Egyptian protests could signal real change
In September 1989, I was studying in England. The newspapers reported that East Germans were escaping to Austria through Hungary. We all waited for the Soviet tanks to roll in to stop the defections but they did not come. Instead, there were widespread protests in East Berlin culminating in the Berlin Wall coming down.
Those were heady times. I had grown up with the threat of nuclear annihilation as the Cold War escalated. The Berlin Wall was the visible symbol of the Iron Curtain, separating the West from the East; or perhaps the other way around. Intrepid student travellers from the West sometimes backpacked through the Eastern Bloc and came home with tales of deprivation and oppression.
East and West Germany were reunited, something I never expected in my lifetime. One by one Eastern Bloc countries opened, Romania being one of the last. And it was one of the most oppressive under Ceausescu. My church sent truckloads of supplies to the orphanages of that country.
The lesson for me was that oppressive dictators or governments cannot stand forever. Although these ones had lasted for decades, ultimately, they cannot support the level of oppression needed to keep the people under control. The people will rise up to resist oppression.
And so, when street riots broke out in Tunisia in January, it led to the overthrow of one of the most oppressive governments in North Africa. As most of the countries in that region are also police states, it gave surrounding governments the jitters.
Echo riots have broken out in countries like Yemen and Jordan.
But nothing has compared with the mass protests in Cairo. On January 25, a national holiday called “Police Day," young people took to the streets to protest the police government. They called it “Day of Anger" and denounced decades of corruption and torture under president Hosni Mubarak. Egypt has been under a “state of emergency" since 1952. This has given the president virtually unlimited powers.
Each day from January 25, the protest continued and grew. It was no longer just the youth but also doctors, old people, families and even sports and music stars joined in.
Initially, the government fought the protest with tear gas and beatings. But when that failed, Mubarak made “concessions." These minimal concessions–not running in the next “election" and replacing some of his Cabinet members–were designed to quell the protest just enough.
And surprise of all surprises, pro-Mubarak “protestors" showed up, looking a lot like hired thugs. The military stood back and let these new protestors wreak violence on original demonstrators. But even this did not end the demonstrations.
Those who track with religious persecution issues will know that there have been incidents of severe persecution of Christians. Egypt is a very religious country with both Muslims and Christians taking their faith seriously. The most recent incident was a New Year's Eve bombing of a church in Alexandria.
For this reason, there was real concern that this would turn Muslims against Christians, especially with the potential for the Muslim Brotherhood to get involved. So far, Egypt's Coptic Christians have stood shoulder to shoulder with Muslims in Tahrir Square, even those with the short-cropped hair and long beards marking them as members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Christian minority in Egypt is about 10 per cent of the population. Most are Coptic, a Christian tradition that predates Islam in Egypt. Given the dominance of Islam and the history of religious tension, Christians are at risk with political change. Christians in Egypt have asked for prayer for a peaceful change and a positive impact on the region.
For as goes Egypt, so go many other Middle Eastern countries. If there can be a peaceful transition to democratic government in Egypt, there will be pressure on other countries to follow. Many of us were sceptical in 1989 but now former Eastern Bloc countries are part of the EU. Let us watch Egypt prayerfully, with hope that the Tahrir protesters get the freedom they are chanting for.
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