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Supply and Demand Democracy in Egypt Charles Onians

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Supply and Demand Democracy in Egypt Charles Onians Charles Onians is a Cairo-based journalist specializing in human rights issues. Supply and Demand Democracy in Egypt Charles Onians Cairo is a city of contradictions, from its only to please the people but also to placate Pharaonic architecture dominated by satel- those calling for democratic reform, and so lite dishes to its increasingly conservative the warp and weft of contradiction and com- inhabitants, who at once desire and scorn promise continues to hold the country to- Western lifestyles. Take a walk around the gether—in religion, culture, and politics. city’s smog-covered downtown and you’ll Gamel Abdel Nasser’s 1952 revolution see women in full-length, Saudi-style hijab and its subsequent socialist-cum-Arab na- walking past shop windows filled with tionalist ideology attempted without success racy lingerie, while rubbish collectors sit to eliminate burgeoning political Islam and on donkey carts chatting on their mobiles, replace it with a nationalist identity. Popu- holding up the advance of an armada of lar Islamic groups had been around in Egypt Mercedes. since the early twentieth century, when they Unmarried couples holding hands in the emerged largely as a reaction to the collapse street draw scathing looks, yet the city’s of the Ottoman Empire and to the secular reputation for ready prostitution pulls in policies of such leaders as Turkey’s Kemal thousands of Gulf Arab tourists every sum- Atatürk. Groups like the Muslim Brother- mer. And while more and more young hood were initially more concerned with re- women wear headscarves, they also increas- ligious education than with politics and ingly wear tight-fitting jeans. Escape the sought a return to Islamic values in the face downtown hubbub in a twilit doorway and of encroaching secularization, but as they you’re likely to find a young man selling gained popular support they became increas- pirated videos. Here, alongside The Matrix ingly politicized. By the late 1940s, the and other Hollywood staples, you’ll find Muslim Brotherhood was seeking the imple- one of last year’s most sought-after items— mentation of Sharia (Islamic) law as the law secretly filmed footage of renowned singer of the land. and belly dancer Dina enjoying intimate After the Muslim Brotherhood was moments with her husband. As Cairenes banned in 1954, an attempt on Nasser’s life snapped up the bootlegs, the gossip press by one of its members led to a harsh clamp- homed in on the real scandal—the couple down. Over 4,000 members were arrested may not have been married, and that, it was and thousands more fled into exile. More- said, would be unacceptable. over, Nasser’s secular pan-Arabism, which Fascinating as Cairenes’ ability to re- had wide appeal from Baghdad to Algiers, solve these apparent contradictions is, a helped push political Islam to the margins. creeping increase in conservative religious Egyptian society during this period was tol- behavior in recent years reflects a more omi- erant of liberal lifestyles and even atheism. nous competition for moral authority be- In the 1970s, Nasser’s successor, Anwar tween the government and political Islam. Sadat, gave the Islamists considerable free- The government changes its moral tone not dom to organize themselves after years of 78 WORLD POLICY JOURNAL • SUMMER 2004 clandestine activity in the hope that this held by the NDP, 8 percent are held by inde- would reduce the power of the Left, which pendents (including the members of the had set the political agenda after Nasser’s Muslim Brotherhood), and 4 percent are death. Sadat promised to implement Sharia held by the legally approved opposition. law, and Islamist organizations wrested con- Mubarak rules under emergency laws in trol of trade and student unions from the force since the 1970s and has controlled po- Left. Ironically, Sadat was assassinated by Is- litical dissent through such repressive mea- lamists in 1981 after making peace with Is- sures as arbitrary detention of opponents rael. Widespread corruption, economic in- and tight control of the media as well as by equality, and Sadat’s failure to consult with positioning the government as the guardian either his people or other Arab states over of morality. When an Islamist organization peace with Israel meant that few mourned issues an opinion on a moral issue, such as his death. whether a book should be banned, the gov- Before Sadat’s death, the inflow of con- ernment also announces its position, thus servative religious ideas had already begun. reminding people that they do not have to The Egyptian leader’s so-called open-door turn to Islamic bodies in order to lead a policies that brought consumerism to the morally correct life. country also allowed thousands of Egyptians to go to work in the Gulf states during the The Muslim Brotherhood oil-boom years, from where an influential Both Cairo and Washington see political few returned with money in their pockets Islam as manifested by the banned Muslim and a Wahhabist ideology. Wahhabism, Brotherhood as the biggest threat to Mu- which is the official religious doctrine of barak’s regime. Founded in 1928 by school Saudi Arabia, takes its name from the eigh- teacher Hasan al-Banna, the Brotherhood teenth-century religious thinker Ibn Abdul draws its members from the professional and Wahhab, who sought to return Islam to its working classes, and operates through a net- roots, based on a literal interpretation of the work of mosques, trade unions, and charita- Koran. Wahhabism forbids many practices ble organizations. While the Brotherhood widespread elsewhere in the Muslim world, has officially renounced violence, it con- such as celebrating the Prophet Moham- dones suicide bombers in Iraq and Israel, med’s birthday. Wahhabist-influenced Egyp- and it has spawned various other groupings tians returned from the Gulf to form a new, over the years that advocate the violent conservative bourgeoisie with a surprising overthrow of the government, such as the penchant for Western fashions. Gamaa Islamiya, which carried out a num- Sadat’s successor, President Hosni ber of deadly attacks on tourists in Egypt in Mubarak, has been in office for over 20 the 1990s. The Brotherhood is perceived by years. He released many Islamists impris- impoverished Egyptians as being responsive oned in the wake of Sadat’s assassination and to their needs and their grievances. Thus, has since striven to find a low-key middle while the government-sponsored al-Azhar way between the policies of his two prede- Mosque issues religious opinions on every- cessors. Presidential elections are one-candi- thing from abortion (which is banned) to date referendums. Parties wishing to oppose what books may not be read, much of the the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) population pays more attention to what the need to apply to the government for ap- Brotherhood has to say on such matters. proval, and while about a dozen have that Provided the Brotherhood sticks to moral approval, they cannot draft laws and are es- or religious questions and avoids political sentially powerless. Of the 444 elected seats criticism, its views are published even in in the People’s Assembly, 88 percent are the government-controlled media. Supply and Demand Democracy in Egypt 79 Thus, while the government suppresses gious values, traditions, and customs, derive the Brotherhood, it also gives tacit permis- legislation from Islamic Sharia, and to strike sion for the dissemination of its ideas. This deep roots for democracy.” But “there is no is because if the Brotherhood did not exist, ideology,” Milad Hanna, a commentator on the moderate Islamic parties—which the Coptic Christian affairs, told me. “The NDP Mubarak regime sees as a political threat— is not right or left or anything. As a result, would gain greater public support. The different ministers have different ideas about Wasat Party, for example, which has a flexi- morality, democracy, and economic liberal- ble approach toward Sharia law and even has ization. Mubarak rules by conducting this Coptic Christian members, has been trying orchestra and raising the tunes played by to get legal recognition for years. Its leaders certain ministers according to what he say that the party has been unable to do thinks is needed, at home and abroad.” so because it offers an Islamic alternative Yet the Brotherhood is also criticized that would make it more popular than the for lacking policies beyond advocating the Brotherhood. The fact that all religious po- implementation of Sharia law. Its program- litical parties are banned has not prevented matic pronouncements appear to be limited the Brotherhood getting 17 deputies elected to changing the morals of society rather to the 454-member parliament, where they than to changing society itself. While, for sit as independents and constitute by far the example, the organization’s views on the largest opposition bloc. role of the family in society are clear, no one Following the death of the Brother- seems to know what its economic policies hood’s leader, Maamoun al-Hodeiby, last might be. January, Egyptian newspapers ran stories headed “Egypt’s Largest Opposition Group Multiple Identities Appoints New Leader” alongside stories For many Egyptian intellectuals the increas- about Brotherhood members detained on ing influence of conservative Islam is a charges of “trying to revive the banned tragedy, as Islam in Egypt has usually been movement.” Thus the government conducts characterized by tolerance. Not only do the its delicate balancing act, acknowledging country’s Copts—estimated at 10 percent the organization’s existence while holding it of a population of 70 million—generally up as a threat. As one left-wing activist told live peacefully side by side with Muslims, me, “If there were free elections tomorrow, but the largely Sunni population has tradi- the Brotherhood would win 60 percent of tionally tolerated Shia Muslims.
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