Events are moving rather quickly. Police have arrested leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, five former members of parliament, and they’ve disrupted internet service. The latter is because the evidence is pretty strong that Facebook and Twitter have been very powerful tools for the opposition. At the same time, Mohamed El Baradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has returned to his country and is backing the opposition. The Egyptian government is clearly very worried about how events are moving.
The Egyptian stock market has plummeted 10% so far and is expected to go lower.
President Obama is calling on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to make “absolutely critical reforms.” In a letter he calls on Mubarak to dramatically expand individual rights in the country. But Veep Joe Biden refused to call him a “dictator” on PBS. If not, then what is he? The President and his team appear to have their first bone fide foreign policy crisis.
Opposition demands and intentions are not clear. Protestors have circulated vague statements saying they want “freedom and dignity.” Sounds good. But the Muslim Brotherhood has joined the opposition movement. Up until this point the protests have been about food and fuel prices. But the New York Times is reporting with a headline “Religion’s role in Egyptian Protests May Grow.” And also that Al Jazeera is playing an important role in spurring on the protestors.
Will this be like Iran, where Muslim extremists took control of the broad based opposition to the Shah’s policies? Or will Egypt actually become a democratic state?
What happens in Egypt, who is in power when the dust settles, will have enormous ramifications for the entire Middle East. Every president since 1980 has used it as a bulwark against Iran. Will it become another Iran?
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