Davos, Switzerland -- Young people are upending the Middle East. They have both the numbers (approximately two-thirds of the Middle East is under 30) and the facility with the tools of 21st Century revolution (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to do so.
It was young people shouting "death to the dictator" from rooftops in Iran in 2009. It was young people who chased Ben Ami out of Tunisia. It is young people who are braving tear gas and rubber bullets in Egypt. The threats keep coming, but they keep going -- and the whole thing is just getting bigger and spreading wider.
Asked about the uprisings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Clinton said it was a generation yearning for their place in the modern world. They want to have a say in their society, they want to shape their own destiny. This is a desire deep in the human condition.
Mohamed ElBaradei may well be the face of the opposition movement, but here in this snowy, sleepy Swiss hamlet, far away from the hot and smoky streets of Cairo, is the man who may have been the spark.
In his presentation at a faith community meeting here at the World Economic Forum, Amr Khaled said, "Arab and Muslim youth need to be listened to. No one listens to them. They have dreams. We need to bring out those dreams."
For decades it was extremist groups who understood young people best. It's not an accident that suicide bombers are in their teens and 20s. Al Qaeda and its allies target young people. They strike at that soft spot of identity, purpose and pride. They deliver their message in YouTube videos and sophisticated websites.
But Amr Khaled was unwilling to forfeit this rising generation of Muslims to the extremists. And he was unwilling to let their ugliness tarnish his faith. As the Muslim tradition says, "God is beautiful and loves beauty."
Khaled started a website and invited young people to post their dreams. He put up pictures of Neil Armstrong reaching the moon, the then and now of Dubai, the rebuilding of Germany after the destruction of World War II. These are examples of dreams realized, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim youth sent Khaled their dreams.
"Love your religion," he told them. And once-secular Egyptian youth started to pray again.
"Build your society," Khaled told them. And thousands became involved in cleaning garbage from the streets of Cairo and starting rooftop gardens.
"Cooperate with each other, in your own society and across the world." Christians and Muslims in Egypt started doing joint volunteer projects and attended interfaith conferences Khaled organized.
Khaled is beating the extremists on their own territory: media. He is prolific -- television shows, YouTube videos, website posts, Tweets. But all the messages are really just one message. God made you beautiful. God made you powerful. God gave you dignity. God gave you stewardship over this His most precious Creation. Use your beauty, your power, your faith, your dignity to accomplish your responsibility. Be a dreamer. Be a builder. Change your life. Shape your society. Invent your destiny.
Before something happens in the world, it has to happen in your mind. You have to imagine your freedom before you fight for it. You have to believe in your own power to change things before you actually change anything.
What we are seeing now in the Middle East is a generation of young people who learned how to love themselves, believe in themselves, change themselves.
And now they are changing the world.
This piece was originally published on the Washington Post "Faith Divide."
Follow Eboo Patel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EbooPatel
Amr Khaled - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - Amr Khaled's Quest for Muslim-West Dialogue
Amr Khaled - The TIME 100 - TIME
BBC News - Newsnight - Superstar Muslim preacher Amr Khaled ...
Meedan: Islamic TV preacher Amr Khaled launches reality TV show ...
Governments have Obligations.
Power to the People!
Middle East Youth have created a web page to track and distribute news and updates on the current events in Egypt:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1955&Itemid=241
I was watching a special on TV, it featured an "underground" rock and roll band in Iran (if I remember the country correctly). They played really good. Darn shame the rest of their countrymen couldn't hear them. They were just normal everyday young men, no different then any other garage bands. They were filled with hopes and dreams, worries and woes, and sang about it.
The program then featured young girls in another Muslim country that had to dress like boys so they could go for bicycle rides, feel the sun on their face, free. Sounds normal to me.
Another young woman didn't want to wear black hijabs, she wanted some color in her life, so off to the local fabric store she headed in search of brighter colors, much to the chargin of the retailer.
Sounds normal to me.
"For decades it was extremist groups who understood young people best."
Do they understand them, or just know how to manipulate them into hate?
Not one example I saw in the documentary showed any evidence that extremists understood, normal Muslim teens, unless the teens I saw were the exception to the rule.
Were they? I hope not, but only Muslim teens and the authorities get to decide. What will the authorities choose for them? Normal or abnormal?
Wael and I became friends and often chatted, first through Yahoo and then Google talk. When we first got to know one another, he was in "college" training to be a computer analyst. Then came the time when he would have to serve in the military, but for reason I have forgotten, he did not have to join the forces and undergo the training. He found a job and lived first in Cairo and then Alexandria. His jobs offer him little in financial gain and advancement. After a broken love relationship with a young Egyptian gal, he searched out of the country for employment opportunities. While he missed Egypt and his family and friends terribly, he found a great, well-paying job in the UAE. He works for a bank. Now has his own apartment ( doesn't have to share with several others) and even learn to drive and bought a car. He is one of those young Egyptians who is educated, peaceful and has dreams.......just like many others. I am glad he was able to move closer to his dream.
Last time it happened, the victor was a religious fanatic called Khomeini. It starts with love and belief but invariably ends in shariaa and stoning.
The topic is Egypt, Tunisia and the Youth Revolt in the Middle East. Pen head.
Could be written thusly:
What we are seeing now in America is a generation of young people who learned how to love themselves, believe in themselves, change themselves. Now, they are changing the world.