Today, in a much anticipated speech, Hosni Mubarak, defied all expectations and did not announce his resignation despite the demands of the brave and perseverant Muslims of Egypt – after 17 days of demonstrations.
Increasingly abandoned by his Western masters – as well as his cronies within the regime in Egypt – Mubarak looked weak and humiliated. But he announced some token changes to the constitution.
Some in America had called for him to stay – including Vice President Joe Biden and special envoy and former Ambassador Wisner.
But the change people have called for has not yet occurred. The man and the regime remains.
Small changes maybe made to the constitution, but the secular constitution will remain.
And if Mubarak could be described as America’s man, Omar Suleiman, his deputy could be described as Israel’s. He has been the interlocutor between Cairo and Tel Aviv; the man who enforced the siege on Gaza and threatened to ‘cleanse’ Sinai of those who took arms to the Palestinians; endorsed by Tony Blair, by Washington, London and Tel Aviv.
We pray that the brave Muslims of Egypt are not deterred by these games; nor duped, and that continue to move towards real change that can only come when the Islamic Khilafah is established: an accountable elected government, that rules by Islam, not for the interests of a narrow elite, nor for the interest of Western colonial powers.
May Allah protect them, strengthen them and give them tawfeeq to realise real change.
Mubarak reminds me of Pharoah during the Prophet Musa (alayhis salaam)… No matter how many signs came to him, he remained arrogant in Ruling over Egypt. The people of Egypt have come out in their millions waving their shoes at Mubarak. Yet In a live, televised speech, yesterday, he said he refused to be bullied by western intervention. If he’d only look outside his lavish palace and open his ears he would see that it is his own people that ate shouting, for him to leave.