{"id":14312,"date":"2011-11-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brookings.alley.test\/research\/in-egypt-trying-to-reaffirm-faith-in-a-revolution\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T12:05:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T12:05:07","slug":"in-egypt-trying-to-reaffirm-faith-in-a-revolution","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/opinion\/in-egypt-trying-to-reaffirm-faith-in-a-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"In Egypt, Trying to Reaffirm Faith in a Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Tahrir Square was beginning to erupt this past Sunday, I was talking with a parliamentary candidate affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s new political party. For nearly two hours, in a cafe in the posh Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek, we discussed the elections slated for this Monday, Egypt\u2019s first since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February<\/a>. He explained the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s get-out-the-vote strategy and his own campaign activities. Tahrir did not come up once.<\/p>\n

Just a few days later, Egypt was transformed.<\/p>\n

The renewed unrest<\/a>\u00a0started last Saturday, when the military, for reasons that remain unclear,\u00a0decided to forcefully disperse<\/a> a small group of peaceful protesters encamped in the square. For a growing number of politicized Egyptians, the ruling military council, initially lauded for forcing Mubarak out, has become the reviled symbol of a revolution gone awry. It had woefully mismanaged the transition, falling back on the autocratic ways of the past. The\u00a0appointment Friday of 78-year-old Kamal el-Ganzouri<\/a> as prime minister did little to change that view.<\/p>\n

As the protests intensified, Cairo seemed to contain two distinct worlds operating in parallel: the world of Western-style campaigning, with microtargeting, door-to-door meet-and-greets and mass rallies, and the world of adamant, angry street protests. They had similar goals \u2014 the end of military rule, for example \u2014 but very different ideas of how to achieve them.<\/p>\n

These protests, with fierce street battles and more than 40 killed<\/a>, felt different from the \u201cfirst revolution\u201d earlier this year. They didn\u2019t seem to be political, in the normal sense of the word. At first there weren\u2019t clear political demands. Many of the protesters went to the square in large part to defend it against the brutality of the security forces. In this respect, the demonstrations were about solidarity as much as a desire to oust the ruling military council. Other protesters, meanwhile, were there for spiritual reasons, to recapture something, a feeling perhaps, that had been lost since those euphoric days in January and February.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the nation witnessed its most fraudulent elections in history, with the ruling National Democratic Party winning 209 out of 211 seats in the first round. Less than two months later, Egypt had its revolt. Ordinary Egyptians no longer felt like waiting. They had lost faith in what was left of a discredited political process.<\/p>\n

Nine months later, this same loss of faith is evident among the crowds in Tahrir. They do not trust the political parties \u2014 in fact, they have prevented numerous politicians from entering the square, shouting them down when they tried. Many simply don\u2019t believe that the revolution\u2019s goals can be achieved through the ballot box. In the elections scheduled for Monday, \u201crevolutionary\u201d candidates are likely to win only a small percentage of the vote, if they even manage to clear the parliamentary threshold.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood, after more than 80 years, remains Egypt\u2019s largest and most powerful political movement. It is almost certain to win a sizable plurality in the elections. For all the talk of its violent past and ideological rigidity, the Brotherhood is thoroughly \u2014 and, for many of its younger members, disappointingly \u2014 pragmatic. Its gospel is patience and discipline, something it learned the hard way in the prisons of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Brotherhood refers to this period as the mihna, or inquisition. It actively supported Nasser\u2019s 1952 \u201crevolution\u201d \u2014 really just a military coup \u2014 but he quickly turned against the Brotherhood, banning the organization, and imprisoning and even executing many of its leaders.<\/p>\n

From 2006 until the eve of Egypt\u2019s revolution, Islamists were being crushed by the Mubarak regime, bringing back memories of the mihna. Yet, oddly, they didn\u2019t seem angry. Muslim Brotherhood leaders would often tell me in calm, confident tones: \u201cWe aren\u2019t in a rush. It\u2019s a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brotherhood, along with nearly all of the country\u2019s political elites, believed for decades that change was possible through the political process, however flawed. Sure, Egypt had an authoritarian regime, but the repression was never total. Through influential professional associations and the parliament, the Brotherhood, along with various liberal and leftist parties, hoped to effect gradual but meaningful change.<\/p>\n

This model, however, failed. Revolution, something that no one had really thought possible, somehow came to Cairo, fueled by\u00a0Tunisia\u2019s spontaneous uprising<\/a> the month before.<\/p>\n

It is ironic that in the new Egypt, the Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party are the ones who speak the language of politics. Driven by the fading but still-powerful memories of the Jan. 25 revolution, it is the masses of Tahrir who speak the language of faith \u2014 faith in an ideal that may be well out of reach.<\/p>\n

This contrast raises the question: What was Egypt\u2019s revolution actually about? For some, it was about freedom and democracy. Once there was a democratic process, Egyptians could work through elected representatives to bring about social and economic change. This change, by its very nature, would be slow and uneven.<\/p>\n

For others, probably the majority, Egypt\u2019s revolution was also about a word \u2014 \u201cdignity\u201d \u2014 that is even more powerful in Arabic. When Egyptians use the word \u201ckarama,\u201d there is something almost mystical about it. All the humiliation they\u2019ve suffered, and all the hopes they manage to hold on to, fall under karama. In a revolution about dignity, though, tangible results are hard to come by and even harder to measure.<\/p>\n

Through their actions in Tahrir Square this past week \u2014 in the pitched battles with security forces, in facing down tear gas and live ammunition \u2014 the protesters have defended their dignity and, in the process, reaffirmed the ideals of the revolution. The legitimacy of their ongoing uprising, which is far from complete, doesn\u2019t come from an elected parliament of notables and politicians, but from the street. In this respect, the Egyptian and Arab revolutions of the past year have more in common with the Occupy Wall Street movement and like-minded protests in Greece and Italy than they do with, for example, the revolutions that spread through Eastern Europe nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, before the Tahrir crowds swelled into the tens of thousands, I sat down with Dina Zakaria, a leading member of the Brotherhood\u2019s Freedom and Justice Party. I immediately brought up Tahrir; as many as 30 people had died by then. She had a pained look on her face, and I could tell she was struggling with the Brotherhood\u2019s decision not to join the protesters. \u201cI thought to myself, how can we abandon the people in the square?\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t bear to see people still being killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cBut at the same time, does this movement stay in the street, or should it be expressed through institutions? I think the right choice is through institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

For decades, Egypt\u2019s Islamists tried to work within the confines of the old regime. Patience and pragmatism might make for good politics, but, on the eve of Egypt\u2019s landmark elections, it is an open question whether they\u2019re good for the country\u2019s stillborn democracy.<\/p>\n

After a week of polarization, unrest and bloodshed, that question is even more difficult to answer. I had come to Egypt to write about the country\u2019s first elections after the revolution. On Friday, while protesters were gathering peacefully in Tahrir, I visited a pro-military rally in the district of Abbassiya. I tried to engage the demonstrators in conversation, but several participants, suspicious of my American-accented Arabic, wondered aloud if I might be a spy. I was soon shouted down and ushered out of the area.<\/p>\n

The cabdriver who picked me up was of the same mind. As we talked politics, he asked me where I was from and seemed suspicious. Suddenly, as we passed the Zamalek police station, he stopped the car, grabbed me and told the guards that I was up to no good. My cabdriver was attempting a citizen\u2019s arrest. Fortunately, it failed. But the driver had wanted to take things into his own hands. He, too, had little patience for institutions. The street, it appears, has its own logic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-14312","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/14312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opinion"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}