used for halloween. >> maybe it is a camera problem, buzz his wife's face look as little misaligned. >> some people saithe looks angry. >> all right, see you back at 6:00. inside story is next on al jazeera america. >> in the last week an egyptian court hosni mubarak was not guilty of some of the most serious charges brought against him since his overthrow. we look back at the last four years and figure it was all worth it. it's inside story.

>> hello, i'm ray suarez. >> thbetween the presidencies of hosni mubarak and if a tal fattah al sisi, the rise of the previously barely tolerated muslim brotherhood, the president from the brotherhood, a and then overthrow, bannings, jailings, and new elections. like mubarak before him, al sisi traded in his uniform for a business suit. over the past week the former president mubarak and a collection of his officials were cleared of charges stemming from the ending days of his long rule. did egypt pass through the fire of revolution only to end up in

the same place? >> tarir square, now the scene of fighting and frustration. an eruption of anger saturday following the announcement that ousted leader hosni mubarak no longer faces murder charges tied to the 2011 protest. >> we don't deserve this. we don't deserve such such a verdict after four years. >> to residents of cairo it is more of a disappointment. it's a symbol another sign political and societal changes once dreamed off may be fading away. >> who killed the protesters then if they were all acquitted? the interior minister, the president and head of national police. >> to some it seems that the

arab spring is dead. and the egyptian leader fattah al sisi is simply a return to the time of mubarak. with protests in tunisia and the political outcome there while still a work in progress is totally different from that in egypt. tunisia's new parliament held session tuesday, four years after the ouster of long-time leader ben ali. >> now is the time to establish democratic institutions and make the articles of the constitution real. >> the country's presidential election is also still in motion, citizens went to the polls sending them to the run off. >> where we can do it. it's not a miss. it's not--it can be an evaluate.

and elections. and democracy are possible in islamic country. >> as to yo to tunisians look forward, tahrir square is still off limits to protesters. doing it again looks much harder to pull off. >> did the mubarak trials acquittals mark the end of something or is there still a beginning. is this outcome just a way of moving free, a young military man holding the presidency in his place while thousands block egyptian cities to accomplish. here to discuss those questions and more, professor of political science at long island university, and dahlia fahmy,

let me ask you the political system in egypt today? >> well, with the recent aannouncements that mubarak was acquitted for the killing of the protesters. he wawhile he's being released on a technicality right now, i think the bigger picture is when we think about revolution and what they need to accomplish is supposed to be a belo profound change and we're seeing a return

to the political that existed before the revolution. it's signaling to the people first accountability for the protesters. it is elusive. the judiciary is becoming a rubber stamp to the current regime, and the spirit of the revolution that was supposed to bring about dignity and social justice is becoming a far, far vision. >> you heard professor fahmy, she mentioned the benchmark ma . did we see one in egypt? >> we saw a profound social change in the spring of the 2011 up risings. in the case of egypt in particular. you did have a spontaneous

grouping of protesters. many of them islamists who gathered outs of the tahrir square, it was closed by the military, all of them protesting that mubarak had charges against him dismissed. this is not something that you would see in pre2011. public opinion matters far more than it ever did before. >> is that setting the barlow? in the face of the verdict you saw people complaining about them and that's a sign of something good in egypt? >> you have president assisi today very concerned with the mood of the public opinion. he has tried to shape opinion opiniopublic opinion to align with his own agenda, that is security-based and economic

reform. these have come out of a frustration from the egypt people, kind of a demand that they want to see fulfilled. al sisi needs to be careful that those demands that have come out of the revolution, that have not gone away, are met and his government is responsive to what the public needs. >> we're also talking at a time when 188 new death sentences have been handed down for those who accompanied the revolution on the street, it was happening up and down the country. that must be a fairly stark contrast for an egyptian to see some of the people who ran the country going free on technicalities and dismissals, while these people are heade

headed--if nothing changes--to the death chambers. >> not only are the politicians are being released, but who is left in prison today? most of the political activists, journalists, and over 16,000 political prisoners. while people did go into tahrir square, we have seen arrests, and is there ar is a woman with a picture of her son who died at tahrir square. we think about what profound change is. when i talked about political order, i didn't mean political political order, i meant power. that people have a say in governance. one of the benchmarks is that the fear barrier was finally

broken. people came to the street and were willing to sacrifice personal consequence for change. when you think of what the response is under the current regime we have sweeping laws, and what can you be charged with terrorism for? for having a protest without authorization? for being perceived as disrupting education, college protests. for coming out without the interior minister giving authorization. the protest laws go even further where you can't come together in a grouping without three days of permission from interior ministry. and if you don't have permission, and of course the ministry can deny it you can get seven years in prison. while this regime is not going to have emergency rule, you have institutionalized laws that keep

people from get fog that power that is the core essence of democracicy. when we think about the long-term consequences of this, this administration was supposed to go through several steps to get on the road map for democracy. first, the parliamentary election. it had had a presidential election, and all the laws passed in the past couple of months have been through legislative assembly, where people are supposed to be represented, and it's completely absent. >> let me stop you there. i want to turn and talk about the tunisiaen experience. they have also had constitutional order, they had elections, but the outcome in so many ways has been different. why has the dna from their revolution heard from the very beginning? >> first of all, let me thank you for having me on your show and having this honor.

i think it's very important to remember that tunisia and egypt are in fun fundamentally different situations. the liberal psyche faction, which has been extremely strong, even through the discy dent days of elongated presidency, has been active. we did not necessarily see that in egypt. iis important to appreciate when you go from creative chaos to productive rule of law there are two things that you need to take care of. you need to take care of accountability through structure and you need to take care of corruption. and despite the fact that we have seen some progress in

tunisia as well, there is a great deal more to be done. it's one of those rare occurrences which is not necessarily a good thing. tunisia, we've seen advances there as well, but there is so much more to be done. i think the pillars that we need to address are pluralism, democracy, human rights, accountability, and most importantly the fact that people care about the rule of law. it does not make sense if you have rule of law which is wonderful on parchment, but no

one is obeying it. when we look back at mubarak's trial, that's something to keep in mind. the mubarak verdict is not necessarily illegitimate. but given the of course that was given to the court, the security forces didn't give the three-judge court all of the salient information, which would have given the court a chance to form an informed position. there won't be significant protest office than point. >> i have to stop through. we'll have more inside story after a short break. after the overthrow of mohamed morsi, the muslim brotherhood

was banned and termed a terrorist organization. what is ahead for the muslim brotherhood and arab parties across the world. stay with us.

>> we're back with inside story on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. on the occasion of the acquittal of hosni mubarak, we're looking at egypt this time on the

program. 168,000 pages of evidence, photographic images of protesters, the court dropped many of the charges against the man who ruled egypt. in contrast to al jazeera journalist who is were arrested and tried in egypt, mohamed fahmy, bader mohammed, and peter greste, they'l they will have been in prison for almost and year and are charged with helping the banned muslim brotherhood. as noted before the break there are still problems in tunisia with corruption, and the need for transparency. one thing that makes it stand out is when the islamic party lost it's second election it went into opposition. this is not something that has happened in the arab world. >> no, it hasn't.

however, you have to look at them as how their stubbornness while in government produced these negative consequences, and those who remain, continue to protest in small pockets. >> do they live to talk about it. >> in order to live another day they realize how important it is that consensus would be necessary in order for them to stay in the political game. but the success of tunisia comes just to follow on what they were talking about in the earlier segment, tunisiaen institutions

have not been politicized not in the way that we've seen egypt. they don't have a group standing on the sidelines waiting for a coup in case they don't like the outcome. the gain is played far differently as far as the state it i itself is concerned. this is one of the reasons that tunisia had a higher likelihood of success. >> it was limited, throttled, and kept down, but it was not banned outright. it was able to hold--it's allies were able to hold a limited number of seats in parliament. they had some ability to speak to the wider public. is this a worse moment for islamist parties in egypt than even could have been imagined during the revolution? >> well, still there was a

banned organization. if you think about the muslim brotherhood, the top tier are all entirely in prison or in exile. so if the muslim brotherhood are doing it throug it through a movement. after the revolution we saw an explosion of the party. the muslim brotherhood no longer had a monopoly over religion and politics. they had to accommodate some of the demands of the public. you don't want these circumstances where not only is there state repression, but much of the upper echelons of the organization has been proven, and the restrategizing of the future is happening under knows

circumstances. the future of the muslim brotherhood in politics, none of us can predict. will they be a political party? no, because right now they're a terror organization. there is a long process that will have to occur that will need, if the country is going to move forward through the process. >> help people in the united states figure out islamist parties can be an unsatisfying label because it covers a lot of things, not very accurately. not the party that won the first elections after the tunisian constitution.

>> i think it probably lies in the middle. when we were helping produce the institution, helping with that process, we started with a lot of hope, and a lot of hope was what they did was form a consensus committee to share political power with the other parties. i think that was a step in the right direction. like the united states there is a separation of powers between the articlement and the presidency. it is not enough, perhaps, but it was start. the second thing much like in the united kingdom where they have the finance committee o of parliament being led by a member

of the opposition, so, too, in tunisia. >> we'll be back in a moment with more inside story. it's sometimes hard to remember, bu in many countries the arab spring has a bitter legacy. stay with us.

>> you're watching inside story on al jazeera america. i'm ray suarez. on the occasion of the dismissal of many charges the outright acquitcal on many others on the trial of former egyptian president hosni mubarak, we're catching up with the arab spring. is there a middle ground? is the arab ground groping its way towards a middle ground between an islamic republic on

one end of the spectrum and the egypt style solution in which religious parties are outright panned or suppressed? can we develop power transfer peacefully back and forth. >> i'll disagree with your description of the whole picture. 56% of the country is under the age of 24, and 44% of the country live on less than $2 a day. in order for there to be true social justice there has been outright reform, structural reform and political reform so that that disenfranchised youth see themselves heavily involved in the process. democracy seemed to be the only game in town, and that was the mechanism that would catapult

them into the future. that may not be the case when the institutions that are supposed to bring about social justice and reform are not doing so. when the average young person sees a return to the status quo egypt may find itself in a much more dangerous situation than we realize. >> before we go, do you find yourself at this point with the power changing hands in parliament, with the presidential election going to a run off, still optimistic with the operation that you helped to create in tunisia? >> we were one part of the puzzle. we helped to propose a draft, and national assembly were kind enough to take part of it. i think more than anything going forward, yes, we as a nation, the united states, and we as an organization remain incredibly optimistic about welcoming tunisia and egypt for that matter into the community of nations.

i just have to put in the plug for transparency. one of my favorite books is discipline and punishment, and he said that the cloak of invisibility is where tyranny happens. so te tunisia must come out. a staggering improvement from the $400 million that they had two years ago, i think this is great, and we look forward to working more with tunisia. >> and a stark contrast to the disinvestment that is going on in a place like egypt, is that right? >> that's absolutely correct. i think right now just as professor fahmy was saying, the lack of a responsive government is what is driving this sort of polarization, this talk of revolution versus terrorism, and until we can have this inclusive

conversation, the region is going to see more trouble ahead. >> thank you all for being with us today. that brings us to the end of this edition of inside story. thanks for joining us. the program may be over but the conversation continues. we want to hear what you think about the issues raised on today's show. you can log on to our facebook page, send us your thoughts on twitter. the handle ag inside story a.m. or follow me at ray suarez news. from washington, i'm ray suarez. >> at capitol hill talking about how they deal with domestic violence, and what needs 20 change after a rash of public cases involving athletes.

also people in california preparing to flood and mudslides as big storm systems move in. forecasters say that the drought can make conditions more dangerous, and chicago approved a $13 minimum wage and sparked a big political fight. that and more starting at 6:00. ♪ suwell, a feeling is not a fact. our country is almost unique in people believing that global warming is not a human cause. >> robert kennedy, jr., a lifelong advocate of the environmental movement thanks in part to memories of his dad prior to his father's assassination in 1968. >> my father considered this part of our heritage and our purple mountains' majesty. kennedy says those who sponsor