Egypt: the Revolution Has It Backward

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That regime change and elections aren't the answer in the Muslim world, has been made plain in the Gaza Strip, where the population voted in an Islamofascist regime, thus effectively killing the state of democracy faster than you can say Hamas.

The problem is that  for democracy to take hold, much more is required than just a ballot box and a pot of purple ink. Freedom is an inherent, universal value, but it requires a civil society and above all, respect for individual rights to take root. A certain stage of social development is needed as well as a mindset that has separated itself from the tribal collective.

The post "A Paradox of Values" on Hoosier Access by Brian Sikma make this plain:

(...) While all parties seem to agree that Mubarak must go, there is very little indication that these popular protests have as their goal the establishment of a Western-style democratic state. The opposition groups have attempted to use the language of freedom to build international support for their cause, but a recent piece in the Washington Examiner takes a look at some polling done in Egypt on popular views regarding the role of religion in society.

In the Middle-East with its strong Islamic culture, democracy as traditionally understood by the Western mind is frequently tempered by strongly held local beliefs about the importance and centrality of religion and its role in society and government. While the West draws its understanding of freedom from Judeo-Christian values, those religions believe that ultimately every human being is responsible to God for his or her actions and beliefs. Aberrations from this point have produced significant amounts of chaos and tragedy. (...) >>>

The West - particularly the clueless crypto Left with their 'democracy' fetish - must let go of their naive revolutionary romanticism when it comes to the Middle East. This is the wrong sequence of events. Civil societies must be built, individuals must emancipate and free themselves from the constraints of the tribal collective that knows no distinction from matters sacred and secular.

I hesitate to state the separation of Mosque and State, because that is often interpreted as French Laicite, or the banning of all things religious from the public domain. But it's originally a negative freedom for the state not to meddle in what is considered the realm of the Church. But what is required here is a mental dichotomy of moral and secular matters, something that is hard enough in the free West with Leftists constantly writing their particular morality into secular law.

Alexis De Tocqueville has written a worthy tome on the concept of true Liberty in 1835 and how it took root in the United States.

Notwithstanding, Europe and in its wake the rest of the world, stubbornly keep following the French route, which is rooted in Rousseau's faulty concept of the collective State. It doesn't lead to Liberty, but to subordination to a collective of one terrifying form or other: ethnic nationalist, theocratic, Socialist or fascist.

This is what is in the making in the heart of secular Arabia, Egypt and in the dominos that are falling in the wake of Tunisia's Socialist Revolution. The call for democracy and freedom is soon turning into a hate fest against the perceived outside enemies, Israel and the US, ironically the very sources of true freedom and democracy!

In Iran the 1979 revolution was started by far Left Socialists and communists, only to be hijacked at a later stage by Islamists. They have beaten the Left at their own game of using stooges to do their dirty work!

Obama has already lost Egypt. He has been reaching out to Islamist organizations, which in Cold War terms is like parley with the KGB and thinking the Polit Bureau will stay out of it. This is rather insidious, given that the aim of the Muslim Brotherhood is the destruction of Western civilization from within.

Much hay has been made of the Pew Surveys (PDF) in the Islamic world as to their loyalty to Islamist causes and radical organizations. The appalling figures speak for themselves and support this shocking analysis that the hive minds aren't ready for any form of democracy in the Middle East. They remain faithfully loyal to the collective, thus spurning any form of individual responsibility. This is not the mature mindset required for a healthy liberal democracy.

Civil order, the rule of law and emancipation come first. Once that has taken hold, the ballot box follows naturally.

Updates

• Pat Dollard has made a compilation of the battles today on Egypt's streets.

• Abbas Milani is the director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. His new book The Shah was published a few weeks ago by Palgrave MacMillan. Michael J. Totten sat down with him in his office at the Hoover Institution to talk about what’s happening right now in Egypt -
  

PJM: "The Iranian Revolution Echoes in Egypt", by Michael J. Totten

• “Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey”. His latest news live from Cairo ... Michael J. Totten: Sandmonkey arrested and beaten, his site under attack ... report from sandmonkey what happened yesterday on CBS

The man who wrote those words – the witty and courageous Egyptian blogger “Sandmonkey” – is currently in hiding in his native city of Cairo, moving from one friend’s apartment to another, as supporters of Hosni Mubarak pursue him and other democracy demonstrators.

PJM: "Cairo Exclusive: Roger L. Simon’s Interview with ‘Sandmonkey’"

Related

- Jerusalem Post: "Our World: Clueless in Washington", by Caroline Glick
- American Power Blog: "Analytical Realism: Political Stability in Egypt is Cardinal Israeli Interest"

Earlier on this subject

- "Revolution on Motion" (I)
- "Postmodern Foreign Policy is Dead, Bring Back the Neocons!" (II)
- "The Nature of the Revolution Is Socialist, Stupid!" (III)

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- "The Economy and Monetary file"
- "The Middle East Project"
- "The Levant Intricate Intrigues"