Martin, Mandela and the Mahatma in Tahrir Square

The two most astonishing features of the altogether astonishing Tahrir Square uprising, as well as of the protests it has catalyzed around the region, are the role of the Internet and the prevalence of non-violence. I want to suggest these two characteristics of the new Middle Eastern street politics that once would have been considered wholly atypical and utterly improbable are closely related. In combination they smash the stereotypes about Islam and the Arab street as being preternaturally inclined both to anti-modernism and to violence.

Keep in mind this was not a secular uprising. Muslims protected Christians and Christians Muslims as they prayed. The suicide bombers notwithstanding, Islam is no more inherently violent than Christianity. Just as Christianity -- the Crusades and the Inquisition aside -- afforded reasons to Martin Luther King to resist segregation peacefully, Islam affords reasons to Muslims to struggle for freedom non-violently. The very term jihad, though it has been hijacked by warriors, has non-violent inflections focused on a struggle for purity and spiritual clarity. Anxiety about the Muslim Brotherhood led some American politicians to malign the initial protest, forgetting not just that the uprising was about much more than the Brotherhood, but that the Brotherhood had itself eschewed violence for decades.

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