Revolution in Egypt - A Sane Perspective

The two videos I mention:
The Global Revolution Has Arrived
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQU1K7ubAts

Islam, Democracy and Sharia Law:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY44mN05nAs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFfoeRiHagM

About this video:
I was pretty surprised, not to say disappointed, with the illogical emotional response that many people had to the pro-democratic riots and protests in Egypt.
It seems that people let their ideals overrule their reason.
Well as we speak Mubarak's Egypt is nearing its end as both Egyptian people and western leaders decided to end Mubarak's autocratic dictatorship and replace it with a democratic regime. Only a few things seem to be somewhat problematic. Most people seem to have forgotten that what the western definition of democracy and the will of the Egyptian people won't necessarily result in what we call a democracy. Actually it might just bring an illiberal elected form of dictatorship -- sound contradictory? Well it should, watch the video and understand why...

So what I did in this video is help all of you out there to get a little perspective on what is going on today in Egypt, what the Egyptians actually want and the dangers that lurk around the corner if the Egyptians won't control themselves and let the change be gradual, though-through and well-planed. Because when we take a look at the numbers, the will of the people, as important and precious as it is will not bring on a democracy. In the worst case we will have the Sunni version of Iran and in the best case we will have an Islamic version of Russia. And believe me these two options will probably end up being worse for Egyptians than Mubarak was, and might also provoke instability in a region which is already torn between Sunni and Shia, Arabs and Jews and where human rights are Allah's form of a cruel joke.

Here are some of the numbers I give in the video, all taken form Pew Research Center:
1. Islam has been the official constitutional state religion in Egypt since 1980, before that Egypt was recognized and self-described as a secular country.

2. 80% to 90% of Egyptian Population (~80 million people) are Muslim. Most are Sunni, some are Sufi and other smaller fractions.
The rest of the population are Christians (95% of which are the heavily persecuted Coptics)
+ about 200 Jews
And other oppressed and outlawed minority religions.

3. 59% of Muslims in Egypt believed that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government. (sounds good? They are the worst country in numbers after Pakistan...)

4. 85% of Egyptian Muslims favorably see Islam's role in politics

5. 22% of Egyptians said that in some circumstances, a non-democratic government could be preferable.

6. 61% said they did not see a struggle between modernizers and fundamentalists in their country.

7. 31% did see a struggle and the majority of those sided with the fundamentalists.

8. 60% of Egyptians were either very or somewhat concerned about Islamic extremists in their country.

9. 54% of Muslims in Egypt support making gender segregation the law in their country.

10. 82% support stoning of people who commit adultery.

11. 77% support whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery.

12. 84% of Egyptian Muslims were in favor of the death penalty for those who leave Islam.

More numbers can be seen here:
http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and...

Category:

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• Egypt
• Revolution
• Protests
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• Mubarak
• Islam
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• Sharia
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• Joniversity

[amet1980]

i agree 100% .

any humanist is in conflict in respect to secular dictatorships,but at the end of the day only cruel people will want egyptians to sunk into a non ending islamic theocracy.shah was bad , but i think is rather safe to say mulahs 1 million victims regime is worse.

as in gaza islamists love democracy if it takes them to power.once there though they dont intend to leave.

im sure many gazans must have realized by now, that there are greater "evils" in the world than yahudis.

[Joniversity]

@amet1980 i agree. It's one of those irritating incidents where being a reality erodes values. Sometimes we have to do with the lesser evil.

[6U4RD1AN]

@Joniversity Sorry, but didn´t agree; thats fear, not a good motivation, yeah change in the arab world is risky, but if we want it change for the best, it have to change someday for something else.

[Joniversity]

@6U4RD1AN Well let's be empirical for a minute. What do you think: The Iranian revolution kicked off the Shah who ran a ruthless and murderess regime. But instead we got an even more oppressive and dangerous regime. With all the pain in saying so, the Shah would have actually been better for both Iranians and the world then the current theocracy... Wouldn't you agree?

[amet1980]

84%in favour of the death penalty for apostasy ,is a gross misrepresentation.

take out christians,some atheists,some foreingers,some sufis,you get a number near 100%of all sunni muslims in favour of it.

[Joniversity]

@amet1980 If i'm not mistaken it's 84% of Muslims only.

[IranianAtheism]

Hey Joniversity, do a search on Youtube for:

'How About The People Of Iran? - President Obama's Speech On Egypt'

Iranians: Fighting against Sharia

Egyptians: Fighting for Sharia

[Joniversity]

@DontBendOverForAllah Hopefully i'll have more... :-)

[6U4RD1AN]

@Joniversity Yep, but as you point out in the video, Iran is Iran and not Egypt. See i´m not very optimistic about this, but someday things have to start to change, yes Egypt isn´t the perfect breeding ground for democracy, but if it were it would be a democracy already. Recent news make me even less optimistic of this not being taked over by the military, but still the arab world needs this kind of movements to achieve democracy...someday.

[rostkehlchen]

well,you are right about all that,but...what's the solution? to get rid of a dictator like mubarak,there are actually only two ways,revolution or military intervention. both ways are dangerous,both ways can have desastrous results.

[RichardRoy2]

There we go. Thanks Jonny.

[Anon12356]

Finally someone who makes sense!

The poll you cite is very worrying, although when I cite it in arguments with people they just dismiss it and say "oh well I know all Muslims are moderate" without providing any contradictory polls. Not many have been done on Sharia.

[celltechlars]

Thank you for your effort Jonny...this was very interesting indeed. I was aware that most want Islamic law...or at least they think they want this...and I'm under the impression that most mid-easteners think like this. Eager to get out of the fryingpan of dictatorship, they rush into the fire of Islam. I think these people don't understand the benefits that these dictators bring, by moderating Islam somewhat...still, it's gotta hurt to learn....

[TruthseekerIL]

Great video !! thumbs up

[markushanrath]

i fear your are right