There seems to be a tendency to look down upon opposition or revolutionary activists who are “motivated by their stomachs” ….as if this is somehow an illegitimate reason to rise against oppression. Apparently, it is only legitimate to rise up for the sake of abstract principles, and while your stomach is already full.
Look, the most basic manifestations of oppression are economic. Poverty, hunger, indebtedness, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare and education, and poor living conditions; crumbling buildings, lack of clean water, etc, etc. And the security services disproportionately target the lower classes. Fighting to fill your stomach, to feed and clothe and shelter your family, and being motivated by your own desire for survival, are not things that should be disdained or delegitimized.
Justice, fairness, human and civil rights, freedom, are only abstract concepts to those who are not denied them. To the rest of us, it is not so philosophical; it means food, shelter, clothing, jobs, medicine, education, financial security, social mobility; and not being forced to struggle day-in day-out just to survive. Fighting for justice and fighting for bread is the same thing when the ruling system is imposing hunger.
Poverty is violence. It is traumatizing, it is debilitating, it is restrictive, it destroys lives, smothers potential, and robs us of our futures.
I am very tired of Islamists and their supporters blathering about “Islamic leadership” and establishing “the Rule of Allah”, while they have no clear definition of what they mean; no idea what “Islamic” policies are; and simultaneously appear to be utterly indifferent to the real forms of suffering afflicting the Muslims. Stoning adulterers and cutting off the hands of thieves is not going to put food on our tables or roofs over our heads, or enable us to send our children to school. And your concept of what Islamic rule means apparently does not include concern for the living conditions of the people; so I do not know what is Islamic about it, actually, if the wellbeing of the Muslims does not factor into your calculations.
The only valid criticism of those who fight “to fill their stomachs”, in my opinion, is that they will tend to fight haphazardly, in sporadic eruptions that can either be easily put down by the security forces, or else pacified by hollow political concessions. But that criticism is equally applicable to the Islamists who claim to be fighting for a greater cause; they are just as unorganized, just as random, just as easy to manipulate.
If I had to choose between fighting alongside a man who is rising up against power so that he can feed his family, or fighting alongside a man who is rising up for a vague ideal; I would choose the former every time