The Muslim Brotherhood & The Cairo Codex 7

Monday, July 31st, 2017

In spite of Mubarak’s continued efforts to suppress the Brotherhood, including amending the constitution to ban political parties with a religious foundation, the organization continued to gain power. By 2010, we could detect a mounting “perfect storm,” that is, the increasing agitation of the Brotherhood in response to oppression and frequent imprisonment of members and the plight of Egypt’s youth.

A Rapture of Ravens: Awakening in Taos, the third novel in the Justine Trilogy (The Cairo Codex being the first) was set in 2010-2011 and chronicled the launching and immediate aftermath of the 2011 revolution. By April, 2010, clusters of youth in Cairo were planning the uprising. The trigger came with the tragic incident in Tunisia on December 17:
“. . . Tunisia. This morning Mohamed Bouazizi, a 27-year-old shopkeeper in Tunis, set himself on fire after a squabble with a policewoman, onlookers say. More than a hundred witnesses stood in horror as Bouazizi slowly sat down in the middle of the road and poured gasoline on himself. He paused only briefly, mumbling inaudibly before he lit the match. No one moved. People stood transfixed, unbelieving. A woman ran from the crowd screaming ‘help him, help him.’ She was later identified as his mother. What would motivate a young man to take his life in this horrible way? What will happen now? Across the world . . . ”

“When we get a million hits on Facebook, we go,” claimed the youthful organizers. The Rapture describes that resolve on January 25, 2011:
“They had no idea what lay ahead, but they had had enough. Enough of unemployment and low wages, living at home until the age of thirty, unable to get a place of their own, a place to bring a wife. Postponing a family, watching their friends rounded up and imprisoned without charges, barely recognizing their bruised faces once they returned to their neighborhoods with flat, unexpressive eyes. But not today. Not today. Today, their eyes filled with resolve, bravery.”

Was this a revolution of Egypt’s youth? A general unrest that gave rise to citizens of all ages? A revolution of the Muslim Brotherhood? The answer is “yes” in all three cases. A perfect storm. It was the Brotherhood members who checked for weapons and handed out water at the perimeter of Tahrir Square on that fateful day.

Tags: Mohamed Bouazizi
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