This evening I went straight from work to a lecture at Pimlico Library on Egypt and the Arab Spring.
It was given by Dr. Wafik Moustafa, who is a real doctor and has been extensively engaged in Egyptian politics and Anglo-Egyptian relations all his life. He knows everyone and everything in connection with Egyptian politics and has just brought out a book on Egypt and the Arab Spring.
The talk was fascinating, as were the comments of many of the people there, who were also involved with Anglo-Egyptian politics - they all seemed to know each other.
His contention was that democracy is not necessarily the right political solution for Egypt, which, like all the Middle East and North Africa, has no history of democracy, but is used to absolute rule either by the army or a dictator. He also made the point that the Egyptian Army does not see the Muslim Brotherhood as the real enemy - with their super intelligence services, they know everything there is to know about the leadership and members of the Muslim Brotherhood and are well able to control them. But they are not so keen on Western style liberal democracy, which was what the Arab Spring was more about.
Altogether a very interesting talk, and I felt when I left I knew more about Egyptian history and politics than when I arrived.
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