06/21/12
The Rumors of Another Egyptian Revolution Are Greatly Exaggerated Eric Trager
CAIRO, Egypt—On Wednesday night, thousands of
demonstrators descended onto Tahrir Square to demand an end to military rule. It
was the twentieth straight night of these protests, and the Muslim Brotherhood
marked the occasion by calling
on its hundreds of thousands of members nationwide to join an open-ended Tahrir
Square sit-in and “complete the revolution.”
But from my apartment in Mohandessin, a neighborhood just three miles northwest of downtown Cairo, I couldn’t hear a thing. The streets were calm, the cafes were open, and there was nothing in sight that resembled a revolution. It is a stark contrast from a year-and-a-half ago, when Mohandessin was one of the epicenters of Egypt’s January 2011 uprising and its aftermath. Indeed, by the fifth day of the anti-Mubarak revolt, the neighborhood’s residents organized civil defense units to guard against armed thugs, who left few storefronts, and virtually no ATMs, untouched.
Last year, political unrest and fervor had spread throughout the country. That’s what happens during a revolution. And it’s precisely not what’s happening in Egypt right now.
That isn’t to say that Egypt is calm—it isn’t. In the past two weeks, a court order dissolved the parliament; a new law empowered the military police to arrest civilians; the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a constitutional declaration to enshrine its control of the country; both presidential candidates declared victory; and the official results of the presidential elections were postponed indefinitely. Taken together, these events are being interpreted as a military coup, and many Egyptians are now talking of a “second revolution” against the SCAF—especially if former prime minister Ahmed Shafik, who is viewed as the junta’s preferred candidate, is determined to have won the presidential elections. This “second revolution” would draw critical support from pivotal political blocs, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, and revolutionary youth—all of whom view the SCAF as public enemy number one. And especially around Tahrir Square, revolutionary fervor abounds. “We trusted the SCAF, and they didn’t achieve our demands,” said one protester, while addressing a group of his comrades earlier yesterday afternoon. “So we’re staying in the Square.”
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