The Middle East unrest-Egypt

With movement in Tunisia sending sparks of revolution across Middle East & North Africa, there is palpable fear among all if an extremely important country like Egypt will become another playground of private militia & civil war like we are witnessing in some other Arab countries..will update this thread as the developments unfold..

Originally posted by: Indradhanush

This last news puzzles me, last time I heard of elections in Middle east in places like Algeria et al (N Africa but ...) radicals came to power rattling the West, also it is well known West has supported Royals in ME since time long to run a proxy govt.

May Good sense prevail and blood shed gives way to peace all over...

At times I feel India was fortunate to have good Freedom Fighters who held visions for the country. Several leaders had flaws, but in spite of all their fighting they managed to haul India out of British rule and set it on the path of stability and progres

Many people have the incorrect assumption that the revolution in the Middle East is spurred by radicals or extremists. The dirty little secret actually is that USA and other western powers have backed radicals and extremists in power simply for oil access.

The fact is that this revolt is a youth revolt. It is a younger cyber connected generation that has spearheaded the revolution, and not the extremists. The revolts actually include a cross section of the population including Christians and Jews along with the Muslims. People supporting the revolt include progressive thinkers and scientists like Mohameb ElBaradei and Ahmed Zewail.

Wikileak can be traced back to some of the root causes. Governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and several other countries were highly authoritarian, corrupt and the nation experienced high unemployment etc. There is high censorship and freedom of speech does not exist.

Wikileaks revealed that several liberal and progressive bloggers in Egypt were being arrested. Not only were they arrested, they were taken in secret custody and being tortured. There were several desperate please between the American ambassador in Egypt to Hillary Clinton and the White House stating how horrible the situation is and that USA had to get them to release these innocent civilians.

That is why while several western powers supported these corrupt and sinister regimes, many do have genuine sympathies for the revolters for humanitarian reasons. The revolters are indeed on the side of what is right.

Communications, dissemination of information and the technological framework for the revolt is being laid down by Anonymous a Hactivist group which is extremely liberal and pro-free speech. This group crashed Tunisian government and intelligence sites with DDoS attacks facilitating the throwing of the dictator. With the internet outage in Egypt they also mass faxed universities and libraries with Wikileak revelations of torture and corruption.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOLc3B2V4AM[/YOUTUBE]

So from a certain point of view yes the revolution is being spearheaded by extreme radicals. But these are more of anarchists - proponents of absolute free speech and liberty and not some religious extremist group as people tend to assume.

http://www.whyweprotest.net/en/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_%28group%29

While the movement is progressive there is a high risk of religious radicals taking over. The largest opponent of Hosni Mubarak has been the Muslim brotherhood and the Muslim brotherhood has been trying to be actively involved, spearhead and claim ownership of this movement. The Brotherhood claims to be non-violent and rejects the jihad. It is true to most extent, but they also have a strongly Islamic background and wish to reestablish the dar-el-Islam. Hopefully, due their extremist social policies like segregation of men/women, inferior status to women and Coptics the progressive leaders will not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to take power.

India was indeed lucky to avoid the French Revolution or the Bolshevik revolution. However, I doubt if it is the most ideal way to receive freedom. The problem with the idealistic movement for freedom that leaders like Gandhi had is that it moves at a glacial pace. The non violence and integrity of such movements is highly admirable and commendable. Unfortunately, it lacks an adrenaline drive that binds people together and allows room for too much political planning and divisive games. Also when blood, guts and sweat go into something you value it a lot more. Personally I'm a pacifist and have a hard time digesting violent movements, but the impact and impressions of such revolutions in history is undeniable.

Unrest is like an infectious disease and it is possible that the whole region could be affected.

Originally posted by: Indradhanush

<font face="Verdana, 'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="2">Well I disagree Summer, movement is being seen in nations ravaged byunemployment, inflation, low wages and so on...Rich countries like KSA, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain also are ruled by autocrats but are quite at the moment. But the royal there must be sweating to see the power of the people.</font>

Yes it is a domestic problem now. The Middleeast has been a turmoil zone for centuries eventhough there is plenty of oil wealth there. So long as the fights are internal power struggles it is fine, once it crosses borders there is worry.
Everyone is also watching the standoff between USA and Iran.
The Middleeast is also a rich market for the arms vendors and they need enough wars and terrorist activities to keep their sales going.
If not for the strong US n West European support Isreal would not have survived.

Over night protesters and pro govt forces have been clashing with each other. At the moment situation looks very unstable. To summarise

Well Though It's a Clear writing on the wall for Mubarak to quit,There is Fear of Extremists coming to Power through such Revolution.

Images from Egypt

This is an image of the Christians forming a protective barrier around the Muslims to protect them from the violence during prayer time. The Muslim brotherhood may have opposed Mubarak, but they did not envision or plan this revolt. This is a united revolt against oppression and dictatorship. If this spirit of unity continues, I doubt the divisive extremist forces can destroy the goodwill of the people.