2011 turned to be a thriller to Egypt. Unexpectedly, the whole region went from political stagnation into a hotshot boiling point calling for change and aspirations to a better future. Egypt, after 30 years managed to oust Mubarak in February and put him to stand trial in August. The aftermath was leaving SCAF in power, lack of security, the rise of new political factions, including political Islam which left many of the Egyptians worried especially women and Copts. This article will address partially the events that Egypt of 2011 has witnessed.
The Fall of the last Pharaoh
On the 25th of January 2011 the day of the Police, Cairo woke up on mass protests, unprecedented since the bread riots of 1977. The demonstrators called for putting an end to the emergency law, the brutality of the police and requesting to apply democracy and social justice. Few days later, numbers increased in all main squares of the Egyptian Governorates and they were met with extreme police brutality that led to hundreds of death and injuries. They maximized their calls after the reactions by Mubarak and his regime, to get rid of the last Pharaoh and his regime, until they managed on the 11th of February to do the first but failed to do the latter.
Although those who started the revolution belong mostly to the middle class, they were joined quickly with masses that were fed up of living under a regime that didn’t fulfill their aspirations nor had them on its radar. If freedom is one of the major reasons that started it all, it incorporated within freedom of fear, of speech, fighting corruption and aspiring for democracy, especially after the farce parliamentary elections that were held in November 2010 when the NDP swept all opposition and gained 100% of the seats of the People’s assembly. It has also included the call for social justice after the horrendous rise in food prices, living expenses and lack of employment opportunities to the youth.
The youth who were adamant to get the job done were mostly non-politicized; they didn’t belong to specific political party or group but they called for what they believed in and what touches their lives. Most of the political parties and the Muslim Brotherhood refused to join in with the demonstrators. Yet, some of the youth whether members of parties or the Brotherhood joined in their individual capacity the demonstrations failing to obey their leaders. These people wanted a better Egypt to live in and enjoy living in.
With the lack of pressure from abroad, the Pharaoh and his officials tried to maneuver but failed after the persistence of the street. The change of tide against them from the United States, her allies and the shift of the position of SCAF, which decided to save itself, paved the way to ousting the President. Even though Mubarak was and still is one of the Military establishment in Egypt, the leaders of the establishment well calculated their move by which they got rid of the groomed son Gamal and prevented him from succeeding his father in leading the State.
The outcome was a success in ousting Mubarak on the 11th of February, yet not the regime. In fact, in the last 11 months, Egypt has witnessed the recycling of the old guard of Mubarak in assuming different roles in running the country. Ministers, Prime Ministers, Governors, Directors of institutions, head of Public establishment are the same or those who were x-NDP and served directly with the ousted president. The revolution called for transparency and accountability in order to move forward. Nonetheless, Egyptians are still bewildered about incidents that took place starting with the Camel’s attack on demonstrators in Tahrir, passing through Mohamed Mahmoud and recently Kasr Eleini’s violence. Mubarak and his party are in Tora, yet, we didn’t witness any outcome to the trials. On the contrary, recently Suzan Mubarak and Zakaria Azmy- the chef de cabinet of the ousted President- were released temporarily until the trials take place. All this leads to further lack of faith in the institutions that are running the show. It adds to the frustration of people and leads to further instability. The comments by SCAF and the governments they appoint on each incident are directing their accusations to foreign hands or their parties. This is and won’t be satisfactory to the people, so the demonstrators keep going on and expected to continue regardless of the outcome of the parliamentary elections that are currently held in the country. This will advance the state into anarchy and divide it further. In fact if this is all planned through the divide and rule strategy, for SCAF it might be partially working on the short run but it won’t work on the long run when people realize that they were deceived.
The rise of new political forces including Political Islam:
After the fall of Mubarak, many of the deprived political factions, especially those belonging to the Islamic political forces spoke out and started to prepare themselves to form political parties and join in into the political game. Moreover, other secular and youth parties also came into place and did their best to look appealing to the Egyptian voters.
However, the short period that was given to the newly born political factions deprived them from privileges Islamist factions enjoy; sympathy for suffering by the security apparatus of the ousted president, organization, funding and the divine word. Although, the laws regulating the political game in Egypt criminalizes using religion in politics, yet the lack of the rule of law was flagrant in this case and during both the referendum of March on the 1971 constitutional amendments and the ongoing elections that started in November. This raises doubts that SCAF and the US support the role of the Brotherhood. SCAF was lenient in applying the laws of elections, political parties and foreign funding on the Brotherhood and the US reconfirmed its will to cooperate with them preserve its interests and that of Israel’s. Hence, while Islamist factions using legal or illegal tools managed to get majority in parliament, the Brotherhood replaced the NDP in running the show.
Regardless of how they succeeded in hijacking the revolution, the Brotherhood represents hope and fear to the society. While the focus of many hardliners in the Brotherhood, jama’h Islamiya and the Nour party causes threats to; individual freedoms and liberties that the revolution called for, social justice, as their leaders are mostly rich business people of technocrats, certain sectors like tourism industry, minorities and deprived factions of the society including Copts, women, Shiites and other religious minorities in Egypt, they represent hope to other deprived faction of the community that voted for the divine word in the hope of fighting corruption and aspiring for bettering their lives.
Their job ahead is huge and if they won’t balance striving for power with real reform rather than further oppression, Egypt will face more instability than what she has already witnessed during 2011.
Egyptian minorities including Copts and the rising of political Islam
2011 started by an attack on the Saints Church in Alexandria on the first day of the New Year, during which 23 Copts and Muslims died and around 97 were injured. The former Minister of Interior Habib Eladly accused the Gaza based Army of Islam as the perpetrator of the attack, while they denied it. Later, it was said that the -supposedly- dismantled state security was the mastermind of the deadly attack on that church. The truth is yet to be revealed, if the investigations are carried out and those responsible for that attack stand trials.
While the 25th of January revolution proved that Egyptians from all paths of life and different religions stood hand in hand against the tyranny and brutality of the security apparatus of Mubarak, however, the lack of security and rule of law led to other tragic incidents of sectarian violence and clashes between the Muslim majority and the Christian minority.
Some incidents were contained on ad hoc basis; like signing an agreement between the victim and torturer granting pardon to those who burnt the house and cut the ear of the Coptic teacher Ayman Metri from Qena, rebuilding the church in Atfih in Sol village by the Army or containing the violence in Imbaba after the attack on a church for keeping a Coptic girl inside who converted to Islam. Yet, the lack of accountability in any of these incidents led to further attacks or incitements, until a controversial problem started in Aswan regarding a private place used for worship and doubted to be converted into a church. The problem was solved in Aswan, but violence erupted in Cairo in what is now known as the Maspero Massacre, in order to support the call for a fair law for building Churches.
Now, the whole game has a different dimension for the minorities in Egypt; women are so far threatened that they will be obligated to wear the veil, occupy certain professions or stay home and forget about the dream of equality, nevertheless, those who had already suffered and threatened to suffer further by the rise of political Islam are the Copts. In the political maneuvers minorities received some words of composure while others threaten them. This game is still ongoing but the deprivation of freedom of choice, religion or path might be getting nearer than we expected.
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