A dictator’s son backed Islamist protests to aid his own political dynasty

Evidence

It wouldn’t be right to call this a “leaderless” movement, partially because it wasn’t really a movement at all. It was a small set of discrete actions with a well-defined purpose. The events were structured in a way that anyone could come, and then you went home. That was it. But there were organizers and prominent figures whose profiles were boosted by the event. The National Union of Fatwa Guards organized the first protest. The group Hizbut Tahrir, or “Party of Liberation,” from the same Arabic word that gave the name to the square in Cairo, claimed to be the brains behind part of the operations. Tommy Suharto, the son of the late, mass-murdering dictator, supported the 212 and may have donated some money to event organization because fostering Islamist currents in the country would be good for his political dynasty. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 695

Categorization

• CANDY: The mass murderer’s son funding religious protests to revive a political dynasty is a startling, quotable detail.
• XREF: Connects to ch8’s claim that successful veterans co-opt failed revolts, and to reactionary co-optation of protest forms elsewhere in the book. — connects to: Even secular Arab regimes reproduced dynastic succession for their sons

Broader Connections

• Even secular Arab regimes reproduced dynastic succession for their sons #complicates (0.75)