It was only when we protesters risked being shot that revolution in Egypt truly took hold
A VERY GOOD COMMENT
Nawara Najem
(Nawara Najem is an Egyptian journalist, blogger and political activist and was a spokeswoman for the demonstrators in Tahrir Square.)
The Guardian, Saturday 19 February 2011
"....I took up the 25 January call just as I took up every previous one, convinced that the demonstration would be attended by 500 people at best.
That day's demonstration did indeed begin with about 500 people; but then it was joined by crowds of passersby until the numbers in Tahrir Square reached 50,000. The masses had broken through the fear barrier; by the following day, their numbers had doubled. They began to plan how to outmanoeuvre the security forces.....
...The masses that confronted security forces were not the Facebook youth and neither were they the internet activists. Rather, they were segments of Egyptian society whose anger had been ignited by seeing the dead bodies, and so suddenly and unexpectedly they decided that they would risk being shot. Repressive forces want to kill hundreds in order to terrorise the millions, and the only way to foil such a plan is for millions to make the collective decision that they do not fear death. This was the key to both the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions.
Why did the people not fear death? No one knows. It was not only religion, because some of those who died were not believers. It was not only poverty, because many of those who faced death were from the comfortable classes. It was not only despair, as the millions who came out onto the streets were full of hope for change. Perhaps the answer is human dignity. No force, no matter how tyrannous, is able to deprive human beings of this. People broke through the fear barrier, and Christians discovered that the Muslim's are not terrorists while Muslim's discovered that Christians are not agents of the occupation. The poor discovered that they have rights and the middle classes discovered that freedom from counterfeit gains releases the soul. And discovered that they do not need either a leader or commander. Indeed, they don't even need security forces to maintain "security and stability". This revolution is a people's revolution. Whoever claims leadership of it is a liar and whoever claims to be its instigator is a vagabond. Leadership was and remains the property of the masses.
The Egyptian revolution is not yet over. The people have toppled the head of the regime and still they strive to cleanse the pockets of corruption. Let the dictatorships, international forces and beneficiaries clamour. No one can exert control over the will of nations once they have flared up."
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