MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
President Mubarak Devoted to protecting Egypt as Unrest Continues
Saying he remains devoted to protecting Egypt, a defiant President Hosani Mubarak vowed to change his Cabinet to help bring social, economic and political reforms to the country, but defended his security forces' crackdown on anti-government protesters. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“President Mubarak Devoted to protecting Egypt as Unrest Continues” What a liar! He's a puppet of the US and a traitor to his own people and all the Arab world. The USA has its own interest and this maggot is a traitor. 30 years of licking the USA's butt.
Jan 29th, 2011 - 01:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0This article is funny in its own particular way and shows the hipocrisy of these people, they only care about money, but someone still has a little bit of sense of reality left
“For a ratings agency that contributed to the recession, they seem to be getting it wrong again,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, which has several observers in Egypt, said in an interview.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/world/middleeast/29egypt-economy.html?ref=egypt
I hate to say this chaps, but this is the 3rd country to suffer,
Jan 30th, 2011 - 12:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0now who will be next, it could well be a very hot 2011,
and not for the tourist,
I the risk for Egypt is to fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and other very violent radical islamic groups. If they have their way, Egypt will be lost forever. As much as I don´t like Mubarak, I do hope he can reign in until there is a peaceful democratic transition.
Jan 30th, 2011 - 12:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0What does “lost forever” mean in this instance? There's no way one be sure, for the sake of the Egyptian populace, that an Islamist government - whether democratic or not - would be worse than Mubarak's secular dictatorship. The barely disguised reservations expressed by the West over the protests clearly have nothing to do with being concerned for Egyptians' human rights - or to preclude that country from being “lost forever”. It has to do with fear of having a West- and Israel-friendly government being replaced by one with the opposite qualities.
Jan 30th, 2011 - 01:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0Hi Forgetit,
Jan 30th, 2011 - 05:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0I think an Islamic regimen will definitely kill any democratic aspirations for Egypt´s people. Egypt needs more freedom, not less, they need economic reforms, not regression, they need opennes.
Also, Egypt is a multi-cultural, multi-religious society, if the extremist islamic take power many egyptians will be forced to leave the country. Already all the jews left, even though they had been there in Egypt for two thousand years, one generation of extremism was enough to wipe them out of Egypt, along with thier historic ties to that country.
Regards
Considering that 90% of Egyptians are Sunni Muslim, it's an exaggeration to call Egyptians a “multi-cultural, multi-religious society.” Plus, if the electorate is itself religious, then there's no dichotomy between a government being democratic and at the same time harboring theocratic traits. Pro-west commentators accuse Turkey's current government of leading the country away from secularism and toward Islamism. However, the Erdogam regime is the most popular government Turkey has had in decades. It was the authoritarian military that was keeping Turkey “secular,” just like it was Mubarak who was keeping Egypt pro-west. So if you want a country to be more democratic, be prepared to watch it become less western and secular if the electorate has a strongly religous culture and no liberal one. I'm not religious myself, but I don't see a secular dictatorship as being any better than a religious regime, whether authoritarian or not, if said regime genuinely represents its people's feelings as opposed to being a client of foreign powers (like Mubarak's government was).
Jan 30th, 2011 - 06:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0If Turkey is the model for Egypt, good for them, but then again, Turkey transitioned peacefully to this point in their history and I´d have to say that Erdogam´s party is quite different from the Muslim Brotherhood. Erdogam´s not radical, he has not ousted religious minorites from Turkey, he has kept it a free country, he has maintained relations with Israel and the west same as other Turkish leaders, he has maintained a dialogue with Kurdish minorities too.
Jan 30th, 2011 - 09:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0None of this addresses my point: that if a country lacks a liberal culture, one shouldn't expect, in case it is governed by a democratic regime, that it adopts a liberal constitution. Muslim immigrants in European countries are shown in opinion polls to be in favour of much more conservative legislation when it comes to the treatment of, say, women and homosexuals. They also disagree with the western natives as to the extent of freedom of speech, at least when applied to religious matters. Should one expect them to become secular liberals if they have their way in a democracy of their own?
Jan 30th, 2011 - 03:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As for Turkey, it seems that it only adopted a secular constitution due to an exogenous factor: the perspective of joining the European Union. So far, the European Union has shunned Turkey. And in response, Turkey, too, has increasingly turned its back on the west. Since Erdogan took office, the country is no longer eager to collaborate with the West's agenda in the Middle East. That is to say, Erdogan has not “maintained relations with Israel and the west same as other Turkish leaders.”
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