One Year Ago....

Brooklyn, NY, USA

A year ago tomorrow, I was sitting on the other side of the East River, in Wes and Lindsay's Manhattan apartment, glued to my Facebook feed and Al-Jazeera's live blog of events unfolding in Cairo, just blocks from my apartment. Should I return to Egypt, or be worried about things falling apart there? I'm just a couple miles from where I was then, but so much has happened in that year, and I'm in such an unbelievably different place now than I was then.

Who could have guessed then how much I would grow to love Egypt in the months that followed? A year ago, I still hated Cairo, still compared it to Amman and found it lacking in almost every way. A year ago, I didn't have the confidence to follow what was happening in Egypt on Al-Jazeera Arabic, which now seems, if not easy, at least manageable! I have, in the intervening year, written dozens of pages of academic papers in Arabic on topics as diverse as politics, rhetoric and Islamic philosophy. A year ago, I couldn't have imagined that I would date one of the original January 25th protestors, or be following his every journalistic dispatch from Tahrir Square with such interest and trepidation.

And why was I even in NYC a year ago? I was here to interview for the New York City Teaching Fellows ... a successful interview! But I had no idea then what I was getting myself into. I thought, intrepid international traveler and multi-cultural adventurer that I am, that teaching in NYC, in my native language, in a school system very similar to the one I grew up in, would come easily to me after teaching English in Peace Corps Jordan and Arabic to Somali refugees. I could never have imagined the challenges that awaited me here in the Five Boroughs, nor how much I would long some days for the simple excitement of tear gas and "isqat an-nidham"!

So tonight, as crowds are gathering on Tahrir Square in Cairo's pre-dawn hours, I can only marvel at where I've been, and how I wish I were celebrating with the Egyptians right now!

America's Tahrir Moment? Well....

Manhattan, New York, USA

I woke up this morning to a call from my cousin Hannah.  She's helping to organize an Occupy Worcester movement, and wanted to know if I could translate their flier into Arabic for her. (No problem!)  I told her it was exciting to see people out in the streets, even if I wasn't sure what they were protesting for, exactly.  "I don't think it's as important what they're for," she said, "as that they're out there practicing direct democracy."

Perhaps that's why I dragged my feet this morning. The very idea of protesting for the sake of having a protest seemed so hollow to me, especially after my experiences of the last year with the Egyptian revolution. Before the April 6 and Khaled Said youth movements ever stepped out into the streets of Cairo, they had a definite plan of what they wanted and how they would get it. They studied with Velvet Revolutionary Vaclav Havel in the Czech Republic, and spent months deciding on their demands, their tactics, their slogans, even what they would chant in the streets was scripted in advance.

So when I got down to Zuccotti Park this afternoon, I was not impressed. After standing on Tahrir Square, shoulder to shoulder with several million Egyptians chanting "The regime must fall" and "Christian and Muslim, hand in hand," I guess my standards are unreasonably high. For me, though, the few hundred hippies, college students and veterans I saw with their cardboard boxes and dreadlocks were not as impressive as they'd been made out to be on the news.

If you add up all the protestors across the country, from Boston and Worcester to Oakland and San Fransisco, you probably have a substantial number. There's credence, too, to the stories I've heard on NPR comparing the Occupy Wall Street movement to the Tea Party. They're probably comparable in size and coherence given the number of months they've been protesting ... it's just that Occupy Wall Street made it into the national headlines within weeks of starting, and the Tea Party took months to garner national attention.

But who do they represent? Who are the 99%? I've spoken to a number of activists who work with impoverished communities of color in New York City and elsewhere, and they all voice the same frustration: The people of color who are really suffering from the failing economy are not able to "occupy Wall Street," can hardly even follow it on the news, because they're working three part-time, under-the-table jobs just to cobble together a meal every day. The people who are in Zuccotti Park may be unemployed, underemployed or frustrated with their circumstances, but they come from circumstances that allow them the luxury of coming to Zuccotti Park. This isn't Egypt, where the entire economy screeched to a halt because even the bodega owners and French fry friers were leaving their jobs to rally on Tahrir Square.

I am pleased to see the unions rallying to the cry. I saw striking Verizon workers in Zuccotti Park, and while they are fortunate to have the luxury to even be on strike, the issues that they're striking for are so similar to the Occupy Wall Street complaints that they have real legitimacy in my eyes. I was delighted that the United Federation of Teachers marched with Occupy Wall Street, because so many of our students and their parents are among the truly disenfranchised ... but here's my beef with them: Why would the UFT march on a Tuesday morning? I would have gladly marched with them, but ... I had to be at school, teaching!

So, yes, Hannah, it's important to practice direct democracy. And yes, to that guy at Occupy Boston who had the sign reading, "It's not that we're disorganized, it's just that America has so many problems!" But if this movement is going to have a real impact, it needs an agenda, a message, a unifying purpose. Within 3 days of occupying Tahrir Square, the Egyptian protestors had a list of 11 core demands, despite being a leaderless movement.  That doesn't mean that Egyptians only have 11 complaints about the way Mubarak and the National Democratic Party ran their country into the ground ... it just means they had a platform for their first steps.  Where are Occupy Wall Street's core demands?

A Different Souq

Khan al-Khalili, Cairo, Egypt

This evening, around 10pm, Mohannad and I went to Khan al-Khalili for a little last-minute souvenir shopping. Ordinarily Khan al-Khalili would be hopping. Six months ago when I was there with my cousin, the place was thronging with tourists. Two years ago when I visited as a tourist, only months after a deadly bombing right there in the market, you had to elbow your way through the crowd.

By 10:30 last night, the sidewalks were mostly rolled up. Virtually the only shops open were the ones with TVs around which Egyptians were crowded to watch Zamalek Football Club get their asses kicked.

This is the way of the world in a volatile region of absolute dictatorships and grinding oppression. Revolutions and other violence happens. Other kinds of major crime - and even most petty crime other than corruption - tend to be much lower in police states like Egypt, Jordan and Syria, but that doesn't make headlines like revolutions, terrorist attacks and American invasions. When such major events do happen, though, we have long memories.

A few months later, the tourists have begun to trickle back - probably more in the Sinai than in Egypt proper - but in such small numbers that the tourist economy is seriously suffering. Khan al-Khalili should never be so quiet that the empty alleyways fairly echo.

Graffiti for Grades

Cairo, Egypt

From Art School Grafitti

Six months ago, you could be arrested and detained in Egypt for acts of graffiti. In fact, I met a guy who was. But like so many things in "the New Egypt," that's changed now. Starting with the slogans scribbled haphazardly on every conceivable surface during the revolution, and evolving to the murals painted across downtown during the post-revolutionary youth clean-up, a graffiti and street art culture is growing here in ways Egypt hasn't really seen before.

(The Arabic word for elephant is pronounced "feel.")

A wide range of graffiti has emerged, from beautiful Arabic calligraphy to simple humorous stencils.
Yasmeen introduced me to these beautiful murals painted around an art college in Zamalek. Perhaps not technically graffiti, these murals were designed, drawn to scale and then painted by groups of students. There are a lot of interesting themes and symbols here, but I'm particularly struck by the appearances of Facebook and Twitter, and the use of English.

"7rya" is SMS-speak for "freedom." Notice al-Jazeera's logo, too.

Sure, it's reductive and misleading to call the January 25th movement a social media revolution. Facebook, Twitter and the youth alone probably couldn't have toppled the regime. It does, however, reflect a reality of a certain segment of Egyptian youth who consider themselves citizens of the knowledge century, of a global marketplace of ideas and values. Where that leads them, leads Egypt ... Allahu 3alem [God knows]. All I know is that I can't wait to see where Egypt and the Middle East finds itself in ten years!

Palestinian Solidarity

Cairo, Egypt

Yesterday we received a message from the US Embassy in Cairo that included the following:

May 15 is the anniversary of the Palestinian-Israeli territorial demarcations and is considered to be a significant date in the current Palestinian political situation involving Gaza and the West Bank.

Several Egyptian political groups have announced plans to commemorate this anniversary by staging large-scale prayer and protest gatherings, characterizing Friday as Unity Day. On Friday after mid-day prayers, there are plans for a large demonstration in Tahrir Square, with a number of protesters planning to proceed to the Israeli Embassy near Cairo University and to the Israeli Ambassador’s residence in Maadi....

On Saturday, May 14, political activists plan to converge on Tahrir Square and begin a march toward Suez, where they will link with groups from other Egyptian cities and then continue their march toward the Rafah border crossing.

The embassy probably thought this rally - as opposed to the usual Friday protests - would be of particular interest to Americans in Cairo because it can be a very short couple steps from pro-Palestinian to anti-Israeli to anti-American. As Lara Logan knows well, it only takes one person shouting "Spy!" to make a whole crowd turn on you. It certainly gave me pause.

Fajr Prayers on Tahrir
I was woken up in the wee hours of this morning to the news that thousands had started a Facebook page since yesterday, planning to have pre-dawn prayers for Palestine on Tahrir Square, led by prominent Salafi sheikhs. Since it involved defying curfew, my friend didn't go, but video was on YouTube almost immediately showing at least a couple thousand praying

By the time I did go down to Tahrir Square today, it was the biggest crowds I've seen on Tahrir Square since mid-February, though I understand the crowds were as big on April 9th.

Mixed Messages
In light of the violence and church-burning on Wednesday, there had been a call to make today a rally for Egyptian unity between Christians and Muslims, and there were plenty of signs to that effect. However, calls for solidarity with Occupied Palestine largely drowned out pretty much everything else, and there were plenty of other causes, too.

"The people want the opening of the Rafah Crossing, permanently and completely."

"The people want peace and security,"
i.e. new faces in charge of the Egyptian security forces.

The flag of Bahrain on the left, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as Hitler.

This one's calling for reform of traffic laws!

...and many more!

"Egypt and Palestine, one hand."

Third Intifada?
What concerns me even more amid these protests and calls for a Third Intifada on Sunday, the 63rd anniversary of the first Palestinian refugee crisis, is the ambiguity about who is calling for these actions and why. Egyptians are calling for a Third Intifada in an excess of revolutionary zeal, and I have to admit to a wild hope that Palestinians might have their own success in the Arab Spring, but are Palestinians themselves calling for an uprising? If they are, I haven't heard.

In fact, a spokesman for Hamas said today that it was "not necessary" for Egyptians to come to Gaza. On the one hand, this could be a neat way of avoiding responsibility. On the other hand, though, Hamas has taken bold steps this month to form a coalition with Fatah and work politically and peacefully towards greater Palestinian unity. An Intifada now would undo everything that's been achieved in the last couple years.

(Thanks to Emma for the photos!)

Egyptian Sectarianism: How Bad Is It?

Cairo, Egypt

The Corniche is closed again in front of the Media Ministry because of protests, primarily by Egypt's minority Coptic Christians, in response to the worst sectarian violence in months that broke out few days ago in the working class Cairo neighborhood of Imbaba.

Word spread like wildfire in Imbaba that Abeer Talaat, a Christian woman, had converted to Islam, and when church officials found out, they had kidnapped her and held her prisoner. Angry mobs gathered, churches were burned, rocks were thrown, shots were fired, a dozen were killed, a couple hundred wounded, and all because of an unsubstantiated rumor. My colleague Andrew wrote about it in his blog immediately after, but more information is coming out every day about the incident and its causes.

I'm sorry to say, it's not an unprecedented occurrence in Egypt, but present circumstances make this particular case especially interesting and different in important ways.

History of Controversial Conversions

This image has been everywhere in Egypt in the last year. Her name is Camilla Shehata. She was born a Coptic Christian, but she famously converted to Islam last year, and was allegedly kidnapped and imprisoned in a monastery by the Coptic leadership. Hers is not the only story like this, but certainly the most famous face. During Ramadan last August, large protests were held by Islamist and/or Salafi groups outside the Husseini Mosque demanding Camilla's immediate release. They wanted her to go on state television and state personally and unequivocally her current religious preference, and to confirm or deny her incarceration by church officials. Although she posted a video on YouTube, it was not until the night of the Imbaba violence this week that she went live on television to tell her story. Throughout the intervening 9 months, the name Camilla Shehata has become a rallying cry for both Muslims and Christians, far beyond the significance of her individual story.

For Americans, it may be difficult to understand what the fuss is about. In present-day American culture is enshrined a very clear personal freedom of religious choice, and children turn away from their parents' religions all the time. In fact, for many, it's almost a right of passage. It can be a painful strain on family relationships, but it's not a matter of public scrutiny.

But imagine for a moment that you're a Native American in colonial or ante-bellum America, and your children are being lured and even kidnapped away by the government to schools where they are forced to perform the rituals and profess the beliefs of Christianity and forsake the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. You're already a tiny minority population, and shrinking, in a society that's often hostile towards you, and where there is a blatant government policy to use religious conversion to obliterate your cultural uniqueness. How far will you go to preserve your religion, your individuality, your identity? The US Government has since apologized for what is now acknowledged to be cultural genocide, but it took America centuries to reach an uneasy compromise with the Native Nations among us.

Many Egyptian Christians feel that they are under the same kind of threat, while the Muslim protesters feel that they are bringing enlightenment to the damned. But then again, if it were merely a matter of religion, this would be a different story.

Flotsam of the Former Regime
Yesterday the Supreme Military Council announced further arrests in the case of the church burnings and violence in Imbaba. They have released information that at least one but perhaps dozens of the arrested individuals, both Copts and Muslims, were members of the former ruling party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), what's become known by a revival of an antiquated phrase faloul an-nizam [flotsam of the regime]. The man who first opened fire is allegedly the Coptic owner of a cafe next to the church. The assumption is that he did so to instigate some sort of sectarian conflict.

Rumors abound that former NDP members are trying to cause a fitna (sectarian civil war) between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, presumably in order to create the kind of chaos that could bring the NDP back to power. For years, former Pres. Mubarak used fear of sectarian violence, anti-Christian attacks, fundamentalist Islamist involvement and jihadi terrorism to hold on to power. "Support me," he told the West, "or have Muslim extremists ruling Egypt!" It seems that some remnants of the former regime are hoping that the same fears might bring them back to power again.

Kul-oh waHad! / One for All!

Gazeerat ad-Dahab, Nile River, Egypt

From Island of Gold

Rachel's been doing research on some political issues on this island in the Nile in the south end of Cairo. Today she took me along to see it. It was one of the best afternoons I've had in Egypt, sipping tea with villagers. I almost felt like I was back in Peace Corps!

The Island of Gold is a strange little anomaly in the middle of Umm ad-Dunya (the Mother of the World, aka Cairo). These low-lying islands used to disappear under the yearly floods, but since the construction of the Aswan Dam, they stay above water all year, and several generations have now lived there. But the government refuses to provide them water, electricity or sewage treatment. For the most part, it seems they may be okay with that. As one woman told us today, "We grow everything we eat. Some of our neighbors don't farm, so we give them what we grow. Kul-oh waHad! [We're all one.]"

On Their Own Protest Movement
The Ring Road (Cairo's Beltway) passes over the island, but there are neither on- nor off-ramps. It's just a place to stand. At one time, there was a stairway down, but it was too often used to steal goods and livestock from the island. For that reason, and because of their lack of resources, a number of years ago the islanders finally had enough. The entire island - men, women, children - climbed up that staircase and filled the bridge. They stopped traffic in both directions on one of the most important roads in Cairo. State Security forces were sent in to disburse the crowd, but according to the woman who told us the story, they were afraid to shoot at women and small children, and refused. (After what happened at the end of January, we were a little surprised at that.)

The government removed the staircase leading down to the island. There's still no public services on the island, but there haven't been more protests on that scale.

On the January 25 Revolution
People from the island did go down to Tahrir Square for the January 25 Revolution this spring. At the time, I imagine, they were as inspired as anyone. Now, however, they're not so happy. Every time the topic came up, there was nothing but disgust for the chaos that still reigns in many parts of Egypt: crime, lawlessness, and instability.

On the other hand, as Rachel noted, they've been building like crazy across the island, since a long-standing building ban on the island isn't being enforced any more.

Flora and Fauna of the Island
The logic for the building ban is that the islands have been named as nature preserves. Rachel asked, "But where's the nature?" I was inclined to agree, since nearly every possible inch of the island is being used for agriculture. But the longer we were there, the more I began to notice the wildlife, mostly birds. I saw Hoopoes, at least two kinds of egret, Pied Kingfishers, crows, fish, and a rust-red dragonfly.

And, miraculously, I made it 6+ hours in Egyptian villages with only one person asking "Why aren't you married yet?"

Coptic Easter Mass

Cairo, Egypt

One of our program administrators invited a group of CASIC students to the man Coptic church in Giza with him this evening for Easter Mass. I love to visit services in other religions, and I'm collecting exotic Easters (at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, on Mt. Nebo at sunrise), so I was quick to accept the invitation.

Like a traditional Greek Orthodox mass, it's a long affair, starting at 7pm and going till at least midnight (we lasted almost 3 hours), and people come and go throughout. Women sat on the right, men on the left. Some women wore veils draped symbolically over their heads, many of them embroidered with crosses or images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary, but as in modern Catholicism, covering one's hair has become optional.

I wish I had understood more, but most of the chanting was done in Coptic. Like modern Hebrew, Coptic is a language revived from old texts, the Rosetta Stone, and a lot of guesswork about its pronunciation and more mundane vocabulary that didn't make it into written form. I understood at one point from the text on TV screens around the sanctuary that they were praying for the martyrs of the January 25 Revolution and their families. The rest was pretty, but not particularly meaningful.

The Bible readings I definitely did recognize, because they were read in plain Arabic, and were about the Virgin and the Magdalene opening the tomb and finding Jesus' body gone, and then being spoken to by the ascended Jesus.

By far the most dramatic part was the blessing of the Host. The lights were turned off all across the sanctuary, and the curtains were drawn between the priest at the altar and the congregants in our pews. By that time, incense hung heavy in the air. There was a great deal of chanting and singing, and then a great crescendo as the curtains parted, the lights came up, torches were lit in the courtyard outside, and the Host was paraded with all its robed attendants 3 times around the entire sanctuary.

At one point, there was a good deal of commotion as a number of military personnel and men in suits were ushered in. During the sermon, also in Arabic, we learned that these were representatives of the Giza Governorate, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the local division of State Security, and the Egyptian Army. The Army got resounding applause from the congregants. The sermon talked about Egyptian unity, and standing with our Muslim brothers, and honoring the sacrifices of the revolutionaries. Apparently we were at the most important church in Giza.

A Lawyer And Everything!

Cairo, Egypt

I've started going to the grocery around the corner more frequently. They carry fresh milk and most of my other staples, and they're open after dark unlike the supermarket I used to frequent. The cashier there is enchanted by an American who speaks Arabic as well as I do, and he always engages me in conversation.

Tonight he was very pleased to my attention the prosecution of former president Mubarak. "There's going to be a real trial, with a judge, and they've given him an attorney. They're giving him his human rights!" As if to say, after all the years he denied us our human rights, we're better people than that.

Then he said, getting serious, "You know, America talks all the time about human rights, but they don't really mean it, do they? As soon as they want something from a leader like Mubarak, there's no more talk of human rights." I agreed with him, and clearly that wasn't the response he was looking for. "Really? You know this?" Of course, I agreed, governments are inherently selfish institutions. "And Americans know this?" he wanted to know.

Of course, that's where the conversation gets tricky, isn't it? My friends and family know that America is not the paragon of democratic virtues it claims to be, that it operates both domestically and abroad in ways that don't always serve the rights and interests of the people effected. Jon Stewart's audience knows this, and those who listen to NPR and watch PBS and stream al-Jazeera. Unitarian Universalists know this, and MoveOn.org members know this, and Peace Corps Volunteers see this.

But do "Americans" know that their government, for its own self-interests, is propping up evil despots and oil barons and CIA stooges and oppressive states who are willing to torture for the US Government? How do I answer that question?

It begs another question, too, that's been on my mind for a couple weeks now. When I go back to America, how do I answer the inevitable questions about what "Egyptians" or "Jordanians" or, worse, "Arabs" and "Muslims" think about America, about democracy, about freedom, about terrorism, about revolution...? As if any of those terms represented a uniform monolithic entity that had one opinion about anything!

Meanwhile....
They've been chanting on Tahrir Square since last night. I don't know what they're chanting, but there are a lot of them, and they're very enthusiastic, not about to back down until they've got everything they demand.

Rewind, Play Again

Cairo, Egypt

Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to go forwards.

As I walked across Tahrir Square at noon today on my way to class, I felt like the clock had been wound back a month or more. Starting about two blocks back from Tahrir Square were roadblocks of cinderblocks, metal table frames, 4X4s and other "found items," as it were. They seemed to have been erected by the neighborhood watch committees, directing traffic away from Tahrir Square, because there were no police in sight.

Ahead of me on the edges of Tahrir Square, those roadblocks had been reinforced with concertina wire, making it hard to know whether they'd been set up by the protesters or the military.

I was a little hesitant to go forward, remembering Saturday morning's gunfire, but I'd decided to treat myself to a Hardees Jalapeno Chicken sandwich to break a 100-pound note, and I had my patriotic ribbon on my backpack, so I kept going. Unfortunately for me, Hardees had learned a hard lesson in the 25 Jan Revolution when all their windows and been smashed and the restaurant torn apart. When they rebuilt, they installed brand new metal shutters to pull down over their shop windows, and the place was buttoned up tight at noon today.

There were only a few hundred people there, mostly clustered near Talat Harb Street and the KFC (where I later found out they were painting a mural of the military attacking protesters) and out of my way across the square. There was no military or police in sight. It seemed pretty safe, so I strode across what had become, for all intents and purposes, a giant pedestrian plaza.

Vehicle burnt by protesters during bloody clashes with armed forces, Tahrir Square, 9 April, 2011.  Soldiers had forcibly dispersed protesters leaving two killed, 71 injured. (Al-Masry Al-Youm)

As I got to the Nile side of the square, I saw a couple burnt-out police transports, which took me straight back to the violent early days of the revolution. But typically enough for the spirit of the New Egypt, the scorched hulks had been put to good use. They were filled to the ceilings with plastic garbage bags full of detritus from the weekend's protests.

Between Tahrir Square and Kasr al-Aini Bridge, cars were parked bumper-to-bumper and people were trickling onto the square in fours and sixes and pairs.

An hour ago, when I came home from class, we skirted around Tahrir Square. I was feeling uncertain about what we might find on Tahrir Square now that schools are out and some businesses are beginning to close for the day. In the streets around the square, police were directing traffic away from the makeshift barriers extending a few blocks away from the square. I glimpsed tanks around the Interior Ministry, but I couldn't say that they haven't been there all along since 28 Jan.

From all directions, people were walking towards the square. It's going to be an interesting week.

Meanwhile, let me recommend some reading from Sandmonkey, who is emerging as one of the premier bloggers in Egypt, on 7 Popular Myths About the Revolution.

Gunshots

Cairo, Egypt

It started around 3am. At first I thought it was fireworks. There had been fireworks all over downtown Thursday night while my classmates and I were celebrating Sarah's birthday on top of the Happy City Hotel, and it's a sound I certainly got used to in my years in Amman.

Then I realized that I could still hear chanting and the distant roar of a crowd coming from Tahrir Square. There hadn't been crowds on Tahrir at 3am since I got back from Jordan, and even though the curfew has been eased a bit more, it's still in effect from 2am-5am, and usually pretty well enforced here in the downtown.

Gunfire, some of it semi-automatic, waxed and waned through the next couple hours. There wasn't much to see from where we live, though at one point early on my roommates saw several hundreds of people come flooding across Falaky Square, running from Tahrir. Al-Jazeera was busy talking about how the US Congress avoided a government shut-down, and Twitter only revealed to me that "protesters are being cleared from the square" amid sounds of gunfire and possibly teargas, and these videos by YouTube user Kikhote:

After the first call to prayer near 5am, things went quiet again.

This noon, I can still hear chanting on Tahrir Square and traffic is unusually light on Tahrir Street in front of our apartment. The neighborhood watch is out again. Reuters and Al-Jazeera report that some but probably not all of the military officers who joined the protests last night were arrested by Central Security and the military, who had been promising court martial for any officers joining protests last night. Also, a video has emerged of the officers' demands:

Their demands include: dissolution of the military government, appointment of a civil governing council, removal of Tantawi from leadership of the country, prosecution of the "symbols of corruption" (Mubarak, al-Adly, etc.), and of those who killed protesters during the revolution.

'Copters and Cops

Cairo, Egypt

Helicopters have been circling downtown all day today, and when the wind is right you can hear the cacophony of voices down the street on Tahrir Square.

I'm under the weather and haven't gone out to see for myself, but my German roommate says there's a bigger crowd than (the new) usual gathered on the square. They're protesting a hodgepodge of things on behalf of Egyptians and the greater so-called Arab Spring: against military control, in support of the budding Syrian revolution, against Gaddhafi, for the release of political prisoners, death to Israel, support for Palestine, against the Emergency Laws ... you name it.

Al-Jazeera English is reporting that the protesters are concentrating on a call for Mubarak and his cronies to be put on trial, and for the military to hand over power to a civilian council.

There's a rumor that there will be 1,300 officers coming sometime today to march against abuses by the State Security, with al-Jazeera reporting that any military personnel participating in today's protests will do so under threat of court martial.

Al-Masry al-Youm (Egypt Today), English Edition, is reporting that tens of thousands are marching on what they've dubbed the "Friday of Cleansing" and calling for a renewed groundswell of protests until the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces demonstrates a significant commitment to fulfilling the demands of the original January 25 Revolution.

My classmate Yasmine has posted pictures on Facebook from today's protests that include several banners from unions demanding a new Labor Union Law and more protection of their right to organize (take that, Teaparty!), independence and freedom of expression for the ancient and revered Islamic institution of al-Azhar University, independence of the judiciary, and more.

Some Fridays are like this. Sometimes there's a unifying cause like Muslim-Coptic unity following events of sectarian violence, or opposition to the constitutional amendments in the next day's referendum. Other Fridays, without specific events to focus their attention, people come to Tahrir Square on behalf of whatever cause is dear to them, or whatever slogans they think will make a splash. Today is one of the latter, except that the numbers seem to be unprecedented for this sort of a free-for-all Friday rally. As I've said before, they sometimes seem drunk with people power in the New Egypt.

As usual, when things get interesting again, I find myself wondering if they'll turn off the Internet again, but I think Egypt has learned its lesson there. As one protester put it, "When your government shuts down the Internet, shut down your government!"

ANNOUNCING TAHRIR DOCUMENTS

I'm pleased to share this press release for a project I and many of my CASIC colleagues have been participating in here in Cairo.

ANNOUNCING TAHRIR DOCUMENTS

We are pleased to announce the launch of Tahrir Documents, an ongoing project to archive and translate printed discourse from the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath. The website presents a diverse collection of materials — among them activist newspapers, personal essays, advertisements, missives, and party communications —- in complete English translation alongside reproductions of the Arabic-language originals. The site will be updated regularly, frequently, and indefinitely as new writings appear in response to post-revolution developments, and as we locate earlier materials.  

The assembled documents address a variety of contemporary concerns including Muslim-Christian relations, constitutional amendments, moral conduct, revolutionary strategy, and the women's rights movement. Some of the highlights of the collection:

• A defense of protestors' continued sit-in at Tahrir Square released on March 9th, the same day on which their encampment was destroyed by thugs
• Guidelines for personal behavior after the revolution
• Numerous denunciations of sectarian violence
• The announcement of new political parties and presidential candidates.
• Numerous articles debating the constitutional amendments passed last week  
• Selections from Gurnal and Revolutionary Egypt, activist newspapers founded after the revolution    

We invite you to examine the the website, and to return regularly as we post communications and commentaries from the post-Mubarak era. We believe the archive indicative of the diversity of political thought and action in contemporary Egypt, and hope that this diversity is of interest to anyone following the country's transforming situation. The archive is searchable. 

Tahrir Documents is the work of volunteer translators in Egypt and abroad. It is not affiliated with any of those authors or groups whose works appear in translation on the website, nor with any organization foreign or domestic.

For more information please write to the editorial board at tahrirdocuments@gmail.com. We invite the submission of materials for translation and publication on the website.

Regards,

The Editors and Staff of Tahrir Documents

 www.tahrirdocuments.org / tahrirdocuments@gmail.com / twitter.com/tahrirdocuments

A Little Further Up the Rift Valley....

Cairo, Egypt

After reviewing an essay assignment for which I assessed the effects of geography on Jordan's economy, my professor asked me why I thought there hadn't been widespread protests in Jordan. Naturally, I was all to happy to explicate. In fact, it's a question I've discussed before in the last month, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the matter.

I think it's obvious to most Jordanians, both in the cities and the villages, both the educated elite and the less educated middle and lower classes, that reform actually is happening in Jordan at a fairly rapid pace, and that the king is the primary impetus behind it. They may have their critiques about what the king pushes, how and why, but they can see positive change happening from year to year.

Since King Abdullah II came into power, there have been drastic ongoing improvements in education at all levels, with a focus on an IT economy, and Jordanian Internet entrepreneurs have been among the most successful in the Arab world. The national debt has decreased, the salaries of teachers have more than doubled in the last two years, tourism and medical tourism have steadily increased despite regional instability, and many other factors of economic health have shown obvious evidence of improvement. Freedom of expression continues to expand, and Jordanian bloggers are award-winning. There has also been significant development in infrastructure.

In addition, King Abdullah II has demonstrated repeatedly that he listens to the concerns of his people, and acts decisively to address those concerns whenever possible. I don't know anyone in Jordan who really believes that a significant segment of Jordanians have any intention of being rid of the king that has done so well by them.

I think it is also worth noting that in a kingdom with relatively low oppression, like Jordan and Morocco, it is neither a surprise nor an imposition when the son of that king is next in line to lead the country. The effect of Presidents Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Gaddhafi in Libya and Saleh in Yemen all conspiring to put their sons in the presidency after them should not be underestimated in determining the reasons for their respective ousters and attempted ousters.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....
When I arrived at St. Andrews to teach my Arabic class for Somali refugees, the education coordinator said to me, "So the Interior Ministry's burning down, is it?"
"What?" I asked. "That's two blocks from my apartment, and I've just come from there! How could I not have noticed?" If I'd known, I might not have left home for fear that my road would be blocked off when I came home.
So we turned to the local paper's Website and found this stunning image. Apparently Interior Ministry employees were also protesting downtown today, and I had no idea, holed up taking classes and doing homework in the AUC dorms in cozy Zamalek - an island in more ways than one!

The Center Party

Cairo, Egypt

Today in our Islamic Political Movements class, we had a special guest, Dr. Tareq Malt of the al-Wasat Party, or Center Party, one of the few "opposition" parties allowed under the Mubarak regime, and therefore one of the best-prepared players in Saturday's referendum and the elections coming up in late May.

The Center: from liberation ... to reconstruction

The al-Wasat Party formed in 1996 when about 20 leaders of the younger generation in the Muslim Brotherhood differed on political matters and broke away. The Muslim Brotherhood seeks an Islamic state that protects women and religious minorities but excludes them from full participation in public life. The al-Wasat Party, however, promotes a secular political system inspired by Islamic values, which are after all the same values on which Judaism and Christianity, and therefore liberalism are built. (There are obvious parallels to be drawn here with the Justice and Development Party that has been so successful in Turkey.)

They affirm the right of any Egyptian, regardless of religion, race or gender, to achieve even the presidency of the republic. They promote freedom of expression, human rights including women's rights, and full social and political equality of all Egyptians. They support a free market economy so long as there are regulations in place to protect the rights of the poor. Above all, they promote education as the surest path towards development of the economy and standard of living in Egypt. The regime of Hosni Mubarak, said Dr. Malt, blamed Egypt's problems on overpopulation, but that's a faulty analysis. With proper education, Egypt could exploit their human, historical and natural resources much more effectively, and this is the key to improving Egypt's economy.

Naturally, as a teacher by trade, I jumped on the idea of education as the key to development. I believe this wholeheartedly, and I've written about it for graduate school, so I know that one of the fundamental challenges to education reform in Egypt is financial. The Ministry of Education simply doesn't have the money to provide a living wage to teachers, which makes teaching a job of last resort and consequently of very low quality. When I asked Dr. Tareq how he proposed to solve the financial crisis in education, he said, "Without corruption, we'll have all the money we need!" There are so many problems with that statement! For starters:
1) Assuming that corruption will simply disappear post-revolution is incredibly naive.
2) Ending corruption doesn't guarantee the appearance of that money in public coffers.

In general, this was the problem with his presentation, and frankly with the platform and program of the al-Wasat Party in general. They have high, idealistic aspirations to find a "third way" between Islamism and liberal democracy, at least on paper, but they don't have a sufficiently detailed plans to achieve them.

al-Wasat Party and the Amendments
I think we were all most disappointed in al-Wasat Party's stance on the constitutional amendments approved by referendum on Saturday. The party supported a "yes" vote on the amendments, as a way of returning stability to the nation. Like many of the youth movements and other liberal parties, most CASAween believe that the constitutional amendments are the most powerful weapon of the counter-revolution, an effort to block real democratic change. Al-Wasat Party, on the other hand, believes that approving the amendments is necessary to provide the necessary political infrastructure to write a new constitution, which will be the first order of business of the new Parliament later this year. Of course, as one of the few political parties with an established apparatus before the revolution, the al-Wasat Party has a great deal to gain from a continuation of the former system and the accelerated timetable of 3 elections (Lower House, Upper House and presidential) and 2 referendum (on the constitutional amendments, and then the new constitution) in 12 months.

Dr. Tareq on the Revolution
What interested me most was his editorializing on the Egyptian Revolution. It was not Egypt's elites, intellectuals, politicians or Islamists who caused the revolution to succeed, he said (even if elites and intellectuals may have started it). It was the apolitical families and the poor who brought the real power to the revolution when they came out late in the second week of protests. They're the real power behind the revolution, and they're the ones to whom the New Egypt is accountable.

Moreover, he said, "Don't be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood!" They were not the power behind this revolution, and that they represented less than 20% of participation in the revolution. (I don't know how he calculates that number, so we'll call it opinion.)

He also noted that "unlike some of those other parties" who were against the revolution at first, and then for the revolution when it was politically expedient, the al-Wasat Party was with the revolution from the very first ... even before! The founders of the Kefaya movement, he claimed, were members of al-Wasat Party, and the party has supported all the youth movements of recent years, and will continue to work with youth as the New Egypt emerges.

Then again, he's a politician, so take that as you will!

Voting In Egypt

Cairo, Egypt

Congratulations to my Egyptian-American classmate Yasmine, and to all my other Egyptian friends who voted today in Egypt's referendum on the military's proposed amendments to the constitution. Whatever the outcome, it's wonderful to know that your voices are being heard!

No to the Amendments!

Cairo, Egypt

Today, when I took my Friday stroll through the protests with Emma and Erin, there was pretty much only one message being delivered: No to the constitutional amendments!

From No To The Amendments!

I also read today about the Association for the Protection of the Revolution, an umbrella activist organization from Port Said doing great things to sustain the power of a peaceful revolution in one of its most violent centers.

"In Order to Form a More Perfect Union"

Cairo, Egypt

Tonight Erin and I went to a meeting of the Popular Coalition for Reform, one of the many fledgling political organizations just beginning to find their feet. The topic was "Why we oppose the amendments to the constitution."

The basic argument boils down to this: The constitution was written under Pres. Anwar Sadat to support a military intelligence state, and expanded under Mubarak to lock in that dictatorship. Amending that dictatorial constitution is not reform; it's a cosmetic change to the process of presidential elections that doesn't alter the fundamental oppression of the constitution or the political system.

They point to the banner that went up on Tahrir Square in the last days of January, listing the main demands of the revolutionaries, and a new constitution was on that list, as was a reform of the Parliament and political party system. These amendments, written by a council formed by the military that put the dictatorship in power in the first place, and pushed through so quickly on the heels of the revolution, is an attempt to placate Egyptian revolutionaries without any substantive changes.

All of that I'd heard before. The most energetic speaker, however, had a slightly different angle that I hadn't heard before:

This, he claimed, was Egypt's first broadly based popular revolution since Moses led the Israelites away from the the pharaoh. (Some would argue that the 1919 Revolution was also a broadly based popular revolution, but I don't know enough to quibble about the details.) Unlike the military coups that brought Nasser and Sadat to power, this was a grassroots revolution supported by intellectuals, the working classes, the poor, women, students ... all walks of life. As such, the creation of a new government should not be left to the military, but should include the participation of all those parties that demanded the reform. He quoted the Constitution of the United States: "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." He quoted a similar line from the constitution of the French Revolution (in French, so I didn't quite catch it). He quoted Rousseau, saying that this Egyptian Revolution also called for a tabula rasa, a clean slate on which to draft a new constitution, a new political system such as Egypt has never seen.

But however impassioned the words of the new revolutionary parties, with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and al-Azhar University supporting the amendments and the recommendations of the Supreme Military Council, there's still a great deal of doubt as to whether the amendments will truly be rejected.

Egyptian Unity

Cairo, Egypt

From Unity March

The cross and the crescent raised together!

It was one of the slogans of the 1919 Revolution in Egypt against the British. Finally tiring of the British Empire's time-honored tradition of "divide and conquer," Muslims and Christians rose up together to throw off the imperialist yoke. Past is future in the New Egypt. In the wake of so-called Muslim-Christian violence this week, which some people have attributed to remnants of the former State Security apparatus, one of the focuses of this week's Friday protest is Christian-Muslim unity.

No to the constitutional amendments!

We're also only 8 days away from a referendum on amendments the Supreme Military Council is proposing to the constitution, and protesters on Tahrir are adamantly opposed to amending the constitution that kept Hosni Mubarak in power for 30 years. They will only accept the drafting of an entirely new constitution, they say. It has been their demand since the very first week of the protests.

One Lord: Muslim, Christian, one people. Destroy churches, destroy homes, [but] the voice of the Copts will not die.

Ten minutes' walk down the Nile, Coptic Christian Egyptians have been protesting for days. They're demanding respect for their rights as a minority, and insisting on a secular state. They're not the only ones. I saw plenty of Salafis there, with their distinctive beards, skullcaps and high-water thobes, bearing banners that called for Muslim-Christian unity, supporting the argument that Salafis were probably not behind the sectarian violence of this past week.

As we came back to Tahrir, we walked past a group of youth painting a banner along the edge of the street.

Behind them, on the fence of a construction site, they were displaying artwork about the revolution.

We also picked up a lot of revolutionary literature and other swag!

What's a Salafi?

Cairo, Egypt

Last night there was an altercation in Mokattam, aka Garbage City, a largely Christian suburb of Cairo. It was reported in the paper that a mob of Salafi Muslims attacked some Christians. When Andrew mentioned this headline in our class on Islamist political movements, it changed the course of the whole lesson.

Our teacher was adamant that it couldn't have been Salafis who attacked those Copts, and I found myself convinced by his arguments and what I know about Salafis. They're academics, scholars of Islam and followers of a literal interpretation of the Quran and the Prophet Mohammad. They're men who know not only exactly what the Quran and the Prophet say, but also understand the context in which those things were said. They understand that Islam is an Abrahamic religion that protects Christians and Jews, that advocates peace whenever possible, and abhors violence except in self defense. They are pacifists to a broad extent.

Moreover, they do not participate as a group in Egyptian politics. That is to say, they are not a united voting block behind any one party. A few vote with the Muslim Brotherhood, some with the National Party, some with the Wafd Party. Others don't participate at all in the corrupt, immoral, un-Islamic government that has made a practice of oppressing Egypt.

The common explanation for this week's violence is that the state newspapers' use of the term "Salafism" is a smoke screen. Nearly everyone I've asked is of the same opinion: the so-called "Salafis" attacking Christians could only be thugs of the old security apparatus. This conclusion is fueled by the evidence uncovered during the days of the revolution that the church bombing in Alexandria was, in fact, orchestrated by the former head of State Security. It became evident during the revolution that reports of a "sectarian conflict" between Muslims in Christians in Egypt was not a reality on the ground, but rather a divide-and-conquer tactic of the Mubarak regime.