Editorial

Egypt: holding the key to justice or jihad?

It was no accident that David Cameron stopped off in Cairo during his recent visit to the Gulf. The original purpose of the British Prime Minister's visit was to push British exports, including arms exports, to the oil rich Arab sheikhdoms. But, in the light of the political hurricane that has swept through the entire region, his advisers suggested he might benefit from a face-to-face interaction with the new leaders of what is arguably the most important country in the Arab world. It currently counts for more than either Iraq or Syria, its nearest historical rivals, and has more long-term significance than the petty sheikhdoms that dominate the Gulf.

What happens in Egypt today has knock-on effects throughout the surrounding area. Hence Cameron's stop-over for talks with General Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and his military colleagues on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that is currently in charge of running the country.

The continuing political turmoil in the Middle East has its roots in Tunisia, where a young street vendor, Mohammed Bou'Azizi, harassed by the local authorities in his home town of Sidi Bouzid, set fire to himself in front of local government headquarters. The ensuing anger at the circumstances leading to the young man's suicide allied itself to simmering public resentment and swept away the old and corrupt power structure, headed by President Zine Abdine Ben Ali, who has since been given asylum in Saudi Arabia.

Egypt was next. Former air force general Hosny Mubarak, who came to power following the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, used emergency powers to rule his country for the past 30 years. But the masses, fed up with his corrupt dictatorship, came together in week after week of largely peaceful demonstrations that ultimately forced him out of power. Political unrest is also evident in many other neighbouring countries, ranging from Morocco, Algeria and Libya in the West, to Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain in the East. The old order is threatened as never before.

The world's fascination with what happened in Egypt, much more so than Tunisia or any other country, speaks for itself and is accounted for by more than a compelling history that goes back to pharaonic times. Whether it is Cairo's role as a centre of Islamic learning, or the all pervasive influence it exercises as the centre of the Arab world's film and music industry, or the sheer size of this most populous Arab country, Egypt has always played a central role in the political and economic life of the Middle East.

Significantly, when Gamal Abdel Nasser launched his officers' coup in Egypt in 1956, it sparked off a wave of republican sentiment and pan-Arab nationalism that fundamentally changed the region's political landscape. For a brief period Egypt was united with each of Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya. A parallel process of political change is now underway and Egypt could once again hold the key to what finally emerges.

For the moment Egyptians themselves are straining to see whether the Tantawi-led military council will follow through with its promise to hold elections, limit the powers of any future president, enshrine media freedom and guarantee basic human and political rights for all citizens. All this is the stuff of a liberal and democratic future.

But there are other considerations to take into account. Egypt is also the birthplace of the Muslim Brothers, Osama Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, as well as other jihadist thinkers like Sayyid Qutb, author of 'Milestones' hanged in 1956, and Abdel Salam Faraj, executed in 1982, who argued the need for violent jihad against secular Arab rulers. Yet another Islamic radical, Yusuf Al Qaradawi, spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, is back in Cairo after spending 50 years in exile in Qatar. A few weeks ago he attracted a million supporters who joined him in prayers in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Al Qaradawi was previously famous for calling on his supporters to launch suicide bomb attacks on all Israelis.

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