Towards Deomocracy By Baby Steps

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
***************************************

Those who say that Egypt has never experienced democracy should revisit its history.  The Egyptian Constitution of 1923, promulgated during the monarchy was a model Basic Law.  It guaranteed popular elections based on a multiparty system, freedom of expression, and the right to assemble peacefully.  That was 88 years ago.

So what happened?  In came Colonel Nasser with his Coup d'Etat in 1952.  Creeping military rule was now in motion.  The difference between a coup and a revolution is that a coup is undertaken by a junta; a revolution is undertaken by the masses.  Dictator Nasser found in the Constitution an obstacle to his rule.  In 1954, he directed his goons (baltagiahs) to attack an iconic institution, the Council of State, and its then Chairman, the great jurist El-Sanhouri.  El-Sanhouri was beaten up by the Nasser mob to the ignorant cries of "Down with the Constitution!!"  A dark age has descended on Egypt, and was to continue till the dawn of the Revolution of January 25, 2011.

A body politic, like that of Egypt of today, is beginning to learn again how to walk in the flowery park of a constitutional system.  The call for a constitutional change was in fact uttered in 2009, during the Mubarak dictatorship.  It was courageously uttered by Dr. Muhammad El-Baradie, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. El-Baradie, a Nobel Laureate, is today running for the post of President later this year.

But the crippling effects of the non-practice of democracy are a temporary restraint.  Baby steps toward democracy are usually transformed into forward leaps.  Hardly any training is required.  Practicing democracy is an on-the-job training.  The innate desire for freedom kicks in, and all that is needed is choosing the candidate, finding the way to a polling station, being in the proper voting district, proving your identity, being safe as you vote, and, BINGO, you have become a voter!!

This formula applies neatly to Egypt's present baby steps towards a democratic and secular State:  Some of these steps or manifestations thereof are produced hereunder as a guide post for this historic march:

• Selection of university presidents and college deans by elections held by their peers, not by appointment by the country's President upon recommendations by the security apparatus of that President;
• Broad criticism of Prime Minister Dr. Essam Sharaf for his recent statements to Turkish media that "the Camp David Agreements of  1978 which led to the Egypt/Israel Peace Treaty signed in Washington, D.C. in March 1979 is not a sacred document which is immune from amendment."  Egypt has a long history for respect of treaties.
• The euphoria of the masses at seeing their former tormentors (Mubarak, his sons, and members of his cabal) standing trial.  The notion of equality before the law is seeping in.
• The Youth Coalition, namely the young millions in Tahrir who lost 850 victims to the guns and tear gas of the Mubarak security regime, and for whom the guns of the military remained silent thus forcing Mubarak out of power, that Revolutionary Youth Coalition will field as many as 200 candidates in the Parliamentary elections.  Why? "To counter organized Islamic groups."
• Ahmed Ezz, the steel tycoon and monopolist, who was the Secretary of the now defunct National Democratic Party, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for unfair monopolistic practices.  During the Mubarak regime, Ezz was feared to the point that, prior to the Revolution which brought him to the halls of justice in Egypt, used to change the law on his own to suit his own monopolistic and corrupt devices.
• Egypt now laughs at a statement made by Omar Soliman during his few days of tenure as VP of Egypt during the waning days of the Mubarak dynasty.  The TV interview by Christiane Amanpour with Soliman featured Soliman's response to her question regarding Egypt's readiness for a transition to democracy.  His emphatic answer was: "The Egyptians do not possess the culture of democracy!!"  So in his popular column in Al-Ahram newspaper, entitled "The Reconstruction of the State," Atef El-Ghamry says: "The Mubarak regime has robbed Egypt of 30 years.  For it ran the country with the logic of a business corportation to which the regime grew accustomed, namely profit for the management (i.e. the Dictator and his cronies)."
• Now there is a clearly announced schedule for parliamentary elections in November, followed by presidential elections in December, followed by drafting a new constitution which will be submitted to a popular plebiscite in 2012.

Are these "baby steps" towards a secular and democratic Egypt? Maybe that baby has a sudden spurt of growth.  Go!! Go!! Go!!

A Journey in the mind of the Salafis in Egypt

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
***************************************


The word "Salafi" in Arabic means a Muslim who harks back more than 1400 years ago to the way he or she thinks Islam was practised in Arabia at the time of the Prophet Muhammad.  "Salaf" means "ancestor."  The Salafi movement in Egypt and elsewhere encompasses those who believe that progress and justice lie in what they deem the purity of the Muslim faith during its first three centuries.

As an ideology, the Salafis especially in Egypt, a traditionally cosmopolitan country of a Muslim majority and a Coptic (Christian) indigenous minority, has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. In its genesis, Salafism is inward oriented towards Islamic worship in mosques, and fear from secularity.  That anti-secularism lies at the root of their problem both at the time of dictatorship in Egypt (from 1952 to 2011, the year when Mubarak was pushed out of power on February 11) and now in the New Egypt born in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011.

So what is the problem or problems faced by the Salafis or raised by them? 

During Mubarak's reign, they were brutally suppressed.  Here we should remember that Mubarak on October 6, 1981, was, as Vice President of Egypt, seated next to President Sadat during the military parade from which a band of soldiers, Islamic terrorists, rushed toward the stand and assassinated the Egyptian President.  Their suppression thereafter was brutal, forcing them to go below the radar of Mubarak's security State. 

Then came the Revolution of January 25in which both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, two distinct and at times antagonistic groups, had no leadership role.  The Supreme Council of Egypt's Armed Forces was invited by the representatives of the Revolution to step into the void left by Mubarak; an interim civilian government was formed to transition the 90 million population country to democracy through parliamentary elections (now scheduled for this November); and Al-Azhar (the Glorious), the most important seat of Islamic learning, declared in Cairo on August 17 that:

Islam, in its legislation, civilization, and history does not recognize a "religiously-based" State.  The overall arching principles of Islamic law (Sharia) are the primary source of legislation, providing that the adherents of other religions are guaranteed, in their personal status cases, resort to their own religious laws.

 So in the New Egypt, the principle of "faith and politics do not mix" has been established, and the separation of powers had been affirmed.  The Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Yemen, and elsewhere has no place in Egypt.  And the flags which were raised in Tahrir did not proclaim "Islam is the solution."  They proclaimed "Democracy is the solution."

Have I just said, "democracy?"  Yes!!  Now there are 38 political parties and movements to compete in the parliamentary elections.  Amongst those, there are 4 Salafi parties, and one party which was formed by former members of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Then came a "red line" announcement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces: "The secularity of Egypt is non-negotiable." 

Note here that the Turkish model of governance is being replicated in Egypt.  These proclamations from Tahrir, from Al-Azhar, and from the Armed Forces, declare loudly and clearly that Egypt shall not become Iran II, a theocracy.  And the Copts, though still worried about the Salafi and other Islamic influences, are beginning to see in the New Egypt the face of traditional Egypt which raised during its revolution against the British occupation its real flag of inclusiveness which shows the Crescent embracing the Cross.

The Salafi parties are "Al-Fadhilah" (Virtue); "Al-Noor" (Light); "Salamah and Tanmiyah" (Security and Development); and "Islah and Tanmiyah" (Reform and Development).  Now that the Salafis have resurfaced after the Revolution toppled their tormentor Mubarak, they want primarily to preserve in the new Egyptian Constitution which shall be drafted in 2012 by a constituent assembly, Article II of the present Constitution.

That Article provides that no bill shall be legislated into law if it contravenes Islamic Law (Sharia) principles.  The fact of the matter is that Sharia, whose two primary sources are the Quran and the Sunna (Muhammad's utterances and conduct) has, over 1432 years evolved.  Its evolution has been through ijtihad (interpretation).  The result has been summed up in Al-Azhar's Declaration of August 17 as follows:

Democratic rule is based on free and direct elections, which encapsulate the modern formulation of the application of the Islamic precepts of Shura (consultation).

The  Salafi concern for the future role of Islam in a democratic Egypt is being alleviated.  In the mosque, Muslims pray and sermonize; in the Church, the Copts do the same; and in Parliament, the people's representatives legislate for a secular New Egypt. 

In the newly-born Egypt, faith is not separated from life; it is separated from the politics of inclusiveness of Muslims, Copts, and all other beliefs.

The Guns of the Egyptian Army Remain Silent

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
***************************************

In the Egyptian Revolution of January 25, 2011, the guns of the Egyptian army were not turned on the demonstrators.  And Mubarak, a dictator for 32 years, fell from power.  Why were the guns of the largest Arab army did not mow down the Tahrir Square revolutionaries?  After all, Mubarak, like his predecessors, Nasser and Sadat, were members of that nearly one million man strong army establishment.

When we pose the question of why did Egypt's armed forces, by its silence on January 25 and beyond, did not turn on that historic rebellion?  The answer lies in the history, background, and make-up of those armed forces sitting on their tanks by the banks of the Nile.

The Egyptian army is a nationalist army.  In 1805, an Albanian tobacconist, by the name of Muhammad Aly, became the Ottoman Sultan's Viceroy in Egypt.  The Ottoman Empire was in decline.  Rebellions against it raged from the Balkans to the north, to the Sudan to the south, to Arabia to the East.  Fires fires everywhere against the far-flung Empire, the locus of the then-Caliphate, with no effective fire brigades.  Muhammad Aly, once Napoleon had withdrawn in 1803 his troops from Egypt, an important province of the Ottomans, saw his chance to pry Egypt loose from the dying Empire.  His tool was the establishment of the mightiest army in the Empire.  Two-hundred thousand man strong, with a navy whose ships were built from the famous cedars of Lebanon.  His trainers were French.  His recruits were Egyptian peasants.

Those peasant soldiers of the great Muhammad Aly, who also industrialized Egypt (and whose sons built later the first girls school in the Muslim world in the 1860's), knew no geographical or sectarian affiliation.  They only knew that they were Egyptians.  Cohesiveness came not from the province or the faith in which they were born.  It came from the flag and the national territory over which it was raised.  Thus, as one, they fought first for the Sultan in the Sudan, in Arabia and in the Balkans, then, for Egypt, against the Sultan, and helped make Egypt a hereditary monarchy, with autonomy, then independence from the Ottomans.

That army, born in Egyptian nationalism, then fought the British occupation which began in 1882 and ended in 1954.  Its sense of onness with the people was first manifested in those late 1880s in the rebellion led by Ahmed Orabi, a native of my village in the Province of Sharkia (the Oriental).  Orabi was exiled to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, but the spirit of nationalism in that army never waned.  It, together with the police engaged the British forces in the Suez Canal in the early 1950s in non-conventional warfare.  Later came several wars with Israel over the question of Palestine, which ended with the Egyptian army crossing into Sinai in October 1973.  That October/Ramadan/or Yom Kippur War during the Sadat presidency led to two results, a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and a huge boost to the reputation of the Egyptian army in the eyes of the Egyptian public.

So when the January 25 Revolution for freedom from dictatorship erupted, the Egyptian army whose conscripts could see their brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts in Tahrir Square, sat smiling on top of their tanks over which children played.

No wonder that the revolutionaries of Tahrir Square, finding that the vacuum left by the collapse of the Mubarak regime was leading to chaos, had no problem calling in their national army to govern in an interim capacity. Simultaneously a civilian government was set up under Dr. Essam Sharaf, as Prime Minister until Egypt could pull itself together through both parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2011.
Now, with Mubarak and his sons being tried before a civilian criminal court in Cairo, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Field Marshal Muhammad Tantawi is expected to testify, together with his Deputy General Sami Anan, before that court which will determine Mubarak's guilt or innocence.

So when the question is asked, "Who owns the Egyptian Revolution?", the response from Tahrir is: the people of Egypt, from whom that proud army sprang.

Libya: What Does the Egyptian Street Say About the "The Tyrant's Family"

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
***************************************

Headlining about Gaddafi "The End of a Tyrant," the Egyptian media dissects the roles and fortunes (or misfortunes) of his eight sons and two daughters.

• Son #1:  The oldest "Muhammad" was born to the Qaddafis by his first wife.  He became a businessman, in fact one of the most important as he owned the biggest communications network in Libya; owned 40% of the soft drinks industry with a Coca Cola exclusive concession; headed the Libyan Olympic Committee, and presided over the Libyan Commission for postal and telecommunications services.
• Son #2:  "Saif Al-Islam" who prior to the February 17 Revolution, which did away with Gaddafi's 42 year of dictatorship, was being groomed to succeed  his maniacal father.  He was largely the face of Libya to the West.  An engineer by training with supposedly a Ph.D from the London School of Economics; spoke good English (a good entree to the Western mind), he had called for reform through his "Gaddafi World Charitable Organization."  Since 2000, Saif, in spite of the fact that he occupied no formal position in the governmental structure, played a huge role in both internal and external Libyan affairs.  He is credited with "settling the Lockerbie tragedy"; warned of civil war in Libya after the uprising, and has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.
• Son #3: "Al-Saidi" 36 years old; famous (or infamous) for his incendiary temper; a drug user; had several brushes with the law in Europe, especially in Italy.  Al-Saidi, who has fled with his brother, Son #4 (Hanibal) with their mother and several children to Algeria, is said to have an engineering degree.  He is a soccer player and had his own special forces.
• Son #4: "Hanibal", husband of a Lebanese fashion model, Elaine Skaf, with whom he fathered two sons.  Nicknamed "the Trouble Maker," Hanibal was arrested with his wife in Geneva for beating up their maid.  That criminal complaint against them resulted in their arrest by the Swiss police, thus precipitating a diplomatic confrontation between Gaddafi's Libya and Switzerland whose national airline (Swissair) was temporarily denied landing rights in Libyan airports.  With Gaddafi threatening to withdraw all Libyan deposits in Swiss banks, the Swiss suspended their legal action against Hanibal and Elaine.  Yet in 2009, while the couple were at the Claridge Hotel in London, the London police was called to investigate the screams coming out from Hanibal's suite.  Elaine was found to be badly disfigured but she refused to press charges against "the Trouble Maker."
• Son #5: "Al-Motassin" was his father's National Security Advisor.  In that capacity, and in competition with his younger brother, Son #6 Khamis, he demanded $1.2 Billion to establish a military security unit of his own.  The Serbian Ambassador to Tripoli had once characterized him as "possessing no acute intelligence," which may explain why his siblings maneuvered in his absence abroad to gut out his extensive commercial and personal holdings between the years 2001-2005.
• Son #6: "Khamis" established and led the fearsome "Division No. 32" whose personnel were thoroughly trained in modern warfare in the Russian Federation.  Khamis' role, in that regard, was akin to that of the Presidential Guard in Syria or the Islamic Republican Guard in Iran, namely, the protection of the Gaddafi regime.  Khamis spearheaded the brutal suppression of the Revolution which began on March 17, in Benghazi and ended up with NATO's help, vanquishing the Gaddafi army, his mercenaries, his snipers and his informers.
• Son #7: "Saif Al-Arab" The least known among his brothers; was killed, together with 3 Gaddafi grandsons on April 30 in a NATO raid on his house which was suspected of harboring, at that time, Gaddafi himself.
• Daughter Aisha: Child #8, A daughter of 34 years of age, and the one who mediates the family disputes.  A lawyer by training, she was involved with defending Saddam Hussein after the collapse of that Iraqi brutal regime in 2003.  Her father, whose entire honor guard was made up of young Libyan women, gave every girl in that corps the name of "Aisha" followed by a number.  Examples: Aisha #1, Aisha #2 and so on.  A Libyan University gave her an honorary doctorate as a consolation prize for not being able to complete her graduate study in international law in Paris.  News have been confirmed of her flight, together with her children and other members of her family to Algeria after the rebels' conquest of Tripoli in late August.
• Hana: Child #9, an adopted daughter who was reported to have been killed in a US aerial bombardment of Tripoli in 1986. Those bombarded premises were declared by Gaddafi a historic site form which he called for the routing of the rebels when the revolution began in Benghazi in March.
• Milad: Child #10, a boy who was born to a brother of Gaddafi, then later adopted by uncle Muammar.

From that list, only #1 Gaddafi and his son, Saif Al-Islam are named on the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

Though news were broadcast worldwide on September 6 regarding a long convoy of cars moving south from Libya to Niger, under Niger army protection, no credible information has yet come out as to whether Gaddafi himself was in that country.