Arab Spring Turns Into Time of Struggle

The so-called Arab Spring in Egypt that began two years ago has been a disappointment to many Egyptians who had hoped that it would begin building political and social stability, says Anne Zaki, a resource development specialist for the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Cairo, Egypt.

Zaki spoke recently at a lunch meeting at the Grand Rapids, Mich. office of the the Christian Reformed Church. She also presented at the Symposium on Worship that ran from Jan. 24-26 at Calvin College.

In her talk at the CRC office, she said that she was concerned how people in her country would react on Friday, Jan. 25, the second-anniversary of the uprising that drove longtime President Hosni Mubarak from his position and placed Mohamed Morsi, a member of the well-organized Muslim Brotherhood, in power.

As it turns out, violence erupted across Egypt last Friday and continues this week.

According to USA Today, some 60 people have died in the violence that has spread in various part of the country as people have demonstrated against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We are now living in a period that doesn’t make sense,” said Zaki. “We are babies in democracy … Many people believe we are worse off now than we were under President Mubarak.”

Mubarak had been the autocratic ruler of Egypt for some 30 years before the 18-day revolution took place.

Morsi, who became Egypt’s first non-military president since the turn of the 20th Century, has drawn loud criticism in recent months as he has removed Egypt’s military, judicial and political systems from power and invested it in himself.

All of this is a blow to democracy. But there is an especially acute aspect.

Having marginalized the military, says Zaki, he has created a “major security vacuum .. and left the people completely unprotected.”

Zaki and her husband, Naji Umran, are graduates of Calvin Theological Seminary. They left the CRC congregation they were serving in British Columbia to move with their four children to Zaki’s homeland of Egypt. Naji Umran serves with Christian Reformed World Missions.

There is much about Egypt for which she and her family have deep appreciation, says Zaki.

But tensions have grown — and life has become more difficult — over the last two years as many people in Egypt have had their optimism dashed.

They find themselves now chafing under the rule and domination of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups such the ultraconservative Salafis.

Christians, says Zaki, have been one of the targets. Some Salafi men have barged into a church property, and claimed the building for Islam by conducting a Muslim prayer there, causing great disruption. A Salafi female teacher publicly cut the hair of two non-veiled Muslim girls in her classroom.

Meanwhile, many of Egypt’s poor have been left out of the system and face continued grinding poverty. Unemployment remains high.

But that doesn’t mean things are hopeless. There has been a move to build a political front joining many civil parties that can be a non-Islamist voice as Egypt struggles toward democracy.

Egyptian women across the country are beginning to lobby for their rights. Christians are also setting aside their historic tendency to avoid involvement in politics.

“The church is starting to be awakened about the need to be present in this time of tension and transition,” said Zaki.

Speaking of a current development, Zaki mentioned how Morsi has set a limit of purchasing three loaves of subsidized bread a day for each person, in some cases the only food people eat.

While this move will only stir more discord in Egypt, she says, it is important to note the significance that the church can play, in this and in other developments.

“The church knows that it can give the bread of life to people, but they also know that offering bread for the body creates a fertile ground for the bread of life to take hold and transform,” she said.

Especially leading the way among Christians, she says, is H.H. Pope Tawadros II, the leader of Egypt’s 12 million Coptic Christians.

“He is a man of peace and unity. He has been an amazing blessing,” she said