Egypt just not ready for democracy?

Azzam: The use of force just shows how the old dictatorships worked. It is the nature of those, who don’t want to see democracy to succeed. This was the nature and the tactics of the Middle Eastern dicatorships for decades. Now they are perhaps even stronger because they feel more threatened. They face a challenge after the Arab Spring. People have suffered, but they have also lost fear of these regimes. People are willing to confront them and they are willing to die. Currently we do not see a mass revolution against the military. I think this is because of mass media and the vilification of the Muslim Brotherhood. It hinders the development of a broader resistance.

Profil: The Muslim Brotherhood under Mohammed Mursi was very unsuccessful in governing the country, is this not the reason for the lack of resistance now?

Azzam: The struggle is not about military against Muslim Brotherhood. It’s about the struggle to develop democracy in Egypt and the Middle East. It’s a struggle against the roll back. What happens now underminds everyone. In the sit-ins, which the army cleared, were not only supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. And the Brotherhood is not necessarly bad as a party. True, personal liberties are maybe not their thing, but we did not even get to this stage of egyptian democracy, when social liberties are discussed. Opponents of Mursi kept emphazising the extreme agenda of the Brotherhood – but this was only an extremist part of the party. The more we let the army now vilify the Brotherhood, the more we open up to create fascist tendencies in Egypt.