Currently with the revolution in the Arab world still ongoing, many are worried as to what will happen when the dust finally settles and right now the main focus is on Egypt. People all over, especially in Israel and the US have stated that they are worried about the Muslim Brotherhood. This is nothing but a fear that both parties will lose their grip on Egypt. Both Israel and the US are afraid of democracy in Egypt and have an irrational fear of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The US and Israel have had a long relationship with Mubarak, claiming that he is a stalwart ally in the War on Terror and in keeping Israeli security intact. The US funded Egypt and ignored the brutality of the Mubarak regime in exchange for them keeping the peace treaty with Israel and cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood. Now that the Egyptian revolution is occurring, both Israel and America have shown their true colors. Israel made sure that “nostalgia for the ex-president [Mubarak] was poured on primetime news”[1] and in America, the Obama administration has been sending out mixed messages, with the President demanding that Mubarak reform his government while Biden makes statements such as saying that he “‘would not refer to him as a dictator.’”[2] In reality, what both countries are showing is democratic hypocrisy. They love democracy as long as the people they want are elected. They spout rhetoric about ‘the will of the people,’ yet the only people they are concerned about are the ones who will follow their marching orders from Washington and Jerusalem.
Those of us who truly love democracy are sickened by these lies and willing to fight back, yet the general populace is being led astray due to the spotlight being put on the Muslim Brotherhood. In both nations, the Muslim Brotherhood is being portrayed as a radical Islamist faction that, if Egypt gets democracy, will be swiftly elected into power, with their first order of business being the cancellation of the peace treaty with and then declaration of war on Israel. This completely ignores the fact that the Brotherhood has announced that they aren’t even going to run a candidate when elections come around![3] Yet this concern of the Brotherhood still runs amok. This irrational fear is pushed by the elite as it gets people to ignore the fact that the US is trying to co-opt the revolution, but it also helps to diminish support for the revolution as a whole because it creates the appearance that the Brotherhood is a major player in the current protests and that if they get into power, it will be a major threat to US interests and Israeli security.
The beauty of democracy is that the will of the people is enacted, that it isn’t subject to the whims of outside forces. Democracy is the greatest system of government precisely because it allows the people to express their displeasure and anger through a voting booth rather than the barrel of a gun. This democratic hypocrisy only shows how the ruling elite in Israel and the US despise democracy that doesn’t go along with their interests and perverts the system by ignoring the will of the people.
Democracy is the way to go.
Devon DB is 19 years old and studying political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Notes
1: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/13
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