UC Researchers Explore the New Revolution Its History and Its Impact

While events in Egypt continue to make world headlines, University of Cincinnati researchers revealed the compelling history behind those headlines. In the Feb. 7 forum, “Arab Uprisings: Revolution in Egypt, Tunisia and Beyond,” the power of the voice of the grassroots youth movement was examined, as many of the attendees – UC students and community members – discovered the impact and the risk of movements launched by the protestors who are similar in age, as well as the delicate balance of actions from the United States in the wake of holding longtime alliances with these regimes. Among the forum’s attendees were faculty and students with friends and family members in regions affected by the new revolution.

Four speakers led the UC forum: Ethan Katz, a UC assistant professor of history and historian of modern Europe; Robert Haug, a visiting assistant professor in the UC Department of History; Elizabeth Frierson, a UC associate professor of history; and Vanessa Walker, who is currently completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a specialist in U.S.-foreign relations.

Katz remarked that the impact of colonialism across North Africa is essential to understanding the revolution unfolding today, as Western governments long occupied and exploited the region’s traditional Islamic societies. Katz broke down the resulting tensions within these societies into what he called four categories: the influence of the West versus perceptions of that influence as being imperialist and anti-Islamic; opposing manners of liberation, one being Marxist ideas of socialist revolution, and the other Islamic politics founded on the principles of the Prophet Mohamed; differences over total unity verses power sharing; and the building of mass political movements by educating and mobilizing supporters, versus achieving political victory through force and the military.

“These four tensions are fundamental to understanding the last half century of developments in the Arab world and North Africa more specifically. They were present in the nationalist movements of these countries from their earliest days, and more importantly, they have remained present since each of these countries became independent,” Katz said. “In large measure, the dysfunction of these societies and the underlying causes of today’s unrest across the region, as well as the tensions within these popular movements across the region, lie in the inability or unwillingness of the post-colonial states in these countries to resolve these tensions.”

Katz concluded by emphasizing that any resulting secular democracy cannot be imposed from the outside nor emerge in opposition to Islam. “We can only hope that this moment we are witnessing now – undoubtedly one of dramatic change in the Arab world – may mark the beginnings of more widespread, homegrown secular Islamic democracies,” he said.

Haug’s discussion uncovered the history of the Muslim Brotherhood (the Society of Muslim Brothers), the world’s oldest Islamist political organization. Haug revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood first organized in 1928 as a broad reform movement and was building its political involvement until the 1940s when the Muslim Brotherhood was first suppressed by the government. Haug says further repressions under Gamal  Àbd al-Nasser culminated into an assassination attempt by a member of the militant wing of the movement, resulting in a split in the Brotherhood – one side renouncing violence and the other seeking to radicalize and militarize the movement. The latter resulted in splinter movements such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and in the 80s and 90s, al-Qaeda.

In the 70s under the reign of Anwar Sadat, the Brotherhood reemerged as a reformist party and, despite being officially outlawed, has regularly had candidates in Egyptian elections. Haug added that it was an offshoot movement of the Brotherhood, Tanzim al-Jihad, that assassinated Sadat in 1981.

Haug explained that throughout its history, the Muslim Brotherhood has worked to distance itself from the violent and radical organizations, and currently in Egypt, the Brotherhood is distancing itself from influence in the democracy movement. Haug believes the Brotherhood is directing its political strategies to waylay any Western fears of instituting a radical Islamist regime, and as a result has not taken a leadership role in the crisis in Egypt.

“These protests have not been anti-Western. In fact, the rights and freedoms the protestors have been demanding are precisely those enjoyed in the West: fair and open elections, an independent media, essentially the creation of a liberal democracy,” explained Haug. “These expectations would only be threatened by pursuing a political course which alienates Western allies, investment and tourists.”

Walker’s remarks explored the current uprisings in the context of longstanding tensions between the Unites States’ staunch advocacy of democracy and human rights and its alliances with dictatorships. “The current uprisings raise questions of how the U.S. can simultaneously support and aid such authoritarian governments and advocate advancement of human rights and democracy. Is it simple hypocrisy? Is U.S. commitment to such values mere lip service, always trumped by security concerns and economic interests? This support of anti-democratic regimes, and tension between our nation’s values and our allies’ practices – let alone our own – is hardly new,” Walker said.

Throughout the 20th century, U.S. policymakers have often chosen to back authoritarian governments in the name of stability over democratic nationalist movements. Yet, she added that there can be too much emphasis on the U.S. role in bringing in and maintaining anti-democratic regimes. “The United States can no more simply ‘choose’ democracy for foreign government than it can guarantee stability by backing authoritarian figures.”

Walker emphasized that the issue of human rights as part of U.S. foreign policy needs to be included as part of a broader world strategy, and not a tradeoff between morality and objectives such as national security; that realistic expectations on that issue are vital and that tradeoffs are sometimes necessary; and that credibility and trust are vital for negotiations – all challenges for the Obama administration in responding to the revolts.

Frierson has lived in the Middle East and is a published researcher on the history of politics, censorship, women and cities in the Middle East. She told the crowd of more than 100 attendees that the Middle East has a long history of democratic movements as well as young people who are trying to better their futures.

Although Western media is giving attention to social media being used to spread the message about the revolution, Frierson emphasized that while Facebook and Twitter have been a presence, they’re not a large one, considering the economic struggles of the population and the expense of smartphones. “The Revolution has primarily been communicated mouth to mouth in the old fashioned way that the word of revolution has spread for the last century and more,” she said. She cited the first constitutional revolution as taking place in Iran in 1905.

Frierson also added that schools in the early 1900s in Egypt – Christian, Muslim and Jewish schools – were teaching patriotism as part of a new idea of the state and what the state could do. “And that’s part of what we’re seeing in Egypt today, an expectation of what the state should provide fundamentally: security for all citizens, to speak freely, but also to provide a viable economic environment for people to survive. And, plenty of riots in Egypt in the past have been ‘bread riots,’” she said.

Frierson said she wanted to emphasize that coalition politics are not new and that democracy is not a new concept in the Middle East. “This moment in Egypt, for me, has been gripping and a bit worrying because the people on the streets there today, the ones that are disappearing in numbers that we really don’t know, are an age group that is represented here at the University of Cincinnati – an age group that has so much promise,” Frierson said. “I am deeply moved by their courage, knowing what they know about the security police, knowing that amid the crackdown they have taken to the streets to not only improve their economic situation, but also to make the world a safer place for peace and democracy.”

The forum was followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer session with audience members, among them Hazem Said, an associate professor with the information technology program in the College of Engineering & Applied Science (CEAS). Said told the audience he had lived half of his life in Cairo and half in Cincinnati and raised the question of whether the U.S. is ready to deal with an independent state in the Middle East. Haug responded that in regard to the involvement of Islamic movements in politics, it will take some time for Americans to realize that a government with an Islamic character or component is not necessarily the Taliban.

Also in the audience was Ihab Saad, an associate professor of applied science in CEAS, who had lived for 31 years in Egypt and Cairo before spending two decades living in the United States. He raised the issue about U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East as part of the U.S. hesitancy to accept an independent Egypt. Walker responded that what we’re seeing publicly stated by the U.S. Department of State may be inconsistent with what is happening behind the scenes, but that the U.S. could be working to create a silver bridge for a dictator to leave – an effort of quiet diplomacy versus public stature – in protecting U.S. interests in the region.

Frierson also praised the bravery of international media in what she called a heroic role of bearing witness to reporting what was happening in the region.

The forum was facilitated by Willard Sunderland, UC associate professor of history, and was sponsored by the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences Office of the Dean, the UC Department of History, Department of Political Science and the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center.