Racism, Protests and Interpreting the Arab Spring

The recent attacks on American embassies and interests throughout the Middle East, north Africa and central Asia raise disturbing questions about the U.S. foreign policy, the spread of democracy and the west's perception of Muslims.

Earlier this week, partially in response to an underground film that ridiculed Muslims and defamed the image of their prophet, Muhammad, protests began outside the walls of embassies in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi, Libya. Elements of these protests quickly escalated into full-blown assaults on the embassies. Later, these protests spread to Yemen, Lebanon and Tunisia, but nowhere did they reach the intensity of the Benghazi assault - an assault which resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other diplomatic workers.

Many in the west are now quick to criticize the decision by U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders to support the Arab Spring protests. I believe that this criticism is unwarranted. The Arab Spring  brought for the first time the freedom to protest to many of these countries. It brought them governments selected for the first time by free and open elections. Part of what these tragic attacks represent are the growing pains of democracy. In the U.S., many point out that such violence never happened in the West and must somehow be linked to an inherently violent temperament in the Arab/Muslim mind - how quickly they forget atrocities like the Boston Massacre or the hideous violence of the French Revolution.

Moving from the world of dictatorship and oppression to a world of liberal freedoms and democracies is never a quick and easy process - and it rarely happens in just one step. Nascent democracies are still working to control the wide geographical expanses and tribal, ethnic and sectarian factions within their borders.

Take Egypt, which a little more than a year ago shook off the oppression of the tyrannical Mubarak regime, a dictatorship handed down from Gamal Abdel Nasser to Anwar Sadat to Hosni Mubarak, 57 years where dissent was met with imprisonment and 'disappearances.' One moderate Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was the target of much of this repression.

In Libya, the government of Muammar Gaddafi tortured dissenters, especially Islamists. Where secular governments existed throughout the Muslim world, the pattern remained much the same - meeting dissent with murder, rape, torture and imprisonment. It was this pattern of mistreatment that gave birth to hardline, militant Islamists like Sayid Qutb and Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who urged a return to the core principles of Islam to fight Western-style secular government that came to be equated with brutality and tyranny.

In all of the Arab Spring protests, Islamists played a role - but so did other Arabs, and other Muslims. To paint all the Arab spring protesters with one broad brush is racist. In other parts of the world, the press is quick to figure this out - but in the West, ignorance of Arab and Muslim affairs causes poor generalizations and clumsy analogies to proliferate, and that is destroying our ability to respond to events like this week's protests in a coherent manner.

Islamists are not all the same - some remain more moderate, like the Muslim Brotherhood, of whom Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is a member, and others continue to follow the path laid out by Qutb. It isn't fair or accurate to paint them all with the same brush. Though Islamists of all stripes were involved in the protests throughout the Muslim world this week, not all were storming the embassies and killing American citizens.

While some Islamist leaders sought to fan the flames of the protests, others called for restraint.

Yet in the West, many are quick to equate the government and the whole of the populations of countries like Egypt and Libya to the relative few who took part in the horrific attacks. This is a racist, bigoted and ignorant point of view. This is the kind of view that makes America such a hated country in most parts of the world.

When a bomb drops into a Palestinian town with the words 'Made in the USA' written on it and kills dozens of innocent women and children, some combine their ire at the bombmakers and the armies which drop the bombs into a large hatred of Americans as a whole - and these are the people who follow the hate speech of Al-Zawahiri - but most save their anger for the policy makers, for those who actually wage the wars. It shouldn't be asking too much for Americans and the rest of the West to do the same, to know that not all Arabs or Muslims are murdering our diplomats and most do not seek to do harm.

The same political groups in the United States who just 8 to 12 years ago called for political, economic and military action to spread American democracy around the globe are now hypocritically maligning the results of spreading democracy. They now claim that President Obama's support for democratically elected governments and lack of support for brutal dictators led to this tragedy. It has been, in part, America's support for tyrants like Mubarak that has led to the spread of anti-American feelings.

I think the real lesson, if any, to be learned from these attacks is the necessity of securing embassies. The marine guards at embassies are already armed and well trained to protect the staff, and as I have previously written, there is ample material security to safeguard against weapons being snuck onto the grounds for an assault. What really led to the deaths of Ambassador Stevens and his entourage was poor information security. The attackers knew exactly where and when to strike - and that suggests serious leaks from embassy staff.

Our response to the now receding wave of protests in the Middle East must be tempered with patience and restraint. Luckily, we have a president who is not fast to make rash decisions.

Social Media becomes a driver for political involvement, especially in youth

In 1440 Johannes Gutenburg created the printing press. In 1999, Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet. Whether it was Al Gore or DARPA that actually invented the internet is irrelevent:

The internet has profoundly changed the world we live in by creating movements and instigating revolutions, especially among the young. You can blame the former Vice President for wanting to get a piece of THAT action, can you?



According to a Pew Internet and American Life study, 22% of the American electorate used social networking sites to connect with candidates and campaigns in the last electoral cycle. Mainstream sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace combined with politicians and political action groups' own pages have combined to create a new way for potential voters to interact with candidates and campaigns.

The Pew study found that in the months leading up to the 2010 elections, Republicans caught up with Democrats in participation and presence on social networking sites.

"Among social networking site users, 40% of Republican voters and 38% of Democratic voters used these sites to get involved politically."

Many of the TEA Party protests that dotted the nation during the campaign season were organized on Web sites. Perhaps bridging the social networking gap may be an explaining factor for the GOP's gains in 2010.

An earlier study in 2008 found a sharp increase in American voters who claimed to use the internet to find election news, and that 1 in 5 internet users has posted political commentary online.

Elsewhere in the world the same sites are being used to organize democratic revolutions. Both Tunisia and Egypt recently experienced successful peaceful revolutions that were organized and aided by a strong presence on social networking sites.

The studies also found that social media users tend to be younger and more educated. The demographics of many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, are heavily skewed toward youth, and their education levels have improved.

The People Have Toppled the Regime

After 3 weeks of protest the regime of Hosni Mubarak has crumbled, fallen under the weight of a united people seeking greater freedom and prosperity for their country. This is certainly a development that will have aftershocks throughout the Middle East. No longer are Middle Eastern dictators and strongmen safe, even if they are supported by western powers.



Some pundits call this the Middle East's Berlin Wall moment. It certainly has deep consequences on the potential for democracy in the Middle East and whether the 'global war on terror' perpetrated by the West against Islam and the Arab people was necessary in the first place.

There is real fear that this revolution might be exported around the region to places with long-standing authoritarian governments like the Assad regime in Syria, the Hashemite Monarchy of Jordan and the Saudi family's control of Saudi Arabia. None of these regimes should be assumed to be safe. After all, just a few months ago the Egyptian government was thought to be one of the most stable and entrenched in the entire region, and now people are dancing in the streets of Cairo celebrating its collapse.

There is also legitimate concern that western powers may try to form a vanguard of democratic revolution from the remnants of the movements in Tunisia and Egypt. I have serious doubts as to whether such an arrangement would be possible, but I have no doubts as to the likelihood of such an plan to fail. The only way democratic movements will work in the Middle East is for the people of these countries to lead themselves to their own freedom.

After the re-establishment of the Shah in Iran in 1953 by the United States and a long history of involvement and interference in the political affairs of the region by colonial powers like Britain and France, the people won't accept revolution pushed by the United States. The most responsible and effective policy seems to be the one Barack Obama has already taken - let the people decide for themselves.

The protests continue - peacefully

Opposition leaders are declaring todays protests to be peaceful ones. In addition to occupying Tahrir Square, demonstrators have blocked access to Egypt's parliament building and now occupy streets near the presidential palace and the the upscale neighborhood of Heliopolis.



If there is any violence, it appears that it will have to begin at the hands of the Mubarak regime. The ball is in their court, the sword of Damocles hangs over Egypt.

More later (time for us in EST zone to go to bed) on Egypt and a non-Egypt post. Until then, please enjoy Al Jazeera English's excellent liveblog.

What is Mubarak thinking?

By now everyone has heard of Hosni Mubarak's speech to the people of Egypt. The defiant dictator refused to step down from Egypt's presidency in the face of massive protests and a crippling general strike.



What happened last night in Egypt/this morning in the US caused a great deal of confusion. Multiple leaks to the media from the military and other cabinet members insinuated that the Egyptian president would address his people and announce that he was stepping down from his post, turning the country over to Vice President Suleiman and the leaders of the military.

In response, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians made their way in celebration to Tahrir Square (Tahrir translates to 'liberation'). There they rejoiced and sang, danced and smiled with the feeling that their weeks of protest and struggle had finally come to fruition.

When Mubarak did finally speak, refused to step down and furthermore blamed foreign intervention for the deeply held feelings of his own people, he basically stuck up his middle finger at the demonstrators in Egypt. Needless to say, their response was not a happy one.



Mubarak has become a symbol of absolutism, a Sun King for the Muslim world, and Egyptians will not suffer his heavy-handed rule for much longer.

Now we are a few short hours away from sunrise on Friday. Fridays in the Middle East are kind of like Sundays in the West - people traditionally do not work on Fridays. They do, however, congregate and protest en masse before and after Friday prayers. With the anger at a tipping point after Mubarak's blatant disregard for the needs and wishes of his people, the sun could be about to rise on the final day of his regime - and his final disposition might not be one of his own choosing.

The only other possibility is that Mubarak wants his fall to be a bloody one, to go out in a blaze of glory. If that is the case, then he has revealed himself to be a violent, decietful and hateful individual that Egypt - and the US - and the whole world - might do better without.

Obama in Cairo 2009

Let's take a look back on President Barack Obama's once-praised speech in Cairo in June 2009.



A couple of quotes to focus on:

“No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other. That does not lessen my commitment, however, to governments that reflect the will of the people."

If Mr. Obama meant this when he said it then he should deliver on it and place more vigorous support behind pro-democracy movements throughout the Middle East, like Egypt. He should also understand that in some places in the Muslim world, a government that reflects the will of the people will indeed be an Islamic one, and that does not necessarily present a threat to the United States or the ideals of freedom enshrined in its constitution.

"America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere."

Again, if Mr. Obama wants to stand by his words than he needs to stand firmly by the protesters in Tahrir Square. Right now those people are being denied the freedom to speak their minds, and the press there is denied the freedom to report on the protests. These are people who have not been given a say in their government and have endured more than half a century of the same kind of dictator, one after another. I don't think the United States can afford to support monarchies and dictatorships in the Middle East on one hand and pretend to be a fan of democracy on the other. Pick a side and stick with it.

“There are some who advocate for democracy only when they are out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.”

That's right, and some western leaders preach democratic principles to their enemies and accept the repressive dictatorships and brutal monarchies of their allies. Hypocrisy is not very becoming on the leader of the free world. President Obama can't have his cake and eat it too.

Egypt's Interfaith Alliance

Sorry for the bitmap, but I don't have photoshop where I am right now.

On Mubarak and Objectivity

Anyone who has read my blog over the past 9 days may have noticed my words becoming increasingly critical of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, while at the same time becoming more and more supportive of the protesters in Cairo and elsewhere.



As you may know, I have aspirations to become a journalist and journalists must be objective. This means that typically we are not to take a particular side in a story, but report empirical facts and represent multiple interpretations of what those facts mean.

I can tell you that it is 28.5 degrees farenheit outside in Lexington, Kentucky right now. I can't tell you whether that is hot or cold to you, because your opinions on what temperature is cold and what temperature is hot differ from mine. I feel like 28.5 degrees is pretty comfortable - not a good temperature for a swim, but much better than the teens or the single digits.

In Egypt, on the other hand, the empirical data that is easier to parse, if more difficult to understand. Protesters are being intimidated. Journalists, Egyptian, Arab, European and American are being jailed, their cameras and recording equipment confiscated. Molitov cocktails are being thrown into crowds. Supporters of President Mubarak and hired thugs are attacking crouds with whips, machetes and clubs. The regime is cracking down and committing atrocities against innocent people.

And President Mubarak has the audacity to claim that chaos and violence would erupt after he steps down - when he is causing the chaos and violence erupting before our very eyes.

For the second day in a row clashes between mostly peaceful anti-regime protesters and the supporters of Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship rage across Egypt.



As a journalist, I do not have to give equal time to someone who commits atrocity. I would not give time to Hitler were he perpetrating the holocaust today. I would not give equal time for Fred Phelps to preach his homophobic bigotry across my blog. And I will no longer give time to a regime that systematically silences its people at best through shutting off the internet and stealing cameras, and at worst through kidnapping, imprisonment, abuse, torture and murder.

That also means that I should be more critical of my own government's lukewarm stance towards the demonstrations in Egypt, even as the Mubarak government cracks down.

Free Egypt.

Tanks and Tears in Cairo

I think this is worth 1000 words.

And now some contrast.

Al Jazeera's coverage in Egypt has been excellent, exceeding both the US cable networks and the BBC in the depth of their coverage and the courage of their journalists - but not everyone has enjoyed what they have to say:



In my opinion, Mr. O'Reilly is being an anti-Arab bigot in this video, and his previous support for the Mubarak regime against pro-democracy protesters has clouded his judgement on this issue. Perhaps his pro-Israeli bias has turned towards this overtly racist language. Then again, perhaps O'Reilly should turn an eye to his own network and the language and opinions of some of the guests on his show.

Clashes rage in Tahrir Square - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Clashes rage in Tahrir Square - Middle East - Al Jazeera English



Every indication on the ground is that these 'counter protesters' are actually thugs hired and paid by the government of Hosni Mubarak. Earlier today they erupted in a cavalry charge across the main protest area in Tahrir square on horseback and camel back attacking the mostly peaceful demonstrators there. Not only are they whipping and immolating protesters in Tahrir Square, but they are also throwing molitov cocktails into the museums and destroying the cultural heritage of Egypt.

Again, this is not really a segment of the population demonstrating in support of Mubarak, according to international media and protesters on the ground - these are men hired to create chaos and injury to the population of Egypt.

Reports are out that pro-Mubarak groups are paying counter-protesters as much as two weeks worth of wages to take to the streets and act against the pro-democracy rallies in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez.

Day Six, and the people still control the streets

The protests and demonstrations in Egypt have stretched to last almost a week, with neither the disgruntled populace nor the entrenched dictator Hosni Mubarak willing to budge. Nobel Laureate Mohammad ElBaradei publically addressed protesters today and requested Egypt's president of 30 years to step down. It is unclear whether this crisis is close to being over one way or another.

But this amazing video did come out of Egypt today of protesters praying in the streets.



There are also reports of protesters in Tahrir square cleaning up after themselves and sharing packets of bread as they stood together today.

In the meantime, Al Jazeera official had its Egyptian press credentials revoked and its offices locked down today, severely limiting information and coverage of the crisis there.

If you still don't believe this is a crisis, then brace yourselves for this tidbit: Anderson Cooper has flown into Egypt. I don't know about you, but if I EVER see Anderson Cooper or Jim Cantore in my neighborhood, I'm leaving as fast as I can.

Another Egypt Protest Photo - the kiss

Via Lefteris Pitarakis of the AP, an Egyptian protester kisses a riot police officer on Friday.

Egypt Erupts

By far the biggest news of the day is the situation in Egypt which is one of massive civil unrest with relatively little violence. Though 10s of thousands are protesting the government of Hosni Mubarak, media reports 857 wounded and 3 dead there among the protesters.



This is not a civil war - it is a revolution. Whether the Egyptian government has the power to quash these revolutions is unclear. Tweets on #Egypt and #Jan25 suggest that many of the riot police and military personnel sent out to stop the protesters have taken off their uniforms. Make no mistake, Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt for three decades and has effectively distinguished all opposition in the past. Acts of violence have happened and continue to happen.

The protesters have broken through several attempts to blockade them away to public squares. Government buildings have been set ablaze. All of this information has leaked out of an Egypt that has been largely cut-off from the outside world. Access to social networks was lost overnight in Egypt and then the population there found that most of their internet and mobile phone access had been severed by the government.

Today, the Egyptian government has imposed a curfew on the Egyptian people that has been universally disobeyed by the protesters. The government announced that president Mubarak would make a statement to the country in the evening, but so far he has not appeared or made any statement.

The question on my mind is what the US government will do about it - do they stand by the first Arab nation to recognize and make peace with Israel, a key ally who has received billions of dollars of US aid, or do they stand by the pro-democratic protesters against an admittedly authoritarian dictatorship?

Does the Obama Administration make the decision based on foreign policy concerns or our political ideals? So far their only statements have been lukewarm at best.

The best places to monitor information coming across about Egypt are on Twitter (#Egypt #Jan25) and Al Jazeera English.

A Late Night Egypt Update

Protests continue in Egypt against the government of Hosni Mubarak, a key ally of the United States and the dictatorial leader of the largest Arab country by population.

Here's some footage of a protest in Egypt and a 'Tiananmen Square' there.



It seems that today at least some Christians in Egypt have sworn to protect Muslim protesters there. Noon prayers happen in a little more than 3 hours, evening prayers less than 10. It will be interesting to see if this pans our given the heightened tensions between Egyptian Copts and the Muslim majority there over the past year.

There has beena major disruption in all internet and mobile phone access in the country, and there are tweets reporting the government setting up medieval-style fire-trap in public gathering areas. I know that they are just Twitter rumors, but when combined with the communication disruptions, I fear for my friends in Egypt right now. I am following #Egypt loyally right now.