Sunday, February 13, 2011

To Mohammad El-Sayed Said


Al Jazeera's senior political analyst pays tribute to the community organisers who made Egypt's revolution possible.

Marwan Bishara

"........Contrasting visions

The contrast between the visions of Said and Ishaq on the one hand, and that of the deposed Mubarak presidency on the other hand, couldn't be starker.

Like Mohammad El-Sayed Said, the new national leaders emerging from Tahrir Square seek a state that is neither religious nor neoliberal, capitalist nor socialist, Muslim nor Christian; they are dying, and many have literally, for a united, humane, prosperous, truly democratic Egypt for all.

The professional pundits who were parachuted into Egypt by the international media have brought with them pre-cooked conclusions about "radical Islam", security threats and what it takes to ensure regional stability.

But ordinary Egyptians have shown them - and us - that we don't have to sign up for a world of extremes, where Osama Bin Laden and Hosni Mubarak are the only possible choices.

The crowds in Tahrir Square stood firmly in the middle and stood their ground, are finally making room for everyone in Egypt - and giving the world a lesson about democracy in the process."

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