Sometimes I imagine myself being an Egyptian who voted for ousted President Mohamed Morsi. I try to imagine how upset I would be, if the person I voted for in a completely just election, was removed from his position by a coup. The subsequent bloodshed, human rights violations by the military government and disregard of my vote would most likely have deeply affect me.After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, it was believed that democracy would finally be a reality in Egypt. It was said that "the Egyptian people will for the first time in 5,000 years freely elect whomever they want to be ruled by," and they were right. People went to the polls and elected Morsi out of their own free will.After about one year in government, Morsi's cabinet was overthrown, without being given the opportunity to call for an early election. After the coup, Morsi's unarmed and peaceful supporters were shot at and pro-democracy demonstrations were forcibly scattered by the police, while the whole world cold-bloodedly chose to remain as bystanders.At this point, the Muslim Brotherhood was considered a "terror organization," and thousands of members were jailed. A campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood was launched across the Arab world, in which any member was labeled as a traitor. This is the picture that makes me feel mutinous when I imagine myself as an Egyptian who voted for Mohamed Morsi.People and leaders from across the world applauded the overthrow of a freely elected person, while simultaneously urging me to walk on the path of democracy. Members and supporters of a political movement, who persistently refuse to get involved in any type of terrorist act, are intentionally marginalized.Those who want to understand why al-Qaeda is on the rise in the Middle East and other Islamic countries, should view it from the perspective of an ordinary Egyptian, who voted for Morsi, but subsequently had to witness a coup and then was declared a terrorist. How many choices is an individual in the Middle East left with when their vote is rendered useless and a freely elected leader is overthrown and subjected to bloodshed?Those who have been following the region closely, will certainly remember al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahri's following statement about the coup in Egypt: "Our Egyptian brothers must see that democracy is not a solution. This matter is only solvable with armed struggle and resistance."This statement speaks volumes even to those who ordinarily have nothing to do with al-Qaeda ideology. You can be certain that a great number of people in the Middle East have begun to say "so apparently democracy is not the way." Those who applauded and supported the Egyptian coup are also responsible for pushing this group of hopeless people toward al-Qaeda's periphery.Western countries should not evaluate al-Qaeda as merely a terror organization but also as the forced destination of those who have witnessed oppression and deception due to bloodshed and coups.This perspective will be a good starting point for understanding developments in other Muslim countries as well, such as Syria, Somalia, Mali, Afghanistan and Pakistan.