Moscow, February 02: Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said current developments in Egypt have social, not religious roots.
”We have concentrated in our analysis quite fairly on radical Islamism, which has been gaining strength in the Muslim world, and we have somewhat overlooked ‘traditional’ roots of social revolutionary explosions. Generally, we have erroneously assumed that revolutions, which sweep away conservative and authoritarian regimes, are a thing of the past, including in developing countries.
The situation in Tunisia and Egypt show that we are wrong,” Primakov, a leading Russian expert in West Asia affairs, said in an article, in Russian daily newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
”Having focused on the dangers of extremist Islamism, we have underestimated the influence of modernization, primarily on advanced Muslim states, in terms of their socio-cultural development,” Mr Primakov who currently heads the Russian Chamber of Commerce, said.
”Spontaneity, backed by chatting on the Internet and via mobile phones played a role in the revolutionary movement that shook Tunisia and then Egypt,” he said.
”There were no Islamic slogans in demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia, even through the Muslim Brotherhood has rather strong positions in Egypt,” he said.
”It is a sign of serious importance. But it gives no guarantee that the Islamists will not try to ride the revolutionary wave,” Mr Primakov said, adding the Muslim Brotherhood did so during the revolutionary events in Egypt in 1952-53.
–UNI