Nazit-Ali: When Egypt emerges from its bloody chaos, it needs true democracy, not a dictatorship of the majority

August 22, 2013
By Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali     

Excerpt:
There is considerable anguish and hand-wringing amongst the armchair orientalists and strategists over the situation in Egypt. Those who thought that the "Arab Spring" was a harbinger of secular, Western-style democracy can now see it is nothing of the kind. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-led regime was headed inexorably towards a Sunni theocracy based on an unreconstructed imposition of Wahabbi-type Sharia which had led already, for example, to the harassment of women who would not abide by Islamist diktat over dress, freedom of movement and associating with unrelated males. Then there are those who had put their money on "moderate Islamism" being the future for the Middle East and beyond. If this meant sacrificing the freedoms of women, religious minorities and others, so be it. It had happened before, had it not, with Assyrians, Armenians and Jews? They have been surprised and even angered by the sudden reversal of fortunes.

The West has a long history of backing dubious Islamist groups in the region, often at the behest of this orientalist elite. By supporting the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, for instance, in their struggle against the Soviet-backed government there, it unwittingly created not only the Taliban but, arguably, international Islamist radicalism and terrorism. Similar stories can be told of Libya, Syria, and now Egypt.

Fifteen million people signed the petition to remove the Brotherhood from power, and many more were involved in demonstrations up and down the country. In the absence of a parliament, how else was the will of the people to be expressed? Attempts were made, again and again, to make the government more inclusive of Egyptian society, but they were always thwarted by the intransigence of Islamists, who saw their chance of turning the largest Arab state into an Islamic one. Even after the intervention by the armed forces, offers were made to include Islamist representatives in the government, but they were rejected in favour of a "purist" rather than a "realist" solution. How unsuccessful does even a democratically elected government have to be before some kind of change becomes necessary?  the rest