Is Egypt's rebellion a coincidence, or is there something in Muslim culture that all too often perpetuates a vicious cycle?
As an Arab raised in the Muslim faith, I believe it's the latter. The reason is Sharia law. I was born in Gaza and raised in Cairo during the generation of the 1952 Nasser Egyptian revolution, which promised freedom, democracy, Arab nationalism, socialism, self rule and the end of oppressive colonial rule. My father held a prominent role in the revolution. But the revolution gave Egypt more of the same and even worse: more poverty, illiteracy, tyrannical dictatorships and a police state.
Egypt's rebellion that started last week has been lingering on the horizon for a very long time. The brutal life of the ordinary Egyptian was waiting for the right moment to explode. But instead of understanding what was surely coming, the 82-year-old Hosni Mubarak wasted every opportunity. He could have gone down in history as the first Arab leader to conduct a fair election and transfer power peacefully. Instead, following the many sad examples in the region, he kept re-electing himself for 30 years, grooming his son to take over.
Westerners often describe the current Egyptian government as secular, when in reality it is not. It is true that Mubarak comes from a military background and that he and his wife do not wear Islamic clothes. But no Muslim leader can get away with or even survive in office if he is secular in the true sense of the word. It was during Mubarak's rule in 1991 that Egypt signed the Cairo Declaration for Human Rights stating that Sharia Law supersedes any other law. So even though Sharia is not applied in Egypt 100 percent, it is officially the law of the land.
Mubarak, like all Muslim leaders, must appease the Islamists to avoid their wrath. According to Sharia itself, a Muslim head of state must rule by Islamic law and preserve Islam in its original form or be removed from office. Because of that law Muslim leaders must appear Islamic and anti-West while trying to get along with the rest of the world. It's a game with life and death consequences.
I am therefore not optimistic that the current uprising will bring democracy. Many Egyptians believe they can combine democracy with Sharia Islamic law. That is the first unrealistic expectation. Sixty percent of Egyptians want to live under Sharia law, but do not understand the ramifications. Many chant "Allahu Akbar" and "Islam is the solution." But the truth is, Islam can be the problem.
The most dangerous law in Sharia that stands in the way of democracy is the one that states, "A Muslim head of state can hold office through seizure of power, meaning through force." That law is why Muslim leaders turn into despots in order to survive. When a Muslim leader is removed from office by force, we often see the Islamic media and masses accept it and even cheer for the new leader who has just ousted or killed the former leader, who is often called a traitor to the Islamic cause.
That was what happened to the Egyptian King Farouk in 1952. The assassination of Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, followed many fatwas of death against him for having violated his Islamic obligations to make Israel an eternal enemy. He became an apostate in the eyes of the hard-liners and had to be killed or removed from office. This is the reality of what Sharia has done and is still doing that causes political chaos in the Muslim world.
Many in the Muslim world lack the understanding of what is hindering them, as well as the foundation for forming a stable democratic political system. I fear that my brothers and sisters in Egypt will embrace extremism instead of education. I worry that they will continue to rise and fall, stumbling from one revolution to another and living from one autocrat to another while seeking the ideal Islamic state that never was. The 1,400 year old Islamic history of tyranny will continue unless Sharia law is rejected as the basis of the legal and political systems in Muslim countries.
Nonie Darwish is the author "Now They Call Me Infidel" and "Cruel and Usual Punishment."
Jeremy Greenberg: Why Every White Guy Should Spend a Day Wearing Islamic Clothing
Dalia Mogahed: U.S. Must Understand the Constructive Role of Faith in Egypt's Democratic Aspirations
Thanks to Khemal Attaturk it was once defying the global indictment of the author. With Erdogan and his AK party in power and with illusions of joining the EU shattered, Turkey is fast falling in line to become the Islamic republic. The government has already emasculated the army and the judiciary packed with pliant judges, the fall of the only secular muslim country is not far off.
It is a rule of order devised by man to scare the he!! out of the ignorant masses and keep those folk in perpetual fear and ignorance. It worked for the Roman Catholics and the Jewish Hassidic for a dozen plus centuries, so the hits just keep on comin'.
Then, I hope that the muslim population understood this, they might have (some protester in Tunisia had references to the french revolution) but it is hard to say.
Anyway, all that to say I agree with you :-D
By the way that woman clearly says that one cannot be in power without beeing muslim... Is it possible to be president of the USA without delcaring, repetedly, that he is christian...
Exactly why it is a waste of time, money and lives to think that there will ever be peace in the Middle East!
you failed to understand the culture that you grew up in and you couldn't do anything to contribute positively.. so you go to western countries and bash everything about the region and it's people.
a region with a lot of history and culture like the middle east is expected to be a very complicated topic . a cut and paste western style democracy may not be the best solution for them...
i am tired of reading from bitter people who failed to contribute positively to their societies ...then come here to the west and bash their own just to get a big paycheck.
We'll pick 1776 as the starting point. Kennedy was elected in 61. That's 185 years. Not hundreds.
All religions, regardless of variety or manifesto, are an absolute bane to human existence. Religion is controlling and coercive, and lethal to individual civil liberty and real freedom. I loathe organized religion to my core.
Religion is the problem, all of them, not a specific one.
1) The author says "It is true that Mubarak comes from a military background and that he and his wife do not wear Islamic clothes."..." So even though Sharia is not applied in Egypt 100 percent, it is officially the law of the land." As such wouldn't the Islamist want Mubarak to stay in power forever ?
2) Or do you mean all Christian Egyptians and their priests who urge them to demonstrate are fools and suckers headed towards the abyss of Sharia Law?
3) "This is the reality of what Sharia has done and is still doing that causes political chaos in the Muslim world." Such sweeping statements about a religion that is varied across the world requires some backing. I keep thinking of Indonesia and other "Muslim" countries that have elected women presidents over a decade ahead of us here, does the analysis still apply? If yes, where is the chaos? Turkey is another country that seems to defy the global indictment of the author.
4) Is it possible that Mubarak hold in power is simply because it's the power that he loves?
Islamic fundamentalists have problems as do all religious fundies--but please give us a more balanced picture of what is causing violence in the Middle East.
Democracy is apparently the most difficult=to-keep form of government there is and frankly, even in America we aren't doing well in participating in it or protecting it or keeping it out of the hands of a wealthy few--and we have those problems without interference of Sharia law. And BTW, on the news today I heard that our income disparity is greater than Egypt's. Go figure.
Any social system where half the population has few human rights and are cruelly mistreated, even within their own family and by their own children, is a corrupting and unhealthy social system which will always lead to violence. A healthy social system makes a healthy society, and an unhealthy social system makes and unhealthy society.
But individual women have done better in some cases in the Islamic world as in reaching the pinnacle of power (President/Prime Minister type of position)
Tansu Çiller, Turkey
Prime Minister, 1993-1995.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of founding head of state Sukarno, was selected as Indonesia's fifth president in 2001
Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan
Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladesh Prime Minister, 1996-2001,2009
Please be awake next time a revolutions comes by ;-)
In the Aceh province, one of the many Indonesian Sharia enclaves, even non-Muslims are forced to comply with Sharia law.
The police even have a "Virtues Task Force" to enforce proper dress code. Young women are arrested for being seen in the company of men who aren't related. Women have been raped by police. When Human Rights Watch investigated, they were told by police that there was no rape... but that sometimes they must force the women to a "virginity inspection", and that maybe the women mistake it for rape. What?????
2. The article is pure fluff. "Want" does not equal "can". Nation-states need to spend billions to perfect a nuclear device, and we are expected to believe that a bunch of people confined in some cave in Hindu Kush to be able to do so? This is not Ironman, you know.