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Egypt's Islamists: The Big Bad Wolf

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Those who cry "Wolf!" point to past cases where Islamic forces gained strength: Iran in 1979, Algeria in 1991, Afghanistan in 1996. But the differences between them and Egypt's 2011 revolution are stark. The Islamic state in Iran was shaped by the Cold War frenzy of the time, with the Western-backed jihad against the Soviet Union going on next door in Afghanistan. It was sparked by the West itself, which abandoned the Shah and flew the Ayatollah Khomeini back to Tehran from his famous exile in Paris.

The tragedy of Algeria and Afghanistan in the 1990s was a direct result of the same Western-backed jihad in Afghanistan which began in 1979, if not earlier. Algeria descended into civil war only as a result of a Western-backed military coup denying the Islamists their legitimate victory in elections in 1991.

Afghanistan was left an orphan after the Islamists, egged on by the West, routed the Soviets, the country left without a functioning government and awash in arms.

But none of these Islamic states suited the imperialists and they were respectively vicitimised, overthrown and invaded. Egypt's revolution, on the contrary, was homegrown, sparked by secular youth and remarkably peaceful. The catalyst, for heaven's sake, was the local Google marketing head Wael Ghonem, who has an American wife and children. The American colour to the revolution is, to some, even an embarrassment.

"The well - bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves," wrote Oscar Wilde. Will Egyptians be "wise" in the sense that Doctor Max uses the term, or will they be truly wise, and criticise themselves for being manipulated by their enemies, drawing the appropriate conclusion?

The MB is wise to the tricks of the Zionists. It has called for a union of the forces of the revolution in the upcoming elections to make sure the goals of social justice -- a decent standard of living for the masses, an end to corruption, and a new independent foreign policy -- are met. The secular opposition, the liberals should acknowledge the debt they owe the Islamists and work with them to make sure that social justice prevails. The burning need at this point in the revolution is, taking the lead from Doctor Max, for the forces of change to unite, though not against the MB as the Zionists urge.

The bottom line is: liberals and socialists -- male or female, Muslim or Christian -- will never prevail on their own in their desire to bring social justice to the neoliberal order built on the ruins of Nasser's socialism. The privileged will fight tooth and nail to keep their privileges. The secularists will need to work with hardcore Muslims, who take their Quran seriously and are resistant to bankers and monopoly capitalists indifferent to the suffering of the masses.

Islam is conservative in nature, but there is a Western example of just such a pact: the Canadian/ British tradition of Red Toryism, a variety of capitalism which respects traditional values, local communities and allows the "little man" to participate in the economy, unlike neoliberalism. It is this tradition that Egypt would be wise to turn to today.

The West has used, and no doubt will continue to try to use Islamists when convenient to promote its imperial agenda. That it frowns on Egypt's MB today is a good sign. The recent conference of MB youth "A look from inside", open to the press and revealing the heated discussions going on within the MB over its role in politics and society, was also a good sign. That there are divisions within the MB between generations is only to be expected. That they are being thrashed out openly is to be welcomed. In any case, assured Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa in a New York Times oped, "In a country with such diverse movements as the Muslim Brotherhood , the Wasat party, and the conservative Salafi movements, no one group speaks for Islam."

This is a perilous time for the revolution . Already, under intense US pressure, Egypt is restoring gas sales to Israel and condoning the US-French-British invasion of Libya next door. Many Egyptians are disillusioned with the snail's pace of restoring to the nation the untold wealth stolen during the recent past, the timidity shown towards the shameless enemy next door, the lack of progress in reforming the economic injustices which the majority of Egyptians suffer. This requires restoring morality and ethics -- the essence of religious faith -- to politics and the economy.

"As often as they light a fire for war, God will extinguish it." (Quran 5:64) Christians, Jews and others lived peacefully and prospered in Islamic states for a millennium prior to the arrival of the European imperialists. The British and now American strategists in the Middle East have lit many fires since, which have burned not only the Arabs but the imperialists themselves. The fire they are now stoking in Libya shows they have learned nothing from their previous intrigues. It is time to put these fires out. This demands that secularists and Muslims join forces.

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Eric writes for Al-Ahram Weekly and PressTV. He specializes in Russian and Eurasian affairs. His "Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games", "From Postmodernism to Postsecularism: Re-emerging Islamic Civilization" and "Canada (more...)
 

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