AL-WASAT (Middle of the Road): Egypt's New Ideology Between Islamism and Cosmopolitanism

President Morsi seems to have 82 million advisors!!  They constitute the entire population of Egypt, as per the recent census.  We have here a bit of exaggeration intended to depict the advisories  avalanche which continues to swamp the Presidential palace.

There is a historic Arab proverb that says: "The best position is the Middle."  This is backed up by a peasant adage which advises the holder of a club to show his non-threatening intentions by "Hold your club from the middle."  This preference for the "Middle of the Road" is also reflected religiously in the Quran where, in describing Muslims, it says: "You are a middle-road nation: ummattan wasatan."

Unfortunately this centrism has been buried under the tsunami of Islamic militancy.  Under Islamic Sharia (Law), jihad does not mean aggression.  It means either fighting inner negative urges to do bad things, or self-defense when aggressed against territorially.  The maniacs who perpetrated 9/11 have been terribly misguided.  In Islam, war cannot be for aggression; only for self-defense.

In post-Mubarak Egypt, the forces of 38 organizations, movements, political parties and others are vying for prominence.  The spectrum stretches from the Salafis, the extreme Muslim right, to the socialists and Nasserites, on the left.  The Muslim Brotherhood had moved inexorably from the right to the center to accommodate Egypt's cosmopolitanism which is watched over by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

Handing power over on June 30 to the newly-elected President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, does not mean a full isolation of the military from governance.  The return to the barracks is so far only symbolic.  The Turkish model of the army being the protector of the secularism of the State since 1923, is indelibly imprinted in the minds of SCAF which commands vast human and economic resources.  In a recent statement by Field Marshall Tantawi, while ordering disbanding the Islamist-led Parliament, he followed up by saying: "We shall never allow Egypt to fall in the hands of one faction."  It was a clear signal to the Brotherhood: Don't push us too far!!

Signals pointing to centrism, middle of the road, cosmopolitanism as a guiding principle in post-Mubarak Egypt are multiplying.  Here are some of these road signs as gleaned from the Egyptian street and the Arabic-language media.

• A new Egyptian party, crystallizing the middle of the road ideology, has been formed.  Its name is "AL-WASAT" (Middle of the Road).
• Al-Azhar has regained its dynamic role in declaring that moderation is its historic creed.  In this case, moderation and inclusiveness go hand in hand.  Al-Azhar insists on having the Copts and women play energetic roles in shaping the future of Egypt.
• President Morsi referred to the Court of Cassation the SCAF decision to disband the Egyptian Parliament, together with his decree defying that ban.  This case of a ban and counter-ban began with a judgment by the Supreme Constitutional Court which cast doubts on the constitutionality of the laws under which Parliament was elected.  Legal experts, reflecting the Egyptian mentality of moderation, predicted that Cassation and the Constitutional Courts shall never stand in defiance of one another.  These experts reasoned that Morsi's decree is an executive order and, as such, is referable to Cassation, while the Constitutional Court judgment did not call for the dissolution of Parliament.
• Only 50% of eligible voters cast their votes in the run-off for the Office of President (Morsi v. Shafik), with Morsi getting slightly more than half of these votes.  Absence of a landslide.  Thus towing the line in the middle of the road in presiding over Egypt is a natural course of action.
• A huge conference on the ideology and the merits of the "Middle of the Road" was held in Cairo where Al-Azhar played a prominent role.
• The constituent Assembly which is charged with drafting the Egyptian Constitution is said to be keeping unchanged the text of Article 2 of the 1971 Egyptian Constitution.  This article states interalia that the "principles of Sharia are the primary source of legislation."  Principles are not legal provisions.  They are only guidelines.  
• The Salafi attempts to make Sharia the only source of legislation have faltered as those attempts were totally rebuffed by the Rector of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed El-Tayib.  His declaration was met with enthusiastic approval by both the Muslim Brotherhood, the Copts and women.  The first part of that Article reads "Islam is the official religion of the State, and the Arabic language is its official language."

AL-WASAT IS EGYPT'S ROAD TO RECONSTRUCTION AND RECOVERY FROM SIXTY YEARS OF MILITARY DICTATORSHIP WHICH BEGAN ON JULY 23, 1952 BY COLONEL NASSER.  THAT DARK PERIOD IS NOW OVER!!