Breakfast Politics

I’ve been battling a severe cold the last few days so I’ve spent most of my time resting in my room when I’m not teaching. I’m feeling better this morning (Sunday) and am going to try and relate a few stories.

As you might guess from current affairs and as you’ve probably gathered from my previous blogs, talk of the Revolution, the new Egypt and politics is a regular topic of discussion with my students. At breakfast on Thursday morning talk of presidential elections in the US and Egypt dominated the conversation. One of my students asked if I thought Barack Obama would be re-elected. I explained the challenges that I think he faces. The interesting part of the conversation, however, was when a student said, “I do not like Barack Obama, when he speaks you can hear his words in two ways. From one side they are good words, but from the other side they are not. I preferred George Bush, even though I didn’t like what he did, because you knew what he stood for and what he thought.”

When I asked about the upcoming Egyptian presidential elections a more lively conversation ensued. One student, the student who has been most vocally in favor of the revolution, said that he wants (yes, he said “wants”) a member of the Muslim Brotherhood to be elected as the first president of the new Egypt. He admits this is a crazy idea for a Christian to espouse but his rationale was, “whoever is the first president of Egypt will have a very, very difficult time and will fail. If the one who fails is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood that will weaken the Brotherhood. Sure it will be difficult for a few years for Christians, but in the long run this would be better for Egypt.”

Another usually quiet student objected, “I disagree. This IS a crazy idea. If a Muslim Brotherhood person is elected president we risk the same government as in Iran.”

One of the pressing issues in Egyptian politics right now is which will come first, a new constitution or elections. It seems that most of my students would like to see the constitution re-written first with elections following. The risk if that does not happen is that those who are elected – likely to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood because of they are the best-organized political group – will be in the position to rewrite the constitution in a way that favors them and their positions. The Christians that I know are worried about that possibility.

The May/June issue of Foreign Affairs is all about the uprisings in the Middle East/North Africa. I’ve been working my way though it the last few days and have found the analysis both very accessible and thoughtful. Check it out if you want to learn more.