A
column in The New York Times, published on
December 18, 2012 by Thomas
Friedman,
Egypt: The Next India
or the Next Pakistan, raises
important questions for
the Muslim world. Will Egypt
adopt a policy of India
to appoint minorities
like
Sikhs and Muslims
to important positions in
the state structure? Will Morsi
appoint a Coptic Christian
to be the Army Chief of Staff? The answer
is more likely to
be a NO in the light of the just concluded referendum votes in Egypt. This
referendum posed two questions for
voters: yes, meant Egyptian Draft
Constitution incorporating Sharia will be the state of governance,
and no, will give liberal and secular
character to the constitution. The
results are in
with a Yes, and Egyptians have made a choice. Three months after
Mubarak’s departure,
Ayman
al Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's
deputy
and successor, told the Egyptian
people in a video message that
their revolution would not be complete until
they had established a true Islamic state. It
was
a message which has finally got
the
approval of Morsi and the Muslim
Brotherhood which
is a signal that
Egypt
will take the path of Islamic theocracy.
Will the voice of the
liberal, secular
and minorities shunned by this Muslim Brotherhood
victory? Or the
struggle for ‘real democracy’
keeps its momentum alive on
the streets of Cairo and
Alexandria.
Can the Muslim Brotherhood forget
that
the
ouster of Mubarak was brought by the Egyptian youth
between
20-35 year
olds? Can they forget that they were part
of politics and aspects of
the social structures:
satellite television and
the new social media which played a role
in spreading the protest so
quickly? In yesterdays,
the tidal wave of discontent
in the Arab street had become
the harbinger
of change, gateway to
liberal
democracy,
respect for
pluralism, and a force for reason , but the adoption of ‘Sharia’ in today’s referendum in
Egypt
may
have dampened the hopes and aspirations of Tahrir Square crowd.
Egypt
was supposed to become the
torch bearer of
the new renaissance and
catalysis for the Muslim
world to bring the needed
transformation in their respective societies. It was expected that
the
domino effect could
take place in most Middle-East and African Arab countries.
Michael
Bell, a former Canadian
ambassador
to Egypt, Jordan, Israel
and the Palestinian territories,
in his opinion published in
Globe and Mail on Dec 12, 2012, titled, “
From One Egyptian
Autocracy to Another”, stated
that
Morsi
is committed to a more religiously observant society,
where
belief dominates society and where government
has a moral responsibility to
see
that it does. He
further stated in his column that ’Ideology and religion can make
a potent brew, for what believer can abjure the divinity as
revealed in sacred
texts? Thus the legacy of modern
autocracy combines well with the
certainty of ideological
conviction. On Friday, December
21, reported in Globe and Mail, two young men, scarves wrapped
around their terrified faces, were carried through the crowd, were described
as “agents of the secularists,” and
were
mercilessly beaten by the mob and
bound in wire This may mean tomorrow the
secular opposition
will be punished and demonization of women and
killing of Coptic
Christians in Egypt will take place to maintain their religious
and moral responsibility. Events
like this will turn Egypt to a theocratic state
like Iran and Saudi
Arabia and Friedman’s
prophetic line- if it would be Next Pakistan will
come true.
The Muslim Brotherhood cannot ignore the lessons of Gen. Zia-ul
Haque of Pakistan
when he transformed
a moderate and secular
Pakistan
to Islamic theocracy under
the tutelage of Jamaat-e-Islami (ideological
cousin of Muslim Brotherhood).
Pakistan
has become the ‘bedrock’
of Muslim extremism,
and has been pronounced a ‘failed
state’. The Muslim Brotherhood
cannot ignore the street power
of secular liberals of Cairo and
Alexandria to oust Hosni Mubarak. Morsi has to lead this
weak democracy by reaching out
to the ordinary Egyptians
and
convince his party of the Faithfull’s
that Islamic constitution
cannot be applied
in modern times, because Iran, Afghanistan
and Saudi Arabia
are
failed examples
of Islamic state.
These countries have rejected
fundamental human rights to
keep ‘Sharia’ as the order
of the day. Saudi Arabia and Iran are the power houses
of Islamic theocracy. One houses
the Sunni doctrine to rule its people, and
the other Shia doctrine to rule its citizens. They are also biggest oil
producers and each country has significant areas
of political influence in
the
Muslim world. Saudi
Arabia is a strong ally of the
US and has been
the
biggest consumer of US arms. It also has
a state policy driven by Wahabi theocracy which
supports extremism
to strengthen
their religious and
political monopoly in the Muslim world.
In his book ‘The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Saud from
Tradition to Terror’, American scholar,
Stephen Schwartz details the
vigorous
program
of ideological export of
Wahabism financed and
directed by the Saudis.
Akbar Ganji,
an
Iranian author and
political activist and
a former member of the
revolutionary guard at the time
of Iranian
Revolution, who later became the
strongest voice of
dissent, refutes the claims of the Western
media that Ahmadi Nejad is the main culprit
of Iran’s
ills today. It
is Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, who has tremendous
authority over all major state
institutions, and is the head of state, commander in chief, and
top ideologue. Khamenei is
the Sultan of Shiite theocracy
and a key individual
behind
all
repressive operations
existing in Iran. It
is the Shia/Sunni divide and
the repressive nature of the regimes
which has become central in
the politics of the
Middle East. Saudi
Arabia has treated its minority Shia population as second class citizens and
similar treatments have
been inflicted on Sunnis
by
the Iranian regime.
Shias have long faced discrimination
in Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia
which follows a very conservative Wahhabi interpretation of the
religion, in which Shia
are considered heretics. Conversely, as Sunni
Muslims, the Balouch people in
Iran, experience marginalization and
discrimination in a country where Shia Islam is
the official state religion and holds political power.
With
Egypt
now heading towards Sunni
theocracy,
Saudi
influence will grow
in the Muslim world and all avenues
to real
democracy in
the
Muslim world will be temporarily/permanently
halted.
It is sad, what we witness today is a total rejection of reason brought
about by the Muslim religious
pundits across the globe and we are entering a period where morality has
sunk to its lowest state.
The so- called
moralists from the
Islamic hemisphere in Iraq
have unleashed
brutal atrocities against their own co-religionist,
killing innocent Iraqi
population on a regular interval.
The Taliban
in Afghanistan
and Pakistan
are
killing the Sunnis and
Shias to keep their religious
doctrine alive. Morsi, the Egyptian
President and members of Muslim
Brotherhood should read the pages
of Muslim history and
contribution of the scholars
to change the face of
this earth. When the war between the cross
and the crescent were fought, the city of Baghdad & Cordova, under
the Muslim rule had
produced scholars
like Ibn-e-Haitham,
Omar Khayyam, Ibn-e-Khaldun and
Ibn-e-Rushd, which
paved
the way for European renaissance.
Spain,
not Italy,
was
the cradle of the rebirth of Europe. The cities
of the Saracenic world,
Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, and Toledo,
were growing centers
of civilization and
intellectual
activity. It was
the light from these cities, which
finally brought Europe out of darkness, and the rebirth of
science and philosophy impacted
the Christian Church to shun their belief
of religious & intellectual intolerance.
Before it is
too late, Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood
should cut all allegiances
to Ayman-al- Zawahiri-the Al-Qaeda
ideologue. Morsi should use his
wit and intelligence
to undo the teachings of Syed
Qutb, the ideologue of Muslim Brotherhood whose anger against the
West ultimately created the
Al-Qaeda and other extremist outfits
throughout the Muslim world.
Morsi should choose sanity and reason
over political emotions to
run the governmental affairs
of this divided nation.
The author is a free-lance columnist whose opinions have been published in local newspapers like Edmonton Journal and international magazines and newspapers like Al-Ahram, Al Hayat, Gulf Daily, Viewpoint and Friday Times-Pakistan. He is the President of South Asian Canadian Forum for Peace called DEEP (Defy Enmity Encourage Peace) and can be reached at whaque@shaw.ca
