EGYPT’S REVOLUTION: CHANGING THE FACE OF THE MIDDLE EAST By Mohamed Kamel

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EGYPT’S REVOLUTION: CHANGING THE FACE OF THE MIDDLE EAST

By Mohamed Kamel – Special to the CIC Friday Magazine

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What we have been seeing in Egypt over the past several weeks is not a coup d’état or a simple demonstration; it is a people's revolution against tyranny. 

While President Hosni Mubarak repeatedly rejected their calls for democracy and social justice, few thought that Egyptians would revolt en masse, with such strong demands and clear determination.

Over the past 30 years, Egypt under Mubarak has been going from bad to worse.  Services have steadily deteriorated and people’s basic needs are not being met; meanwhile an elite class of business tycoons built enormous personal wealth at the people’s expense. These individuals joined forces with the governing Mubarak family, creating an unholy marriage between wealth and politics.

But why did this long-simmering revolt erupt now, in 2011?

Over the past year, Mubarak’s arrogant regime extended its humiliation of the Egyptian people, showing that its only priority is staying in power, whatever the price.

In 2010, police brutality reached a new high when youth were killed in the streets and their parents were ordered to bury them without knowing why and how they had died.  Then on June 6, 2010 the shocking murder of Khaled Said by police outside an internet café in Alexandria opened Egyptians’ eyes to the ongoing abuse. In November, fraudulent parliamentary elections had brought public tolerance with this dysfunctional administration to the breaking-point. 

At the same time, the Egyptian government was raising sectarian tensions between Muslims and Christians. While this had been going on previously, the New Year attack on worshippers at an Alexandria church where 23 died, showed that Mubarak’s regime will do anything to suppress the people and turn them against each other. Many believe that this atrocity was directly planned within the government, while more conservative critics say it was ignored intentionally.

As part of a widely alleged cover-up, 32-year-old Mohamed Sayyid Bilal was arrested within days of the Alexandria church attack, but despite evidence that torture was inflicted, police failed to extract a confession from him. Bilal died in detention, another fatality believed (like that of Khaled Said) to be the direct result of police abuse.

This accumulation of oppression and humiliation suffered by the Egyptian people galvanized its youth, all born during the Mubarak regime. This generation has been taught that revolution is bad word and dignity is a foreign concept to them. Despite the fact that the Mubarak regime has been responsible for the enforced unemployment of most people under 30, they have been portrayed as a lazy and useless generation of drug addicts and criminals. The government’s anti-youth propaganda reached the point where the rest of the world began to think it was true.

But the Egyptian situation was not unique; Tunisia was deteriorating under a similar weight of political corruption and inefficiency. When the Tunisian people suddenly rose up in revolt, their action was also a surprise to the world and at first few thought they would succeed.  But they did, and their revolution inspired all Arab people to believe that their collective will could prevail.

Unlike Tunisia, however, Egyptians must now deal with the implications of the long-standing relations between Mubarak’s regime and the U.S., as well as the cold peace accord between their nation and Israel.

Many there believe that the U.S. and Israel have collaborated to bid on the death of the Egyptian people by planning for a new Western-oriented reality in the Middle East. This new reality would have Israel establishing peace accords with puppet governments that would brainwash their people into submission and apathy. The cornerstone of this failed policy has been the American hypocrisy of propping up dictatorships under the pretense of supporting allies.

But the only true foundation of peace is based on democracy and justice.  When people across the Middle East have their basic human rights and a say in their future, only then will Israel be able to live in peace and American interests be legitimately served.

Meanwhile, as the Egyptian revolution gains ground, Mubarak is still playing games of deception, making only a few concessions under pressure in attempts to contain the popular uprising.

He dismissed his government not because it failed the people, but because it failed him. He appointed military strongman, General Omar Suleiman (widely acknowledged as the “CIA’s point man in Egypt”) as vice-president because it became clear that only the army can defend him and Mubarak’s son Gamal could not be allowed to continue competing with an army candidate to take over his father’s position.

Meanwhile, Gamal Mubarak and his supporters are being held responsible by many for the deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the streets and in Tahrir Square.

The revolution has so far gained a lot of ground and proved to the entire world that the Egyptian people are not as complacent and cynical as they have been portrayed.  Mubarak has by now realized that even if he does succeed in crushing the revolution, the dream of appointing his son to be president after him is in tatters. Such a family dynasty would of course have guaranteed the continuity of Mubarak-controlled power and wealth (currently estimated at $70 billion).

Knowing he must ultimately leave, it seems clear now that Mubarak’s intention is not to step down before taking revenge upon ordinary Egyptians. As Mohamed Hassanin Haikel said; “The worst in Egypt will try to destroy the best of it.”

As for Israel and the U.S., Egypt’s uprising woke them up to the unpleasant fact that they have been wrong from day one. They certainly will not give up quickly, however, and are trying to buy time tin order to rearrange the political cards in Egypt and the entire region.

Will they succeed? I believe not. The Egyptian people are solidly united in thought and action. They are tired of the fabricated sectarian tensions that were unheard-of before Mubarak unleashed his version of Machiavellian “divide and conquer” policy.

Today, both Christians and Muslims are standing together hand in hand, even publicly praying together Tahrir square, and we see the Muslim Brotherhood protecting churches.

When people revolt, it is a sure sign that they have finally broken down the walls of fear built up around them for so long. A broken fear can never be re-injected.

(Mohamed S. Kamel is a freelance writer and editor of http://forafreeegypt.blogspot.com/  He is a professional engineer, co-founder of the Canadian Egyptian for Democracy CEFD, and National Association for Change in Egypt, Taghyeer–Canada).  He can be reached at public@mohamedkamel.com This article was edited and slightly abridged for the Canadian Islamic Congress Friday Magazine.)