Fact of Arabs

Egyptian people make many revolutions through its history as an attempt to eliminate the injustice and corruption. Let us know the Egyptian revolutions and what the Egyptian people has done to change and over come the injustice.

Orabi Revolution

Egypt in the 1870s was under occupation, corrupt, misgoverned and in a state of financial ruin. Huge debts rung up by Isma'il Pashacould no longer be repaid and under pressure from the European banks that held the debt, the country's finances were being controlled by representatives of France and BritainWhen Isma'il had tried to rouse the Egyptian people against this outside control he was deposed by the Europeans and replaced by his more pliable son Tawfiq.

While the British intervention was meant to be short term, it in fact persisted until 1954. Egypt was effectively made a colony until 1922. Both the British and the Khedival government did their best to discredit Urabi’s name and the revolution, although among the common people Urabi remained a popular figure. The government used the state media and educational system to denounce Urabi as a traitor and the revolution as merely a military mutiny. The historian Mohammed Rif’at was one of the first to call the events a thawra or “revolution,” but he claimed that it lacked popular support. Other historians in Egypt supported this thesis, and even expanded on it, sometimes suffering government censure. During the last years of the monarchy, authors became more critical of the old establishment and especially of the British, and Urabi is sometimes portrayed as a hero of freedom and constitutionalism.

Urabi's revolt had a long lasting significance as the first instance of Egyptian anti-colonial nationalism, which would later play a very major role in Egyptian history. Especially under Nasser, the revolt would be regarded as a glorious struggle against foreign occupation. The Urabi revolution was seen by the Free Officers movement as a precursor to the 1952 revolution, and both Nasser and Neguib were likened to ‘Urabi. Nasserist textbooks called the Urabi revolution a “national revolution,” but ‘Urabi was seen as making great strategic mistakes and not being as much of a man of the people as Nasser. During Nasser’s experiment with Arab socialism; the ‘Urabi revolt was also sometimes put in a Marxist context. Also during Sadat’s infitah period in which there was growing, controlled, economic liberalization and growing ties with the Western bloc, the government played up the desire of the ‘Urabists to draft a constitution and have democratic elections. After the 1952 revolution, the image of ‘Urabi, at least officially, has generally improved, with a number of streets and a square in Cairo bearing his name indicating the honored position he has in the official history.

The 1919 revolution

The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians and Sudanese from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leader Saad Zaghlul and other members of the Wafd Party in 1919. The event led to Britain's unilateral grant of independence to Egypt in 1922, and the implementation of a new constitution in 1923. Britain, however, refused to recognize full Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan, or to withdraw its forces from the Suez Canal Zone, factors that would continue to sour Anglo-Egyptian relations in the decades leading up to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.

Prior to the war, nationalist agitation was limited to the educated elite. Over the course of the war however, dissatisfaction with British rule spread amongst all classes of the population. This was the result of Egypt’s increasing involvement in the war, despite Britain's promise to shoulder the entire burden of the war. During the war, the British poured masses of foreign troops into Egypt, conscripted over one and a half million Egyptians into the Labour Corps, and requisitioned buildings, crops, and animals for the use of the army. In addition, because of allied promises during the war (such as President Wilson's Fourteen Points), Egyptian political classes prepared for self government. By war’s end the Egyptian people demanded their independence.

July 23 Revolution

The Egyptian Revolution of 1952, also known as the July 23 Revolution, began on July 23, 1952, with a military coup d'état by a group of young army officers who named themselves "The Free Officers Movement". The revolution was initially aimed at overthrowing King Farouk I. However, the movement had more political ambitions and soon moved to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish a republic. The success of the revolution inspired numerous Arab and African countries to remove pro-Western and specifically pro-British Empire and pro-French Empire monarchies and potentates behind the veil of ending corrupt regimes.

The Empire of Germany successfully agitated numerous anti-British movements of various degrees of Islamic and secular political ideologies in the run-up to World War One. Coordinated by German intelligence and nurtured by exposure to Liberalism and Nationalism and renewed Jihadism, these groups coalesced into the Moslem Brotherhood, the Baath Party, and other reformist and revolutionary groups during the inter-war years before gaining substantial ideological, political, psychological, and logistical support from the Axis powers. After World War Two these associated elements received moral and sometimes logistical support from the United States and the Soviet Union were both opposed to continuing the European Colonial Empires.

Both the United States of America and the Soviet Union promoted the view that the Egyptian monarchy was both corrupt and a pro-British colonial satrapy, its lavish lifestyle in sharp contrast to that of the Free Officers, who lived in poverty. The propaganda of the two Super-powers completed the image of the Egyptian government as a corrupt puppet of the British.

The Central Intelligence Agency and the KGB through their agents in Egypt promoted the feeling of corruption on the part of several Egyptian institutions such as the police, the palace and even the political parties, and in turn helped coordinate their anti-British and reformist sympathies with the Free Officers Movement.

The loss of 1948 war with Israel led to the Free Officers' blame of corruption with the King and his court and promotion of that feeling among the Egyptian people.

January 25 Revolution 2011

From The President Obama's Word: 

"There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place.  This is one of those moments.  This is one of those times.  The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard, and Egypt will never be the same.

 By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian people’s hunger for change.  But this is not the end of Egypt’s transition.  It’s a beginning.  I’m sure there will be difficult days ahead, and many questions remain unanswered.  But I am confident that the people of Egypt can find the answers, and do so peacefully, constructively, and in the spirit of unity that has defined these last few weeks.  For Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.

The military has served patriotically and responsibly as a caretaker to the state, and will now have to ensure a transition that is credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people.  That means protecting the rights of Egypt’s citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free.  Above all, this transition must bring all of Egypt’s voices to the table.  For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change."

By Fatma Dawod

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urabi_Revolt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revolution_of_1952

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revolution_of_1919