Let Egypt have its voice

It is quite odd that after 30 years of rule, Western countries are just discovering that their Egyptian ally is not a lover of democracy. What Egypt does like, however, is the U.S. and its belligerent ally, Israel. Therefore, we should not be surprised by the revolution’s lukewarm support from the pretend flag-bearer of democracy, the U.S.

A justification for the lack of support Egyptian rioters are receiving might be found in the completely inaccurate idea that the Muslim Brotherhood, widely portrayed as being composed of cold-blooded, dark-bearded extremists, will take over the country after President Mubarak’s departure. This is factually wrong, as the Brotherhood declared it would not bring forward a candidate if there were elections. Moreover, the Brotherhood voluntarily removed itself from the riots. Though there is no clear rallying figure for the opposition yet, the Egyptian people are turning their eyes (though not unanimously) toward Mohamed ElBaradei for support during these revolutionary times. A Nobel Peace Prize winner and ex-director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, he is far from a fanatic. So why does the U.S. tremble in front of what is nothing but a rational revolution, a fight for values?

Apart from the looters who escaped from prison and attempted to spread violence in the city, the Egyptian youth hardly resembles a brutal herd pushing for violent revolution. In a beautiful text published by The Guardian on Sunday, titled “Tell everyone: Egypt’s revolution is sweet and peaceful,” Egyptian Amr Shalakany managed to access the Internet to describe the situation in Tahrir Square to reveal to the world that protesters are peacefully waiting for Mubarak to resign—they are not spreading discord or violence.

Though Mubarak is attempting to promulgate top-down reforms to pacify his people, it is unlikely that the Egyptians will accept them. Change is a process that is hard to implement, and Mubarak, by his suppression of the Internet, cell-phone networks, and the television news channel Al-Jazeera, is scarcely fulfilling the youth’s craving for freedom. As Mubarak reinforces his autocratic image, his regime seems more and more incompatible with democracy—the kind of democracy that the U.S. would be proud to support.

How contagious is the freedom that threatens to enrapture the Middle East and steal its populations away from U.S.-friendly governments? China demonstrated its fear of freedom when the country blocked all Google searches for “Egypt” as of Jan. 31. First Tunisia, now Egypt—might the revolution spread to Sudan, Syria, Algeria, Yemen, further in the Middle East, and further in the world?

Perhaps we should attempt to walk in the footsteps of those students who preceded us here at Columbia. Why aren’t we, like our counterparts from the ’60s, supporting the liberation of a people with all our energy? The task of supporting an Egyptian reform and its protesters falls to us as the educated youth of this country. Even if our leaders have been supporting autocrats for years, that does not mean that we should we endorse them too. The Egyptian revolution is an uprising that calls for a democracy with values and sets an example that should inspire us as citizens of a country whose values often seem hollow.

Today countries are breaking free of the shackles of Western-backed “semi-democratic” dictators. Committed to appearing principled, the U.S. can hardly continue to openly support their longtime ally Mubarak—hence the number of platitudes we have heard from U.S. government officials these last few days on the sensitive topic of the Egyptian protests.

There has always been dissonance in the tune that the U.S. plays in the Middle East, but let us hope that, for once, the U.S. will remain silent and allow Egypt to speak for itself.

The author is a Columbia College sophomore majoring in philosophy and Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies.