The popular revolutions sweeping the region disprove all the lies previously told about the Arabs and their values, writes El-Sayed Amin Shalabi* The 9/11 attacks on the US, and subsequent attacks on London and Madrid, created a feeling of unease in the West, with pundits expecting that the forthcoming showdown would be between Western civilisation and Islam. According to various soothsayers of doom, Islam was far too bigoted a faith and Muslims were busy breeding hot-headed terrorists who would do anything to keep women down and undermine Western democracies. The underlying assumption, of course, was that pluralism and reform were incompatible with the basic nature of all Arabs and Muslims. Doomed to hate, people in our part of the world didn't care much for freedom, far less for the American way of life. The Palestinian elections, in which hardline Hamas was swept briefly to power, were taken as evidence of all the above. And the fact that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood once commanded nearly one-third of the country's parliament was also seen as a terrible omen. From Iraq to Afghanistan, the only way the West thought progress would happen was through pummelling the people into accepting a decent kind of government, a government not run by diehard Islamists that is. This was the main argument for the much-vaunted war on terror. Thankfully, the Obama administration didn't buy this kind of rhetoric. As it went about mending bridges with Arabs and Muslims, Washington ditched the "war of terror" rhetoric in favour of more respectful tones. In Europe, however, the rhetoric survived, even escalated. Islamophobia blossomed not only in official circles but also among the public at large -- clergy included. Then came the youth's revolution of 25 January to change all of this. Suddenly, the world realised that Egyptians want what everyone else does: freedom, change, and social justice. The Egyptian people demanded to "bring down the regime," and it took them only 18 days to do so. Theorists will be examining the Egyptian revolution for decades, and its pacifist ways are bound to inspire generations to come. The revolution had an air of purity about it, a folksy nature that attracted people of all walks of life to Tahrir Square. It was a revolution sans posturing and, most of all, sans leaders. When the Iranian leader Khamenei claimed that Egypt was experiencing an Islamist moment, the first ones to deny the suggestion were the Islamists. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood said that it was taken by surprise by the revolution, just like everyone else. Now US and European scholars are reconsidering everything that was said about this region and its insularity to change. The Arabs don't have a special gene that makes them violent, nor are Muslims particularly prone to hate. These were all fantasies created by autocratic regimes to scare the West into keeping them in power. For years, despots who denied freedom to their people and who refused to share or rotate power claimed that they deserved Western support, for else the region would descend into chaos. Unless you support us, dictators told the West, the Islamists would take over. But there was a third way, one that the Egyptian revolution has opened to all. We don't have to choose between tyranny and fundamentalism. Our young want democracy and they have figured out a way to make it happen. A computer-savvy class of young Egyptians have made freedom a rallying cry, louder than all ideologies and special interests. The Muslim Brotherhood, as well as others, followed. For once, neither the autocrats nor the Islamists took the lead. When shove came to push, 30 years of US aid to the Egyptian dictatorship failed to keep the regime alive. Change didn't come from foreign dictates, but grew organically from the wishes of millions of young men and women. Europe is now rethinking the whole thing. Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said that Egyptians and Tunisians have expelled the fears the West used to entertain. No longer would the West think of the Arab world as a breeding ground for angry and violent men, but as a place where democracy can take root, just like anywhere else. Chris Patten, the former EU commissioner, said that in hindsight it was disgraceful for the West to think that freedom and accountability were alien ideas in this region. The West has created a stereotype that was erroneous, and yet it persisted to believe it against all evidence to the contrary. Human rights matter to the Arabs and Muslims just as they matter to the rest of the world. It is easy to say that now. But until recently, many disbelieved it. * The writer is executive director of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.
