I don't hold much hope for Egypt

Sandro Magister has published an article where he gives the possibility of a "glimmer of light" in the revolt, an opening through which "reformist Muslims have made their voices heard."

On January 24, on the website of the Egyptian magazine "Yawm al-Sâbi" (The Seventh Day), a text appeared entitled "Document for the renewal of religious discourse." By that night, the text had already been posted on more than 12,000 other Arab websites.

Most of those websites were not supportive, to say the least.

Its importance was pointed out beyond the Arab world by a Jesuit and Islamologist, Samir Khalil Samir, Egyptian by birth, greatly respected by Benedict XVI. He has translated and commented on the essential parts of the document in two articles published by the online agency "Asia News" of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.

This document for renewal has been translated from Arabic by Fr Samir, who considers point 8 (separation of religion and politics) of the document to be an important one.

In the attached commentary – he points out – the word "almaniyyah," secularism, appears. A word that in Arab countries is usually understood as atheism, and therefore automatically condemned. So much so that at the synod on the Middle East held in Rome last October, the bishops avoided using it.

Here, however, the authors of the document write that secularism must not be considered an enemy of religion, but rather as a safeguard against the political or commercial use of religion. "In this context," they write, "secularism is in harmony with Islam, and therefore is juridically acceptable." But not if it is turned into a control of Islamic activities on the part of the state.

Hmmmm, Islam does not have a particularly good track record in separating Islam from the state, and treating well those who try to modernise it ...

Meanwhile, Fr Z has A “post hoc ergo propter hoc” observation

Related link: A Glimmer of Light in an Egypt in Revolt ~ Chiesa