tahrir square

When all you have left is a drone, every problem looks like collateral damage.

It’s all about who you follow.

So what should we do now? Nothing.

And the jihadists are watching with glee…

As I watch the latest news from Egypt, that the country’s parliament has been dissolved by a Mubarak-era court, I wonder: Has the revolution ended before it began?

Assuming religious politics will play a significant role in the new government after the elections, will it be radical, moderate, or just the familiar gridlock experienced by most democracies?

Left or Right, the market always seems to win. This is actually where I would locate the greater threat to Arab democracy, and the temptation to slide into some form of authoritarianism, older or newer. As the people of the region confront the reality that they have little say over economic policy, and will be forced to accede to the contingencies of global capitalism, they may well become immensely frustrated by the scale of change and demand something different. Considering how volatile European and American politics have become, and how frequently we now see street protests and even supposedly stable and demure countries, how much more so these new democracies?

What the anxious West has failed to recognize in the Arab Spring is that the political transformations of the Middle East are the coming of age of a new Islamism.

Despite a media blackout on the killing of Shaykh Emad, who refused to see the protests as illegitimate rebellion, Twitter and Facebook were on fire with expressions of sadness and outrage.

So the FJP says to the FEP: hey, you’ve insulted Islam.