In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

“EGYPT IS FREE” –“EGYPT IS FREE, ALHAMDULILLAH

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

The moment the VP of Egypt Omar Suleiman announced that the President General Hosni Mubarak has stepped down following the will of the mass uprising, the masses at the Tahreer Ground and every nook and corner of the country were echoing with the captioned slogan in an endless chain of enthusiasm and ecstasy. These were the rightful moments of deliverance from the clutches of a total dictatorship and the people were quite honest to acclaim it with this spontaneous welcome.

It is the glorious reward of 17 days and nights constant fighting of young “kids” of Egypt who were dauntless and fearless in smashing the mightiest Pharos of 21 Century. Their sincerity of purpose, the haunting memories of three decades of deprivation of human liberties, the total denial of human rights under false emergency for long 30 years, their miserable living condition hardly meeting body and soul together just pulsating anyhow within less that two dollars a day and the mockery of the Western democracies that nourished and maintained the image of Mubarak as stable power under false sense of stability and keeping the hoax of Islamism away from the tentacles of power. Ultimately the oppressed people broke it into pieces under the immeasurable mighty weight of Egyptian youth. The despotic Mubarak who constantly tried his best to break the courage and stamina of youth on false pretensions, evasive promises and dictatorial mockeries has no choice but to surrender to the will of Egypt brave sons, daughters, students, labor, doctors, law students and the common folks. He is now hiding his “ugly” face in the “waters” of Sharm-al-Sheikh at the boarders of Saudi Arabia where the Muslim rulers take refuge generally when ousted from power and his bosom friend Israel, the other potential “safe” harbor for Mubarak.

This is the open success of mass movements against sitting tyrants and the resounding replica of Tunisia where Mohammad Bouazizi, the fruit vendor of Sidi Bouzid, the city 200 miles South of Tunis laid down the foundation of mass uprising by putting his body on fire in protest against the oppressive regime of Zine-el-Abidine who ruled that country ruthlessly for 23 years and ultimately people forced him to run away to SA as a refugee. The dominant role of military was very constructive in Tunisia as was in Egypt. Now it has become the fact of history that a national army could not and cannot shoot her own patriotic people when on revolt against the oppressive regime of their own kith and kin. Pakistan military refused to shoot the young demonstrators on the streets of Karachi when PM and Martial Law Administrator Zulfiqar Ali Shah ordered to fire. As a result, he has to go and General Zia-ul-Haq came to power. Like wise in Iran military refused to fire his own people in Tehran and the Shah of Iran had to leave the country and take refuge ultimately in Egypt and where he is buried in a mosque in Cairo. .

These are the encouraging signs as how to bring revolution in a country where the sons of the soil through wrongful means usurp the power and then try to perpetuate their regime as their life long episode under martial law, or emergency, keeping the fundamental human right, the election process, democratic institutions all suspended at the behest and active support of the so-called democratic countries of the West. The Mass Movements get momentum only when the masses are hard pressed, human rights are denied, elections if held at all are marred with fraud, rigging, forced balloting accompanied with a lot of disqualifications both of the candidates and the voters making the election a farce. Simultaneously, people suffer from mass scale unemployment, higher cost of living, increase in foreign debts and face extremely harsh and hard terms of loan if IMF is involved in it. Thus the country is ruined and the masses have no choice but to come to street in protest and agitation demanding the change of regime in power and they succeed very often when the national army becomes neutral and refuses to take any action against general uprising.

The success of mass movements in Tunisia and then Egypt foretell the trend that is likely to be repeated in almost every Muslim country with a few exceptions only of Turkey, Malaysia and to some extent Indonesia. The rest are the bad stigma in the name of Islam that guarantees all the aforesaid rights, freedom and liberties to all its citizens within its jurisdiction irrespective of the fact whether Muslim or non-Muslim, in majority or minority. As such, mass uprisings are knocking at the doors of Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Pakistan, Algeria, Bangladesh and Sheikhdoms of Persian Gulf States. Everywhere the regimes are shaky and they are likely to face their masses uprising sooner than later for their human and democratic rights and falling standard of living.

In these mass movements and would be uprising in the near future the role of Islamic Movements have been very nominal or marginal. Unfortunately, they could not feel the pulses of their youth who organized the mass uprisings through Internet services on mass scale and have given new dimensions to the use of internet services which enabled them to contact millions and millions of people in no time and call tem to assemble at a given point for mass rallies and demonstrations, picketing and public meetings. They with flash button could tell the public to attend such and such places in such and such number where they will be addressed by such and such people. It is a kind of mass whispering campaign secretly and silently and no despotic ruler could or can disturb their program or agenda.

Islamic Movements could not muster this system and hence were no where there in their orbits. As such these mass uprising were neither pro nor anti Islam. They were simple younger generation of their country and played havoc with the well-establish dictatorship of their respective countries, even beyond the imagination of their western masters in America and Europe.

Muslim leadership is now to get lesson from the organized efforts of Tunisia and Egypt and immediately reset their strategies and programs towards creating mass uprising by taking the full advantage of Internet services. They have to do home work for the countries listed above and prepare their movement oriented youngsters for this job and spread it to the grass route levels of the targeted countries. All these countries are now well set for mass uprising on the pattern set by the two African predominant Muslim countries. If they delay they will be the losers and will be no where in taking part in the reshaping of their countries on ideological lines. The time is very short for them and they have to get the lost lessons updated.

The second task before them is to build the team of Da’ees and increase its numerical strength to the level that when the uprising happens and mass awakening takes place, the team of Da’ees, irrespective of age factor should and must be in the field to cover and sustain the results of these uprising in favor of Islam and the Islamic Movement and the opportunists and secular leadership is not able to pocket the results of mass uprising. This is the game of preplanning, precaution and preparation for the preemptive “attack” when the iron is hot. This is also called the wisdom of a Mumin who foresees the events before hand and makes himself or herself ready to face all the eventualities in no time.

May Allah bless the Muslim Ummah every where.

Shamim Siddiqi

February, 11, 2011