To Mubarak: If you love Egypt, leave

Mike Huckabee, the conservative former Arkansas governor, this weekend said that he is concerned about Islam's role in Egypt's future. As On Faith panelist Reza Aslan this week noted, Huckabee has also called for Americans to "take this nation back for Christ" and, while running for president in 2008, declared that "what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards."

In America and in Egypt, should a majority religion inspire political life? How will Islam play a role in the struggles for democracy happening now in Egypt and other parts of the Muslim world?

The meaning of religion is found in the quality of human relationships--with the Divine, human community, nature and all of creation. To the extent that any religious tradition lives and breathes through its believers in their personal lives, the political life of the nation is affected. The problems come when believers do not live their professions of faith.

God only knows the role that Islam or any other religious tradition will play in the struggle for democracy in Egypt and in other parts of the Muslim world. However, if we all are true to our obligations to Divine Love, if we all are willing to love with a radical love-- an obligation that is found in all the religions that I know --we can get to a world that assures the human rights of all peoples. We can build a world of justice and of peace.

Egypt was an ancient civilization when the Old Testament was written. Situated at the Africa-Asia nexus, it influenced ancient Israel and Greece. Before Moses, the Egyptians gave the world mathematics, science, architecture, law, morality and the concept of one God. Before the Virgin Mary, Isis was understood as the Mother of God. Before Jesus, Osiris was a dying and resurrecting God. Before the confession of sins there were the Egyptian confessions of innocence. Before our somewhat simplistic human ontology of body, soul and mind, ancient Egyptians understood humanity in at least seven dimensions--heart, shadow, name, soul, spirit, Akh, and body. Egypt had lived, thrived and survived through Greek and Roman conquest when God gave the Koran to the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). Today, Islam is the official religion of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

However, God must be weeping at the violence, death and injury that brothers and sisters in religion, in citizenship and in humanity are visiting upon each other in Egypt at this moment. Divine pathos touches our own souls and causes us to wonder about the solution to the problem of violence that humanity visits upon itself in every corner of the globe. And the ancient pharaohs must wonder why leaders of today have not learned the lessons that history teaches.

Biblical wisdom teaches: "pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18) I cannot read the text of President Hosni Mubarak's heart. I cannot condemn him to an everlasting hell fire even if I believed that such exists. I imagine that it must be very difficult for a man who has held power over his country for so long to walk away. I imagine that it must be even more difficult for him to think about how history will write his name as the Egyptian ruler whose people insisted that he leave his country. I imagine that he is fighting the greater jihad of Islam, the struggle with one's own lesser self. The lesser jihad is the struggle to establish social justice.

Mubarak has governed more as an ancient Egyptian pharaoh than as a Muslim. The pyramids stand as a symbol of the importance of stability to the ancient Egyptian mind, a stability sometimes bought with tyranny. They also stand as a reminder of a system that favored a few at the top who lived luxuriously on the labor of many. Such is the case in Egypt today with its great disparity of wealth. The United States values Egypt as an ally because of its role in bringing stability of a kind to the region. But, the people are protesting because it has become more and more difficult for them to meet their basic needs, and because they are tired of a corrupt government. They want a real voice in the governance of the country.

Mubarak's words suggest that stability is his primary value. Speaking to his country and to the world on Tuesday, he said: "The events of the last few days require us all as a people and as a leadership to choose between chaos and stability and to set in front of us new circumstances and a new Egyptian reality which our people and armed forces must work with wisely and in the interest of Egypt and its citizens."

He has dismissed his old government, chosen a vice president and given him the responsibility of holding talks with the various factions in the country regarding democratic reforms, including "constitutional and legislative amendments required to realize these legitimate demands and to restore law and order. . . " He acknowledged that some have refused to participate in such a dialogue. In this address, he sought to speak directly to the people.

He spoke of the circumstances that brought him to power--the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. He spoke of his military service and of his responsibility for "the security and independence of the nation", and the "peaceful transfer of power." He said that he would not run for president again.

He spoke of social justice: "I will entrust the new government to perform in ways that will achieve the legitimate rights of the people and that its performance should express the people and their aspirations of political, social and economic reform and to allow job opportunities and combating poverty, realizing social justice."

He spoke of his intention to stay in Egypt: "Hosni Mubarak who speaks to you today is proud of the long years he spent in the service of Egypt and its people. This dear nation is my country, it is the country of all Egyptians, here I have lived and fought for its sake and I defended its land, its sovereignty and interests and on this land I will die and history will judge me and others for our merits and faults."

What Mubarak's pride does not allow him to see is that he has long ago lost the trust of his people. Moreover, with the events of Wednesday and Thursday, when so called pro-Mubarak forces on horseback, camelback and wielding weapons attacked the anti-Mubarak demonstrators, the world has also lost trust in him. The most radically patriotic thing that he could do now, the most loving thing, the thing that would honor God, Islam and his own place in history would be to leave the country he has ruled and no doubt loves. Such is still possible. Sometimes radical loves means saying goodbye.

By Valerie Elverton Dixon  |  February 3, 2011; 6:20 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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