Arab Spring and Terrorism

¶ … Arab Spring: the political movement

The overall incidents that have recently surfaced in the form of political revolts and instability within the Arab world have been termed as the 'Arab Spring'. This particular chain of events was lead primarily by the Jasmine revolution which began back in December 2010. The jasmine revolution basically meant to overrun the authoritative Tunisian administration which it was successful in doing and thus the revolution was then able to spread to the neighboring nations like Egypt, Syria and Libya. The Arab Spring has shown that there is an excessive and extensive need and demand for the rule of democracy as well as exercise of civil rights from within all the countries that have been included within the Arab Spring phenomenon and thus we see revolutions surfacing in all major regions like Tunisia, Libya, Egypt. This increased need and awareness has been the reason behind the numerous alterations in political approaches and mindsets within the Arab world (Brownlee et al., 2013).

Impact on Egypt

One of the recent revolutions included in the Arab Spring was the Egyptian revolution. This revolution began with the gathering of innumerable locals on Cairo's Tahrir Square on January 25th 2011. The locals had mainly gathered in protest of the reign and administration of President Hosni Mubarak. There were a number of aspects that were causing serious concerns and anger amongst the Egyptians and over time, this frustration led to aggression. Some of the issues that can be highlighted here include aspects of corruption in the government ranks, increasing inflation, poverty as well as communal isolation. One of the main incidents that triggered the Egyptian Revolution was when the Tunisian government was overrun by neighboring Arabs. The revolution for violent with time but all revolutionaries and locals then focused all their energies on making sure that the government of President Hosni was overturned (Aa, 2011).

In this instance, the Egyptian protestors managed to find success and overthrow the government. It was the increasing and overwhelming pressure of the revolutionaries that forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down from his presidency. His resignation ended the reign of 3 decades and the governance was then handed over to the military forces who were assigned the job to design the structure of the brand new government and constitution (Aa, 2011).

The military forces started by dissolving the parliament that was in place at the time and completely disregarding the constitution that had been followed during the former president's rule. The aim of the armed forces was to give back the power to a structure government, one that would be elected through the parliamentarian setup later in the year. This declaration was coupled with the announcement that the election would be based on a referendum which was published in March. Through this referendum, the locals would be allowed to vote for the government as well as the changes that they want to see in the constitution. However, the overall process of the democratization of Egypt has been slow and all the blame is being placed on the military that has also been suspected of being loyal in application to the prior administration of President Mubarak. This realization of loyalty on the military's part to President Mubarak and the overall slow transition to a democratic government has led to quite a few supplementary protests in the region in recent times. Hosni Mubarak was also tried in court in August, the same year, for the responsibility of the dead protestors in the revolution. The following month, the military announced that parliament's election will be help in November which will be followed by elections for the new president. The military would still be in charge after the elections to ensure that the right democracy sets in and the parliament would thus be answerable to the military till the time that the new constitution and government was in place and functioning well. This transition of governance was anticipated to continue till 2013. Yet, even nearing the end of 2013, Egypt's future and governance still seems to be unclear (Aa, 2011).

Arab Spring and terrorism activity in Egypt

The overall impact and conclusions from the first election since the revolution in Egypt are clear indications of what is in store. The Islamic communities in the country have increased their popularity and thus are experiencing more power in the region. This is primarily so because most Muslim communities like the 'Muslim Brotherhood' are strong advocates of democracy and the ending of the tyrannous rule of the Egyptian military. On the other hand, creating havoc seems to be part of the agenda for groups like 'Muslim Brotherhood' so as to serve their hidden or ulterior interests. The Muslim Brotherhood has also been accused of bribing the locals in the election to attain votes from the locals which does not encourage a very democratic stance. It was February 11 when Mubarak resigned and the West-supported Egyptian military took over, however the purpose with which the revolution began seems to be lost again as the hunger for power overcomes the demand for democracy. This could lead to increased tensions and breeding grounds for terrorism (Lutterbeck, 2013).