Month: February 2011

Pharaohs Tumble

eejoseph

Every faith and political system has an aura of superiority. The proponents don’t even have to say it.  Since almost every organized faith or political system makes claims of divine revelation and authority, and the leaders or founders are invested with a supernatural authority, leading to conflicts between the traditions.  There is no way for religion to exist without an effect on daily life and religion does great harm if its ritual and participation are rooted in and can only thrive by means of segregation.  Young people can afford to be nation-less but never vision-less.  This is their heritage.  The young people of every nation will inevitably deny failed religion the right to become parents of failed states.

 The idea of a revolution in Egypt is becoming more and more fascinating.  Are observers deluding themselves into thinking that Egypt is at risk if the political strife ends with the demise of the Mubarak regime?  It takes time and there is a time for regimes to fall. 

Will change in Egypt mean a departure from the UAR?  Transparent democracy cannot be found in any Arab Republic and freedom is the last thing on the minds of autocratic rulers. Egypt may divide into Christian and Muslim entities: a disastrous outcome.  There must be a unified face of Egypt.  Egyptians have no choice now but to put the inclusive face of civic society on their revolution.

Observers are using the term revolution to describe Egypt’s upheaval and the question remains “What revolution?” Will Egypt become a secular democracy?  The inclusion of foreigners into ancient Jewish society – Ruth and Naomi, David and the Jebusites, Solomon and his foreign wives – was not the cause for Jewish exile and dispersion.  Ancient Israelites were, from the start, hooked on Baalism and the Asherot. Allowing Muslims and Christians to operate, side by side will be the test of what Egypt’s new religion will be.  If Egypt’s upheaval needs xenophobia and repression to thrive the present revolution is stillborn.

 A Tahrir Square victory is an opportunity for Egyptians to open the door for a translucent and transparent civic society.  Will the youth of Canada rise up and demonstrate their PM out of office? It is probable that US President Barak Obama is on the list of turfed leaders?  Could the Tea Party pull it off?  Time will tell whether every individual in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya and Iran will enjoy a genuine jubilee.

Egypt Builds Another Pyramid

eejoseph

The events shaking the Islamic world are an essential part of the human need for freedom.  The very thought of freedom causes tremors in the halls of power where denial of freedom is customary, malicious and misguided.  Religious people are especially prone to fear real freedom, and they frequently join the political fearmongerers when they assume that freedom leads to chaos.  When people decide to march towards freedom there is no law that can stop them, and the only recourse the establishments have is violence.  Egypt, facing the loud and determined voice of its people, has an unprecedented opportunity to build a nation on the highest ideals, and will waste it by allowing the “Pharaoh” to build another pyramid.

Egypt’s value to the western powers is problematic.  Sadat, who set the bar extremely high, is clearly not Mubarak’s mentor.   Sadat was a hated man: a peace-maker who lost his life at the hands of Islamic militants.  Mubarak has his eyes on Pharaonic power: decades of police repression of his people, an increasing militarization of the government, and a Mubarak dynasty.  He is about to lose all.  His name ius already a faded entry in the so-called noble peacemaking process with the State of Israel and Islamic friendship with the United States.

Mobs, like the ones surfacing in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, are everywhere.  They pop up on Parliament Hill in both the senate and Parliament, on Capitol Hill, on the popular media, radio and television.  They incite anger and fear, foster division and ignorance, in their delusion that democracy is a sacred cow.  Their love of truth has little to do with a sense of community and faith or love, and they most certainly offer no hope but the endless conflict and debate that has characterized the trail of western powers.  A pyramid of truth wuld be helpful at this juncture in human history.   The pyramids of religion and capitalism are desined for the trash heap, and they will be lucky if anything is left to wow, puzzle and thrill archaeologists.

Egypt’s nation-building project is unprecedented.  There is no invasion,  no coalition of the willing, nothing more than mild warnings to an inveterate brutal dictator.  This Egyptian project uncharacterustically has only a handful of Egyptians on the job but a host of international helpers.  Whatever comes out of the fire will not last for even 7 years.  The Egyptian magnates and imams will ensure its demise through their interminable claims of superiority.  Alas,  this pyramid bites the dust.