The revolt in Egypt provides an interesting test of whether democracy can survive in the world. The leaders of the popular uprising have proven capable of learning from the mistakes of others in a way that the corporate Empire they are challenging cannot. The corporatocracy has grown stupid and lumbering while both terrorists and avowedly peaceful activists have begun to use techniques of asymmetrical warfare. The power of the people will overcome if and only if those of us in the peace community stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters struggling for democracy worldwide. It is our job to convince them that terror is a tool of the corporate masters, not of the Peoples of the world.
The Muslim Brotherhood is wisely avoiding any effort to dominate the democratic movement in Egypt. It recognizes that its reputation for violence would be detrimental to the cause if it were seen as being the leadership of the nascent revolution. Colonial Americans put aside their differences in a similar way to unite in common cause with each other to defeat the corporatist Empire represented at that time by the Rothschild-dominated East India Company. Only by recognizing and acting on common goals can any People advance the cause of democracy in their own nation and in the world.
If Egyptians can free themselves from domination by the Anglo-American led corporate Empire, they can decide whether they will choose democracy over theocracy. In choosing a secular leader to represent the movement and taking a back stage to secular and other religious leaders, the Muslim Brotherhood may be taking the first steps toward allowing an open discussion of whether the principle of separation of Church and State is as integral to real democracy as Americans have historically held.
I would suggest that Egyptians consider the role theocracy has played in undermining democracy in both Israel and Iran, two nations that are sworn enemies and whose enmity serves the interests only of the powerful. The Iranian government last year violently put down a student uprising. This is the natural result of an autocratic government.
If Muslims do not want the wars for Empire to be used as a proxy for the war on Islam, they must tolerate neither violent jihad nor the forcing of the law of the Qua’ran on those who do not hold to all of its tenets. If they truly stand in solidarity with Palestinians, they will recognize the costs to them of living under Israel’s theocratic rule and seek to avoid treating others the same way.
If Muslims do not want the wars for Empire to be used as a proxy for the war on Islam, they must tolerate neither violent jihad nor the forcing of the law of the Qua’ran on those who do not hold to all of its tenets. If they truly stand in solidarity with Palestinians, they will recognize the costs to them of living under Israel’s theocratic rule and seek to avoid treating others the same way.
The Islamic world is fragmented enough already by religious divisions. It should be obvious that this division will be used by the powerful to maintain their ability to dominate others, a most distinctly un-Islamic outcome. It is up to religious leaders to teach religious tolerance to Peoples who have been so subject to authoritarian rule for so long that the average citizen does not understand the basic principles of representative democracy. We are engaged in a global jihad (struggle) in which those of divergent beliefs must act together to ensure that the one last, best hope for mankind that is democracy shall not perish from the Earth.
In Egypt, success will hinge on obtaining the support of the dominant powers in the Army. Egyptian soldiers must decide for themselves whether their duty is to the government or to the People. A Soldier For Peace knows which way his duty lies. Governments will rise and fall, but the People must survive and to do so they must force their governments to accept their collective will. To enforce the collective will, the People must operate in accordance with democratic principles.
For revolution to succeed, a nation’s People must have an Army to stand behind them to protect them from mischief by the CIA and other interested intelligence agencies. Only in this way can they carry out the revolution and establish new governments that will represent the interests of the People. To devolve into factions warring for control is to give the international corporate terrorists who control the US and many other governments an easy way to divide and conquer any new government.
The lessons for citizens of the United States are clear. We must rethink our commitment to the principles of the Enlightenment upon which our nation was founded and by which it became a beacon of hope to the world. We must study our history if we are to understand how a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal has become one torn apart by political and social divisions that are being magnified, distorted and used by the corporatocracy and its Puppets in the US government to subjugate the American People. If every American truly understands the threat to genuine democracy posed by allowing corporate personhood to exist, together we can succeed at finishing the American Revolution.
Those of us who understand the importance of interdependence must make the effort to educate our fellow Americans. Too many have been blinded and enraged by the pain inflicted on them by corporate Puppetmasters playing Monopoly while we are trying to get on with the game of Life. If we remind them that we are engaged in a cause that will determine our collective destiny and that we are willing to work together to establish a government that will act on the consensus of the People rather than the bidding of the corporate sponsors of our politicians, there is reason to hope that we can return to the path of creating a more perfect union not only of Americans but of the world at large.
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For those interested in reading more about how to stage a successful American revolution that will be integral to ending war, here is an essay from the online book Stop the Madness: The Diary of a Soldier For Peace in the War to Take Back America:
END THE CIVIL WAR AND FINISH THE REVOLUTION
END THE CIVIL WAR AND FINISH THE REVOLUTION