Martin Luther King and Cairo

Here’s an unusual but timely topic for Black History Month: compare the Egyptian uprising/revolution with the US civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. What motivations, values, and strategies do these movements have in common? How are they different? What does such a comparison tell us about the relevance of King’s message in today’s world?

Eugene Kane, writing in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, calls for such a lesson. He asks us to recall the protests that changed America forever, and to recognize that "it was just as dangerous for freedom marchers to confront police in the American South as it was for anti-government protesters last week in Cairo."

We can take this theme farther--beyond a discussion of similarities and differences. Could there be a direct link between the nonviolent tactics of Martin Luther King and those of the young Egyptians, who brought down the Mubarak regime? Did any of the Egyptian protesters draw inspiration from the US civil rights movement?

Kane tells us about the work of Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian human and women’s rights activist. For Dalia the story of the Montgomery bus boycott resonated so strongly that she decided to spread King’s message in the Arab and Muslim world. Finding an old comic book, "The Montgomery Story," she produced an Arabic version and helped distribute it. So, how much influence did this comic book have?

It is difficult to trace the diffusion of ideas and to assess their effectiveness, but this particular link certainly merits more investigation. No doubt the success of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings will inspire other opposition movements to try similar nonviolent tactics. Thus, we may observe a kind of "multiplier effect."

That Arab activists would espouse the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King might seem to strange to some Americans, but Dalia’s own story helps to dispel stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims, and in particular young women. Time magazine casts Dalia as a determined "Activist in a Veil" (the caption beneath her photo), who organized and then saved Cairo’s first human rights film festival. "When authorities shut down the movie theater she had rented for the affair, she moved the entire opening night proceedings to a boat on the Nile, where the films could be shown beyond the reach of the law."

Learn more about Dalia and her views, including commentary on vents in Egypt, on her blog: http://daliaziada.blogspot.com.   Be sure to read the autobiographical "About" page and check out its links. Dalia’s Facebook Wall includes links to her blog posts and to other media. Wall posts and comments are sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in English.

Resources

Kane, Eugene. "King’s Nonviolence Resonates in Egypt." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (2-3-2011). http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/116094689.html

Mendel, Noah. "Can a Comic Book About MLK Change the Middle East (At Least a Little)?" History News Network (5-11-2009).  http://www.hnn.us/articles/80834.html

Time. "Islam’s Soft Revolution, Led by Cairo Women." 13 slides
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1886206,00.html?iid=redirect-cairo

Vesely-Flad, Ethan. "Martin Luther King, Egypt, and the Fellowship of Reconcilation." Fellowship of Reconcilation (2-2-2011).
http://forusa.org/blogs/ethan-vesely-flad/martin-luther-king-egypt-fellowship-reconciliation/8479

Wright, Robin. "A Quiet Revolution Grows in the Muslim World." Time (3-19-2009). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886539,00.html

Dalia Ziada. Blog: http://daliaziada.blogspot.com 

Facebook: Dalia Ziada
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dalia-Ziada/245065015578

Ziada, Dalia. "Can Egypt Turn Into Islamic State After Mubarak?"
http://daliaziada.blogspot.com/2011/02/can-egypt-turn-into-islamic-state-after.html