Egyptian Opposition Movements behind Tahrir

I’ve been following the activities of the April 6 Youth Movement and the Kefaya opposition faction for three years now. The newly formed youth movements have been planning protests against Hosni Mubarak’s regime since around 2008. After the first protest around 500 people were arrested in one night. I remember it well, this happened exactly on April 6. From an online phenomenon, April 6 turned into a real movement of mainly young people from Cairo and Alexandria.

Today the regime is gone, but its shadow still hangs over Egyptian society. After provocations, fights erupted between Muslims and Christians in Cairo, killing 10 people and injuring over 100. Many eyewitnesses claim that Mubarak-supporters, who still believe in the former regime, are using the shaky transition period to instill fear and chaos among the people.

I say this because on the 5th of May, when I met with the activists who participated in the January 25 and following Tahrir square events, our conversations were mainly about the situation in Egypt. During the Sofia Platform conference on the 5th and 6th of May, Bulgaria welcomed some of the most notable Arab human rights activists, who were participating in the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and more recently – Yemen. Bassem Kamal is one of the leaders of the Revolutionary youth league in Egypt. He’s a very down-to-earth person, who often wears a white suit and black scarf as his trademark.

Hisham Khedr, the secretary general of the Islamic party Al Nahda, and George Ishaq made the greatest impression on me. Here’s why: George Ishaq is the leader and co-founder of Kefaya, which remained an underground movement for a long time. Its plans for protest were spread secretly among activists. Its logo, a bold red word on a yellow background: “Kefaya” (“enough”), is very often seen at protests in Cairo and Alexandria.

Georges Ishak, despite his advanced age, impresses us with vitality. Like Amani Al Hayat from ON TV, he’s always smiling and upbeat, sharing a joke here and there during the conversation. He speaks eloquently about the events in Egypt and loves to describe how one day Egyptians will wave a calm “good bye” to Mubarak. However, that day hasn’t come yet, he says. “The revolution still isn’t over, and Kefaya will fight to the end, to fulfill the demands of the protesters”. An optimist, he believes in the power of the young, who he believes will make themselves heard during the September elections – the first independent elections in decades. In his words, it’s up to the Egyptian people to make these elections free and honest, and to give everyone a chance to participate.

This view is shared by Hisham Khedr. He is secretary general of the new Al Nahda Al ’an party, which was recently launched in Egypt. Its religious origins and connections with the Muslim Brotherhood make work difficult for him and his colleagues. "All eyes are now on us," Mr. Khedr tells me, "certainly there’s a long road ahead of us, to prove that our ideas don’t contradict the concept of statehood". Nobody wants a religious government in Egypt, the protests in Cairo demonstrate this very clearly. The new doctrines being written right now are unlikely to have anything in common with those of the past. At least that’s what Hisham Khedr is hoping. He believes that Arab society has been in a state of collapse, vegetating, for a long time, but is now awakening. One look at people like George Ishaq, Bassem Kamal and the other Arab activists today shows, there’s no doubt about that.

Ruslan Khaled Trad is a Syrian-Bulgarian political analyst, activist and blogger about the Middle East. He lives in Bulgaria and is president of the Forum for Arab Culture Now and an author for Foreign Policy Bulgaria and Global Voices.