{"id":5307,"date":"2011-12-16T13:27:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T12:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/?p=5307"},"modified":"2011-12-16T13:27:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T12:27:03","slug":"gegen-den-mythos-vom-liberalen-tahrir-platz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/2011\/12\/16\/gegen-den-mythos-vom-liberalen-tahrir-platz_5307","title":{"rendered":"Gegen den Mythos vom liberalen Tahrir-Platz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Die Hoffnungen, dass der &#8222;arabische Fr\u00fchling&#8220; zu einer liberalen Demokratie f\u00fchren k\u00f6nnte, beruhen auf\u00a0 (Selbst-)T\u00e4uschungen westlicher Beobachter, die keine Ahnung von der \u00e4gyptischen Realit\u00e4t haben. Davon sind <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/news-and-politics\/85746\/after-the-fall\/\">Amr Bargisi und Samuel Tadros \u00fcberzeugt, die in einem Essay <\/a>anl\u00e4\u00dflich der massiven Gewinne der Islamisten das \u00e4gyptische Jahr Revue passieren lassen.<\/p>\n<p>Beide sind Mitglieder der <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Egyptian_Union_of_Liberal_Youth\">&#8222;Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth&#8220;<\/a>, einer 2007 gegr\u00fcndeten NGO, die das Bewu\u00dftsein f\u00fcr die Philosophie des klassischen Liberalismus, den Rechtsstaat und die Menschenrechte in \u00c4gypten sch\u00e4rfen will. Als Mitgliedern der liberalen Opposition, sagen Bargisi und Tadros, falle es ihnen besonders schwer, diesen Befund zu verk\u00fcnden, aber die Chancen f\u00fcr eine liberale Ordnung im neuen \u00c4gypten seien sehr schlecht.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When the Egyptian revolution came, we stayed home.<\/p>\n<p>We are young, liberal Egyptian activists who have dedicated our lives to bettering our country. But from the moment in January the crowds took over Tahrir Square calling for President Hosni Mubarak\u2019s ouster, we urged observers, particularly Western idealists already hailing the triumph of the new Egypt, to be cautious. We reminded them of Edmund Burke\u2019s truism: Bringing down a tyrant is far, far easier than forming a free government.<\/p>\n<p>It would be difficult to form such a government, we reasoned, in a society where the elite, with near unanimity, had just explained a series shark attacks in the Sinai as part of a Mossad-coordinated ploy to damage tourism. A free government must be based on universal rights, not least the right to freedom of conscience for all its citizens, and yet a Pew poll from December 2010 showed that 84 percent of the sampled Egyptian Muslims endorsed the death penalty as the appropriate punishment for Muslim apostates. For an entire country to change in one month, we argued throughout February, you need nothing short of magic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Die Analyse der beiden ist sehr lesenswert, auch wenn sie mach meinem Daf\u00fcrhalten die naive <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/page\/2?s=%C3%84gypten\">Euphorie der Beobachter etwas \u00fcbertreiben<\/a>. Dass \u00c4gypten ohne \u00dcbergang zur liberalen Demokratie werden k\u00f6nnte, hat niemand ernsthaft behauptet. Auch die M\u00f6glichkeit, dass etwas ganz anderes daraus werden k\u00f6nnte, war stets pr\u00e4sent &#8211; eine offene Milit\u00e4rdiktatur oder ein islamistischer Totalitarismus. Aber sei&#8217;s drum. Die beiden Autoren gehen noch ein St\u00fcck weiter in ihrer Kritik. Sie halten die Unterst\u00fctzung der Tahrir-Bewegung grunds\u00e4tzlich f\u00fcr falsch. Sie glauben zeigen zu k\u00f6nnen, dass da ein Mythos aufgebaut wurde, der nun dringend zerst\u00f6rt werden m\u00fc\u00dfte:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We must begin by deconstructing the Tahrir mythology. Namely: The Mubarak regime was pure evil; that it was brought down by \u201cliberal\u201d nonviolent activists; and that the Islamists had nothing to do with the revolution and emerged\u2014suddenly\u2014only to hijack it.<\/p>\n<p>The early Tahrir Square crowd was comprised of leftists and various other groups that were in it for different reasons. Consider, for example, the fanatic soccer fans known as the Ultras. Known for engaging in fights with security forces after every Egyptian soccer game, the Ultras would not waste a chance to get back at the police in a much less controlled environment than the Stadium. At Tahrir, they had a major role in attacking the police and destroying the police stations. In the revolution\u2019s aftermath, the Ultras led the mob in the rampage of the Israeli Embassy.<\/p>\n<p>Other than the fact that a few dozen human-rights activists were present in Tahrir, there was nothing remotely liberal about the uprising. But that didn\u2019t stop Western journalists from applying the term: Every Egyptian male without a beard was a John Stuart Mill, every female without a veil a Mary Wollstonecraft. Suddenly, Trotskyites were liberals, and hooligans nonviolent protesters.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that there were no Islamists involved in the revolution is pure nonsense. The Muslim Brotherhood officially declared its decision to join the protests on Jan. 23, and its members were instrumental in the success of the revolution in the subsequent days and weeks. What\u2019s more, over the past decade Islamist groups, particularly the Salafists, have been taking advantage of Egypt\u2019s increasing media and Internet freedom to further influence the political discussion. Wondering where the all these Salafists came from? Go to YouTube, type in any possible Arabic term, from financial investment to marriage counseling, and see the sheer number of results that show a Salafist leader preaching, most often in a clip from the religious satellite channel. The message is always the same: A return to a purer form of Islam guarantees salvation in this life and the next.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bargisi und Tadros hatten die Hoffnung, durch langfristige Aufkl\u00e4rungsarbeit die Basis f\u00fcr echtes liberales Denken in \u00c4gypten zu verbreitern.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If Egypt was going to have any hope of becoming a liberal democracy, we had to face\u2014and battle\u2014the destructive totalitarian ideals that have taken hold of Egyptian society.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Das ist sehr ehrenwert, aber erstens war das Mubarak-Regime einfach nicht mehr zu halten &#8211; ganz egal, wie sich &#8222;der Westen&#8220; zu ihm verhielt. Die Vorstellung eines allm\u00e4hlichen Wandels von innen her sind sicher sympathisch. Es gibt auch Beispiele f\u00fcr einen solchen \u00dcbergang zur Demokratie nach langen Phasen der Diktatur, wie etwa in Argentinien und Chile. Aber sie standen in \u00c4gypten einfach nicht auf der Tagesordnung. Zweitens kann man nach der Beschreibung der beiden Zweifel haben, ob solch eine Liberalisierung von innen denn eine Chance gehabt h\u00e4tte angesichts der angeblich nur &#8222;wenigen Dutzend&#8220; Liberalen auf dem Tahrir.<\/p>\n<p>Am Ende pl\u00e4dieren die beiden Autoren f\u00fcr eine Unterst\u00fctzung des Milit\u00e4rs als des einigen Faktors, der das Land noch zusammenhalten und vor dem totalen Chaos bewahren k\u00f6nne. Sie m\u00fcssen dabei allerdings zugeben, dass das f\u00fcr Liberale eine ziemlich &#8222;unangenehme Position&#8220; sei:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>the first priority should be defending the very existence of the Egyptian state, now solely represented by the military. This is certainly an awkward position for advocates of limited government, as we are. But if the military falls, nothing will stand between the Egyptians and absolute anarchy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sehr wertvoll scheint mir die Warnung vor dem Zweckoptimismus angesichts eines islamistischen Durchmarsches bei den Wahlen: Die Islamisten, einmal an der Regierung, w\u00fcrden schon vern\u00fcnftig &#8211; oder sie w\u00fcrden eben entzaubert und dann nicht mehr wiedergew\u00e4hlt:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Western policy-makers and Egyptians who care about the country\u2019s future should not push too hard for a total face-off between the military and the Islamists, which may develop into a civil war, nor should they seek to weaken the military to the extent that it is totally subdued by the Islamists. Finally, as the Islamists try to transform the legal and economic infrastructure of the country to their benefit, true liberals must be prepared to tackle them on every move, with detailed and convincing programs, not merely rhetorical speeches and empty polemics on talk shows. Islamism offers a coherent worldview; if liberalism cannot rise up to the same level, it will always be doomed to fail.<\/p>\n<p>The gravest danger is for us to fall prey to complacency and believe that an Islamist government will either moderate or fail to deliver, and that the Egyptians will vote for someone else in the next elections. The very possibility of next elections is dependent on our capacity to avoid the total anarchy scenario. And the Islamists are not going to moderate. No matter how pragmatic the Muslim Brotherhood is, they will face a constant challenge by Salafists from the right to adhere a strict standard of religious purity. If the Islamists, now hugely popular, do fail to deliver, genuine liberals must be at the ready to offer voters a clear alternative.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Die Hoffnungen, dass der &#8222;arabische Fr\u00fchling&#8220; zu einer liberalen Demokratie f\u00fchren k\u00f6nnte, beruhen auf\u00a0 (Selbst-)T\u00e4uschungen westlicher Beobachter, die keine Ahnung von der \u00e4gyptischen Realit\u00e4t haben. Davon sind Amr Bargisi und Samuel Tadros \u00fcberzeugt, die in einem Essay anl\u00e4\u00dflich der massiven Gewinne der Islamisten das \u00e4gyptische Jahr Revue passieren lassen. Beide sind Mitglieder der &#8222;Egyptian Union [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9460,152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agypten","category-aussenpolitik"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gegen den Mythos vom liberalen Tahrir-Platz - J\u00f6rg Lau<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.zeit.de\/joerglau\/2011\/12\/16\/gegen-den-mythos-vom-liberalen-tahrir-platz_5307\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gegen den Mythos vom liberalen Tahrir-Platz - J\u00f6rg Lau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Die Hoffnungen, dass der &#8222;arabische Fr\u00fchling&#8220; zu einer liberalen Demokratie f\u00fchren k\u00f6nnte, beruhen auf\u00a0 (Selbst-)T\u00e4uschungen westlicher Beobachter, die keine Ahnung von der \u00e4gyptischen Realit\u00e4t haben. Davon sind Amr Bargisi und Samuel Tadros \u00fcberzeugt, die in einem Essay anl\u00e4\u00dflich der massiven Gewinne der Islamisten das \u00e4gyptische Jahr Revue passieren lassen. 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