Critique of "Islamic Revolutionaries"

If you believe that you have a right to revolt against the government, if you believe that you have a right to carry out a revolution, that means you believe in the core principle of democratic theory of government, which is that the people have to approve of the government. So it's very contradictory to say that you wanna have a revolution and you believe in revolution, but you don't believe in democracy. And, you know, and then the other question would be, what kind of a government exactly are you gonna put in place? Another authoritarian government? You already have experience with how bad that is.

That's why you wanna have a revolution because you already have experience that that form of government doesn't work, and the whole problem that you have with that government is that you have no say. So fundamentally, what you are saying is I wanna have say in what type of government we have, what type of rules we have, what type of laws we have. That is democracy. If you believe that you have the power to topple the government, don't you believe that you have the power to make the government listen to you and change without having to topple it, without having to to to to drop the country into chaos? Instead of making your demand that the government must go, make your demand about specific policies that you want to see implemented.

Specific policies that you have identified as beneficial to the population, things that will empower the people, improve their lives, demand those things. But but across the board, these revolutionary movements, these revolutionary activists, these opposition people have no ideas. You ask them, and I have asked them. From Sudan to Egypt to Tunisia to Morocco to Syria to on and on and on. If you had power, what what are the specific changes that you wanna see?

And do not tell me Sharia because that's a meaningless statement. That is not an answer. That is not an answer. You have to tell me this is the problem in the government. This is the problem in the society.

This is the problem in the economy, and this is what I think we should do to make things better. And then if you think that you have the power to overthrow the government, then for crying out loud, you have the power to make them implement those policies. So you just take it a step at a time and be specific and be clear on what what you know, identifying the the actual positive changes that you need to accomplish in the society and pursue those positive changes one by one. If it means going out in the street and demonstrating, then go out in the street and demonstrate. Do whatever are the are the the processes that will that will put pressure on the government depending on what your particular situation is, whatever the, you know again, you have to before you do any of that, you have to do a a comprehensive analysis of the power dynamics at play, which I don't think anybody did in Sudan.

And I don't think almost anybody did in Egypt when they when when you got rid of Mubarak. I don't think anybody really looked at the the global power dynamics that were at play in Egypt and the the economic factors that were at play in Egypt. And nobody wanted to talk about that because then you have the the whole problem of you have all of these these groups and these these movements who are actually just as interested in in in gaining positions in power. I mean, if you if if someone is if someone is like an opposition person, if someone's in an opposition party or they're an opposition leader or they're an opposition activist or they're a revolutionary or they're they're this and they're that, they're a rebel, and you ask them about what are the policies that they would implement if they were in power and they don't have an answer to you, then you know immediately that all they want is a position. All they want is power, and they have no idea how to benefit the society.

They have no concern for the consequences on the society of their actions. And some of them will be will be clear about that. Some of them will be just open about it. Some of the real wacky jihadi types, they'll be like, yeah. Sometimes you just have to destroy everything and then you can rebuild and then maybe the people will suffer.

But then even in their suffering, then that will make them more open to the Islamic and the blah blah blah blah blah. Bro, do you even care about people? Do you even care about their lives? You have you have, like, more contempt, more indifference for the population than the government that you're trying to overthrow. You have to actually care about these, about your brothers and sisters in your country.

You have to actually care about what their situation is and look at the things that can actually benefit them, and then try to pursue those things policy by policy.