Omar Mostafa, who is a scholar of international relations based in the United States, authored the article titled the new shape of the struggle in Egypt, in 2011. Omar is a known scholar specializing in giving views on global affairs, especially in relation to the Arab world, including the Middle East. He has published articles with the international socialist review, which is an organization known for producing articles with a socialist perspective. Omar is an author of several articles that talk about the ongoing Arab springs and he mainly believes that the main cause of conflicts in various countries in North African and the Middle East is class differences.
In summary, the article presents some of the main causes of the Egyptian conflicts that shocked the entire world given the fact that the country was developing at a very high rate. He notes that the uprising started when people gathered at the Tahrir Square to participate in a demonstration branded Friday of Anger. The population was tired with the leadership of Hosni Mubarak who was reluctant to initiate some constitutional changes in order to incorporate the poor into the financial system.
The president was indifferent to the sufferings of the majority and his only focus was on the military, as he rewarded the generals in favor of developing the economy. This was something that angered the learned in the society since they suffered from relative deprivation whereby their hard work was never appreciated.
The author suggests that social media played a critical role in spreading information since demonstrators were able to gather without announcing their meetings in either print or broadcast media. Soon after the ousting of Mubarak, the population was uncomfortable with the Military Council that was given the mandate of ruling the country. The crowd rallied behind the revolutionists and martyrs who were willing to sacrifice their lives for a better society. The protest was referred to as May 27 and the author notes that this shaped the political landscape of the country. The media was ordered to keep off the strike, as media houses were instructed not to cover the events. The military went on to warn that demonstrators would attack innocent people and the multinational organizations, including the ATM s, but demonstrators were determined to bring change.
In the article, the author presents three major points, one being that whenever the proletariat organizes for a revolution, the bourgeoisie will always come up with ways of countering the revolt. He suggests further that the Egyptian uprising was mainly due to religious, as well as class conflict because the poor believed that Islam does not allow the rich to subdue the underprivileged in society. Finally, he looks at the effects of the May 27 revolt on the political and economic organization of the country.
Through the article, it is clear that the ruling class in society will never allow the working class to own the means of production through a revolution. This means that they will do everything possible to ensure that they destabilize the fighting spirit of the workers through propaganda and spreading false information. For instance, the Islam Brotherhood and the military counsel claimed that the demonstrators were being funded by the western powers to destabilize the economy of the country and cause unnecessary suffering. While the rich believed in Islam, they never practiced the major tenets of the religion, something that prompted the poor to revolt.
Socialism claims that religion is an important aspect of subjugation and oppression that has always been exploited effectively to dampen the fighting spirits of the poor. A few scholars interpreted the provisions of Islam and went on to oppose the type of leadership provided in the country.
Even though the article tends to suggest that the Egyptian revolution was mainly due to economic reasons and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, it fails to explain why the learned in society were willing to sacrifice their lives since they are not poor. This means that the article does not provide other important causes of the revolution. For instance, the media freedom and denial of the freedom of expression is an additional reason that forced the youths to engage in riots with the administrations since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak (Omar 3). In fact, the article simply looks at the revolution from one perspective, which is the Marxist perspective and fails seriously to analyze other factors.
Despite this weakness, the article still gives the details of the revolution, right from the time it started to the ongoing developments. It is concluded that Omar succeeds in convincing the reader to adopt the socialist perspective in analyzing the conflicts taking place in Egypt. He looks at the major instruments that the ruling class employs in extending domination, such as controlling the media, reinterpreting religion, and using propaganda effectively. The ruling class will always do everything possible to ensure that they remain in power forever.
Works Cited
Omar, Mostafa. “The New Shape of the Struggle in Egypt”. International Socialist Review 78.1 (2011): 1-8. Print.