Egypt's president recently turned 78 years old and a change of leadership is the subject of speculation. What does the future hold for this large Arab nation?
by Darris McNeely
On a recent trip to Egypt I was the typical tourist, traveling by bus to the major tourist sites at Giza and Luxor. We sailed on the Nile and put our lives in danger crossing the busy streets of Cairo. But behind the tourist façade, it was evident that Egypt has a measure of domestic turmoil that could lead to major changes in the future.
Armed soldiers are everywhere, not only at the tourist sites where terrorists struck in the past. In 1997 terrorists bombed a German tour group at Luxor. Now you see dozens of armed soldiers around hotels and shopping areas throughout the city. A little study into the current Egyptian political climate shows the soldiers are not only protecting the tourists but the political regime as well.
Since the start of this year, President Hosni Mubarak has made strong moves to stop dissent among political opponents. Charges of fraud have been made against a lawyer who opposed Mubarak in last fall's elections. Two judges who accused the government of rigging the elections are facing dismissal from the bench for making public comments. One of them, Judge Hisham Bastawisi, suffered a major heart attack last month, which aroused the seething anger of a sympathetic public, resulting in large public demonstrations against President Mubarak.
The Egyptian judiciary was responsible for calling the fraud of last year's elections. Thousands of judges called for reform that would create an independent judiciary. Reports suggest that these opposition judges are joined with a coalition of religious and secular organizations that seek an end to the Mubarak era.
Hosni Mubarak has been president since that fateful day in 1981 when religious fundamentalists stormed a reviewing stand and assassinated President Anwar Sadat. Mubarak sat next to Sadat that day and no doubt vividly remembers the brutal power of religious fury.
