HAS CHAUTAUQUA BECOME SUMMER CAMP FOR ISLAMISTS?
http://chqdaily.com/2014/07/15/mogahed-to-outline-egyptian-revolution-unrest/
Mogahed to outline Egyptian revolution, unrest
John FordonJuly 15, 2014/0 comments
When Dalia Mogahed took the Amphitheater stage twice last year, she remained calm and objective, bringing thoughtfulness, modesty and erudition to her display of a breadth of knowledge about Arab and American views of each other.
It’s a perspective refined by years of public opinion sampling and analysis for Gallup and other organizations.
This time, Mogahed said, things will be different.
“I’m still me,” Mogahed said, “but this time around, I’m going to be breathing fire.”
Public opinion expert Mogahed returns to the Amphitheater stage at 10:45 a.m. today to launch the portion of this week dedicated to an Egyptian case study of revolution.
Mogahed is passionate in her indictment of the military government, which overthrew the popularly elected Muslim Brotherhood-dominated regime of Mohamed Morsi, almost exactly at the time she was visiting Chautauqua in 2013.
“The current Egyptian government is trying to make us believe that the January 2011 revolution which overthrew President Hosni Mubarak never occurred,” Mogahed said. “This military government in Cairo has not dealt with any of the root causes of the 2011 revolution, and I think they hope that the United States will lose interest and accept the status quo.”
The dilemma facing the Obama administration over Egypt was spotlighted last month when Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Cairo, radiated optimism about Egypt’s future course just one day before President Barack Obama condemned Egypt’s military government when it enforced punitive prison terms against several independent journalists, including three from Al-Jazeera.
After years of American military involvement in the Middle East and South Asia, Mogahed said the administration appears, by its continuing financial and military support of Egypt’s military regime, to be prepared to accept a reliable ally in Cairo in exchange for looking the other way on human rights and other abuses by the Egyptian government.
“That is what worries me,” Mogahed said. “It may look to outsiders like stability has finally returned to Egypt. The situation there is not stable. It is not calm.”
Egypt’s youth brought about the first revolution in 2011, Mogahed said. They’re still there.
“They have the same aspirations. They have the same anger,” she said. “I would say that the situation is bad and getting worse. This current state of affairs is simply not sustainable, and I am convinced there will be grave consequences unless major changes occur in government.
“No one should underestimate the explosive potential of unfulfilled dreams.”
Passionate about her native land, Mogahed moved to Cincinnati at the age of 4, worked for Proctor and Gamble, and got her MBA at the University of Pittsburgh. The cataclysmic events of Sept. 11 changed her life and prompted her to begin a career dedicated to enhancing mutual understanding between Muslims and Non-muslims.
Mogahed plans to start this morning by painting a picture of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. She will share anecdotes with her audience, which illustrate factors leading to that revolution.
For instance, she recalled stopping at a Cairo coffee shop several times during visits to relatives.
“A young man worked in that shop. A military officer would drop by and bully the young man, persistently,” she said. “The youth tried to resist, with dignity, but the abuse continued. There seemed to be no recourse for him against the officer. I could see the fires of resistance building within him. That 2011 revolution was an amalgamation of millions of feelings like this young man experienced.”
Mogahed will lead the audience through the 18-month Morsi regime, which she acknowledged was displaced through genuine popular discontent last summer. But in its place has arisen what she called a “raw state of degeneration and violence. Some massacres by this current regime have exceeded the numbers of casualties from the Tahrir Square riots in 2011.”
Mogahed feels that before Egypt can begin to build a democratic future, there needs to be broad agreement on a new social covenant. Continuing as head of her own consulting firm and in her new position as director of research at the Institute of Social Politics and Understanding, she has been writing extensively about this.
The institute, located in Washington, D.C., is a think tank that focuses on the challenges of the greater Muslim-American community.
“We have entered a period of unparalleled polarization in Egypt,” she said. “The government seeks to enforce unanimity, but it is pluralism that is desperately needed for revolution to sow the seeds of democracy.”
Mogahed said that society needs to debate, discuss and decide what the Egyptian social covenant will be. But, she said, that has not happened.
“I am sorry to say that what I predicted last summer at Chautauqua has come to pass,” Mogahed said. “I said then that an uncomfortable period of military rule may lie ahead, with no clear mechanism in place to get rid of it.”
https://chqdaily.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/a1_071214_web.pdf
From the President – Tom Becker
In Week Four, Chautauqua examines citizenship, using Egypt as case study
Almost two years ago, we began our discussions with Colonial Williamsburg about an ongoing series on the subject of emerging democracies. We felt that our two organizations could combine our resources to build a long-term public dialogue about the challenges to the emergence of democratic societies in our time. We recognize that democracy is less an outcome than an ongoing, evolving practice.
Thus, the specific partnership with Colonial Williamsburg allows us to bring to these conversations expertise and scholarship regarding the founding of the United States and thereby consider the lessons that inform our own evolution that might apply to other emerging democracies. We decided to begin this series with Egypt. At the time we formulated the idea, Egypt had created a new constitution and was being governed by an elected leader, Mohamed Morsi. The Freedom and Justice Party, emerging from the Muslim Brotherhood, had realized political leadership though the electoral process.
In April 2013, Colonial Williamsburg hosted a gathering of some 30 Egyptians, including members of the Freedom and Justice Party, members of opposition parties, and others involved in public life in Egypt. It was very clear by the end of those few days that each of these different players in the political process was tone deaf to the needs of the other. And their economy was in a free fall.
By July, the military stepped in to suspend the constitution, oust Morsi, eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood from the political process and assume absolute control of the country. Recently, Egypt held another “election” which installed Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, formerly the head of the military, in office. So, here we are a year after the military coup. The use of force to crackdown on dissent, even criticism, is applied widely. Basic services such as power and water are in better supply.
The economy remains in a perilous condition. Tourism, once the staple of the economy, is nearly non-existent. And journalism is under assault by the government. A trial was just conducted resulting in the conviction of three journalists from Al Jazeera for seeking the overthrow of the government. Not a single piece of evidence was presented during the trial. A chilling atmosphere exists for anyone in the journalism profession.
During this week we will both look back at the sometimes-chaotic development of our own democracy — the players, ideas, events — and examine the current and prospective conditions in Egypt. Can this ancient civilization find a way to self-govern?
Thanks to the fierce tenacity of Sherra Babcock, vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education and Youth Services; the confident advocacy of Jon Alterman, Thursday morning’s platform speaker from the Center for Strategic and international Studies; and the generous financial backing of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, we will host guests from Egypt during the week. Two of these guests will be on a panel with Jon on Thursday morning. The balance will spend the week as Chautauquans, attending the programming and engaging
in informal conversations among themselves and with other Chautauquans.
Colin Campbell, the president of Colonial Williamsburg, will open the week’s lecture series. He will engage Thomas Jefferson (he can do that sort of thing) in a conversation about the ongoing obligations of building democracy. And from that point, Colin will argue for the much-needed sense of global citizenship.
Colin will retire from his role of president of Colonial Williamsburg this October. He has led this important American institution for the last 14 years. Before we begin the Monday program we will honor Colin’s service to Colonial Williamsburg and the nation by awarding him the President’s Medal. I hope you will join us for this recognition of lifelong commitment to the betterment of civic life in this country and around the world.
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