A comment about Middle East violence and the “Arab street”

by David Safier

Among the stereotypes that should fall into disuse based on what we've seen in Egypt are the ideas that there is an "Arab street" which is a mindless mob of Al Qaeda-crazed radicals and the only way people in the Middle East know how to settle their differences is with guns and suicide bombings. Our televisions showed us how wrong those stereotypes are.

It's hard to overstate the importance of day after day of mass demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of people on the streets in Egypt without bombs and guns and violence from the demonstrators. Even attempts to foment violence by undercover police and others paid by the government to stir up trouble were met with measured responses. Inside the demonstrations, people who tried to stir up trouble were surrounded and neutralized. Larger attempts to throw the crowd into chaos were repelled.

I'm sure we'll find out more about leaders of the protests as time goes by, but every indication is, the demonstrations weren't centrally organized. People fed off each others' positive energies. Yet even without a moderating voice, a Ghandi or a Martin Luther King, the crowds somehow knew how to behave.

I tend toward cynicism — in my own soft-hearted, idealistic way. I have to admit, my cynical self worries about what will happen in Egypt in the upcoming months. But I can find no emotions but praise and hope in the way Egyptians carried themselves as they drove Mubarak from power, not to mention the joyous celebrations which were accompanied by people cleaning up the square, demonstrating their commitment to creating a country that is a better place than it was a few weeks ago.