Here are some of the many people I met in Cairo a few weeks after the start of the Iraq war (which Hozni Mubarak opposed).  Look closely.  Note the hatred in their eyes, and the fear, the primal fear of a sort known only to an oppressed people living under the jackboot of tyranny.  

I jest of course. 

They are poor, the people in these photos, but they are not oppressed.  The four woodworkers make do in a small shop; they collect scrap wood and craft beautiful furniture.  No brownshirt thugs or religious police stop them in the street to demand their papers; nobody demands they adhere to strict Islamic law.  They are plagued by corrupt police who demand bribes, but the Egyptian army is nowhere to be seen in Cairo.  One of the carpenters is a Coptic Christian, as are ten percent of Egyptians.  Yes, Egypt has unjust laws that govern the construction of Coptic churches.  Of course, in the United States we would never think to prohibit a religious organization from building a house of worship where they want, say, a mosque near Ground Zero.   

Note the two women leaving the mosque; one wears a light scarf, the other is bare-headed.  In Iran they could be stoned for going about dressed like that.  In The Kingdom they would be arrested by the Mutaween, the religious police. Beware of any comparison of the Cairo demonstrations to Iran, 1979, and to Tunisia last week.  The 1979 Iranian revolution began as a secular democratic movement led by well-educated Iranian humanists; it was hijacked by the Ayatollahs, and the rest is history.  Mubarak may be currupt, but he is not, as some have said here, a tyrant.  The Ayatollahs are tyrants.  The Duvaliers were tyrants. Hitler, Stalin (our ally in WWII), and Mao, Idi Amin--murderous tyrants.  The Taliban, tyrants. Mubarak, corrupt.  Yes, there are (Islamic inspired) laws that try to relegate Egyptian women to subordinate status.  But they're nothing compared to laws in Iran or Saudia Arabia; they're a sop to radical Islamicists, who Mubarak and the army keep in check, thank goodness (except on those occasions when the fundamentalists assassinate someone, like Anwar Sadat). 

Maybe one of these women is a doctor, or lawyer. Egypt is an Arab state, but a secular Arab state.  The question is: Who has taken to Cairo's streets?  And why?  We don't know, yet.  The latest reports from Cairo have it that the demonstrators--at first led by students and workers sick of police corruption--are now chanting "God is greater".  The Muslim Brotherhood has arrived.

A lack of concern for Israel troubles me about some of the blogs here and elsewhere.  Indeed, the hatred of Israel in these blogs troubles me.  Here's an example: "...will it take 30 years of corporate oppression for us [Americans] to realize that our government is just as bad as Mubarek (sic), Ahmadinejad and the Israelis?"  Whoa.  Ahmadinejad and the Israelis in the same breath.  Those who spew this bear scutiny. 

And this, from an earlier blog, by Stellaa: "For a 'stable Egypt' we have closed our eyes to the repression of the Mubarak regime.   American and Israeli interests keeping the [Muslim] Brotherhood out of power with a 'stable' Mubarak government has been the goal." 

And there it is, the white noise behind (some of) the rhetoric on Egypt.  For some alleged progressives, it's not really about reform in Egypt (much needed reform), it's about hating America and, most sinisterly, hating Israel. 

Note the little girls.  They have never known war; Egypt recognized Israel more than 30 years ago. Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel--the first Arab East country to do so.  For that, Sadat was assassinated by Islamic extremists. Mubarak has honored that treaty.  OK, the facile will say, lot's of photos of happy Hitler Youth can be found, little blond boys and girls marching, marching, marching for the glory of the Reich.  Yet, they were marching with the intent of murdering all of Europe's Jews and Slavs.  These girls have no such agenda, are not the victims of statist brainwashing.  Mubarak has numerous faults, raising a generation of haters is not one.

These girls are now young women; maybe they're on the barricades.  They certainly deserve a truly free press, the right to assemble, freedom of worship, freedom from want and fear--FDR's Four Freedoms.  Only by American pressure will these freedoms be gained.  The education these girls received was secular; that bodes well for the future of Egypt and the region.  But the Iranian students of 1979 benefited from the same humanist educational tradition.  Where are they now? What is best for Egypt, imperfect secular rule (OK, highly imperfect) or an Islamist theocracy?  Is there another option? Can real democracy take hold?  Will the Egyptian army protect and preserve a democratic government?

We'll soon find out.  Meanwhile, it's night in Cairo, fires burn, chaos reigns.  I wonder about those woodworkers, and the women in the mosque, and the little girls. Where are they tonight? 

And, I wonder what my son is thinking.  He's there, in Cairo, a bright young man who, in the best tradition of American humanism, went abroad to learn, in his case to learn Arabic, make friends, and keep a journal of his adventures.  If the "God is Greater" element hijacks this revolution, I want him out on the first plane, after he files his story, of course.