Den egyptiske revolution bør skræmme Vestens regeringer

John Pilger skriver noget, jeg har tænkt i nogle uger nu: Revolutionerne i Tunesien og Egypten giver en solid dosis “anti-orientalisme”.

I stedet for at vise os de arabiske befolkninger som fundamentalt anderledes, som “den anden” i forhold til os her i vesten, viser billederne fra gaderne i Cairo og Alexandria os noget, vi umiddelbart genkender: Mennesker som os selv. Det er blandt andet derfor, de højreorienterede spindoktorer har så travlt med at forsikre, at det ikke vil lykkes og islam vil overtage. De ser et verdenssyn baseret på orientalisme og racisme smuldre, når egypterne træder frem på vore TV-skærme som medmennesker med motiver, der til forveksling ligner vore egne, og de frygter for deres egen fremtid.

Og i den forstand kæmper de unge på Tahrir-pladsen også for vores frihed, som Pilger skriver:

The uprising in Egypt has discredited every western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear-mongering, with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions of the “moral leadership of the west”. It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven and petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Public awareness is rising and bypassing them.

In Washington and London, the regimes are fragile and barely democratic. Having long burned down societies abroad, they are now doing something similar at home, with lies and without a mandate. To their victims, the resistance in Liberation Square must seem an inspiration. “We won’t stop,” said a young Egyptian woman on TV. “We won’t go home.” Try kettling a million people in the centre of London, bent on civil disobedience, and try imagining it could not happen.

Når oprøret har sejret i Egypten (siger jeg med krydsede fingre) kommer tiden måske og forhåbentlig til London, Paris og København. Lad magthaverne frygte. Og læs endelig det hele!

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