Egypt 1st-Hand: "The Most Difficult Battle is The Corruption in Society Itself" (Noor)

Activist Noor Ayman Nour, who was arrested on 25 January, the first night of the Egyptian uprising, speaks to The Guardian of London about the challenges beyond the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak:

As time progresses we're reminded that the most difficult battle in this war we call a revolution wasn't the battle to bring down Mubarak, but rather the battle to bring to an end the corruption in society itself. Not corruption in the sense of embezzling money, but rather the corruption of our political, social and cultural values that has sadly been instilled in all of us over the past half century.

And as the weeks go by we see more and more obstacles arising. People call us the chained dog –-- a dog tied up for many, many years whose only desire is to break free of the chain, but when he does he just runs round and round and doesn't know what to do.

See also Egypt 1st-Hand: A Twitter Diary of Detention and Interrogation by the Military

Sectarian tension is an obstacle we will face; people have lived under such harsh conditions for so many years that they've had nothing to lean on other than their faith. And when you have nothing but your faith this leads to fundamentalism and extremism. I strongly believe that if the current government takes the proper steps to address the issue hand in hand with the Egyptian people, if they develop the country and show Egyptians that there are clear-cut plans and alternative paths to change, then we can avoid violence. We should be working on a concept of citizenship that is not divided by religion.

At the moment the "counter-revolution" is a label being applied to everyone and everything: NDP leftovers are labelled as "counter-revolution"; the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists are labelled as "counter-revolution"; secular liberals, leftists and communists are labelled as "counter-revolution" because they want to import "corrupt" values from the west. I personally identify Cairo's traffic as the "counter-revolution" – the immense number of cars is clearly a conspiracy to keep the whole population on edge and desperate…

To be honest --- and I could get in trouble for this, but I don't care --- my trust in the military has been falling since February 2nd [the day the Egyptian army stood by as pro-Mubarak forces attacked protesters in Tahrir Square]. Since Mubarak fell, thousands have been arrested by the army, tortured, humiliated and given ridiculous prison sentences at military tribunals, and what is catastrophic is not just that these actions are being committed but that the majority of Egyptians are staying quiet about them because they're scared of losing the army. People look at what's happening in Syria and Libya and decide not to speak out because, look what happens when the army doesn't take the side of the people.

Is this a different Egypt? The fact that I can go down into the street with one of my bands and start busking without the police asking us for permits –-- this is proof that we are in a different country. Yes there are many things that are still the same, there are many obstacles that will take years to change, many traits in the Egyptian people that will not go away any time soon, but this is a different Egypt. People are talking – when you go into a cafe the TV is not only showing football or music videos, it's usually al-Jazeera or other news channels. I'm extremely optimistic. Firstly because you have no other choice but to be optimistic, and secondly because it's hard to imagine that after all we've been through things could get worse than they already were.