January 25 2011 seemed forever immune, until now. Amidst the brutal violence, an ideological battle rages on for the soul of Egypt.
Most of Egypt’s allies - except notably for Turkey and Qatar - were clearly more comfortable with the military that promised “stability” than with the Muslim Brotherhood that had won the country’s first elections. This is what counter-revolution looks like.
This bi-weekly Arab Awakening space is a holding operation on Egypt - excerpts from their articles, blogs and tweets - as people try to work out what is happening. The ‘You tell us’ feature offers some first hand accounts and a range of opinions, first and foremost from the people of Egypt.
The weaknesses of the revolutionary movement are the main reason for the massacres of August 14. We need to understand these to remedy the dire situation that Egypt is currently facing.
Whenever democratic space has opened up, people have been eager to choose those who not only provide a better solution for their economic and social problems, but who can also offer them a recognition of the authenticity of their cultures.
In power, the Muslim Brotherhood’s repressive tactics led to low intensity, long term civil unrest. This enhanced the image of the military as a force for moderation and secularism in Egyptian politics, bypassing, of course, the Maspero massacre where Copts were run over by military vehicles.
We could choose between opposing this new authority, boycotting it, or participating in an attempt to contain the damage to come. In other words, we had to choose the option that implied the least damage, and we did.
Mutual fear may prevail and the use of force be felt necessary. Exactly this plays into the hands of the parasites inside the apparatus who are busy transforming themselves into a self-governing body within the state (especially the Interior Ministry) that can exploit, if not directly manipulate,
The truly revolutionary forces, the youth, the student movements, the un-coopted left and the unions, have yet to crystallize and present a credible, practical & feasible vision to the Egyptian people.
To move towards a more accurate account, it is imperative that we dissolve the binaries of tradition and modernity, relativism and universalism that these hegemonic narratives are contingent on, since they undermine the heterogeneity of the Egyptian woman and bind it to the political ploy du jour.
