Egypt: a path to freedom or hell (Part I)

By Stanley Zir

When the foundation and principles of our freedoms are altered, violated, or vacated to accommodate cultural, class, or religious differences, only a doctrine of tyranny will remain. There is only one brand of democracy and only one culture under its domain — the universal culture of freedom, freedom from tyranny with liberty and justice for all. No other type of democracy exists.

The people of Egypt say they really want to be free. Bringing down a tyrant is not enough. They must accept that it was America's Founding Fathers who opened the gates to their own and all people's freedoms with a Constitution that secures the freedoms they seek today. If they want to be free, they must honor the American Founders' commitment with their own pledge to eternally protect those same Constitutional rights in their new governance for which all freedom-loving patriots before them gave their lives willingly to defend.

The people of Egypt say they want to be free, but are they willing to build an impenetrable fortress that repulses the hatred and anti-Semitism that has permeated their government-run press, public schools, and mosques? Are they willing to stand against their own Islamic brethren, just as Americans of German, Italian, and Japanese descent stood against America's foes in World War II, in order to permanently quash their insatiable appetite for world domination?

Will they also vow to remain vigilant and protective of these freedoms to any future uprising of elitists and tyrants who oppose the tenets of freedom? Are they, in fact, willing to stand against any Islamics, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, who have strengthened their resolve to violently oppose anyone who would try to prevent their instituting an Islamic religious state in Egypt?

History has proven what Americans discovered long ago, when they declared their own independence: when people entrust their future to any elite religious or secular governmental authority, wherever that type of authority is in power, it is violently opposed to the tenets of freedom.

America is the Egyptian people's greatest friend because she poses the greatest threat to tyranny's stranglehold over her people. For those who still do not believe that ending the threat to world security is America's Manifest Destiny, how could it be otherwise? Our system of governance brings freedom; the other, submission. Ours supports an open market of ideas; the other, persecution and murder for dissent. One achieves peace and unity through a democratic and constitutional balance of power; the other accomplishes a mockery of these virtues through the absolute subjugation of the individual's human spirit to the will of the most ruthless contender.

As America's presence in the world grew after her War of Independence, new communication lines were opened through trade and cultural exchange. People were increasingly exposed to our Founders' revolutionary ideas, challenging nations to honor the sanctity of liberty's governance, thus paving the way for the spiritual advancement of a new era where the individuals, not the state, would become the building blocks of civilization.

When America embarked on her journey, tyranny's threat to our nation and world domination was limited. Today, that process has accelerated through new media outlets, particularly the Internet and social media. In an ever-shrinking world, tyrannical enterprises can no longer hide their acts of treachery; their intentions are exposed — to destroy the very foundation upon which the Constitution rests and end our freedoms.

Thus, the remaining tyrannical governments are compelled to eliminate the instruments for independence that the documents of liberty provide. They must do so before those who are imprisoned in their chains of hopelessness and despair have a chance to taste the sweet nectar of freedom that our Constitution offers and hunt their oppressors down for the criminals they are.

This assessment that leads to change through rebellion might have been true in the post-Cold War era, when nations like Poland and Germany rose up to bring down the walls of tyranny that encased them.

But in the Islamic world, the equation changes. Unlike Poland and Germany. the people in the nations of the Middle East and the Islamic World, who are now calling for change through rebellion, are not unlike the majority in Japan prior and during World War II, as both have consummated the marriage to their faith with a G-d they praised with acts of treachery and oppression.

Is the current Arab population no less infected with religious fanaticism than the Japanese in World War II? Are their hearts no less filled with hatred for the Jews than the Nazis were in Germany? Isn't this the same old horse (tyranny), just ridden by a different jockey?

Now the question becomes, as with Japan and the Nazis during World War II, will it take a "Democracy-or-Else Stance" by the United States to excise the poison from the minds of the Arabs and replace their cultures of death with a desire for peace?

Are we now facing a similar situation in the Islamic world, where only through unconditional surrender will lasting peace be achieved if the elections and futher rebellions bring forth more tyranny?

In the end, Japan and Germany only developed civilized behavior when confronted with a force more powerful than the misguided religious and secular tyrannical beliefs to which they gave their allegiance. As Egypt seems to be emerging from under the tyrannical boot, the Muslim Brotherhood and others who share there ideology also seems to be rising from the depths. Which path will Egypt choose?

What do the Egyptian or other Muslims really want? More Western culture? More Western products? They say they want to be free. Free from what? Free from a tyrannical religious mandate that supports a constitution that honors Islamic law as the only law of the land? Or do they want to be secularist as some on both the left and right now propose?

Unfortunately, under both socialism and Communism, the people are under state control and freedoms of the press and religion are suppressed.

If a culture of freedom is to be achieved, separating themselves from a mosque-state governance is the first step in securing true freedom in the Islamic world. There can never be freedom for people when the mosque and state work jointly to control the masses. The strict adherence to religious laws supported by the state, make for a population oppressed by a stifling religion and enforced by the head of state with no recourse or choices for the people. If the people of Egypt want to be free, entering into partnership with those who embrace a religious caliphate (Moslem Brotherhood) is not an option.

Ultimately, the only way the Islamic world can enjoy true freedom is to approve of a constitution that does not govern exclusively by religious law, or fully commit to secularism. The United States is fortunate to have such a Constitution. It has stood the test of time for more than 200 years with only a few minor adjustments through amendments. It is certainly the best thing America has ever produced, for it contains a blueprint that is the prototype for governance that can bring about the peaceful co-existence of all nations.

What kind of government will emerge in the future to replace the totalitarian regimes in Egypt, if they do not make a clean break from their past?

Excluding the principle that separates the mosque from the state when forming a new Egyptian constitution would be disastrous, for it removes the pillar of liberty that was established at our country's outset to protect our citizens against the excessive abuses of religious dogma.

With this one omission, the constitutional balance between the secular and religious needed to maintain an open market of ideas in Egypt will falter. When the dust settles, only another form of tyranny will emerge in Egypt's future: a new-age forgery conceived in ignorance and bathed in the sacrifice of their citizens' blood. The reward for such sacrifice would be a time bomb waiting to explode in their children's future.

As Americans, we cannot accept a government that would again put Egypt at odds with our Founders' formula for freedom, and ever hope to establish mutual peaceful relations.

Will Egypt adopt the political ideology that America's Founders designed to end sectarian slaughter in the Islamic world, by redirecting the people's allegiance to religious fanaticism to one that protects everyone's inalienable rights? This is the frontline of defense that the Islamic world must adopt if they are to be free from tyranny's hateful grip, and America's Constitution fits the bill.

The Constitution of the United States of America is the cornerstone of democracy. Contained within this sacred document is the wisdom and compassion that America's Founding Fathers provided to eternally protect us from the many faces of tyranny that would betray our Covenant of freedom. Under the sovereignty of the Constitution, the American people are protected from the assault of absolute power, thus providing a safe haven from those who would deny them their inalienable rights, in the name of their God, a State, or both.

America created the documents of freedom. Now it's up to Egypt to follow in America's footsteps. This will be their best and last chance to join the free world. If they do not avail themselves of this golden opportunity, it will all be downhill; for the future of the world belongs to the free.

© Stanley Zir