I just watched a New York Times interview with a young Egyptian blogger, Gigi Ibrahim, a recent graduate of the American University in Cairo. It’s the most helpful thing I’ve seen so far. She spent her adolescence in California, and knows what Americans want to know, so her discussion seemed much more informed than the commentaries by our Press. Our Press keeps talking about the American double bind. We want to support the Egyptian people’s fight for freedom and Democracy. On the other hand, we’re afraid of Moslems being liberated – eg Aghanistan, Iraq, Iran. We came by that honestly. While some may think we brought that feeling on ourselves by "meddling," that point has little to do with our fear. So our Press talks about the Moslem Brotherhood, and Iran, etc.
First Ibrahim talks about the social media. People in the streets are "tweeting" with their Blackberries and people on their computers are relaying things to the Press, Rights Organizations, and back to the streets. It seems like there are no headquarters, but rather an ill-defined cloud of Facebook and Twitter messages flying around. I don’t know how effective the government’s shutting down phone and Internet lines was. What it seemed to do was enrage people and bring them onto the streets. That "iron curtain" thing has lost its power.
But the thing I most enjoyed about Ibrahim’s take on things was the overview of what all this is about. This isn’t a "Moslem" uprising. It isn’t even political or ideological. It’s a negation of their government and Mubarak. The lives of the Egyptians are just un-necessarily harsh. As I’ve said, the place is a wreck. Dirty, crowded beyond imagination. Poor. And yet they are an educated and modern people. So this is the loudest "No" since the "fall of the wall." As Ibrahim says, they just want better lives.
Islam is as much a part of Egyptian life as food and water. That’s obvious everywhere. They even schedule their demonstrations around the daily prayers. It’s the order in the chaos they’ve lived with, and will undoubtedly be a part of their future course. They have their share of extremists, but that’s not what is behind what we’re watching. Ibrahim makes that quite clear – smiling when she cautions us not the make comparisons with Iran. I sort of feel that too.
It reminds me of the best of our 1960s – "I ain’t afraid of your jails cause I want my freedom now!" I don’t think that they’ll go home empty-handed…
Well, perhaps “we” are afraid of Muslims being liberated. Yet, the historical record of the past 20 years strongly indicates otherwise. Between 1990 – 1999 the U.S. led multinational coalitions that ousted Saddam’s armies from Kuwait and returned it to the rule of its less tyrannical organic monarchy; ended the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovenia and Kosovo; ended the Taliban theocracy in Afghanistan, and overthrew Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. In each of these countries except Kuwait, the U.S. then worked and is working to assist their Muslim populations in establishing representative governments.
True, the U.S. government did fail to act in any meaningful way during Iran’s 2010 uprising against its oppressive theocracy. Overall though, the United States has spent considerable blood and treasure giving Muslim populations at least the chance to govern themselves in a manner that is literally without historical precedent.
Reasonable people can differ on whether this was wise or not, my own opinion is mixed, but, just as in evidence based medicine, useful discussion of policy is aided by starting with the facts. Here the facts indicate that something other than a fear of Muslim self-determination is at work. Regards, Tim