Egypt in the Middle East

In the chapter on Egypt in The Middle East, the author Masoud mentions the fact that Egypt was the first country in the Arab world to follow Tunisia’s lead in less than a month to overthrow its dictator, Muhammad Husni Mubarak (Masoud, 10968). The author Masoud quotes, “From the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981 until May 2012, Egypt was kept in a formal state of emergency, which enabled the regime to legally restrict the civil liberties enumerated in the constitution, in the name of securing public order. Political activity— such as protests and demonstrations— was heavily regulated; any gathering of more than five people required a permit; and opposition activists were routinely detained by the security services.” (Masoud, 11273). This shows how bad the state of the country was and that the country had been kept in a state of emergency for 30 years. The people did not have any freedom, there were no jobs, people were poor and the country was going through an economic crisis. The government was unable to address the pressing problems. There was a lack of governmental efficacy. Therefore, people of Egypt took to the streets to protest against their dictator who was known to be corrupt. The Mubarak regime had lost its legitimacy. This kind of protest is described by the author Zagorski as a Revolution.

“Revolutions are defined as rebellions with an ideological focus led by an ideologically driven counter-elite that seeks to create an entirely new political order” (Zagorski, 39). In the case of Egypt, there was no political elite, it was the people of the country who wanted freedom from Mubarak’s regime. People used the social media in a big way to communicate with the others and to spread the message across the country to rise up against the dictator. Since the state media was controlled by the dictator himself, it did not showcase any of the events that were happening in the country. He was practicing coercion against his own people