George Joffé
is a research fellow at the Centre of International Studies, Cambridge University and a visiting professor of Geography at King’s College London. He specialises in the Middle East and North Africa. He is currently engaged in a project studying connections between migrant communities...
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From Tunisia to Egypt: implications for North Africa
George Joffé
, 7 February 2011
Summary:
The Tunisian and Egyptian experiences suggest that popular demands in the Middle East and North Africa are genuinely concerned with democratic participation and respect for the individual, precisely in line with Western normative values. Islam conditions the social and cultural environment, but it is not the automatic popular political choice, as European and American public opinion and official rhetoric insist. Instead, moderate political Islam has rejected extremism and adopted positions that embrace democratic outcomes.
The primary objective for Europe and America will be to see stability restored as quickly as possible, whatever the cost. They are likely to endorse a modified hegemonic political movement in Tunisia and an army-backed regime in Egypt, both of which can guarantee political stability and continuity. Both Europe and the US fear the implications of political Islam because of the false linkage of all aspects of political Islam with extremist violence.
Above all, the US seeks continuity for its Middle East policies; Egypt has been a key component in dealing with Israeli security concerns and Iranian nuclear objectives, and a bulwark against the Islamic republic’s supposed challenge to moderate states in the region. However, the one policy that is universally unacceptable to the Arab street is the intolerable blockade on the Gaza Strip, and it will have to go.
