DOHA: There are lessons to learn from Egypt’s failed revolution and future generations can use the knowledge to liberate their societies, according to Dr Abdullah Al Arian, Professor of History, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q).
Dr Al Arian was reading excerpts from his book Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Sadat’s Egypt at an event hosted by Centre for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) in Education City.
He reflected on the rise of Islamic activism in Egypt in the previous decades, and discussed the impact of those events on the Arab Spring revolution and struggle for political power.
Explaining why studying the history of a struggling movement holds interest, he said: “No matter how much we are consumed by events elsewhere, Egypt is not forgotten.
“Even as the post-coup order has pursued the rise of a new authoritarianism relying on the unprecedented use of violence to eradicate popular activism from Egyptian society, there’s still a broad interest in documenting the process and learning lessons of Egypt’s failed revolution in the hope that this and future generations can use the knowledge of this historical moment in the service of liberating their societies and empowering their people.”
In his book, Dr Al-Arian uses a broad range of sources to present a comprehensive account of Islamic activism in Egypt during the presidency of Anwar Al Sadat.
He describes how revolutionary hero Gamal Abdel Nasser dismantled and suppressed Egypt’s largest social movement organisation in the 1950s and the surprising re-emergence of Islamic activism of Muslim Brotherhood who would one day compete for the presidency in the nation’s first democratic election.
“The generation of current leaders, like Mohamed Mursi... figures we’ve heard so much about in the past three or four years, did not emerge in a vacuum.
“They’re the products of a generation that has its roots in the 1970s student movement. That movement demonstrated tremendous dynamism in the development of its activism, enjoyed a complex relationship with the state, and came to make up the next generation of leaders of Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that had been all but destroyed for 20 years. The book tells that story,” he told the audience. The Peninsula
