Friday, September 9, 2011

NewYork Times on the day the Egyptian Revolution began

Today on the New York Times by MICHAEL SLACKMAN and MONA EL-NAGGAR wrote:

" ... Same radical Islamists, who once embraced an ideology that rejected participating in societies they deemed un-Islamic, including their own, were now engaged with their fellow citizenry. Peacefully engaged.

“There is a newfound conviction that protests, strikes and civil action are more effective than fighting and force,” said Marwan Shehadeh, an expert on radical Islamist groups and ideology based in Amman, Jordan.

“I think the average Western person must re-evaluate many stereotypes about Arabs,” said Alaa Al Aswany, a best-selling Egyptian author and social critic. “For example, the stereotype that veiled women are helpless or that being veiled means you’re not an independent woman. ”Mr. Aswany said he realized that the Arab Spring was the opposing bookend to the Sept. 11 attacks not long ago, during a weekly salon he holds in Cairo. His French translator, Gilles Gauthier, approached him. “Osama bin Laden,” the translator told Mr. Aswany, “did not die yesterday, but he was killed on the 25th of January.”

That was the day the Egyptian revolution began

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