[GA] What Do you think of Egypt ?

I didn't insult you and I didn't intend to make you feel bad. You are free to ask me anything and I told you to ask but you didn't ask anything (offensive? I hear this word too often in religion debates. Are we holding one right now ?!). It's just hard to trust people on the internet and I was trying to tell you to be objective. Unless you like drawn-out arguments and massive walls of text that never changed anyone's opinion. If you want a place to start your investigation I'd advice you to learn first about the arabian regimes that the Arab Spring tried to revolt against.

Here is a basic summary as an apology: After being colonized by European powers for approximately 100 years (starting in the 19th century), and after they managed to reclaim their independence in the middle of the 20th century (starting with the end of the 2nd World War), the newly born Arab countries were faced with the emergence of Israel. After they failed to stop its establishment in the war of 1948, the Arabian people started to accuse their governments of corruption, inefficiency, leniency and loyalty to foreign powers (which to be true they were, because the former European colonizers made sure that if they were ever to be evicted from their colonies they'd have at least a somewhat friendly leader to them in charge of it) and dissatisfaction arose. The first king to be dethroned was the Egyptian one by the "Free Officers Movement" in 1952. They were military men who accused their king of causing their defeat in front of Israel in 1948, and they transformed the Egyptian monarchy into the current Egyptian Republic.

It is due to them that even now the military plays a big role in the Egyptian politics, that he owns a big share of the country's wealth and assets, and that that one cannot be president of Egypt if the military doesn't approve of him.(unlike Tunisia for example where the military is more neutral and never held power). Also ironically, the FOM started as a cell within the Muslim Brotherhood but then the military persecuted the MB on several occasions and they still clash out to this day.

Anyway, the overthrowing of the Egyptian king started a reaction chain in most of the Arab countries, where military men always tried to take power through coup d'etats. Arabs in their majority from the 50s to the 80s followed the pan-arabism ideology mixed with socialism and heavy personality cult, led by their "champion" Gamal Abdel Nasser against the "colonial powers" (the USSR being an expansive entity itself who didn't really have a problem with Israel and recognized it went unnoticed, but hey it was inadmissible to jump immediately into bed with the US who openly supported Israel, even if it will happen eventually...). The presence of Israel played a role in uniting Arabs around some concepts, but was also used as a propaganda tool by some leaders to legitimise their rule (see current Bashar Al-Assad) and whenever a setback happened against Israel a new wave of coups and instability emerged (google "arab coups", count for yourself and realize that all of it would not have happened if Israel never existed. Oh and Saddam and Assad existed because of these coups ...). Each leader sought to lead under his own banner and his conditions (Military life provided limited education, a big ego and no room for opposition) and "infighting" did happen (The Egyptian campaign in Yemen, Black September, the Lebanese civil war.. check this trope http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeAreStrugglingTogether .). It was no wonder then that the state boundaries left by Sykes Picot remained and that "true Arabian unity" didn't emerge, but at least Arabs did share the same idea roughly and there was some existent political life and activity...

Until the first Gulf War happened (1991). After an Arab country (Iraq) successfully annexed another (Kuwait), and after other Arab countries (KSA and others) helped the US invade Iraq (another Arab country), a mental shock happened in the minds of all Arabs. They realized that despite all the talk about Pan-arabism and unity, they were more divided than ever, and so the normal people became extremely apolitical and refused to participate in politics anymore because of their disappointment. Arab rulers shifted their allegiance to the US after its demonstration of power in Iraq (the USSR fell at the same year) so that they can continue to rule with corruption and dictatorship as long as they satisfied the US (N.B: and Israel, who never had a war with the corrupt arab leaders from after 1991 but had many concessions gifted to them in the peace treaties and yet still says "but we are surrounded by hostiles !!". Also Israel is the democracy that felt threatened when its neighbors started demanding democracy. Yep. This is a whole other topic but it's related closely...).

And this is how the Arab world came to be ruled for 20 years (Arab spring started in 2011, but technically it's still gestating and dictatorship still exists...) by dictatorships : popular disenchantment with politics and/or political ignorance, egocentristic rulers that own and control all important companies and assets, massive economic inequality that requires people to obey in order to live, a police/military state to keep dissidents at bay, mediatic propaganda to keep the ignorance going, economic aid from the USA straight to the ruler's Swiss bank account... You get the point, but now you know its roots I hope.

Despite how much bad things I say about them, these dictatorships were successful in creating sectors of the population that relied too much on them economically or that supported them because they feared the alternative (Islamism if they are poor and middle class people who lived too much in western-style consumerism, losing their important positions if they were corrupt officials in the regime...) and this why you still find old men from the old regime in places like even Tunisia. And there is the whole sectarian and tribal loyalty thing that rulers resorted to in Libya, Syria, Yemen... which made revolutions in these places armed and caused all these problems for everyone...

@AtomicWoodchuck: Google isn't really your friend here, he'll find mostly foreign news about the events but not the local news, and they can be prejudiced sometimes. I would've personally advised him to learn Arabic and follow arabic social media and he would have the best view like I have now, but yeah that might be a bit hard....I'm pretty sure Mossad and the CIA are doing it though x)