One of my aunts emailed my mom asking for our opinions about what is going on in Egypt. The main point being what's going on with the Muslim Brotherhood and them imposing Sharia Law. Hmm. Ok. Its complicated.
Sharia Law is mostly a buzz word that American media uses to scare the general public. Sharia Law is used by bad people like Taliban and Pakistani tribes and they are laws that are against human rights, female rights and generally anything bad they do. And by instituting it in Egypt we can say goodbye to human rights too.
My understanding of what would be called "Sharia Law" is ruling with laws that are compliant with the teachings of Islam. In many cases where we hear of violations, in places like tribal Pakistan, the problem is not so much Islamic law but that it is mixed with tribal traditions. In Egypt we only have a problem if they go and throw out all laws, and say we are going with "Sharia Law". But that is not going to happen. So far we're going to have a constitution, a president, a parliament and regular state functions. Nobody in Egypt can truthfully say they are afraid of waking up tomorrow to a totally new system. In a way people don't find it weird when Christian conservatives want Christian values in their laws. Its only logical that with us mostly Muslim that we'll want Islamic values.
That's not to say nobody is worried at all. Even I worry a bit about what might happen on some social issues. Some of the more extreme Islamic factions would love to see things like total segregation of the sexes and similar things. But so far they are not the majority. Other things that the west like to complain about like capital punishment are already in the current laws.
My question would be why should western societies be all worked up about social issues in Islamic countries? Well apart from it being a common topic in the news and commentary? There's actually more to Islamic laws than just social issues but you wouldn't know that from the news. In Islamic economics interest is outlawed. An Islamic government would try to do away with its debt based monetary and economic policies. The west has used the IMF and World Bank for decades to 'aid' middle eastern countries with loans. And when you owe people money they are usually able to control you. What really frightens the west is that countries like Egypt will no longer depend on western foreign aid and would be a lot more hard to manipulate and control. And that's what really worries the west.
So let's talk Egypt and where it is now. We are a new democracy. Everyone is new to it and there will be growing pains. The current parliament has a majority of what you may call Islamic background. And the biggest portion is the Muslim Brotherhood. Under Mubarak the Brotherhood was outlawed but was left to exist as a scarecrow for the west. Whenever the west criticized the lack of democracy in Egypt Mubarak would say he was keeping the Islamists out of power. The Muslim Brotherhood were the only real and organized opposition under Mubarak. For them to win the majority was quite logical in the first free elections. But nobody is perfect.
The Muslim brotherhood has its own growing pains. Under Mubarak they could be secretive in their operations. The oppression of the regime did in a way dictate a strict hierarchical organization with centralized decision making. They are finding that making decisions aren't as easy as it used to.
Egyptians think of democracy as the rule of the majority. That is true to some extent. But usually there is an all inclusive debate first before decisions are taken. However the Brotherhood have been taking the majority rule a little too far. The process for electing the constitutional committee caused quite an uproar. The process was rushed and quite a few of the elected, while possibly quite qualified, were unknown to the public. The problem was mainly the lack of any dialogue about the proposed members before the elections. A democracy works a lot smoother when a dialogue happens first and then an agreement is reached at least among the majority. It also helps people understand actions better. The idea seems to be that if you are the majority then you don't have to sell your proposals to the public first. There are plenty of other examples of growing pains.
Politically, apart from the Muslim Brotherhood most other parties are still finding their feet. There are more conservative parties, liberal parties, socialist parties and even parties founded by ex-NDP, Mubarak's ruling party, members. Usually under each category there are several parties and it'll take a while for each wing to consolidate.
An important point to understand is that most people are participating in politics for the first time. The second largest party in the parliament is Al Noor, a salafi party. Salafis are more conservative than the Muslim Brotherhood. On a parliamentary visit to Uganda some Al Noor MPs wouldn't stand during the national anthems 'because its not an Islamic tradition'. Obviously they needed a lesson on not offending friends. But my point is that most are still finding their feet, and that will take time.
So is Egypt getting better? Not yet. We first need a president to take over from the military. We also need a constitution that doesn't give the military extraordinary privileges. We have people that were close to the old regime that don't want Egypt to stabilize. Some have monopolies that will go once a stable government has the time to look into their businesses and their corruption. In a way the revolution hasn't gotten to power yet. So real change has yet to start.
One thing some people in the west are afraid of is war. They are afraid an Islamic government or heck any free government would set its sights going to war with Israel. And those fears, however they may be portrayed in the media, are just ridiculous. Egypt has a lot on its plate. We have at least 40% of the populatioon below poverty. We have high unemployment, high illiteracy and a dysfunctional education system. And we don't have any significant weapon development programs. We used to get our military supplies from the Soviets and now from the US. Its unlikely anyone would want to supply us for a war and realistically we'd need a few decades to have anything meaningful when it comes to locally developed arm.
Egyptians dream that it one day becomes a political and economic powerhouse in the region not unlike Turkey. I sure hope so too. But it will take time.
One thing that is for sure, Egyptians don't really want the west to be involved.
