The Arab Spring Brought an Icy Chill and U.S. Miscalculations a Decade Ago

 Michael Streich, February 14, 2011

Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak stepped down February 11, 2011, ending the so-called Egyptian Revolution. American President Barack Obama exclaimed that Egypt would never be the same even as the Egyptian military suspended Parliament and the Constitution in preparation for new elections within six months. But few pundits are exposing Air Force General Mubarak for who he really was: a valuable U.S. ally in the Middle East who rose to power upon the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat. Keeping that alliance alive can be traced to billions in military assistance awarded to both Egypt and Israel in order to facilitate the Camp David Peace accords.

 

The Many Revolutions of Egypt Stoke Militant Extremists

 

Long before the Nasser revolution of 1956, Anwar el-Sadat saw the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat. Referring to the sermons of Sheikh al-Banna, Sadat wrote that, “He never dealt with questions of ‘government,’ or ‘power’ in general, but always focused on Islam as both a religion and a way of life, equally essential for a healthy spirit and a healthy government.”

 

Following the assassination of Sadat and the consolidation of power by General Mubarak, renewed fears of extremism centered on the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Stanley Reed (Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993), “…American policymakers ask whether the enormous political and economic capital that they have invested in Egypt, including $35 billion in aid since 1975, is in danger of being swept away.”

 

The notion that democracy and Islamic states are somehow compatible was also addressed by Andrew McCarthy in The National Review (February 12, 2011). McCarthy writes that, “In Egypt, a self-consciously devout Islamic country, nothing is secular and Islamist-free, and therefore nothing is truly democratic, not in the Western sense.”

 

Revolutions Cloud the Realities of Changing Civilizations

 

The western media has portrayed the Mubarak regime as despotic yet even Sadat, writing about the 1970 revolution following the death of Nasser, admits to violations of human rights. In December 1997, Egypt’s highest court upheld a government ban on female circumcision, arguing that, “There is nothing in the Qur’an that authorizes it.”

 

Contrary to statements made in Congress by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the Muslim Brotherhood is not an umbrella term for various movements that are secular in nature. Clapper’s explanation obfuscates the conventional definition of “secular,” furthering western misjudgments and erroneous assumptions.

 

Samuel P. Huntington correctly identified the “Islamic Resurgence” as new and older world civilizations transform the 21^st Century. This “resurgence” “…embodies acceptance of modernity, rejection of Western culture, and recommitment to Islam as the guide to life in the modern world.”

 

The same transformation can be seen in other Middle East countries like Turkey. Secularization, as understood by the West, is viewed as self-serving jargon benefiting Western goals while stifling Islamic principles.

 

The Latest Egyptian Revolution Built on Centuries of History

 

Referring to the Egyptians, President Sadat once declared that, “…they never lose their sense of identity however hard the circumstances might be.” Egypt is custodian of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Egypt was already old when the Roman Emperor Hadrian sailed up the Nile. Today the lure of Egypt transcends history; it is a nation poised to assert a new direction of regional power.

 

Sources:

 

Stephen E. Ambrose and Douglas G. Brinkley, Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (Penguin books, 1997)

Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington, editors, Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress (Basic Books, 2000)

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon & Schuster, 1996)

Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East (W. W. Norton & Company, 2008)

Anwar el-Sadat, In Search of Identity (Harper & Row, 1978)

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