Egypt, democracy and the fascist triangle

An unholy trinity of rampant neo-fascism, sharply rising Islamophobia and viral classism has gripped Egypt, showing that the era of Mubarak is far from over

Mohamed El-Menshawy , Thursday 8 Aug 2013
Ahram Online

"Without condensing the issue of democracy in Egypt and diagnosing it as a struggle between the Islamist current and what is known as the civil current, democracy in Egypt is subject to many threats. Most notably, an alarming trinity founded on rising exclusionary fascist rhetoric; encouraging Islamophobia; and overt calls to marginalise lower and poor classes.

Many countries have endured chaos, violence, death and terror in order for their people to enjoy the right to choose their rulers in recurring free and fair elections. But it seems the formula of “one man, one vote,” giving all citizens — rich or poor, lower, middle or upper classes — equal voting rights is not favoured by large sectors of Egyptian society who believe they possess more humanity, culture, cleanliness and education than the majority of the citizenry.

This class does not accept that an “ignorant populace” can choose their rulers, and believes “a starving people” should focus on their “livelihood” not politics and elections. This class prefers to be described as the “old elite”, but I believe “Egyptian neo-fascists” better describes them......

For many decades, this group of elite distanced itself from the real Egypt and the problems suffered by the majority of millions of Egyptians. This was evident in the education sector where the elite did not mind seeing government schools and university education fall apart, and created for themselves alternative education that they believe is good, in private schools with foreign curricula, such as British, American, French and even Turkish. The same thing happened in the health, transportation and housing sectors.
Today, these people claim to be revolutionary, true only in its worst form, and advocate the need to maintain security at the expense of freedoms — security and freedoms they want only for themselves and their ilk, not for all Egyptians equally.
The goals of the January 25 Revolution were not only to overthrow Mubarak, but also change the dynamic of relations between ruler and ruled. This change will never begin as long as the class linked to the former regime remains immune to the winds of change, as events since 30 June have shown they remain."