Two weeks after protests began in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak has finally stepped down. CNN is livestreaming the celebrations in Cairo.
Also check out this beautiful picture of Muslim Egyptians praying.
The question of what will happen with the country next, who will take leadership, and if the protesters demands are actually met, remains to be seen, but now is a time for celebration in Egypt. (For more on the future, and the need for true democracy in Muslim world, listen to this interview with our May interviewee, Akbar Ahmed.)
Agenzia Fides has been in touch with a missionary in Egypt, who said that he’s seen “the best of Egypt” in the protests. “As a missionary community we ask ourselves what this means for us, how to be prophetic and how we can live out the Gospel Beatitudes in this context. Thus we have decided to witness to the desire for justice and freedom of this people,” Father Luciano Verdoscia says in this article, predicting the large numbers at today’s protests.
Social media, of course, has played a huge role in the revolution. Next week I interview Maryann Cusimano Love about Catholic peacebuilding (see my blog post applying her ideas to Egypt). One question I will ask her is how “just peace” theory applies to the lives of individual Catholics. (Feel free to suggest other questions in the comments.)
War and peace are no longer just the concern of the military and diplomats. Each of us can be connected to the events oceans away through technology. The protests in Egypt show that the Internet, writes Kevin Clarke in a preview of April’s Margin Notes column, will continue to “be a force that makes real the spiritual connectiveness of all people.” Have you followed the story closely? How have you done so?
I haven’t listened yet, but I’m eager to hear Krista Tippett On Being program this week on “Demonstrations, Hopes, and Dreams.”
