You want to know about the real Arab Spring? Look at this picture. These young people, both Muslim and Christian, are those who started the revolution in Egypt in 2011, demanding dictator Mubarak to step down. However, this spontaneous, penniless, and immature movement has been hijacked by the more organized Muslim Brotherhood who stole the spot light and became the prominent candidates for the new regime.
Yesterday, just a few hours after the voting box closed down, I found myself in a secret apartment in the heart of Cairo, the headquarters of the youth revolution. A dozen young activists were working like bees in a beehive on their laptops, updating thousands of tweets and Facebook posts, sending the results of every single voting spot, reporting to the people of Egypt every potential problem of the election.
“Yes, our revolution has been kidnapped by the Islamists!” admitted Ahmed. “I slept in Tahir square, protesting for days, to see a new regime with a liberal and democratic mind set, not someone from the Muslim Brotherhood who wants the country to be back in the stone age. The only thing we can do right now is to be keen observers to make sure this is a fair election. If the Muslim Brotherhood wins, we will have a new revolution, a real Arab Spring.”