Egypt: the real revolution begins?

Dionysus

Egypt is looking much more interesting in the past couple of days, if what RTÉ, BBC and Le Monde are saying is on the ball. Now, the demand is for the army, the real power in Egypt, to be overthrown.

Earlier in the week The Guardian was reporting that 'hundreds of thousands' of people had gathered in Tahrir Square, and the momentum seems to be building.

42 people have been killed in the past week.

I'm not sure if certain "western" governments will be entirely happy about this as it seems like some Islamists are increasingly hijacking the protest and the leader of Sunni Islam has given the protest his full support. On the other hand, the most popular Islamic party, the Muslim Brotherhood has condemned the protesters' demand that parliamentary elections scheduled for next Tuesday be put on the long finger as it expects to do very well in those elections.

Either way, it seems that while Egypt is heading towards more democracy, it could also be heading towards being a more religiously fundamentalist one. From the Arab cult of the "strong leader" to the growing cult of Islamic fundamentalist "certainties". This democracy thing is tricky. The only thing I can hope for is that when the Islamists get into power they will be exposed for what they are within a short time.

Biggins

They are not really I think.
The Muslim Brotherhood which is expected to win some of the election positions have their own ideas and others that are expected to win are still backed by the army there.
The army in Egypt is a lot different from armies as we know them. They are interests and have people in every aspect of Egyptian life. They have holdings in businesses, transport systems and stocks/shares to beat the band as well as other areas of daily Egyptian life.

Don't think for one send that after this so called election, they will have gone away. They haven't yet and they won't.

Have a read here: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/egypt/egypt.htm

losthorizon

What happened was that Mubarek went but the old Clique stayed in Power with the Army still in command. Nothing really changed. The only success was Tunisia. Libya was really down to Nato.

The west doesnt want a change of guard in Syria. Israel most of all wants Assad to remain in power.

Johro

I'm hoping the Egyptians will have more sense than they're credited with and not let fundamentalist Islamists get to positions in power in their new government, I'd say they're aware it would be a case of swapping one tyrannical regime for another. They want to go forward, not backwards. Fundamentalism is backwards.

Einhard

Hopefully the Egyptian people succeed in their demands for true democracy and hopefully the world will accept that, whether a resulting administration be secular or Islamist. I think too many people equate the any form of Islamism with fundamentalism and that's not necessarily the case.

Johro

Einhard wrote: »

Hopefully the Egyptian people succeed in their demands for true democracy and hopefully the world will accept that, whether a resulting administration be secular or Islamist. I think too many people equate the any form of Islamism with fundamentalism and that's not necessarily the case.

Fair enough. It is the case with a lot of Islamist groups though. Nevertheless I would respect the democratic right of the Egyptian people to elect whoever the hell they like. And to be fair they've shown themselves to be very politically aware so far. There's also of course a feeling of this being a very real opportunity and needing to get it right for their country.

ejmaztec

Hopefully the Egyptian people will be smart enough to keep the crackpot fundamentalists well away from any power.

Chuck Stone

I'm pessimistic.

Binyamin Netanyahu attacks Arab spring uprisings

Israeli PM claims 'Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave' vindicates tough stance with Palestinians

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/24/israel-netanyahu-attacks-arab-spring?newsfeed=true

Einhard

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I'm pessimistic.

If Netanyahu is against it then it must be a good thing.

Chuck Stone

Einhard wrote: »

If Netanyahu is against it then it must be a good thing.

Luckily a lot of the security people in Israel think Netanyahooo is a bit of a nut-job or things could be much worse out foreign.

John Doe1

Cool hopeully they take down those tacky pyramids soon

ejmaztec

John Doe1 wrote: »

Cool hopeully they take down those tacky pyramids soon

..or at least finish them, feckin Egyptian ghost estates..

wingsof daun

losthorizon wrote: »

The west doesnt want a change of guard in Syria. Israel most of all wants Assad to remain in power.

This cannot have any bearing int truth. The West (aka Israel) are gunning for regime change, hence the arming of protestors in Syria, much the same as in Libya.

Fbjm

I read 'Egypt: the real evolution begins?' Thread failed to deliver.