Alexandria, Egypt, January 21, 2013 – Two years after Egypt’s revolution began an overwhelming majority at a free speech forum here said the country was sinking under the weight of deepening political and religious divisions.
The mostly-young audience, attending the latest session of the New Arab Debates at the Main Hall of the world-famed Library of Alexandria, voted 83.3% in favour of the motion: “This House believes Egypt is becoming dangerously divided and intolerant”.
Speaking for the motion, lawyer Ghada Shahbender from the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights said she worried that the current Islamist-dominated administration was using the same tactics as former President Mubarak to stay in power.
“Egypt is divided between those who want prosperity and development for all, and those who want power, personal fame and gains only for themselves. Anyone who does not see that is the proverbial ostrich with its head buried deep in the sand,” she said.
Shahbender said several regressive forces had borrowed the “intolerant and extractive” Wahabi brand of Islam from Gulf Arab monarchies to continue with “the marginalization of youth and women, of anyone who opposes them or was born into a different religion”.
She added: “Once in power, they were more interested in the call to prayer in parliament than in a motion for a minimum wage.”
Opposing her, Tarek Shaalan, US-educated engineer and founding member of Al Watan, a conservative political party which adheres to Salafist principles, blamed divisions, plaguing Egypt, on the previous regime.
“Such discrimination has ended through the Islamist…We now have free and fair elections and we have the right to protest,” he said, adding that, in contrast to the situation under the old regime, veiled women could now work in public television and the state-run national airline. “The Islamic parties in this revolution are just like the Martin Luther King movement which ended (racial) discrimination in the USA,” he said, provoking a female member of the audience to protest.
In a hard-fought, combative debate, Shaalan repeatedly told the audience that they could send the Islamist parties packing at the next election if they didn’t live up to their promises.
There was applause, however, when a woman told him that most Egyptians had given President Mohammad Morsi and his government a chance, “but what we are seeing is a constitutional declaration that nobody agrees about and a constitution which is absolutely a mess. So these are things that are dividing the Egyptians.”
The New Arab Debates are a high profile platform to foster democratic accountability after the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. They are funded by the British and Swedish governments and encompass an extensive outreach campaign in schools and universities with the aim of encouraging young people to participate in the political dialogue and development of their country.
The debate will be transmitted on Deutche Welle TV in Arabic and English along with its global network of partner channels.