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PDF versionEgyptian revolution impels us toward nonviolence
by John Dear SJ on Feb. 15, 2011
Rather, they are kept in place by pillars of support. These props include the police and army; the media; economic forces; cultural and ideological structures; and the general population. The job of a nonviolent resistance movement is to remove this support. Key to this process is alerting, educating, and mobilizing a growing number of people throughout the nation or society to withdraw their consent -- and to overcome their fear of the consequences for doing so.
The whole world rejoiced Friday when Hosni Mubarak stepped as down as Egyptian president after eighteen days of massive protest throughout the country. It was thrilling to see nonviolent “People Power” topple a dictatorship which only four weeks ago seemed impenetrable.
I thanked God when I heard the news because I see the Egyptian revolution as the work of God. From Moses to Martin Luther King, Jr. and the thousands of nonviolent movements in between, the God of peace is always trying to liberate us, push us to confront tyranny, and give us nonviolent justice and peace.
I’m sad yet grateful for the hundreds who died and the thousands who suffered for this political and spiritual breakthrough.
I hope and pray that Egypt does not start a new military dictatorship; that all political prisoners will be freed; that the billions Mubarak stole will be returned to feed, house and heal the poor; that the unjust 1972 emergency laws and blockade of Gaza will be lifted; and that free elections will be held and freedom of the press allowed.
If Egypt refuses all U.S. military aid, it would truly be free from slavery to the Pentagon and could embark on a new road to peace with justice.
Yes, the Egyptian people have inspired the world. They tell us that dictatorship, tyranny, and empire do not last forever. They can be toppled. Breakthroughs toward greater nonviolent democracy, justice and peace can happen if ordinary people demand it, struggle for it, and give their lives for it.
Moreover, the Egyptians remind us that we have a power to bring true social change without the use of violence. As Gandhi and Dr. King and the hundreds of movements in the last fifty years have shown, active nonviolence works. When ordinary people organize themselves, mobilize their energies, shake off their fear and give their lives, nonviolent change becomes unstoppable.
85 autocracies have fallen in the last few decades; about half of them have moved toward democracy.
I always see these nonviolent revolutions as God’s doing. This week, I’ve been preaching about the Sermon on the Mount at the little parish where I serve on the Mexican border.
It’s always astonishing to hear Jesus’ fifth antithesis -- “Offer no violent resistance to one who does evil” -- and to ponder the examples of creative nonviolent resistance he teaches (Mt. 5:38-45).
Jesus teaches and practices nonviolent revolution, and gave his life in that campaign to resist imperial injustice and welcome God’s reign. He knew more than any of us that pursuing the truth of justice and peace through nonviolent love was God’s will.
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“Nonviolent people power operates on the assumption that systems of violence and injustice are not absolute and implacable,” Ken Butigan, noted teacher of nonviolence, wrote on Friday at www.wagingnonviolence.org:
By staying this challenging course over the past three weeks -- in the face of jailings, torture, organized thugs, demonization by state media, as well as a series of government half-measures designed to prevent real change -- the Egyptian pro-democracy movement pulled down these pillars of citizen consent, economic viability, a number of elites, and even state media. As each of these supports gave way, the Mubarak presidency, despite its hubris and long-time projection of invincibility, was rendered powerless.
The crowds in Tahrir Square showed us how the powers-that-be become powerless because of the power of ordinary people. I hope this lesson inspires people around the world to study the methodology of nonviolent social change, for the world needs more nonviolent revolutions -- in Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Burma, Pakistan, Israel, England, China, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Vatican City, and, yes, right here in the U.S.
Our own state media seems to think this mass protest sprung up overnight, out of the blue. They cannot grasp how much the Egyptian people have been suffering, or how well organized the movement was. Behind the scenes hundreds of people helped bring about these demonstrations. At pivotal moments, some people took bold stands at great personal risk which then inspired countless others.
The Egyptian movement challenges us here in the U.S. not to be discouraged but to keep on organizing, speaking out and working for change. If we pursue this struggle, one day our nonviolence will win out, for God wants to liberate us too -- from war, nuclear weapons, corporate greed, hunger, homelessness, militarism and environmental destruction.
We have more than enough money not only to feed the world, but to educate everyone on the planet in nonviolence as a way of life. We could easily create a global culture of peace if we wanted to.
I found it mind-boggling to hear President Obama praise “nonviolence” in his Feb. 11 press conference after Mubarak’s resignation.
"Egyptians have inspired us,” Obama said, “and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained by violence. For Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence, not terrorism, not mindless killing, but nonviolence, moral force, that bent the arc of history toward justice.”
If the president can applaud the power of nonviolence in the Egyptian revolution, why does he refuse to apply it to our own nation’s policies? Why do we as Americans tolerate our government’s violence, and refuse to accept the power, the moral force, of nonviolence?
According to his own statement, justice for September 11th -- or in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan -- cannot be gained by violence, by the terrorism of our drones or by our troops. Justice is gained by active nonviolence, by moral force alone.
I want to tell Obama and our military leaders to turn from imperial violence -- which supports the likes of Mubarak and bombs the world’s children -- to the wisdom and truth of nonviolence, to moral force. That’s what authentic democracy requires.
But I know that the only way Obama and his administration can hear this truth is if we speak together as a grassroots movement for change. As Egypt reminds us, change comes from the bottom up. We ordinary people are the ones with the real power to bring true lasting change.
I spoke about these things last week at the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island.
The Center, founded by Dr. Bernard Lafayette, one of Dr. King’s lieutenants, is currently directed by Dr. Paul Bueno de Mesquita. There they teach the methodology of nonviolent resistance to confront systems of injustice, war and empire through social movements. They study the Civil Rights Movement and other nonviolent revolutions such as those which brought down the Berlin Wall and apartheid.
I watched with wonder as wide-eyed young students in one class discussed the way of active nonviolence and felt new hope. They gave me hope that one day more and more people in our own country will wake up and demand an end to our wars, corporate greed, nuclear weapons, executions, unjust healthcare and school systems and environmental destruction.
This is precisely the work that Martin Luther King, Jr. was engaged in during his last few months, as he tried to build a nonviolent people power movement, the Poor People’s Campaign, to bring thousands of disenfranchised people to Washington, D.C., to shut down our government until it ended the Vietnam War and abolished poverty and hunger.
“These are revolutionary times,” Dr. King said then. “All over the globe people are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores.”
We rejoice with the Egyptian people, and give thanks for them, for Jesus, for Dr. King and for all who have given their lives in nonviolent revolution.
May we catch their Spirit and do what we can to hasten even greater breakthroughs for justice and peace.
*****
To hear a new podcast interview with John Dear, go to www.jesusradicals.com. This week, John travels to the Middle East to give a keynote speech at the annual Sabeel Conference in Bethlehem, Palestine/Israel (see: www.sabeel.org). His latest book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Orbis), and other recent books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down Your Sword, as well as Patricia Normile’s John Dear On Peace, are available from www.amazon.com. To contribute to Catholic Relief Services’ “Fr. John Dear Haiti Fund,” go to: http://donate.crs.org/goto/fatherjohn. For further information, or to schedule a lecture or retreat, visit: www.johndear.org.
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Thank you so much Fr John for
Thank you so much Fr John for continuing to preach with your very life the sermon on the mount's message of non-violent resistance to evil.
Keep up the good work !
God Bless
I would agree with you that
I would agree with you that what happened in Egypt is God's work. It is perhaps also significant that Mubarak resigned on 11 February - and Mandela went free on another February 11 - the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes. I myself come from South Africa and have paid a heavy price for our freedom. I often ponder these apparent coincidences. I do not believe they are insignificant. For those of us who are aware, these present wonderful signs of God's presence in our world. It also encourages those of us who like you are paying such a heavy price for the world's freedom. Our work does not go either unsupported or unnoticed by Our God and the Mother of Jesus.
Thank you for your columns - they help me remember who I am. Karin Paasche
Amen! and Hallelujah! If they
Amen! and Hallelujah! If they can do it in Egypt, then we can do it here, even though we are living in the belly of the beast.
I'm very glad you wrote the
I'm very glad you wrote the following sentence: "Our own ... media seems to think this mass protest sprung up over night, out of the blue." 1st)I would remind us that our media knew very well this wasn't the case, but media policymakers decided that's what "need-to-know" called for and so that's how the stories came across. 2nd)I would add that the U.S. populace bought it - hook, line & sinker. We are willing accomplices to believing anything we're told. We're often the gospel "reed shaken by the wind." A large part of the reason is our recent history of navel-gazing that excludes a global worldview. It's easier to live with ourselves that way. 3rd) To those who might be interested I recommend a memoir by Awal El Saadawi, an Egyptian medical doctor & first Arab woman to write about sex & its relation to economics & politics. The journey portrayed begins in the 1950's but recounts earlier milieus as well. The book, WALKING THROUGH FIRE: A LIFE OF NAWAL EL SAADAWI, (Zed Books,2002)was composed and translated (Sherif Hetata) at Duke University in exile that ended in uncertainty in 1996. This one account alone can/will dispel the notion of an overnight phenomenon. This comment came from someone who didn't think this for one second... and I owe a lot in this regard to Dr. El Saadawi. Acquisition of a global worldview with an accompanying solidarity takes desire, inquisitiveness, and followthrough. I hope it spreads....
There has been one thing
There has been one thing missing from all this so far.
No one has thanked the Egyptian military.
Why? Think about this:
Why does Egypt have the kind of military it has anyway? Motorized infantry, armored units, the works? It doesn't need it to go against its neighbors. Sudan has no military capable of taking the field. Libya has no real military might and as far as Israel goes, the Egyptian military couldn't last five minutes against them (we of course, also pay them not to do so).
The only real answer as I see it is that Egypt has the military it has in order to act as a control on its population.
While in the rebellion there was the usual police billy clubs and tear gas, the important thing is THE MILITARY DIDN'T START MACHINE-GUNNING PEOPLE IN THE STREETS. Whether this was because Mubarak ordered them to engage and they refused, or if he didn't order them because he knew they wouldn't anyway, I don't know. Either way, that played out as a HUGE factor in this.
I wish the best to the Egyptian people. Unfortunately, they still have a lot to go through, and I'm sure the U.S. will probably not be acting in their interest either.
"that the billions Mubarak stole will be returned to feed, house and heal the poor;"
- BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Yes, I'm sure that will be a top priority! I'm sure it will not be confiscated by the first set of greedy politicians who get their hands on it. *rolls eyes* Come on, Father. While it would be nice, let's not be totally unrealistic here.
"If Egypt refuses all U.S. military aid"
- There's a problem here. It is my understanding that most of the grain consumed by Egyptians is also provided by the US and Russia. You think that's a gift? No, that's bribe. Egypt does not have the ability to feed its own people, and is reliant on foreign grain. I fear the next person in line in Egypt will bow to Washington as well or risk food shipments being limited. Any such limits would mean more civil problems and the end of his power. Then the US would simply find someone else to be their puppet.
But hey, it could happen otherwise. I think it would also be best for OUR country if we weren't able to control them as well.
Change is the transformation
Change is the transformation of anger, into love, through love. It was not anger, that was the impetus for egypt's freedom. Rather it is the energy of Gods love, the intended, that is within all humanity, which compels us to seek the peace of love, that was and is the impetus, of our freedom. A love which precedes, transforms and transcends the personified anger of humanity, and all creations consciousness. Our love our God. Fulfill the intended...
None violent protest against
None violent protest against a dictator only works if the dictator either doesn’t have power over his military or doesn’t have it in his heart to use violence against his own people.
This form of protest didn’t work in China or Iran where the leaders were willing and had the power to crush the demonstrators.
I wish the Egyptian
I wish the Egyptian revolution would inspire the poor citizens of Mexico to rise up and revolt against their own government that has failed them over and over again.
What is it in some cultures to take action for change, while others are passive or seek illegal entry to a country that gives them free education, medical benefits, and incarceration?
Mary, I do believe Mexico is
Mary, I do believe Mexico is predominantly Catholic isn't it? So too is most of the Latin American countries and we all know about the ex-bishop now Paraguayian President his little "troubadours of the flesh" and his women.
That's the difference.
One hesitates to speculate
One hesitates to speculate what THIS next Jasmine Revolution impels us toward:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110220/ap_on_re_as/as_china_jasmine_revolution
It was the threat of violence
It was the threat of violence that caused Mubarak to resign. Did you really think he would have gone just because they were shouting? He left because the military told him to. How is this a victory for non-violence? When you reduce everything to your own message, you wind up saying nothing at all.
The recalling of the
The recalling of the Ambassador to the Vatican was proof enough Egypt wanted no cause for anti-religious clashes in the initial protest.
Keeping themselves focused soley on the cause for freedom and democracy.
There were no anti-Jewish slogans or banners either, all marching together.
Wonderful; side by side.
The whole world did not
The whole world did not rejoice at the stepping down of President Mubarak. I suspect that our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel found it a tragedy. Now the only true democracy in the Middle East must refocus its energy and precious human treasure to preventing itself from being forced into another war with enemies on three sides and its back to the sea. Oh wait a minute, that’s right, the new Egyptian government has allowed Iranian warships to pass through the Suez and lay off Israel’s coast. Make that enemies on all sides and within since as soon as the Gaza blockade is lifted, weapons will flow freely to Palestinian and Hamas terrorists with the intent of eviscerating Israel from within.
I find it interesting that Dear’s article makes no mention of the risk to Israel this event poses, especially since recent history predicts the strong likelihood that Egypt will come to be dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, an ally of rabid Islam in Iran. One can only infer that Dear deems the extermination of the Jewish people an acceptable trade for “democracy”. He’s either incredibly naive (preferable) or an anti-Semite (unfortunate and embarrassing to the Church). I suspect that Jesus will be very unhappy with Catholics who do nothing to protect God's chosen people; i.e. his people and family. Has it been so long since the Shoah that we've forgotten the horror that is genocide? Will liberal Catholics like Dear commit the same sin with which they accuse Pius XII?
It’s also likely that the Coptic Christian population is not too happy with the recent turn of events. No mention of the Copts in this article eithr....does Dear even know who's who in the Middle East?
Sirach, it's what Elie Wiesel
Sirach, it's what Elie Wiesel didn't say on the SS Muslim divisions and the personal tour of Auschwich given to Mufti Hajj Amin el Hussein that quietly concerned me.
We just have to hope that all internation treaties will honoured as were assured, that included the 1979 Peace Accord with Israel.
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