THE ARAB SPRING IS HERE TO STAY
On the expected line, the Egyptian military stepped in,
deposed Mohammed Morsi, suspended the Egyptian Constitution and appointed an interim
head of the country till the next elections are held.
Millions signed the petition demanding Morsi’s ouster.
Millions gathered to protest. Millions shouted slogans of ‘no Morsi’. And
millions celebrated in the iconic Tahrir
Square and in Egypt when the Morsi’s rule came to
an end.
With much less violence than the first Tahrir Square
uprising! Spectacular!
This transition or the military coup as some say is still
the step ahead in a positive direction in evolution of a multiparty democracy
in the most populous Arab Nation.
Apart from the falling economy that Morsi failed to address,
the other major complaint of the millions who protested against Morsi was that
the government was engaging in ‘Brotherhoodization’ or ‘ikhwaninzation’
of the Egyptian society as an article on CNN says. (Muslim Brotherhood’s Arabic
transliteration is al-Ikḫwān al-Muslimūn; ‘Ikhwan’ translates to ‘brothers’.)
Muslim Brotherhood is an influential organization with
pan-Arab presence. It preaches and promotes exclusivity of Islamic values as
the way of life and has been involved in violent activities to promote its
cause. It doesn’t believe in secular democracy. The Brotherhood has been
involved in political assassinations and has established militant Islamic
organization like Hamas.
The movement was founded in Egypt in 1928. Due to its violent
activities, it was banned in 1948. But the organization is still strong in Egypt and has been able to maintain its support
base though every successive political establishment in Egypt has
worked to suppress it effectively.
Its violent history, a narrow view on democratic values
and emphasis on introducing a strict Islamic code as a way of life were
worrying factors for the Egyptian thought leaders and for the global community
when Morsi won a landslide victory last year to become the first democratically
president of the nation.
And one year of Morsi’s rule has proven those worries
correct. If Morsi’s victory was landslide, his fall is equally spectacular, too.
Some Arab nations are rich. Some are filthy rich. Many of
the 22 Arab speaking nations are not so well-to-do. But almost of the Arab
nations are bad places for free thinking souls believing in secular democratic
credentials as a way of life.
Most of the Arab nations are not democracies. There are
tyrannies. There are monarchies. Their rulers promote strict Islamic code as a
way of life as religion helps them in keeping control over the masses. The
there are nations torn by civil wars.
Though Egypt
was not a democracy, but it was not even a hardliner Islamic state. Having a
long ancient history, Egypt has been the cultural representative of the Arab
world in the modern times and is one of the most diversified Arab world
economies. The nation, though under the authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak for
decades, has been in the mainstream of the global geopolitics. In modern times,
the Egyptian politicians have been able to keep the state and the politics free
from the Islamists and the religious institutions. And that reflects in the
social weaving of the nation. And that is reflecting in the aspirations of the agitating
nation.
The Wikipedia quotes from a U.S. Library of Congress
study:
Many Muslims say that Egypt's governments have been
secularist and even anti-religious since the early 1920s. Politically organized
Muslims who seek to purge the country of its secular policies are referred to
as "Islamists."
An article in the New York Times in the high-tide
days of January 25 to February 10 protests writes:
Among Arab states, Egypt was the first to make a
concerted effort to co-opt its intellectual class, and it has set the standard
ever since. Muhammad Ali, who ruled during the first half of the 19th century,
conscripted several generations of scholars to import scientific and military
knowledge from Europe. These new experts also
staffed government schools and edited official newspapers. A state-centered
approach to culture persisted through the early part of last century and
reached its apogee under the rule of Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Following the Free
Officers’ Revolt of 1952, Nasser’s regime
nationalized the press, the cinema and most publishing houses, establishing
what one historian has termed “a virtual state monopoly on culture.” Mubarak
exploited this monopoly for his own needs. During the 1990s, as Egyptian
security forces fought a low-level war against Islamist groups in Upper Egypt, the regime did its best to recruit
intellectuals to its side.
To continue..