Egypt is in turmoil. The people are revolting against their oppressor. They chant as so many before them "Give me liberty or give me death!"
This chant echoes in my mind as I travel to Beit She'an excavations. Beit She'an Hill, houses some of this region's most important archaeological finds, including artifacts from Egyptian, Roman, Byzantine and Muslim eras. These same rulers ruled Egypt for millenniums and I have to wonder what influence they must have had on the Egyptian people and their ideas of liberty, faith and government.
I walk into the ruins of an Egyptian Royal administration center and travel back in time to the age of the Pharaohs. These kings were believed to be deities, their reign divine. The reign of the Pharaohs did not bring with it much liberty, in the Jewish bible the escape from Egypt is also the attainment of liberty and is a cornerstone to millenniums of Jewish philosophies on personal and national freedoms. From the corner of my eye I spot the ruins of an ancient synagogue and think how relevant the story of Exodus must have been as the Greeks took over this town and brought with them the first raw form of democracy.
From the Roman amphitheater in Beit She'an, I walk through a Byzantine street fully equipped with period columns, and into a Byzantine basilica. In Egypt The Byzantine Era brought with it rulers believed to be the messengers of god on earth and their colonial rule enslaved the Egyptians until the decline of the empire.
I continue my time travel experience in Beit She'an to the 7th century when the Muslim conquerors took over. Here as in Egypt the local population could choose to convert to Islam or be considered second class citizens. When Umar conquered Egypt from the Byzantine Empire, Islam offered them the same deal. To the local inhabitants this meant that by becoming Muslims they would gain many more freedoms. They would subscribe not only to a faith but to a nation, a class and an ideology.
Back to modern Egypt, although it is ruled by a strong tyrant the power on the ground is divided. The government and military on one side and the Islamic clergy on the other.
The most apt manifestation of this is the rise of The Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamental Islamic movement established in the 1920's. During Mubarak era they have become the only well organized opposition.
Disenfranchised and poverty stricken the Egyptian people are rebelling; they chant words like freedom, and change.
But the Egyptian people have never really experienced freedom in the way that western countries have, and that makes the west very worrisome of the type of change they plead for.
If democratic elections were held today the Muslim Brotherhood are likely to take over and bring with them a religious government based on Shariah (Islamic) Law. What that would mean is a loss of that all-important separation of church and state, and with it the loss of many of the essential personal liberties enjoyed by the average Egyptian.
In Beit She'an the story ends with an earthquake which shattered the city's neglected Greek-Roman foundations. The marble floor and Greek columns, so associated with democracy today have mostly collapsed or disappeared. The city perished and was never rebuilt.
In Egypt the country's foundations are shaking, will the ruins provide a breeding ground for democratic ideas and government or for a faith based dictatorship?
Will it be liberty or death?
