Two revolutions, two transitional periods: How much has Egypt changed?

A sizable portion of Egypt’s intelligentsia tends to compare the years 1954 and 2011, both being transitional stages following revolutions that deposed a regime and changed the history of the country.

The protagonists of the two periods are always at the center of the comparison. Both Maj. Gen. Mohamed Naguib, Egypt’s first president, and Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Higher Council for the Armed Forces, showed support for a democratic state and a multi-party system and advocated the army’s return to its barracks to give way to a civilian rule.

Comparisons focus on one power that exercised non-negligible influence in both years – the Muslim Brotherhood, under the leadership of its Supreme Leader Hassan al-Hodeibi in 1954, and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, headed by the group’s prominent members Mohamed Mursi and Essam el-Erian.

Despite the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood as a player in the Egyptian political scene following the 1952 Revolution, a remarkable difference can be detected between the way religion was dealt with now and then.

More tolerance prevailed, linking religion to state never seemed that necessary, and the Muslim Brotherhood were the only Islamist group in 1954, whereas in 2011 moderation is quickly diminishing, fanatical interpretations of Islam are gaining ground, and another religious faction emerged as the Brotherhood’s rival and has become more popular in the Egyptian street: the Salafis.

A 1954 beauty pageant is a simple, but important, example of the absence of religious fanaticism at the time. In that year, Egyptians chose Antigone Costanda, an Alexandrian of Greek origin, to be Miss Egypt, and in the same year she was crowned Miss World and appeared on stage dressed in a bathing suit in the ceremony held in London.

That year witnessed a conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and a group in the army led by Naguib, which called for ending military rule and holding elections, and another group led by then Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser and which demanded prolonging the transitional period and the postponement of elections.

The same scenario is being reenacted in 2011, and the same conflict over holding elections on time or postponing them and hastening the army’s return to its barracks or allowing it more time in power is also taking place.

The conflict reached its peak when the Revolutionary Council issued a decision to dismiss Naguib from the presidency and people took to the streets and staged rallies similar to the ones organized on Friday of each week following the recent January 25 Revolution.

While the people wanted Naguib to stay, army officers demonstrated in support of Nasser. While the Revolutionary Council announced it was respecting the will of the people and retracted the dismissal of Naguib, several disruptive incidents were staged by the army to make his ouster necessary and several pro-Nasser intellectuals and writers began a propaganda campaign that warned of the return of “remnants” of the former regime – a word currently used in reference to members of the disbanded former ruling National Democratic Party – in case the parliamentary system is resumed.

Nasser’s camp emerged victorious, and this signaled the start of the 60-year military rule of Egypt. The statement issued by the Revolutionary Council on November 14,1954, stipulated that the council was to continue running the country under the leadership of Nasser, who was in power until his death, in 1970.

On March 26, 1954, the headlines of Egypt’s leading newspapers announced the release of political prisoners, among them Muslim Brotherhood leader Hassan al-Hodeibi, the disbanding of the Revolutionary Council, creation of a multi-party system, elections, and the cancellation of martial law and exceptional courts. Most of these promises never materialized.

In 2011, the Higher Council for the Armed Forces announced the cancellation of the 30-year-old emergency law before parliamentary elections; however, this was retracted after the storming of the Israeli embassy and the much-hated law was brought back in full force.

After the 1952 Revolution kept almost none of its promises, headlines changed.

“Abdel Nasser warns of the counter-revolution,” read one headline in al-Akhbar newspaper. The term “counter-revolution” is apparently not new to the Egyptian political scene and was used in 1954 to indicate Nasser’s opponents, while in 2011 it refers to all forces engaged in attempts to abort the revolution.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)