As the situation in Egypt becomes increasingly dire, the international community is trying to decide, as always, whether to intervene or not. This seems to be the default reaction of the whole Western World who seem unable to understand the world beyond the ‘Team America’ mind-set.
Ever since President Mubarak was deposed in 2011 there has been a feeling that maybe Egypt would be the first middle-eastern Muslim country to become a ‘progressive’ western style democracy. As the situation currently stands this now seems very optimistic.
When the West speaks of countries becoming ‘democratic,’ I can’t help but think our attitude has an air of arrogant colonialism. We seem to think it is our place to try and impose these systems upon other people. In the case of Egypt, I genuinely believe they want a more democratic society regardless of what the West thinks, but the situation is so much more complicated than we seem to want to accept.
The Muslim Brotherhood fairly won the election, but this is only half the story. Where the Muslim Brotherhood are concerned, the idea of democracy becomes strained. The founding father of the Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, formed his Philosophy of an Islamic state to prevent the country that he loved becoming the nihilistic hell that he had experienced when he travelled to America. Qutb seemed to follow the platonic ideals that a good state can only work based on enforced morality top down – this philosophy is incompatible with democracy based on free speech and liberty. Unless the Brotherhood is willing to greatly compromise on its founding principles we have a problem – how can this party exist in a democracy?
I am certainly not advocating the military coup that has taken place forcing Mohammed Morsi from power. I also certainly would not support western intervention, as our current record in the middle-east is not particularly encouraging. Intervention often creates more problems than it solves – but as much as the military action is not desirable it did have a substantial amount of public support. This is to be expected, the tensions surrounding race and religion since the Brotherhood came to power are synonymous with a philosophy that is not based on tolerance or democracy but enforcing what it believes to be right.
Muslim fundamentalist organisations are often on the side of liberation when it comes to deposing a tyrant or dictator, but once the tyrant is gone these groups do not seek to fill the void with a more democratic state – they seek to fill it with themselves. The perfect example of this is in Iran. The country’s revolution did not have to end in an Islamist dictatorship but that is what happened. These people are often forced to work with organisations that are not their natural allies to depose tyrants but in the end all they get in return is another.
One of the other problems that will certainly get in the way of functioning democracy in Egypt is the literacy rate. Maybe one of the reasons that the Brotherhood did so well is that people did not really understand what they were voting for. Education is so important in functioning democracy: to quote Che Guevara ‘A country that does not know how to read is easy to deceive.’ It is hard to know what subtle infringements are being made on your freedom if, like Egypt, roughly 30% of the population is illiterate.
William Hague said recently that Egypt would have to ask itself some profound questions about the place of religion in society. Democracy is about freedom of speech, liberty and compromise. The Muslim Brotherhood has failed to show they can allow for any of these. So we have to ask ourselves: can the Muslim Brotherhood in its fundamental form ever govern a western style democracy? I do not believe it can.
This puts the western world in a tough position. We do not want to stand by and watch a massacre, but we cannot let our own interests get in the way. If Egypt is taking steps towards a more transparent democracy then we have to let it get there on its own terms. The worst thing we can do is not let Egypt make its own choices.
A very interesting piece. Democracy is possible in Egypt. Egypt’s position right now mirrors early democracy’s in Europe, such as france where the military overthrew the voted leaders. Give it time and I’m sure democracy is Egypt will prevail.
I agree with you on the reasons the Muslim Brotherhood cannot form a democracy. Furthermore, all of Morsi’s actions completely disagreed with democracy, fair government, and valid constitution. I also agree that the West should not intervene. However, to me the West seem to be protecting their interests in the Middle East whilst putting on a facade that they are supporting democracy. This, in fact, is disrupting any sort of progression towards democracy which they have no place to do, and it shows a somewhat lack of moral compass. That’s why I believe they shouldn’t intervene.
Also, the founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood was called Hassan al-Banna.
Secondly, labelling it a military coup, as this stage is quite unfair and unjustified. It suggests the military are seeking to take power for themselves. The military called for all Anti-Morsi protestors to take to the streets on a specific day to give them a mandate to act against Morsi, which drew absolutely enormous crowds. Morsi was given time to resolve his issues with the people, which he did not do. So the military intervened. THIS intervention was not a “people telling the military to rule” intervention, it was a “military depose the president, so we can start over” intervention, which is what has happened.
Also, calling it a “massacre” is again unjustified. The military aimed to disperse the crowds with clear orders not to shoot without being attacked first, if they start getting shot at of course they will respond. How would a Western country reacted differently to a month and a half of protests in the centre of it’s capital, as well as in other areas in the capital which are completely disrupting people’s lives, their work, and in many ways making them fear for their safety? Calling it a massacre suggests the Army just went into Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al Nahda and shot, this is simply not the case.
Sorry to correct your view of our backwards country, but the even the lowest literacy rate I can find given (CIA World Factbook 2010) is 72%.