tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43406374795204608892024-02-08T00:28:31.507+02:00Shukrallah's (non-Euclidean) space Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-85972627444923185172013-12-19T12:41:00.001+02:002013-12-19T13:02:25.400+02:00Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Cairo brings back old memories but signals new reality <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<em><strong>(Wrote this for the
Daily Star, Beirut, way back in 2002; sadly the Egyptian people’s emergent sense
of identification with Palestinians at the outset of the second Intifada, which
I note at the end of the piece, proved extremely short-lived)<o:p></o:p></strong></em></div>
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<strong></strong><br /></div>
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<strong>
<em>Hani Shukrallah, April 03, 2002<o:p></o:p></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tear gas has evolved in no small way during the past 25
years. This Monday was my first encounter with tear gas since the 1970s and
there was a lot of it around at that time. Indeed, few years of that decade
would pass with at least one major rendezvous often, quite a few. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But back then, tear gas was more appropriately named; it
brought tears to your eyes; there was some suffocation, some stinging but
nothing to compare with today’s variety. The canister looks pretty much the
same; the foul smoke that comes out of it is something else altogether. In
fact, it is not tear gas at all, for tears are not involved, rather a horrible
blinding stinging that one can only associate with the properties attributed to
mace. And for some seconds, the suffocation is total. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But to ensure that my memory was not failing me (the 1970s
have a tendency to evoke nostalgia everything was better, even prisons), I
compared notes with Kamal, another old-timer who cut his political teeth on the
student uprisings of the 1970s. He had “captured” a spent tear gas canister.
And, as he inspected it carefully hoping to find a “Made in USA” inscription
somewhere (apparently, very useful from an agitation-propaganda perspective)
he seemed no less sure that this was a totally different bit of goods than the
one we had become so familiar with back then. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which makes complete sense, actually. After all, science and
technology have developed in leaps and bounds during the past quarter-century.
We’ve got Star Wars military technology, 25-ton bombs and smart whatnots, so
why not a new and improved tear gas that is not tear gas but mace on a mass
scale? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While the US-led “free world” would be loath to give any
Arab state, however friendly and “moderate,” its more sophisticated weapons
technology (a privilege reserved only to “brave, democratic and besieged”
little Israel), I expect they are most generous with their various
“crowd-control” devices. However potent, tear gas and slick armored personnel
carriers (APCs) are no threat to the overall military balance in the region,
which America is committed to maintain skewed massively in Israel’s favor
vis-a-vis all the Arab states combined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, let’s face it, back then, we got our instruments of
repression from “socialist” Eastern Europe and look what’s become of them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was another novel twist to Egyptian crowd control at
the Palestine solidarity demonstration at Cairo University this Monday, in
which some 20,000 university and school students, as well as several hundred
intellectuals battled with the police from noon until early evening. The mean
green APCs would blare their horns and blink red lights in warning for a
fraction of a minute, then drive madly through the crowd, hitting anyone who
did not leap out of the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This, a friend reminded me, was a tactic often used by
Israelis during the first intifada in 1987. During the second, as everyone
knows, the Israelis were not in the business of crowd control but of mass
murder. Sniper fire, tank fire, helicopter gunships and F-16s are not used to
disperse crowds of protesters but to kill anyone who happens to be near. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But this is Egypt. And lest anyone forget the fact, the
harrowing day had its moment of purely Egyptian comic relief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A fire-truck, horns blaring, water cannon at the ready, was
positioning itself to shoot (blue) water into the crowd gathered at the foot of
the monument of student martyrs in front of the main gate of Cairo University.
During the day, the water attacks were often combined with a shower of tear gas
canisters, which had the effect (whether intended or not) of ensuring the
delivery of whatever the loathsome chemical that the new and improved tear gas
is made of into the protesters’ eye ducts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another offensive by the police was being readied; the
demonstrators, as they did at each police rush, started jeering loudly,
steeling themselves for yet another confrontation. The water cannon, however,
started spewing diminutive bursts of water and those, backward. A mirthful
crowd observed as the security personnel manning the water cannon fumbled with
it; then the truck turned back. That particular offensive had been called off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Something very serious, indeed ominous, was taking place at
the sprawling battle zone that was the massive Cairo University campus and its
surrounding environs on Monday, however. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The day of solidarity with the Palestinians had begun
innocuously enough. The Egyptian Committee for Solidarity with the Intifada
(which hitherto had been sending convoys of foodstuffs and medicine to the
occupied Palestinian territories) called for a solidarity rally at the foot of
the martyrs monument that stands before Cairo University’s main gate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By noon, the time set for the gathering, a few hundred intellectuals,
including artists, journalists, political figures and university professors had
gathered at the designated place. The police had meanwhile laid a tight siege
around the largely middle-aged crowd, locking in the Cairo University students
behind their campus gates and preventing late-comers from joining. It looked to
be yet another “symbolic” protest, as familiar as it’s been ineffectual for
some two decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet somehow, the crowd kept swelling, the age groups getting
younger, the determination to reach the Israeli Embassy, a few hundred meters
away, unrelenting. No one was going home anytime soon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At one point the crowd of perhaps a couple of thousand was
able to break through the besieging anti-riot squads and rush in the direction
of the embassy. The time for police restraint was over. Tear gas canisters
started flying, APCs hurtled madly through the crowds and water cannons (not
all of which were defective) spewed their gushing, perplexingly blue water. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The battle was joined. Cairo University students broke
through the university gates, several hundreds of them mixing with the crowd at
the main gate, while many more broke out through the side gates overlooking the
working-class district of Bein Al-Sarayat, where they were joined by school students
and residents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Meanwhile, the protesters gathered before Cairo University’s
main gate could observe a running battle a few hundred meters along the same
street between the police and students of Al-Saidiya High School, one of the
oldest and largest public schools in the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The initial demonstration, in which the protesters
themselves would prevent any of their number hurtling even the most harmless of
objects at the police, was transformed into a vicious battle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The sense of deja vu was overwhelming as, a quarter of a
century later, I could once again see the pavements of my alma mater being dug
up and transformed into the people’s resistance weapon of choice: the stone.
Even in my younger and more vigorous days, I was never much of a stone-thrower,
I’m afraid. Back then, I would have been “liberating” the university printing
presses to issue leaflets. As it is, and having already received my little
“badge of honor” in the form of a couple of largely harmless baton knocks to
the head, I spent the rest of the protest trying to avoid some flying
projectiles from changing the bruise into a fracture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But my own sense of deja vu notwithstanding, there was
something wholly new on Monday. It was not the intensity of the protesters’
anger, nor yet the fact that the scenes I had witnessed in Cairo University
were being repeated at the same time on campuses and schools throughout the
country. The estimate by the correspondent of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel that
nearly one million Egyptians had taken part in the Palestine solidarity
protests on Monday may have been exaggerated, but there is little doubt that
many tens of thousands took part. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is truly new, however, is the sense of identification
that Egyptians from all walks of life have come to hold towards the Palestinian
people since the intifada erupted 18 months ago. This is unprecedented in the
over 50 years of Arab-Israeli confrontations and peace-making. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-86000791371908629612013-12-18T15:29:00.001+02:002013-12-18T15:41:25.709+02:00رسالة إلى أسقف نجران <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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من ديوان: يوميات العشق والهوان وطيور البحر</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
شعر إبراهيم شكرالله </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
فبراير 81</div>
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<br /></div>
</h3>
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<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>من ميمون بن لوقا الرهاوي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>المولود في قنسرين<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>إلى سيده ومولاه <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>كلي البركات مثلث الرحمات أسقف نجران<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>العبد الفقير يقبل قدميك <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ويتمسح بجلال ردائك الكهنوتي <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ويقول: يا صخرة الكنيسة<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وحامل تاج المسيح،<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>حينما استهداني منك<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>مصعب بن الزبير<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ورآني متمنطقا فوق عباءتي السوداء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>دواتي وقلمي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>بصق على الارض وقال:<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>من أي السائمة أنت؟<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>قلت: بل كاتب يا مولاي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>استشرف المعرفة<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>واخوض لجاج الافلاك<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>قال: فماذا من العلم قرأت؟<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>قلت: انطيموس الترالي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وايتيوس الآمدي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وديونيس الاريوفاجي.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تعلمت العلل الأربع للوجود<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والمركزية الارضية للتدويرات<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وزيجات الشاه الفلكية<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والرُقى وعلم الاوهام<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فقال: لو اني ذبحتك على هذه الرابية<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>إلى أي موضع دمك يسيل؟<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>كان العلم: القرآن والحديث<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والسباحة ورمي الصوالج<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>معرفة الأنواء <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والاهتداء بالنجوم<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>بهذه فتحنا الارض وخضنا لجاج البحار<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والآن هذا الخبال<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فوا إسلاماه!<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ابعتوا به والجارية الرومية البهراء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>إلى الخليفة في بغداد <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فلعله ينشغل بهما عنا.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تركنا بابل يا مولاي وقد فشا بها الجرب<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ودخلنا أسوار بغداد وسط عجيج قوافل من مصر<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وبخارى وجند يسابور<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وسفارة من سُدة فنج هوانج تي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>عاهل الصين المترامية عند حافة الارض<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>محملة بكنوز الدنيا من النفائس والنساء.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>واُخذت إلى قصر الخليفة<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أفنية تنفتح عن أفنية ذات عقود<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تشمخ فيها البيارق <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>سوداء كالليل ناصعة كتزاويق الليل<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أسمع قرع الطبول <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وتدافع الاقدام القلقة للجواري<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أفكار لا ملامح لها تهب من الصحراء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>هواء تحركه أجنحة الطير.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>حين أمر الخليفة بقتل صفيه ورفيق لهوه جعفر<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>قال لو ان ثوبي هذا عرف من صدري المكنون فيه
لمزقته<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وجلس إمام الدنيا على حافة النافورة المرمرية<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>يعبث بيده بالسمك الذهبي السابح في الماء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>حاملا ثقل السنين<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>حاملا وزر العالم<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وقال: لا أريد أن يطأ عاشق<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>هذه المماشي الموشاة بالفسيفساء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>حتى يهز النسيم أزهار الياسمين<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وقال أيضا: أحمل كل يوم بازيا للصيد <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>على ضفاف دجلة،<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>واُدخل كل ليلة جارية إلى مخدعي<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أجتر صبوات الشباب.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أنا مثل المياه الصاعدة <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>من هذه النافورة <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>الهابطة فيها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>الضائعة بين خضرة الارض<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وزرقة السماء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تسبح فيها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أوراق اللوتس<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وقشور السمك.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>هل يهم أن تكون أرواحنا <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>قرب سطح البدن بينما الشباب<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>يترقرق في الأنسجة؟<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>شمعتي تنير الدنيا<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ومشكاتي ورثتها عن جدي السفاح<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>موسم الياسمين يفعم الفؤاد<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وقفت أمامه خافض الرأس<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>مسحوق القلب، أقول:<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أغفر لي يا أمير الدنيا، يا إمام الزمان<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>كلماتي الجامحة ومظهري الذليل،<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>انت ترى للحب مواسم وللمواسم نساء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وإن الربيع طالما يحمل ما أتى به<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فاللقلب أهواء.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أما أنا وقد جأر فؤادي <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>لنحيب الرومية الصامت<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وهي مساقة اليك في الهودج، <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>انتفضت روحي وحلقت<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>لتحقق معها اكتمال<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>الاشكال والعلامات،<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>كل التجريدات التي استغرقتني<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>في الرقاع الصفر.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وقد رأيت أن ما تحدث عنه <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فلاسفة اليونان والهند<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>من أوهام الهزيع الاخير من الليل<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>عن تداوير وتكعيبات<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تصل الارض بأفنان السماء<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ليست سوى حسرات جسدها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تضور العذوبة المرة لشبابها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ليست سوى همهمة روحها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>مرتدة إلى عمورية تشهد <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>صرعى الحرب وصرخات المحتضرين<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>تندب وسط السبايا أمها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>النؤة التي اقتلعتها من روابي صبوتها.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ارتوت شقوق روحي من عذابها<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>الذي صار عذابي وبلاء العالمين.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>والان وقد كشفت <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>الخبيء من سري<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>فأبحت لك دمي <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>أعلن أن جمال المرأة <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>بيرق تضربه الرياح<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وتقف الحكمة تحته واجمة.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>العبد الفقير يقول لسيده ومولاه <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>وهو يبلل أقدامه بدموعه<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ويسأله سر الغفران<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>انه وقد قارب نهاية حجته<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>يرفع يديه بالابتهال<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>ان يجمع إلى شهادة المعرفة<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: right;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>شهادة الجمال. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-12519943785888577612013-12-16T19:32:00.001+02:002013-12-16T19:58:58.637+02:00انطونيو محتضرا شعر ابراهيم شكرالله <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h3 style="text-align: right;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">من ديوان أبي: </span></h3>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مواقف العشق والهوان وطيور
البحر </span></h3>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">إبراهيم شكرالله </span></h3>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">انطونيو محتضرا</span></h3>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">القاهرة: ابريل 1981</span></h3>
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<b>I am dying Egypt, dying only</b></div>
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<b>I here importune Death awhile, until</b></div>
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<b>of many thousand kisses the poorest last</b></div>
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<b>I lay upon your lips</b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<b><i>William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra</i></b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="direction: rtl; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">في دائرة السماء<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">أن تبلغ اللذة هذه الذروة<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">هذه الحدة.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مثل مشكاة تبدد كثافة الليل<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">محاطة بهالة من الذهب المذاب <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مظللة بخيمة من الرواء.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">وأنا سائر خلفك يا تاج مصر كم يوما الآن؟<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">متمهلا كما لو كنت اقلب ألبوما للصور<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">وانت تهترين متمهلة فخذيك <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">والفجر ينكسر على جفنيك <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">نتأمل بعضنا ونتعشق أنفسنا<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">قوة رقتك وجلال جسدك<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بهائي المتسربل بعباءة فضفاضة<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مياه فؤادي تهدر كالريح<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">شمعة بين الفخذين<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بهجة نار تشعل جسدينا المرتجفين<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">تعمد بالخمر والموسيقى <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">كل ما لم يولد بعد <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">كل ما هو كامن في أجنة الكون <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">أجنحتنا تلملم حصائد النسائم<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">تلقي البذار على رُبى البيداء.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ولكن المصير يرتد مثل طيور الريح<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يسترق السمع، يتحسس الخطو<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يختلس النظر من وراء الكتف<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يريق على البسمة اليانعة زيت الدموع<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يتقاذف حطام المراكب في أكتيوم<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الجنود يتحركون في اطار الرؤية<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مخلفين ظلالهم خلفهم على الأرض<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يهتفون لنهاية العالم<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">لآخر قطرات الماء<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">تنحسر عن الشاطئ المنعرج<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">عن الصخور الصلعاء<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">وسط يقين الصمت والموت.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الفضاءات تمتد بين النجوم <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الخواء ضارب في خواء<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">المشيعون يشيعون بعضهم<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">وليس من يوارونه التراب.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">كل شيء، يا مليكتي يا رفيقة صبواتي،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">مات في فجيعة أكتيوم،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الطغاة والمقهورون،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">شيوخ الكابيتول ورعاع روما،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ملاك الارض وأجراؤها،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">المرأة التي خانت زوجها،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">التاجر الذي ترك امه <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">تتضور من الجوع،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">العبد الذي يمشي متثاقلا<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ناظرا إلى قدميه لئلا يعثر،<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الكل ماتوا، ولم يعد في الكون<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">سوى حقيقة جسدينا<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">المتقلصين بطعنات الهزيمة<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بابتهالات العشق<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بانتظار النهاية <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">التي ستأتي مثل البداية<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">متلصصة تخفي وجهها<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بطرف ثوبها.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">الاضواء خبت لتغير المشهد<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">وانسلت الموسيقى من عقب الباب<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">برفرفة خاوية للاجنحة <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بشقشقات التحاريق في الجداول<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بالنشوة المصطنعة<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بعذاب الولادة والموت. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">فاذا سطعت الاضواء من جديد<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">دخل اكتافيوس مخدع صبابتك يا مصر<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ومن حوله أغاوات القصر<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">يهتفون باصوات مشقوقة<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"التحية لقيصر<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="AR-EG" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">التحية لقيصر"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-71581620513061961182013-11-30T11:02:00.003+02:002013-11-30T11:03:37.217+02:00Into the heart of darkness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><em>My take on 2004, "The Year of the Beast"</em></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/723/sc11.htm" target="_blank"><em>Al-Ahram Weekly</em></a><em>, 30 December, 2004</em></span></h4>
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<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span></b> </div>
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><br />
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<em>Hani Shukrallah reflects on a year when the clash of civilisations seemed a
self-fulfilling prophecy <o:p></o:p></em></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuTXPEVC8nMS-HUpS-7NTPirUroFUAD55rXXdruMNVBcPBNHACvCgrvTr4DbjHbDVSpSxLjUjaRNEYh2K67UIXJU40S5oUHFMhsQIk_ZofM_4aIPoZdBBp9yoAKCu2pjylcjh7ldmsj8/s1600/Abu-Ghraib.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuTXPEVC8nMS-HUpS-7NTPirUroFUAD55rXXdruMNVBcPBNHACvCgrvTr4DbjHbDVSpSxLjUjaRNEYh2K67UIXJU40S5oUHFMhsQIk_ZofM_4aIPoZdBBp9yoAKCu2pjylcjh7ldmsj8/s1600/Abu-Ghraib.jpg" height="276" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was little more than 19th century racist
drivel dressed up in late 20th century identity politics garb, and this by an
erstwhile British spy in his dotage. Having received his schooling at London's
School of Oriental and African Studies in the 1930s of the last century -- at a
time when the famed SOAS was specifically designed as a training ground for
future servants of empire in the "Orient" -- Bernard Lewis,
arch-Zionist, old school Orientalist and quack-scholar, came to the US in the
1970s, where he was eventually, and perhaps predictably, received as a prophet.
Having switched allegiance to the Pentagon -- hardly a difficult transition --
the old man hailed by the American corporate media as "the doyen of Middle
East Studies" gave the military-industrial complex the one thing it
desperately needed in a post-Soviet world -- an enemy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"This is no less than a clash of
civilisations -- the perhaps irrational but surely historical reaction of an
ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and
the worldwide expansion of both," Lewis wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in
1990. Samuel Huntington, a more mediocre scholar but no less fervent believer
in the role of the intellectual as apologist for empire, took up the obnoxious
thesis and, with the help of an ecstatic media, began its integration into
American pop culture. Respected scholars -- that is, people who have respect
for their various disciplines, and see their role as something other than
providing ideological cover for the pernicious designs of a corporate-led power
structure -- soon made short work of the thesis. It was not that difficult. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, in 2004, year three of the "war
against terror", the clash thesis, now firmly established as the official
"party-line" of the neo-con administration of George W Bush, and the
ideological foundation of its hold on power at home and abroad, appeared to
become a self-fulfilling prophesy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Why do they hate us?" Bush had
asked rhetorically in his address to a joint session of Congress, held in the
wake of the 9/11 atrocity on 20 September 2001. "They hate what we see
right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders
are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms; our freedom of religion, our
freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each
other," he went on, in answer to his own question. Clearly,
"they" in this kind of context could not mean just a few hundred
wild-eyed, CIA-trained fanatics grouped together as Al-Qaeda. Bush had declared
a global and perpetual war, the enemy clearly being identified as Western
civilisation's "ancient rival", supposed to be brimming over with an
irrational hatred of "our Judeo-Christian heritage, and secular
present". <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Significantly, however, Bush's WWIII in
defence of Western Civilisation, along with its allegedly inherent rationalism,
humanism and liberalism (notwithstanding three centuries of colonial plunder,
slavery, genocide, the Fascist and Nazi scourges, two devastating world wars
and two nuclear bombings), was predicated upon the American president's
personal rapport with none other than God Himself. And its most solid base of
support was the Fundamentalist Christian Right, in alliance with Likudnik
Zionism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This was just the tip of the iceberg. Sharon,
"the butcher", whose own people had two decades before declared him a
war criminal, was confirmed as a role model, a shining representative of Western
civilisation, and a hero of the war against the ancient enemy. (Ironically,
right up until the moment they took on the mantle of colonial domination
themselves, the Jews were as much an "ancient enemy" of Western
Civilisation as the Muslims, if not more so. But, then, it was Arafat who
looked like a Jew; Sharon, on the other hand, looks like a Serb). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which mementos of brutality and heartlessness
should we clutch to our hearts as we go forward into 2005? The revelation, by
Britain's foremost medical journal, that over 100,000 faceless Iraqis have been
killed in the process of their "modernisation"? Or the torture
carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay (ideologically grounded, as we
were to find out, in an Orientalist tract suggesting that sexual molestation
was the gravest insult an Arab or Muslim could suffer)? Or should we rather
privilege the video-taped butchery of Nepalese workers to shouts of Allahu
Akbar? The massacre of children in Beslan? The slaughter of Spanish commuters
in the Madrid underground? What kind of images of bloodshed and destruction, of
sheer horror, stand out in our minds as we look back on the past year? The torn
bodies of children in Rafah and Falluja? The hooded and cuffed father in Abu
Ghraib, his frightened little boy lying prone and hapless in his lap? Or the
weeping face of Margaret Hassan, before she was put to the knife? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And what of our supposedly inherent capacity
for empathy? When we see a Palestinian family standing desolate and numbed
before their bulldozed home, do we think of our own homes, of the memories and
cherished possessions -- a picture album, a sweater, a book -- which, at only a
moment's notice, could be buried under a pile of rubble? Do we think of what it
might mean to be rendered homeless, often for the second or third time? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or do we think of the greater picture of a
world that has seemingly gone mad? A world that had to pass through the
countless horrors of colonialism, world war and genocide to be able to encode
into law, in the aftermath of WWII, a relatively decent sense of our common
humanity. Yet it only took George W Bush and his neo-con cabal three years to
bring the whole edifice down, and confer instead the legitimacy of unmitigated
power on invasion and occupation, illegal and "preventive" war,
torture, and the interminable detention of persons without charge, trial or the
merest semblance of due process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2004, the clash of civilisations thesis --
inhuman, racist drivel that it is -- looked to have become a self-fulfilling
prophesy. Yet within this bleak picture, there was hidden a significant twist.
For this is not the war of a civilised West against a barbaric East. Rather,
this conflict pits a barbaric and immensely powerful West against an equally
barbaric, eminently powerless and ultimately suicidal East. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That is why at Al-Ahram Weekly, we voted 2004
"the year of the beast" -- a year in which our very humanity was
under fierce attack from both sides of the barricades. We cannot privilege one
side or the other, for our struggle is against them both. If a humanity worthy
of the name is to survive at all, this struggle must continue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-27262213302909824052013-11-24T22:49:00.000+02:002013-11-24T22:55:59.323+02:00‘Tooning out humanity <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
My 2006 take on the Danish cartoons brawl</h3>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Triggered by cartoons, the latest round in the bogus
"clash of civilizations" reduces complex cultures to empty
caricatures. <o:p></o:p></h3>
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<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah, </em><a href="http://salon.com/"><em>Salon.com</em></a><em>, Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006 <o:p></o:p></em></h3>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtvK6RTIPJZDar1ZWr04FCxAEN-4W9SfFOOrblAnMAVCP_rRHruWpMWiLwgdzHjH-xF-oqKARIOsEad0k4awBnkewBfsqDtKlAc383aasMKm4YHbLuJzbVFmyePrJX9aJmbu2ERBOYjI/s1600/toon1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMtvK6RTIPJZDar1ZWr04FCxAEN-4W9SfFOOrblAnMAVCP_rRHruWpMWiLwgdzHjH-xF-oqKARIOsEad0k4awBnkewBfsqDtKlAc383aasMKm4YHbLuJzbVFmyePrJX9aJmbu2ERBOYjI/s1600/toon1.jpg" height="165" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We might well laugh at the absurdity of a notion that would
put Adolf Hitler and Ernest Hemingway on one side of a battle line and Osama
bin Laden and Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz on the other.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet the bogus “clash of civilizations” — ludicrous,
recycled, 19th century Orientalist racism as it may be — is becoming all too
real. The two sides are getting more enamored of the fracas with every passing
day. To try to convince them that this is a bogus altercation looks
increasingly to be as futile as attempting to convince a bunch of drunk English
soccer hooligans that, win or lose, a football match is nothing to come to
blows over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make no mistake about it: The recent West versus the Muslim
World contention over 12 ignorant and offensive cartoons is not about freedom
of expression and its limitations. It is first and foremost about the bleak
reality of a great many powerful forces — on both sides of the Atlantic, north
and south of the Mediterranean and all the way to the Indian Ocean — having a
decided stake in perpetuating and escalating the so-called clash of
civilizations, even if for a whole range of very different reasons. This is no
conspiracy but, rather, an ugly convergence of equally repugnant interests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How else could we explain the supposed confusion over
demarcating between freedom of expression and racist hate speech, a distinction
that one would have thought was by now well established in the “Western”
democratic tradition? Presumably, one need not be particularly “culturally
sensitive” to recognize barefaced racism and hate-mongering in a cartoon
depicting the Prophet, venerated by over a billion and a half human beings,
sporting a turban with a fuse-lit bomb in its center. Or another in which that
same Prophet is standing at the gate of a Muslim paradise telling an endless
line of suicide bombers that he’s running out of virgins to offer them. None of
this is a question of subjecting a particular religious dogma to ridicule (as
“we in the Western world” are supposedly in the habit of doing); it is
blatantly and unashamedly a matter of expressing contempt and hatred for a
group of people by virtue of the race, religion and/or ethnicity they were born
into — the very definition of racism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not surprisingly, perhaps, a commentator writing in an
Israeli newspaper had no difficulty in recognizing the Danish cartoons for what
they are. “Of late, a new breed of anti-Semitic caricature has begun to
circulate through Europe, an indication, perhaps, of a new breed of
anti-Semitism. But the Semites, in this case, are not Jews,” wrote Bradley
Burston in Haaretz on Feb. 6. He goes on to describe the message of the Danish
cartoons as racist and obscene, adding, “In that sense, it also profanes the
right of freedom of speech, distorting it into the freedom to foster hatred.” </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is, indeed, a great deal of irony in the liberal
“Western” pretensions of ambivalence and ambiguity over the Danish cartoons, as
experts pontificate about the “tension” between free expression and cultural
sensitivity. No such ambivalence or pretended naiveté is shown when expressing
abhorrence of the anti-Semitic cartoons that continue to plague some of the
press in Arab and Muslim countries — and rightly so. Compounding the irony is
the fact that Arab and Muslim editors jealously defend their “right” to publish
anti-Semitic cartoons, Holocaust denial editorials and other rubbish of the
“Protocols of the Elders of Zion” variety by shouting “freedom of expression.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Meanwhile, the protagonists seem to be reveling in this new
battlefront of the “clash of civilizations.” For one thing, compared with the
larger, global “clash” launched by Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush in 2001,
the recently opened Euro-Muslim front is superbly economical — for both sides.
No billions of dollars or thousands of lives need to be expended by the Western
world on this particular front — merely newsprint. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Arabs and Muslims, for their part, can engage in a
glorious jihad in defense of the faith, their religious and cultural identity,
without fear of regime change, elimination of states or the destruction of
whole nations and the killing of hundreds of thousands of their peoples in
order to liberate them. All they need do is shout slogans, burn a few flags,
make the ultimate sacrifice of eliminating Danish blue cheese from their diets,
torch a couple of European embassies and — what could be easier — launch the
odd attack on Arab Christians and publish hate cartoons about Jews. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Triggered by cartoons, the latest episode of the clash of
civilizations is the caricature of a caricature, one in which our fundamental
humanity is diminished, the almost limitless richness and diversity of that
vast world of the intellect and the imagination that we call culture is
flattened and shadowed over, the profound commonality of our human condition
rubbed out, until finally all that remains is the horrible and the grotesque:
the “liberal” West represented by a T-shirted female American soldier holding a
prone and naked Arab on a leash, and the “devout” Arab/Muslim world represented
by a masked and hooded terrorist holding a knife to a hostage’s neck under a
banner of “God is great.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-49988602876674615942013-11-23T10:30:00.001+02:002013-11-24T22:52:49.929+02:00Cairo: the city vanquished? The Muslim Brotherhood and the ruralisation of Egypt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Egyptian Revolution signified a triumph of the urban;
even while the counter-revolution looks to the undefeatable rural for
provisions</h3>
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<em>Hani Shukrallah, </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/61597/Opinion/Cairo-the-city-vanquished-The-Muslim-Brotherhood-a.aspx" target="_blank"><em>Ahram Online</em></a><em>, Monday 31 Dec 2012</em></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizcQZrPkrTTw8bAygL7QCeJBwnMKCKYuKa88uvZ2XmWZFfEdjNvfpNp-ZlpvBPoeJ3Rd60b_po78zp0hJsIYcBAnxdkhUPy5PoQDq8DZ_D0XJ3whvmYo58XWiDKQ9B_1rBDfKZm-OYzaE/s1600/EgyptHousing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizcQZrPkrTTw8bAygL7QCeJBwnMKCKYuKa88uvZ2XmWZFfEdjNvfpNp-ZlpvBPoeJ3Rd60b_po78zp0hJsIYcBAnxdkhUPy5PoQDq8DZ_D0XJ3whvmYo58XWiDKQ9B_1rBDfKZm-OYzaE/s1600/EgyptHousing.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cairo, Al-Qahira, is literally The Vanquisher, or the
vanquishing city. Max Rodenbook, in the title of his delightful history of the
Egyptian capital, rendered it, “Cairo: City Victorious”. And for a great part
of its millennium-long history, Egyptians have equated Cairo with the Arabic
name of the whole country. Cairo was Misr, and was umm el-donia, or the Mother
of the World, which provided the title of yet another marvelous history of the
city, the late Desmond Stewart’s “Great Cairo: Mother of the World”. For his
part, Andre Raymond titled his outstanding scholarly history of the Egyptian
capital: “Cairo: City of History”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And while Cairo got its current name in 969, under the
Fatimids, who also founded Al-Azhar (972), it has been the constant administrative
centre of the country, and its commercial and intellectual heart, since the
Muslim conquest of Egypt under the command of Amr Ibn al-‘As in 640, and his
founding of al-Fustat two years later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The primacy of the urban in Egypt’s 5000-year long history
is generally acknowledged, whether the country’s urban centre lay in Memphis,
Thebes, Alexandria, or – for the past some 1,400 years – in the urban space we
call Cairo. Certainly such primacy has given rise to a lot of nonsense about
hydraulic societies, and to one of the more absurd expressions of 19th Century
European Orientalism, namely the theory of Asiatic Despotism, or Asiatic
Stagnation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I need also add the reservation that history is invariably
written by the more powerful, whether that power is derived from the
instruments of knowledge, coercion or both. Inevitably this would tend to bias
our modern day perspective of Egyptian social and political history in favour
of the urban against the rural. The inherited histories of Egypt, passed on to
us by such luminaries as al-Maqrizi (1364 – 1442), Ibn Ayas (1448-1523) and up
to al-Jabarti (1753-1825) were fundamentally histories of urban Egypt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bias notwithstanding, there’s no going away from the primacy
of the urban in Egyptian history, at the very least when contrasted with that
of Europe during its centuries-long Dark Ages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even when we move from the history of power and coercion to
that of resistance and revolution, we find the urban supreme.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the modern age, Egyptian revolutions and uprisings were
fundamentally urban phenomena, though on many occasions the support and/or
participation of the peasantry proved crucial to their survival. Stretching
from the two Cairo uprisings against the Napoleonic conquest (in 1798 and 1800,
respectively) and up to the Egyptian Revolution of January/February 2011, great
movements of rebellion by the Egyptian people were invariably launched in the
cities, with Cairo at their heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, however nuanced our perspective on Egypt’s modern
revolutionary history, there is no going away from the fact that we have not
known the kind of peasant revolutions that ultimately triumphed by taking the
cities, so familiar in the revolutionary experiences of much of Latin America
and Southeast Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And it’s been in this primacy of the urban that both the
power and the weakness of the Egyptian Revolution has lain, and continues to
lie.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It explains, at least in part, the great paradox of a
revolution that is able to put hundreds of thousands onto the streets, over and
over again for close on two years after its launch, but fails consistently to
translate such preeminence into ballots.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It explains as well the remarkable enlightenment, modernity
and creative genius of a revolution that speaks of freedom, democracy and human
rights, of tolerance and equality among all Egyptians irrespective of gender or
religious persuasion, and of a social justice couched in freedom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And above all, it has been, and continues to be, a
revolution that sanctifies the right of rebellion, glorifies personal courage,
holds “obedience” in the deepest contempt (ergo, the designation of Muslim
Brotherhood supporters as “sheep”), and hoists the free self-expression of the
individual, even before that of the mass, as a supreme value (merely observe
the explosions of graffiti and personally tailored placards that have been such
a unique and pervasive feature of the Egyptian revolution).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not only has the Egyptian Revolution been an overwhelmingly
urban phenomenon (with the countryside basically standing on the sidelines).
But as one ballot after another since the Constitutional Declaration of March
2011 and up to last December’s referendum have shown, the countryside has acted
as a bulwark, or strategic reserve for the counter-revolution, with the latter
having consistently attempted to pit electoral versus revolutionary
“legitimacy”, even as it juggled the two – arbitrarily and capriciously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And make no bones about it. The Muslim Brotherhood’s project
is nothing less than a full scale counter-revolution. If in any doubt, just go
through the constitution drafted exclusively by them and their Salafi allies,
or better yet watch Salafi leader Yasser Borhami on YouTube reassuring his
followers that the freedoms and civil liberties articles in the constitution
were no more than window dressing, pointing them to the relevant articles
deliberately designed to emasculate them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Meanwhile, we are promised a new piece of legislation, to be
enacted by the electorally “legitimate” Shura Council, even if a mere 5% of the
electorate took part in the vote of its “elected” members, while the president
appointed another third of its members, packing it even further with droves of
his Islamist supporters, and with a single Coptic woman sprinkled as dubious
sweetener.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The promised piece of legislation is designed to effectively
ban demonstrations and strikes (it includes the uniquely bizarre stipulation
that a strike should not halt production). These two basic instruments of
protest are, needless to say, basic rights seized by the revolution, let alone
that it was thanks to them that Mubarak was overthrown, Mr Morsi let out of
prison, and set on his way to the presidential palace in Heliopolis, graffiti
adorned as it might be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ruralisation, admittedly, is an unfamiliar term, and
something of a tongue twister to boot. But – and this for the benefit of my MB
e-militia haranguers, fingers no doubt already itching to learnedly inform me
that there is no such word – it is a proper noun, to be found in most
contemporary dictionaries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(The MB English-language e-militia, who seem to have a
preference for using European pseudonyms, recently set about correcting my
reference, in a recent article, to Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, by learnedly informing me that it was in fact The Rise and
Fall of said empire, testimony to both laziness and most probably an American
education, since I doubt there is a British high school graduate who is
unfamiliar with the famous work.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Arabic, taryeef, has been with us for some time. More
often than not, it has been used to refer to the process of haphazard
urbanization that followed on the heels of the defeat of June 1967, and has
been full-blown since the seventies. As the Egyptian state relinquished, one
after another, its basic functions save for plunder and repression, rural
migration to the urban centres of the country was creating everywhere new
sprawling urban settlements that physically, culturally and in terms of
life-styles appeared as hugely bloated villages transplanted onto an urban
landscape.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was such settlements that provided the stomping grounds
of the Jihadists of the ‘90s, and continue to act as breeding grounds for
Salafists and other of the more regressive and extreme tendencies of Egyptian
Islamism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Neither is pitting rural against urban Egypt terribly new.
President Sadat, faced with the increasingly potent challenge of leftist-led
students and workers movements, styled himself “the faithful president”, called
for a return to “village values” and even had his flunkies trump up a new piece
of repressive legislation which he called “the law of shame”. Sartorially
conscious, the late president’s multifarious wardrobe prominently included the
magnificently tailored robes of a (very) rich Egyptian peasant.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In electoral terms, rigging notwithstanding, the Egyptian
countryside has been for decades an extraordinarily pliant tool of those in
power. Almost invariably voting in considerably higher ratios than their urban
counterparts, with rural women remarkably voting in even higher ratios than
men, the electorate of the Egyptian country-side is literally herded to the
balloting box, and invariably casts its ballots on the basis of patronage
rather than politics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This pattern remains as true after the revolution of 2011 as
it was before it. I’ve noted before that triumphant revolutions tend to pull
the stragglers along. More specifically, urban revolutions such as the Egyptian
variety are obliged to win the peasantry if they are to survive, and they do so
by acting to meet their most urgent needs, namely greater and fairer access to,
and nominal or effective ownership of the land they till.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, having itself
become ruralised, seems fully aware of the sharp rural urban dichotomy that has
come to its fullest crystallisation following the triumph of the urban embodied
in the Egyptian Revolution. Even before the revolution, the reformist trend
within the Brotherhood had been warning of the ruralisation of their movement,
which they were convinced was fundamentally urban and modern. It was such
ruralisation, they argued, that ultimately enabled the full takeover of the
movement by its most regressive sections, the Qutbis and the Salafists.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a 2008 article (which appeared in the English translation
quoted below, in Al-Ahram Weekly of 23 October, 2008), the late Hossam Tammam
writes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“The Muslim Brotherhood used to be an urban group in its
membership and style of management. Now its cultural patterns and loyalties are
taking on a rural garb… Over the past few years, the Muslim Brotherhood has
been infused with rural elements. Its tone is becoming more and more
patriarchal, and its members are showing their superiors the kind of deference
associated with countryside traditions. You hear them referring to their top
officials as the "uncle hajj", "the big hajj", "our
blessed one", "the blessed man of our circle", "the crown
on our heads", etc. Occasionally, they even kiss the hands and heads of
the top leaders.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rhetoric used by the Brotherhood and its Salafist allies
against the</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">ir opponents is equally revealing of a deliberate, conscious
manipulation of the rural urban divide. The leaders of the National Salvation
Front are portrayed as belonging to a prosperous, even licentious urban
“elite”, more concerned with safeguarding their “loose” life-styles, their bars
and clubs, than with the lot of the common man, the latter invariably portrayed
as socially conservative, culturally-backward, God-fearing, and obedient, i.e.
an archetypal villager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most remarkable of all has been the clearly observable fact
that in order to put into effect their more pernicious, more fascistic plans,
such as thug militia attacks on peaceful protesters, the Muslim Brotherhood
leadership could not count on its urban membership, but invariably had to bus
in these would-be Hitler Jugend from the surrounding provinces.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the presidential elections, as in the last constitutional
referendum, the great cities of the nation, with Cairo at their forefront,
voted for democracy and the revolution; the countryside for the
counter-revolution. This was glaringly apparent in the presidential elections,
and is no less true, even if less readily observable in the recent
constitutional referendum.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Separate the latest ballot in the main urban centres of the
country from their rural, or ruralised environs and almost invariably you’ll
find a clear “No” vote in the cities, a “Yes” vote in the countryside.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, and for the time being, the configuration of forces in
the country is too evenly balanced. Egypt remains a deeply divided nation.
Constitution or not, the Brotherhood and their Salafi allies are not able to
bring their authoritarian project to fruition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Egypt in 2012/3 is a largely urban society (with the urban-rural
ratio around 60 to 40%). The fact that this is yet to express itself in the
ballot box is a function of a number of factors, including big pro-democracy
majorities in the cities as opposed to overwhelming pro-authoritarian
majorities in the countryside; the bussing or rather half-trucking of rural
voters – en masse – to the voting stations as opposed to the individual, rather
moody, at their own steam, and easy to lose faith voting patterns of urban
citizens.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed, the Constitution was passed not only by virtue of an
overwhelming “Yes” in the countryside, but also because a great many of the
urban potential “No” voters did not turn out. Add some rigging, intimidation
and ballot station-barring against potential opponents, and the 64-36% result
would seem inevitable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For its part, the power structure remains deeply fractured.
The ruling Muslim Brotherhood do not have control of either the army or the
police. And, not for want of trying, they are yet to succeed in their concerted
attempt to bring the judiciary to heel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, equally, so are the revolution and the cause of
democracy in Egypt incapable of realisation; the revolution remains stalled and
hijacked, and a genuine Egyptian democracy continues to be an unreachable
dream.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And it will continue to be so if rural Egypt remains a
counter-revolutionary reservoir. Talk shows and press conferences will not do
it, and neither will putting tens, even hundreds of thousands of protesters on
urban streets, over and over again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Peasants are a suspicious lot. As they should be. They’ve
been oppressed, neglected and tricked too many times and for far too long by
urban masters of all kinds. To win their trust, to break through the monopoly
of state and religious patronage over their political will, you need to go to
their very doorsteps. And you need to make the revolution and its democratic
aims relevant to their lives.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thirty years of Mubarak’s eradication of political space in
the country can no longer serve as a pretext for persistent political
amateurishness by the revolutionary and democratic forces. When the National
Salvation Front finally came to the position of calling on the people to go to
the ballot and vote “No”, they did so as if surprised by the failure of their
initial, legitimate attempt at preventing the blatantly illegitimate draft from
being put to the vote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, this should have been a contingency, even the most
likely contingency, for which they should have been well prepared all along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And it is high time to shatter the distortive lens of
“civic” versus Islamist forces, which by the time it reaches Upper Egypt is
translated into atheists and Copts against Islam. Revolutionary times are
equally a time of the primacy of politics, certainly not of ideology. The fact
that from within Egyptian Islamism, indeed from the very heart of the
Brotherhood, a growingly potent democratic trend is emerging is something to be
welcomed and cherished, not neglected and side-lined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And revolution is not merely about protesting, as brilliant
and courageous as this has been and continues to be. It is equally about
political savvy and organizational skill. It’s about the ability to translate
the aims of the revolution into strategy and tactics, and the many forms of political
and popular organization able to put these into practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And as we approach the second anniversary of the Egyptian
Revolution, is it not also high time the revolution’s objectives were put into
concrete programmatical proposals and demands, staggered as urgent, middle- and
long term?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Social Justice is not merely a noble sentiment to be
realised in the repetition. It must, and should mean a concrete set of
proposals for the here and now, for the poor and dispossessed, both urban and
rural.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In short, it is high time the revolution and the democratic
forces in the country get their act together.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-79482921814051579832013-11-16T11:36:00.001+02:002013-11-23T11:07:30.729+02:00The American Mind<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More
on conspiracy theory, the Arab and…</span></h4>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hani Shukrallah, The Daily Star
Egypt & <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/09/26/the-american-mind/" target="_blank">Counterpunch</a>, 26 Sept, 2006</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span> </h4>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexhTsVPVMH5CZJoBwR0j2ruvN-NL71fyFzQAHszY7NCUh9OPG3YRMK1h4KMMjJ9-LBbeSde8ms5bFMwyrVEpFpb-gaE3QW_jf_wuFm3kqfYXk0UT1_UIbw3BZgJddna9cCVVC12Eby-8/s1600/denver_protest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexhTsVPVMH5CZJoBwR0j2ruvN-NL71fyFzQAHszY7NCUh9OPG3YRMK1h4KMMjJ9-LBbeSde8ms5bFMwyrVEpFpb-gaE3QW_jf_wuFm3kqfYXk0UT1_UIbw3BZgJddna9cCVVC12Eby-8/s1600/denver_protest.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is in Denver. Colorado, USA - and it's "the Arab mind" that's supposed to be enamored of conspiracy theories</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span> </h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where would you expect conspiracy
theories about 9/11 to be disseminated in Cairo? A coffee house in Sayeda
Zeinab, Al-Azhar or any of the multitude of so-called "popular"
quarters of the city–filled with Shisha smoke, and permeated by the smell of
molasses-soaked tobacco (otherwise known as me’assel) mixed, perhaps, with the
subtle whiff of some other rather more expensive substance? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Where does the "Arab
mind’s" supposed propensity for conspiracy theory come to its own and
propagate? Could it be in the scruffy offices of local newspapers, regularly
slammed by a certain Mossad-led, U.S.-based media monitoring organization as
dens of anti-American, anti-Semitic incitement, and which the U.S. government,
the EU and nearly everybody with some aid money to disburse is doing their
utmost to help reform? (God knows the need is great, even if the path, in this
as in every other area of our contemporary life, is shrouded in mystery?) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Possibly, but the most lucid, indeed
the most erudite and comprehensive argument to the effect that all was not what
it seemed in 9/11 was to be had in none of these.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Certainly, I’ve come across several
versions of what "really" happened on that fateful day in September
2001, over the past five years. There’s been my friend and colleague, the
expert on political Islam, who throughout continued to insist that Al-Qaeda
didn’t do it, almost totally unfazed by my taunting him with each growingly
more blunt admission to having indeed ‘done it’ by Messrs Bin Laden and
Zawahry. We’ve all heard the one about 3,000 Jews that failed to show up at the
World Trade Center on the day of the atrocity. And though many have written to
expose this story for the myth it has always been, much of the Egyptian public
continued to believe it–just, one may add, as their more prosperous and
literate American counterparts went on believing in that other 9/11 urban
legend, curtsey of Mr. Cheney; the one about Saddam’s links to Al-Qaeda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My absolute favorite 9/11 conspiracy
theory, however, was told to me by that most ubiquitous source of information
vis-à-vis the mood on the "Egyptian street"–a taxi driver. (In the
absence of any sort of political life in the country outside a narrow and
isolated political elite, both local and foreign journalists have come to rely
on the taxi driver as the ultimate authority on what the "ordinary
Egyptian" thinks or believes.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to my source, both Bin
Laden and Saddam Hussein (who was yet to be captured) are CIA agents; and were in
fact tucked away by their handlers somewhere in the United States. This
particular theory had the ingenious merit of fusing all the conspiracy theories
in one: Bin Laden did it, so did Saddam and so did the Americans. How far that
particular theory was reflective of the word on the Egyptian street is
anybody’s guess. I had a lot of fun with it, nevertheless, imagining Saddam and
Bin Laden, clean-shaven, sharing a little house in some Midwestern American
city–posing, perhaps, as a gay couple?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had to wait five years to listen
to a 9/11 conspiracy theory I could not easily laugh, or shrug off. The setting
was as incongruous as were the parties to the discussion–largely one sided, my
interlocutors talking and I, skeptically, listening. Sipping cold Stella beer,
munching on antipasti and enclosed in the courtyard of the Italian Club, a
surprisingly idyllic spot discretely hidden from the hustle and bustle of one
of the busiest streets in town, my friends and I could not have been more
securely insulated from "the Egyptian street."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nor could my friends be accused, by
any stretch of the imagination, of suffering from that most dangerous disease,
endemic to the region, and differentially diagnosed as "the Arab
mind" My friend had lived a large chunk of his adult life in the West; his
recipe for solving Egypt’s multifarious political, economic and social problems
is to entice Egypt’s erstwhile foreign communities (the Greeks, Armenians,
Italians, Jews) back into the country. (I am, I might add, particularly enamored
of the idea of enticing the Jews back, since it would have the additional
potential benefit of emptying Israel of nearly half its Jewish population).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The third party to our little group
on that particular summer evening was my friend’s American wife, a lovely, tall
Texan, with long auburn hair. They had been recently married at the foot of the
Pyramids in what my American pop-culture-savvy wife informed me at the time was
a New Age ceremony. Extremely vague about what "New Age" anything
actually denotes, I was nevertheless quite impressed by the insouciance shown
by my friend’s large Egyptian Muslim family toward the flower-bordered Ankh
within which the bride and groom exchanged their conjugal vows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having gone to considerable detail
to absolve my companions at the Italian Club of any suspicion of being blighted
by, God forbid, an Arab mind, I might now reveal that they were the source of
the most persuasive 9/11 conspiracy theory I had yet to come across. It was all
about steel structures and impossible cell-phone calls and an unlikely hole in
the Pentagon and a disappeared fourth, or was it fifth, plane. I was referred
to Web sites and to American scholars who have organized to question the whole
edifice of reasoning and evidence presented by the official investigation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I remain highly skeptical–for a
number of reasons. The first may be discounted as sheer pigheadedness. As soon
as I learned of the attack on the World Trade Center twin towers, my first
guess, accompanied by intense dread (I could already see the war of
civilizations being launched), was that it was Bin Laden and Co. who’d done it.
Something of the sort seemed to be coming ever since the Jihadists had reached
the conclusion (eloquently expressed by our good doctor Al-Zawahry in a famous auto-critique)
that battling "the far enemy" (Crusaders and Jews) was a far better
strategy in terms of winning Arab and Muslim hearts and minds than focusing on
"the near enemy" (apostate Arab and Muslim regimes), which they had
been doing to no avail for nearly two decades. Later developments, needless to
say, seemed to amply confirm my initial guess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The second reason for my skepticism
is rather more compelling. I find it very difficult to believe that a secret on
such a heinous and grandiose scale could be kept secret. Whatever the loopholes
in the findings of the official investigation (and obviously there are
loopholes) it is nearly impossible to assume a cover-up that must have involved
the complicity of at least several hundred people in a whole array of branches
of the government bureaucracy at a great many levels–and this, of the
deliberate murder of more than 3,000 American citizens by an American
intelligence body. Such an assumption makes the Kennedy assassination
(presumably at the hands of Lyndon B. Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, the CIA, the
Mafia and Cuban émigrés) seem pretty tame. And while I have few illusions about
the greatness of American democracy, there is little doubt in my mind that the
U.S.–despite the best efforts of the American Right–is in fact a democracy,
however imperfect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My third, and indeed, most
compelling reason is that grand conspiracy theories present us with something
in the nature of divine and/or other forms of supernatural intervention.
Simply, they place major historical events and processes at the mercy of whim,
beyond prediction or reasoned analysis. A corollary of such an assumption is
that human beings are ultimately no more than puppets on a string, and that the
choices we make are exercises in futility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It so happens, however, that we need
no conspiracy theory, grand or small, to learn that both President Bush and his
neo-con cabal no less than the Prince of the Faithful of Tora Bora and his band
of global marauders had been, on the eve of 9/11, chomping at the bit to
instigate a great, bloody and perpetual "war of civilizations." It
has served them tremendously well over the past five years. It’s the rest of us
that have to suffer the devastating fallout. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-10691456028828066882013-11-15T07:40:00.002+02:002013-11-23T10:39:27.190+02:00Conspiracy theory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><em>The 9/11 atrocity
triggered a host of convoluted conspiracy theories, the most elaborate of which
were, paradoxically, American in origin. In May 2003 I thought I’d offer one of
my own<o:p></o:p></em></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Conspiracy theory </span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"></span> </h2>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">A democratic awakening of the Arab masses may well be at hand; the invasion of Iraq will not launch a new American century but will prove to have been the seal on the first, and last, one</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><em>Hani Shukrallah,
</em><a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/638/op8.htm" target="_blank"><em>Al-Ahram Weekly</em></a><em>, 15 May 2003</em></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><em> <o:p></o:p></em></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPObRy0SywWAUolFmX48wqkIzFhgk5Msa5FNSrfsbV-W-N9gcy_010YMpSXcDtwW5io1coUsTQ-7Fyx9xXilmqHYVZhwjaf4W2xfsJKgHe-tnZw0YFP8GlU12MkKi-tf_UPJhLXNcpHE/s1600/bin+laden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvPObRy0SywWAUolFmX48wqkIzFhgk5Msa5FNSrfsbV-W-N9gcy_010YMpSXcDtwW5io1coUsTQ-7Fyx9xXilmqHYVZhwjaf4W2xfsJKgHe-tnZw0YFP8GlU12MkKi-tf_UPJhLXNcpHE/s1600/bin+laden.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Where is
Saddam?" my taxi driver asked in belligerent tones a couple of days after
the fall of Baghdad. Hesitantly, and rather shamefacedly (I'd been, I confess,
among those expecting the battle of Baghdad), I began to advance a couple of
the theories then doing the rounds, only to be interrupted almost immediately.
The question, as it turned out, was of a rhetorical nature. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"He's in
America." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The cab driver
answered his own question in no uncertain terms. Indeed, he had it on good
authority that not only Saddam, but also Bin Laden was enjoying the good life
in good old US of A. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"They're both
American agents, you know; they did all this to give the Americans the pretext
to come and occupy the Arab world." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I did not try to
dissuade my driver from this most original of conspiracy theories. (Well, not
that original: soon after 9/11 my barber informed me that Bin Laden and Sharon
went to the same school -- conclusive evidence, in his view, of the Al-Qa'eda
leader's Mossad connections). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Images of the two murderous
megalomaniacs sharing a little suburban house in some remote American town were
too delicious to dismiss for the sake of what would have inevitably been a
futile discussion. My Hollywood-programmed brain, drawing on scenes of American
gangsters enjoying FBI hospitality under the witness protection programme, was
producing a multitude of comic images: Saddam and Bin Laden walking a Great
Dane round the block, buying <i>halal</i> meat at the corner Kosher deli; or
else haggling over whose turn it is to do the dishes, or record the next tape
addressing the <i>Ummah</i>. What cover story, I wondered frivolously, would
the Americans have provided the two house-mates, one a stocky, grim elderly
man, the other younger, slim and handsome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nonsense you might say
-- yet another proof of the Arabs' propensity for conspiracy theories. This
latter assertion, I might point out, smacks of racism, even though it is
reiterated by certain Arab, no less than American pundits. Rather than accuse
the "Arab mind" (whatever that may be) of being enamoured with
conspiracy theories, the pundits would be much better served by looking into
the effects of authoritarianism, a debased and sensationalist media and the
near total absence of political space on the political consciousness of the masses.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is more to it.
Someone once said (was it Woody Allen?) that paranoia is greatly heightened
awareness. The joke is not without insight. While conspiracy theories of the
sort above may be utter nonsense when judged on the facts, they are far more
erudite if viewed as a reflection of the <i>truth</i>. After all, in both the
natural and social worlds the appearance of things/phenomena is rarely, if
ever, an accurate expression of their true nature. Take my barber's suggestion
that Sharon and Bin Laden went to the same school. As a fact it is patently absurd.
As a metaphor underlining the similarities between the two thugs it could not
be more apt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No less interesting is
the taxi driver's Saddam/ Bin Laden theory. Indeed a fairly substantial section
of the "Egyptian street" (regardless of ideas on the whereabouts of
the two miscreants) has in the past few weeks come to subscribe to the notion
that both Bin Laden and Saddam are American agents. (I have since christened
this line of thinking the Bulaq Al-Dakrur School in reference to a sprawling --
literally on the wrong side of the tracks -- slum district in Giza, where one
of the theory's most zealous proponents resides.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Factually, the Bulaq
Al-Dakrur School's conjectures are laughable. As metaphor, however, they reveal
a whole host of truths. One need not subscribe to conspiracy theories of any
sort to recognise that Saddam and Bin Laden have been heaven-sent in so far as
the US's post-Soviet imperial ambitions are concerned. There is
incontrovertible <i>factual</i> evidence that the neo-cons had been praying for
a Pearl Harbour and clamouring for Iraqi blood and oil well before 9/11,
indeed, well before Jeb Bush and the Supreme Court delivered the White House
into their busy and eager hands. Bin Laden provided them with their Pearl
Harbour (or is it Reichstag fire?); Saddam, sitting on a sea of oil, became a
uniquely abominable target of repugnance in addition to state-of-the-art
missiles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What I find most
telling about this particular conspiracy theory, however, is the
"street's" profound rejection of the two sets of blood-thirsty
tyrants, local and foreign, Muslim, Jew and (born-again) Christian. Since they
are equally loathed they must be in cahoots. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What a great many
pundits, on this side of the Atlantic as well as the other, fail to understand
is that the Arab masses' profound sense of national humiliation at Western
imperialist hands is inevitably interwoven with their status as disenfranchised
and abused citizens in their own countries. Their anger at one set of
oppressors is pretty much of the same order as that directed at the other set. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, let me suggest a
conspiracy theory of my own: the neo-cons are a Trotskyite group whose ambition
is to foment world revolution. Like most conspiracy theories there is a factual
grain at the core of this one. We know that a few of the neo-con ideologues
(notably the Washington Institute's Patrick Clawson, he of <i>Navigating
Through Turbulence</i> fame) are reconstructed Trots. But are they?
Reconstructed, that is. What if, having been disheartened by the steep decline
in revolutionary fervour following the fall of Saigon in '75, some especially
militant Trots figured that the international working class movement needed to
be nudged out of its complacency? What if they then set about infiltrating
intelligence and administration-connected think-tanks, as well as searching for
a likely point of entry into the White House? Was Junior, a wealthy wastrel
from a patrician, politically and corporately-well-connected American family
heaven sent, or one of several possibles? Was he, sometime during his lost
years, recruited to the cause, or merely played for a fool as others exploited
his well known naïveté? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Look at the results.
In less than two years in office the neo-cons have succeeded in splitting the
Western alliance as never before; Russia and China have been propelled out of
their decade-long slavishness; and most significant of all, a new, uniquely
internationalist anti-capitalist/anti- imperialist movement has been galvanised
into action -- as evidenced in the 15 February anti- war demonstrations, the
likes of which the world had not seen before. And the Arab street seems to have
been awakened out of its long slumber; America's "friends" in the
Arab world have not been as discredited, shaken and destabilised in over a
quarter of a century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
"enduring", permanent war on terror pursued by the neo-cons with
arrogant vigour, is it not evocative of grand old Lev Bronstein's
"permanent revolution"? Is permanent imperialist war designed to act,
in well established Marxist idiom, as the midwife of permanent revolution? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's all nonsense, of
course, but fun all the same. There is a point to the frivolity, however. The
American invasion and occupation of Iraq may indeed prove to have put the Arabs
on the road to democracy, not by force of American example but in opposition to
it. There are clear signs that the anger triggered by the new and unprecedented
level of Arab national humiliation is increasingly taking an inward bent. A
democratic awakening of the Arab masses may well be at hand; the invasion of
Iraq will not launch a new American century but will prove to have been the
seal on the first, and last, one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-10197937555378764122013-11-12T12:10:00.000+02:002013-11-23T11:08:30.852+02:00The seeds of magic <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">“We’ve lived to see it!”
has been the first refrain with which friends and comrades of my generation would
meet each other in the wake of 25 Jan. 2011, remembering as well all those who
didn’t. Since then, a recurring thought has often passed through my mind: what
would Radwan El-Kashef have made of it all? <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">This is what I wrote
on his passing more than 11 years ago<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/590/cu4.htm" target="_blank"><em>Al-Ahram Weekly</em></a><em> 13
June 2002<o:p></o:p></em></span></h4>
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</h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </h2>
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<span style="color: #003333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Were a passion for life a factor in determining longevity then
cinema director Radwan El-Kashef, a lifelong friend, would have outlived us
all. He did not, and the attempt to recapture Radwan, to keep him alive in my
mind's eye, is at once a comfort and torment. The image of his face: broad
receding brow, Semitic nose, intelligent, slightly protruding eyes, their
unlikely green ever-shining in laughter as in anger, brings warmth, but the
mind balks at its own attempt at acceptance. Memories will not do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What of the days, months, years to come; what of the many films
that are yet to be made, the shared triumphs, and defeats; the many stories
that are to be told and retold, the political discussions that, within our old
circle of friends, often descended into riotous shouting matches, but
ultimately enriched us? And what of the laughter? Radwan, the ultimate
storyteller, gave to his many friends the gift of laughter, at themselves, at
their lives and reality, at one another and at himself. Radwan's quip of the
moment would swiftly make the rounds of our circle of friends, to be told and
retold. Not that he would shy from repeating it himself. Having hit upon a good
"<i>effet</i>", as he called them, he would peer from beneath heavy
eyelids, eyes gleaming wickedly. "A good one, eh?" he would ask, and
go on to repeat it to as many of his many close friends as possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thus it happened that the many events, petty or formative, happy
or sad, that made up our daily lives would take on new meaning, assume an
element of drama and hilarity once subjected to the Radwan <i>effet</i>. They
would become stories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the recounting, a Radwan stroll along the Nile is easily
transformed into drama, sometimes too incredible to believe: a naked man
walking down Shubra Street in mid-afternoon without anyone so much as
commenting on the fact; or a man walking along the Nile Corniche in Zamalek
with an ostrich under his arm; or even more incredible, the stories of how a <i>Sa'idi</i>
travelling third class would have his relatives hurl him onto the train through
a window; and how one man spent the train ride between Sohag and Assiut
standing on his head, held in place by the squashed mass of human bodies. We
would harangue him about his all too fertile imagination. His standard
response: "You don't look; I do." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whether he really did see a man carrying an ostrich in Zamalek
or a fellow <i>Sa'idi</i> travelling on his head we'll never know, but Radwan
did look, and listen. People, friends he had known all his life, strangers he
would be unlikely to ever meet again, were a source of endless fascination.
There was no hello at the other end of the line when you received a phone call
from Radwan; rather "Eh, what's the news?" The question was never
rhetorical. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But there will be no more phone calls from Radwan. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Memories offer little solace, yet they keep coming. The January
'72 student uprising had just shaken the country -- the time for great changes
had come (or so we thought). A small-bodied young man, all nose and heavy
eyeglasses, even then slightly balding, makes his occasional appearance on
campus. He is not yet in university, but is pulled there by the
"movement." Radwan is from Manial Al-Roda, a middle-to-lower middle
class island in southern Cairo; the "Manial group" vouch for him. For
some reason he singles me out. It was a time of relentless political
discussions, readings, debates and, always, activism. Trying to make up his
mind from among the different tendencies within the self-styled "radical
left", the intensely curious Radwan would, almost slyly, arrange it so
that the main protagonists would debate their positions before him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few months and he's in Cairo University, a class-mate of my
sister, Hala, at the Faculty of Arts, a short stretch away from my own Faculty
of Economics and Political Science -- the twin "hotbeds" of left wing
activism on the main campus. I can see it now: the Faculty of Arts "press
corridor", covered with wall newspapers. Radwan's contribution is distinct
in being wholly alien to the agit-prop format of that peculiar medium which,
despite -- or because of -- its very rudimentary technology was for a time
instigating a communications revolution of sorts in the country. Radwan,
however, specialises in extremely long analytical pieces, written in small
print, which, I would jokingly berate him, made me his sole reader. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Memories come through as images: small Radwan and even smaller
Hala, standing defiantly in defence of the wall newspapers before two giants --
muscular, martial arts- trained police agents posing as concerned students. The
inevitable scuffle begins, Radwan's eyeglasses fly through the air, followed by
Radwan himself; Hala, only partially protected by her gender, shouts at one of
the police agents the unlikely warning that she will "squash [him] like a
bug"; the more athletic Samir leaps in with a well aimed punch at the
police agent's jaw; dozens of wall newspapers are torn to shreds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And then, the moments of triumph: tens of thousands of students
attending rallies, occupations, demonstrations on campus, demonstrators rushing
out onto the streets, confrontations with the anti-riot police -- young people
in their early twenties, determined to change the face of the country and the
world. And, naturally, the arrests, the going into hiding, the "safe
houses" -- furnished flats or rooms, hired with false IDs -- the
remembrance of which would in years to come provide innumerable anecdotes and
much hilarity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And somehow, through it all, a whole life was being shared as
intensely as it was being created. Again, memories translate into images: A day
trip to Al-Qanater -- 16-year-old Azza, who was to become Radwan's life-long
partner and the mother of his two children, makes her entrance into our lives.
We jokingly berate Radwan for being a "cradle snatcher"; evenings
spent at the very tip of Roda Island, in the garden of the Manasterly Palace,
sipping cold Stella beer, gazing at the Nile and, always, talking; snatched
excursions to Alexandria, where the boys and girls surreptitiously defy
convention by spending the night under one roof; Radwan's dimly lit parental
home in Manial -- family members lined up in a narrow corridor before an
ancient black and white TV which gives shadows instead of a picture and which
Radwan would replace, years later, with his first earnings; the inevitable <i>tabikh</i>
(rice, meat and stewed vegetables) that is insistently offered to Radwan's
friends even on the briefest of visits; the hilarious luncheon which saw two
ducks Radwan brought all the way from his Upper Egyptian village cooked <i>à
l'orange</i> by my mother -- to Radwan's utter mortification. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Radwan and Azza's wedding party, boycotted by his family, is
held in her family home, a small flat in the same Roda building where his own
family lives. We need a suit that will fit the bridegroom. We hit upon one
belonging to my brother, Alaa, bought at a C&A sale in London a few years
before for another wedding. The trousers and cuffs are shortened slightly.
Azza, in white wedding dress, looks like a fairy-tale princess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Memories of Radwan invariably slip into recollections of
Radwan's stories, the stories always generating a world of images. I visited
Radwan's village of Kom Ishgaw, near Sohag, twice -- once on the occasion of
the death of his younger brother (some 10 years ago) and the second, when we
accompanied him on his final journey home last week. Both times I was struck by
the instant recognition. Through innumerable stories of the <i>Sa'id</i>,
Radwan had brought his home village alive in the imaginations of his friends,
at once hum- drum and mythical, every-day and legendary. Radwan, the left wing
activist and intellectual, the philosophy graduate, searched for essences and
laws of motion, yet his vision of the world was intensely sensual, finding
endless fascination in the details of people's lives, and the many ways in
which they shape and are shaped by their physical and spiritual environments.
Radwan's curiosity about the sensual world had but one boundary: people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This passion for detail Radwan would explain as an element of
his <i>Sa'idi</i>, or to use his preferred designation, southern, roots. Ask a <i>Sa'idi
</i>the most mundane question, Radwan would remark, and you get a story:
"It was a Wednesday..." the story would begin, according to Radwan.
Above all, however, Radwan's attachment to the <i>Sa'id</i> was intimately tied
to his mother, and through her to the world of women. <i>Sa'idi</i> machismo
notwithstanding, Radwan was unabashed about his preference for women's company
and friendship. Notes we found in his papers upon his death contain the
following passage: "The world of women, for me, is a world of symbols,
concealment and allusion. It is a world in which messages have a magical,
deeply intimate character, implying a reality different to that which is lived.
For me, the world of women is a storehouse of genuine feelings, expressed
indirectly, magically." He speaks of the stories of grandmothers, mother,
aunts and women servants as epic poetry, laden with sorrow, but ultimately
reconstructing reality, not as it is lived but as it is desired. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Radwan's two films about the <i>Sai'd</i>, the little-known but
stunning <i>Al- Janoubiya </i>(The Southern Woman), his graduation project at
the Cinema Institute, and the prize-winning Date Wine, were firmly situated
within just such a women's world: reality, mundane and magical, seen through
women's eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet the <i>Sai'd</i> was just one part of Radwan. He was also a
son of Manial Al-Roda, urban to the core, streetwise, and possessed of
remarkable <i>ibn al-balad</i> wit. Two worlds sat on his shoulders, one of the
past, another of the present, one magical, the other earthly, one female, the
other male. Deeply attached to an almost legendary past, he was also a
consummate modernist, militant in his secularism and, to his very last day,
unwavering in his dream of a more equitable, free and just world. His different
worlds may have existed as parallel universes between which he travelled
swiftly and with great ease, or they may have been synthesised by his profound
belief in an indomitable human spirit which, chained and bound, is nevertheless
constantly craving freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whatever the case may have been, Radwan had many more stories to
tell, films to make, loved ones in whose lives he alone could instill a unique
quality of joy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The need to recollect is checked by the need to explain. But
what is it that could be explained: Radwan himself, our friendship or the
mysterious bond that made the two of us part of a curious extended family that
took on natural parents and children as well as progressively new members, all
of us from the most diverse backgrounds, but inseparably joined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There may be no explanations that would suffice. After all, who
can explain magic? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hani Shukrallah</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-2131301739917548522013-11-10T12:53:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:41:41.468+02:00Conspiracies of convenience: what's behind the film fracas?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>My Sept. 2012 take on the “film maligning the Prophet” brouhaha</em></h4>
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
Conspiracies of convenience: what's behind the film fracas?<o:p></o:p></h2>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
On both sides of the ongoing clash of bigotries and
stupidity, the Prophet Muhammad is incidental to the true motives of the
antagonists<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah , </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/52782.aspx" target="_blank"><em>Ahram Online</em></a><em>, Thursday 13 Sep 2012</em></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em></em> </h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4I0GWBV4AURBXNtwb2zmrXFUsOQEV53KbQTHHzlrmr-As_mY-Vv11WuViWHZKJTHPDWD2IGeHJKWcQwuPZMcXXK_BnUjYX9BhHs9k0Cc4_zEDDzDQWizxG2TSQP_zqiKgTcPnT5G5PfU/s1600/Film+protest+Cairo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4I0GWBV4AURBXNtwb2zmrXFUsOQEV53KbQTHHzlrmr-As_mY-Vv11WuViWHZKJTHPDWD2IGeHJKWcQwuPZMcXXK_BnUjYX9BhHs9k0Cc4_zEDDzDQWizxG2TSQP_zqiKgTcPnT5G5PfU/s1600/Film+protest+Cairo.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em><o:p></o:p></em> </h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I strongly sense
conspiracy in the whole sordid "film maligning the Prophet" fracas,
which, in a few hours, claimed the lives of three American diplomats and
delivered a devastating blow to the Arab revolutionary upsurge, and to the new
democratic and pluralistic awareness that both lay behind that upsurge and was
its most precious product.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let me hasten to explain, however, that I use the
questionable term, conspiracy, not in the sense that everyone from the makers
of the film to the hysterical demonstrators that attacked the American missions
in Cairo and Benghazi are in cahoots; nor do I base my argument simply on
"who benefits most", which almost invariably is the conspiracy
theorist's most crucial analytical tool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I really mean by "conspiracy" here is that
the Prophet Muhammad is in fact wholly secondary to the real motives of the
various parties to the ugly and bloody brawl. Yet, somewhat like the conspiracy
theorist, I base my argument more on a reading of the events and their context,
rather than on concrete, tangible facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To use detective story parlance, what I present below is
largely "circumstantial" evidence, leaving it to the readers to judge
for themselves whether such evidence is sufficiently compelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My first suggestion in this respect is that the makers of
the film had deliberately set out to goad Muslims into just such violent and
irrational reactions as we have seen in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It's been tried and tested many times before, and even if we
can't blame the instigators for the penchant of certain influential political
and ideological forces among us for ignorance and stupidity, we can still argue
that those who set out to trigger such responses are in possession of a very
unambiguous manual setting out just how to do it, and the broad outlines of
expected outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We need only recall the 2005-6 Danish cartoons episode. The
insignificant Danish newspaper that initiated the hullabaloo had been
transparently out to trigger a reaction from Muslims, and a reaction it got.
Nor do I have the least doubt that the Christian fundamentalist preacher who
publicly set a copy of the Qur'an on fire was also deliberately out to goad
Muslims into a reaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The obvious, outward motive of such attempts is not
difficult to discern: to show Muslims as irrational, violent, intolerant and
barbaric, all of which are attributes profoundly inscribed into the racist
anti-Muslim discourse in the West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, it's a very safe bet that there will be among us those
who will readily oblige.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can guess at two additional motives, one of an immediate,
narrowly targeted nature, and the other considerably more general and
strategic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">America is hurtling towards presidential elections in which
Barak Hussein Obama is running for a second term. For large sections of the
American Christian Right (closely allied to rightwing Zionism), Obama is, if
not the anti-Christ, then at the very least a Muslim mole planted in the White
House.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For his part, Obama, from the very start of his presidency,
had set out to douse the fires of the "clash of civilizations", then
still raging curtsey of Messrs. Bush and Bin Laden, among others. An editorial
in the New York Times commenting on Obama's famous address to the Muslim world
from Cairo University, lauded him for having "steered away from the
poisonous post-9/11 clash of civilizations mythology that drove so much of
President George W. Bush’s rhetoric and disastrous policy."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To reignite "the clash" in some form serves to
bolster the American Right as a whole, the American Christian Right (which is a
mainstay of the Republican Party) in particular, while at the same time
undermining Obama, who at best had acted to bring this clash to an end, and at worst
is "a ***** Muslim" himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A much broader motivation, which does not exclude Obama as
target, is to tarnish, even to deny the very existence of an Arab Spring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Among the dramatic effects of the historic revolutionary
upsurge of the Arab world during the past two years had been a sweeping
reimaging of the Arabs in the eyes of the world at large, including the West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For nearly two decades the bête noire of the world
community, represented by vicious madmen such as Saddam and Bin Laden, or by
nasty decrepit dictators a la Mubarak, the revolutions brought forth a new and
heroic Arab, whose face is that of the wonderful young men and women of Tahrir.
So much so that Tahrir Square became an icon of democratic protest the world
over, and the Egyptian revolution provided the self-conscious symbols of
rebellion to protesters from New York to Tel Aviv.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certainly, this image had paled already, with
disappointment, even disillusionment being felt widely both at home as
overseas. With Islamists either taking over or becoming a major force in the
new political configurations in post revolutionary Arab states, pundits in
America and Europe reverted to type, proclaiming this the "Islamists
moment".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, for the most part, the Arab spring continued to get
"good press"; both the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Elnahda in
Tunisia were for the most part very favorably portrayed in the Western media,
and well liked by governments in Europe and the US.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can't claim that the film's backers had counted on a
Libyan mob actually killing American diplomats, and this in the very city that
was about to fall victim to a Gaddafi bloodbath had it not been for the
military intervention – albeit belated – of the US and Europe. Nor could they
have counted on the Egyptian police (which had just recently defended, with
customary excessive and deadly force, a Nile-side Cairo mall against peaceful
protesters), would leave the fortress that is the US embassy in Cairo easy prey
to mob attacks, even to the extent of allowing the scaling of its walls and
invasion of its grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, there is little doubt that the provocateurs had counted
on an irrational and violent reaction, and they got it, possibly beyond their
most optimistic expectations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The result is the same: the image of Arabs and Muslims as
produced by the Arab Spring is painted over with the old racist/Orientalist
brush of the clash of civilizations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The tarnishing of the Arab Spring is also yet another blow
to Obama's electoral chances. After a failed attempt to salvage the Mubarak
regime, Obama had opted, as an American friend described it, to put US policy
in the region "on the side of history", declaring in an impassioned
speech US support for the overthrow of the Egyptian dictator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, Obama's detractors can claim that his banking on the
Arab Spring was a major blunder; Muslim Arabs will be Muslim Arabs, and the
Islamist governments in post-revolution Arab states are as much enemies of
America as Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Netanyahu's Israel, of course, is the greatest beneficiary
of all this. Whether the film is a Mossad operation or not is beside the point;
and such a claim cannot be made on the basis of conjecture, but tangible, solid
information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What may be argued with full confidence however is that
Netanyahu's Israel has from the very start seen the Arab spring as a direct
threat, claimed – even as the millions of protesters in Tahrir were chanting
for freedom and equality – that these were Islamist, ultimately anti-Western
revolutions bent on Israel's destruction, and exerted intense pressure on the
American administration to save Mubarak's regime by any means possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for the image of Arabs and Muslims as fanatical, violent
and irrational, that – it almost goes without saying – is a fundamental premise
of Israel's continuing enslavement and dispossession of the Palestinian people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But what about our side of the squalid equation?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A well known Arab proverb says that "the faithful will
not be bitten from the same snake pit twice", and presumably when someone
sets you the same trap over and over again, you will have learned to avoid it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certainly, there are political and ideological forces in our
midst for whom ignorance, stupidity and bigotry are mother's milk, which tends
to render experience, however repeated, relatively ineffectual.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(I've been trying to explain to some of my overheated
contacts on facebook and twitter that there is a thing in the US Constitution
called the First Amendment, which makes freedom of expression - however
repugnant what's being expressed - practically sacrosanct. Indeed, America's
founding fathers made freedom of expression considerably more sacred than any
of the sacred religious beliefs held by Americans themselves.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hate to say that,
for many, such arguments fell on deaf ears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But it is my contention here as well that the real
motivation behind what on the surface appears an irrational, indeed stupid and
self-defeating reaction, is in fact quite rational, goal oriented and, for its
culprits, highly advantageous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Again, here we have to maneuver between the very broad and
strategic, on one hand, and the immediate and narrowly targeted on the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the broadest sense, there are forces in the Arab and
Muslim worlds whose very reason for existence is the assumption of a clash of
civilizations, an eternal and ongoing battle between the faithful and the
infidels allegedly bent on their destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">More concretely, however, the Arab revolutions, especially
the Egyptian revolution, had shown in glaring and magnificent ways that
millions among us - the most courageous, noble, politically aware and
self-sacrificing among us - march to the beat of a wholly different drummer.
They spoke of freedom, democracy and fundamental human rights, they spoke of
brotherhood and equality, and shoulder to shoulder they battled with tremendous
heroism, men and women, Muslims and Christians and atheists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, no sooner had Mubarak been overthrown than the process
of undermining these ideals had begun, ideals which I'd come to call the
"Tahrir platform", while a friend of mine of a more scholarly bent,
informed me recently that she called them the"Tahrir narrative".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Religion, and in particular the manipulation of
anti-Christian bigotry ("the clash" has had a local anti-Coptic
dimension for many years) was taken up soon after 11 February 2011 as a favored
tool of attacking, even voiding the Egyptian revolution. Anti-Coptic pogroms,
in which Islamist extremists, Mubarak's state security police, as well as the
latter's network of thugs happily joined hands to lead the usual mobs of the
most backward and ignorant among the population to attack Coptic homes, businesses
and houses of worship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even the ruling military, backed by its media flunkies,
tried its hands at playing the anti-Christian bigotry card. Chomping at the bit
to deliver a devastating blow to the ongoing revolutionary energy on the
Egyptian street, the ruling Supreme Military Council found what it thought was
the ideal opportunity in an October 2011 Coptic protest (triggered by one of
the mini pogroms mentioned above). The protesters who, joined by many Muslim
supporters, gathered before the state TV building in downtown Cairo were
subjected to a massacre unprecedented since the first days of the Egyptian
revolution, leaving some 30 dead, and several hundred badly injured.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And as the tanks and armoured trucks and gun slinging
soldiers and thugs were murdering protesters by the dozen, Egyptian state TV
was calling on Muslims in their homes to rise to defend the heroic Egyptian
army against Coptic attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To the military mind, making an example of the Copts,
couched in sectarian terms, would be more easy to get away with, while at the
same time serving to show the extent of viciousness of which they were capable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which brings to mind the bewildering failure of the Egyptian
police to provide any protection to the US embassy in Cairo. Was this failure
merely an expression of the ineptitude of a demoralized and shattered police
force, was it the result of intimidation by the religious frenzy unleashed by
the film, or was it yet another example of the dirty tricks this half rogue
body has been engaging in persistently since the revolution?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for the Salafists, Jihadists and various other Islamist
extremists, the film was the answer to a prayer. Not only did it provide a
golden opportunity to strike against the revolutionary values they abhor as
atheistic Western imports, it also gave them renewed access to the nation's
political stage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having convinced themselves, along with the Muslim
Brotherhood and Western pundits, that this was "the Islamist moment",
they feel cheated by the now ruling Brotherhood, which not only grabbed the
lion's share of post-revolutionary political power, but has also – in typical
Brotherhood fashion – reneged on many of its promises to its various Islamist
allies, as indeed it did to the many non-Islamist political forces in the
country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The furore in defence of the Prophet would also serve to
undermine the rule of the reasonable, pragmatic Brotherhood, in favour of the
more radical, more regressive, tendencies within Egyptian Islamism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Striking a blow against Brotherhood-US relations is from
this perspective also tantamount to delivering an effective blow to the very
foundations upon which the Brotherhood is able to maintain an uncontested upper
hand in the configuration of political power in the country.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For its part, the Brotherhood lacks either the imagination
or the courage to hit back. Rather, it seems to have opted for the path of
least resistance, the tried and true Mubarak regime tactic of outbidding the
radical Islamists by appearing even more radically Islamist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not surprising. The Brotherhood's behaviour since
its accession to political preeminence, first in parliament and then the
presidency, gives one the feeling that over the 30 Mubarak years the group's
leaders were not so much opposing as taking notes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And it's a free for all. Even leaders of the non-Islamist
political parties are rushing to condemn American attacks on Islam, some
calling for the severing of diplomatic ties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Reason, for the most part, has gone out the window; the
values of the revolution are being trampled underfoot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, for the time being at least, the clash of bigotries,
ignorance and stupidity is back centre stage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-81579642413456682302013-11-09T15:53:00.001+02:002013-11-23T10:42:12.460+02:00The Brotherhood, its fateful choices and safe exits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
In Sept 2012, I gave Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt a
maximum of 4 years – at the outside. Didn’t expect it would take just a year,
however <o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The Brotherhood, its fateful choices and safe exits<o:p></o:p></h2>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
It is highly unlikely that Muslim Brotherhood rule will
outlast President Morsi's four-year term; the real question is the manner of
their exit from power<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah , </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/53973.aspx" target="_blank"><em>Ahram Online</em></a><em>, Thursday 27 Sep 2012<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ruling (in a
manner of speaking) Muslim Brotherhood faces a strategic, even fateful
decision: granting that they’ll be removed from power within 4 years at the
outside, they need to make up their minds whether they’d rather bow out
gracefully or be thrown out, exit via the ballot box, or revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two outcomes are very different in their ramifications.
Pluralistic democracy assumes political parties bowing gracefully out of power;
they move from government to opposition benches, certainly regret their loss of
power and influence but enjoy the opposition’s privilege of criticizing any and
all government policies, including blaming the standing government for economic
and social flaws they themselves had contributed to making or failed to resolve.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gracefully conceding the shifts in popular moods,
inclinations and more important, in the social and political balance of forces
in the society, also allows political movements to evolve, adapt, transform
themselves. Ultimately, they get to fight another day, and have a hand at
winning political office yet again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is very different from being thrown out of power,
kicking and screaming all the way. There is almost invariably a certain
finality about such a fate, as grim and final as the degree of kicking and
screaming involved in the attempt to hold on to power. Mubarak and his NDP come
to mind, but look around you, the region and the world, today and across the
length and breadth of human history, are brimful of examples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As things stand today, it does not look like the Brotherhood
has opted decisively for any one of these two options. Their instincts,
mind-set and political training all seem to push them towards option one, yet
the pull towards option two is no less compelling, made up of their awareness
that they come to power through the agency of a popular revolution, which they
neither instigated nor led, and whose values and aspirations are at great
variance with, and often in diametric opposition to many of the 84 year old
group’s most deeply held notions and beliefs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How far the spirit of the Egyptian revolution continues to
infuse the nation and its people is not easily apparent. And certainly, it is
tempting to consign it to the dust. Many Western pundits and media have done
so, already; the recently departed but not forgotten erstwhile ruling
military’s bouts of murderous viciousness were invariably carried out under the
false impression that the revolution was over and all that was needed were mop
up operations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Brotherhood’s leadership had been operating under the
same misapprehension soon after the overthrow of Mubarak, which explains their
alliance with the military lasting almost up to the eve of presidential
elections, as well as the numerous shocks of discovering that hundreds of
thousands could still be called to the streets in their absence and in defiance
of their various condemnations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was this misapprehension also that would help cost the
Brotherhood half their voters in the 3-4 months between the parliamentary elections
and the first round of the presidential elections, their vote dropping from
around 11 million in the first poll, to some 5 million in the second.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Admittedly, things appear to have changed dramatically since
the presidential elections; Morsi’s accession to presidential power, and even
more significantly, the ignoble, sudden departure of the Supreme Military
Council, in what journalist and analyst Abdallah El-Sennawy aptly described as
“half coup, half accord”, seem to have brought a decisive end to the tumultuous
“transition”, with all its upheavals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And what with the Brotherhood gradually yet swiftly
consolidating its hold on power, extending its hegemony, very much in the style
of Mubarak’s NDP, over the various organs of the state and beyond (including a
concerted attempt to seize control of the media), feelings of despondency often
bordering on despair are being felt among the ranks of even some of the most
ardent of revolutionary youths.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet it is far too early to parrot what has become a common
refrain among much of the Western media: Arab spring turning into Islamist
winter. Indeed, if Newsweek’s regression into infantile Orientalism, with its
ludicrous “Muslim rage” cover is anything to go by, many of our western
colleagues much prefer to see us as the irrational, fanatical mobs of the
recent American embassy frenzy, than as the freedom-loving, disciplined and
heroic revolutionaries of Tahrir. After all, it makes “Western man” feel all
fuzzy inside, as he basks in the wonder that is “Western Civilization”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But let the tourism officials worry about “our image”
abroad. What concerns us here is our reality at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whether or not we have seen the last of the million man
marches and ongoing nation-wide uprisings is nearly impossible to predict.
Ultimate “black swans”, such massive upheavals have a “chaotic” logic of their
own; they can neither be made, nor anticipated with any degree of confidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet there is little doubt that just below the surface of
Muslim Brotherhood dominated political life the hum of revolutionary energy
continues to resonate across the country. The change in the authoritarian state
structure may have been little more than a change of hats; yet for millions of
Egyptian citizens, the change has been soul-deep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The values of the revolution live on in the minds and hearts
of hundreds of thousands; not for generations has Egypt seen such a wide section
of the population so politically engaged; and everywhere across the country
Egyptians now see themselves as citizens, no longer subjects, aware of their
grievances as of their rights, willing and able to organize and to fight for
these against the once fearsome ogres of power, patronage and money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The upsurge of strikes and diverse forms of industrial
action that have dogged Mohamed Morsi’s presidency from day one is ample
illustration of this, incredible in the breadth of its range and mixture of grievances,
demands, modes of protest and the staggering variety of those taking part in
them – a range so wide, it easily extends from such “classical” blue collar
industrial workers as the textile workers of Mahalla to white collar teachers
and university employees, way across the social spectrum to the privileged
students of the American University in Cairo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take also last week’s remarkable graffiti backlash. The
government moves to paint over the revolutionary graffiti of the main battle
grounds of the Egyptian revolution in downtown Cairo. This is done with almost
theatrical swiftness and unusual efficacy and thoroughness – ostensibly
delivering a strong symbolic message: the revolution is over. Two days later,
revolutionary graffiti is back with a vengeance, and a concert is held in
Talaat Harb Square to celebrate the victory. A counter message: the revolution
lives!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I were a Muslim
Brotherhood leader I would see in this incident a signal no less ominous than
the strike wave, or the almost daily protests before the presidential palace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Young people made the Egyptian revolution; I’ve been
privileged to see them in action. They are courageous beyond imagining, heroic
beyond belief, and their love of freedom know no bounds. And not only do they
love freedom, they’ve tasted it, they’ve paid a great price for it, and they’re
not about to see it trampled under military or Muslim Brotherhood boots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Brotherhood’s governmental prospects are not merely
delimited by the continuing revolutionary spirit, however, but also by their
own rather substantial imperfections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For an octogenarian movement that presumably has been
preparing to take power at the very least for the best part of Mubarak’s
30-year reign, it’s been astounding to observe the sheer mediocrity and dearth
of imagination and talent of the new leaders of the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s pretty pathetic that the first cabinet of the first
elected president after the revolution should be made up of presumably
estimable nonentities, with hardly a single member of the 30-something
ministers, including the prime minister, having previously been known to the
public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Compare Morsi’s cabinet to the post-revolution cabinet of
Essam Sharaf, impotent as it had been, and be amazed at the contrast, the
latter having been top-full of renowned intellectual, scholarly and public
figures, many of whom widely published. In Morsi’s cabinet you’d be hard
pressed to unearth a single coherent public statement, let alone article or
book among the lot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">President Morsi’s first 100-day programme is remarkable only
for its utterly pedestrian nature, as if the Brotherhood leaders who put it
together were randomly picking issues out of a hat. Bringing an end to traffic
congestion within three months is to my mind the starkest example not only of
the sheer randomness of the plan, but of its fictitious character, as if those
who put it together had not the least intention of fulfilling their promises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, we’re nearly a couple of weeks short of the first 100
days and traffic is worse than ever. And for the rest: Morsi had promised to
resolve the problems of lack of security, garbage collection, and shortages of
fuel and subsidized bread. The country’s poor quarters continue to be inundated
with garbage, but hey, take a walk through the upper class district of Zamalek
and discover that wading through strewn garbage has become an Egyptian way of
life. And not only has there been no improvement in the availability of
subsidized bread and fuel, but plans to introduce new and drastic cuts<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in subsidies loom large on the horizon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">(Presumably, Morsi’s 100-day programme was put together by
the best minds of the Brotherhood; I urge readers to compare it to the
alternative 100-day plan suggested in Ahram Online by my friend and colleague,
Salma Hussein who, while admittedly extremely talented, had only her own brain
and knowledge to rely on.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the
restoration of security, what we’ve seen hitherto are police raids on street
vendors, which moreover are proving ineffectual, with the vendors brutally
removed, only to return a couple of days later. Add to which the random
appearance of police check points on city roads and highways, which while of
highly dubious efficacy in heightened security tend to exacerbate another item
on the 100-day promise list, notably traffic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fact, the fundamental source of the lack of domestic
security lies in an area which the ruling Brotherhood is determinedly unwilling
to recognize, let alone deal with. And this is nothing less than radically
reforming, in the sense of totally overhauling, the domestic security
structure, i.e. the Interior Ministry and its two or three
hundred-thousand-strong police force. Here we have a state body responsible for
countless crimes against the Egyptian people, before, during and since the
revolution. It is an extra-legal force that has killed thousands, humiliated,
tortured and detained hundreds of thousands, all outside the law, and in
flagrant violation of the law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is moreover a crooked, half rogue body, steeped in
corruption and overseeing a virtual army of thugs and outlaws, which we’ve seen
deployed for subversion (including instigating and taking part in mini-pogroms
against Copts), murderous attacks on protesters and, why not, profit. It’s been
widely claimed that the wave of ancient Egyptian artifact robberies that were
conducted after the revolution were made by the security personnel assigned to
protect them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This body has yet to be touched. The military, with not a
whimper of protest from their then Brotherhood allies, had charged this very
body with investigating its own crimes, with the complicity of the concerned
Mubarak formed prosecution bodies. So it was no surprise that, save for a
six-year sentence for a low ranking provincial policeman charged with the
killing of a dozen people, no one has been punished for the televised and video
documented murder of hundreds, maiming and blinding of thousands, let alone for
the previous 30 years of torture and extra-judicial killings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As in the state-owned media, the Brotherhood’s policy is to
seize control rather than to reform. They’re fine with a lawless law-enforcement
body so long as it is willing to do their bidding; they seem to even be willing
to turn a blind eye both with regards to seeking retribution for past crimes
against their own members, and to whatever present and future crimes that body,
vampire like, deems necessary for its survival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is however on the social front that Brotherhood rule is
destined to fall on its face, practically guaranteeing that their political
mastery won’t outlast Morsi’s four-year term. The Egyptian Revolution was waged
under the banner: Bread, Freedom, Social Justice. The social lies at the heart
of the new political energy permeating Egyptian society since January 2011,
almost inseparably tied with the struggle for freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was bound to be
so, if only as reflection of the fundamental nature of the oligarchic, crony
capitalist regime that held the country in a strangle grip for decades; a
regime where money and political power were so intimately tied, and in which
billionaire capitalist bureaucrats and bureaucrat capitalists, all happily lay
in bed together, saw the nation as their private estate, and safeguarded their
plunder via a highly sophisticated and intricate system of selective
repression, whereby the middle classes were to be intimidated, bribed,
contained and occasionally smacked, while a war of terror was waged, daily,
albeit silently, against the poor and dispossessed, the great majority of the
people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pity then that the Brotherhood, brought to power thanks to
that revolution, if not as an expression of its conscious agency, is for all
practical purposes at one with the erstwhile ruling NDP on economic and social
policy. Their leaders, not least the president, spout neo-liberal dogma with as
much ease a Mubarak père, Mubarak fils, and the defunct regime’s once golden
child, a no-neck monster called Ahmed Ezz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In his last TV interview, the Brotherhood’s President Morsi,
who’s been growing more presidential by the day, came across as perhaps a
kinder Hosni Mubarak, but a Hosni Mubarak nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Expressing his sympathy for the plight of the impoverished
majority of his “beloved” flock, Morsi, who often sounds like a protestant
pastor, parroted his predecessor: raising wages in the absence of real growth
means printing money, which means inflation, which in turn means that wage
rises will be eaten away, and growth stifled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s back to “patience” then, the catchphrase of the Muslim
Brotherhood’s economic and social policies since their accession to power, as
it had been of Mubarak and his gang until the very eve of their removal from
power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s is the “wait for growth” argument: we need to stimulate
foreign and domestic investment (basically by keeping you at starvation wages -
ostensibly our “comparative advantage”), and once the desired high growth rates
are achieved (when and how high is never stated), the magical, mythical,
faith-based (since we’ve never really seen it happen) trickle-down effect will
have an effect, and we’ll all be one great happy prosperous family, under the
watchful benevolent eyes of the father of the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The “wait for growth” argument was also reiterated by the
president with respect to the provision of basic services, including health and
education. Unlike Mubarak who would harangue the Egyptian people for having too
many children, Morsi was effusive in his sympathy and understanding, giving
little mini promises of rapid improvement here and there; yet his most
fundamental refrain was: patience, wait for growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This argument has been shown for the patent nonsense it
always was, to all who are not firm followers of the IMF religion. In an
economy whose fundamental feature is a massive gap between wealth and poverty,
raising wages, no less than the provision of decent health services and
education to the poor, shifts the distribution of wealth from the insatiable
minority of super rich (what can one family do with 4 or 5 summer villas, for
God’s sake?) to the majority of a population struggling feverishly to make ends
meet, with a great many failing to do even that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, in fact, a distributive economic and social policy is
an engine of growth, much more reliable in this regard than trying to attract
foreign investment by the “comparative advantage” of a labour force hovering
just above starvation levels, and having little or no real access to half-way
decent health and education, let alone recreation. (They can of course take
solace in President Morsi’s calming interviews and speeches, laden with
appropriate quotes from the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We might refer here to a very recent report issued by the
UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which was
passed on to me by my friend and colleague, Fouad Mansour, Ahram Online’s
managing editor and a very talented economic journalist in his own right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The report, issued on 12 September, is summed up in a news
release as focusing on “the trend towards widening income inequality that has
prevailed within and between most countries since the 1980s.” It goes on to
declare its opposition to “the view that growing income gaps are a necessary
byproduct of increased economic efficiency and globalization. It says instead
that greater inequality limits nations’ potentials for growth by reducing
demand and investment.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The report’s summary underlines the following three
findings:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">•“Austerity did not lead to growth: supportive government
policies are still needed;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">•“Rising inequality is not inevitable – and economies will
perform better with more even income distribution;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">•“Reducing inequality through fiscal and incomes policies is
key for growth and development.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Meanwhile, the Brotherhood’s leadership continues to hover
between attempting to replicate the Mubarak regime, on one hand, and yielding,
as little as possible, to the transformed political landscape of the country on
the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, there is a growing sense that, aware as they are of
the short shelf-life of their rule, they are in a scramble to grab as much
authoritarian powers as they possibly can, in order to perpetuate their regime,
very much in the Mubarak mold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What we have come to see of the new Constitution is one
indication, the battery of draft laws prepared by the infamous Interior
Ministry, designed basically to criminalize popular protest and strikes, are
another, and so are the on and off violent police clampdowns on student and
worker strike actions and various attacks on freedom of expression. The attempt
to seize control of the state-owned media, and further of the whole media
landscape in the country is yet another ominous indication of bad intentions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With only a couple of weeks to go Morsi’s first 100-day
promises have proven to be the farce they always were. On social justice, the
Brotherhood have shown themselves no less zealous adherents of the neo-liberal
doctrine than their NDP forebears, and removals of subsidies on basic goods
loom large on the horizon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Civil liberties is where it all hangs. They’re the sole
guarantee that today’s minority may be tomorrow’s majority, and that the
competition for elected office is played on a relatively even field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Attack civil liberties and you’ll be booted out of office,
possibly never to return; show them some respect and you may in turn be shown
the door nicely, with the full opportunity to fight another day, and why not,
to change, learn, adapt and even transform yourself.</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-6636360553919247952013-11-07T09:21:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:42:31.552+02:00The Brotherhood and I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<em>When I still had hopes the people's resistance might re-educate the ruling Muslim Brotherhood</em></h4>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
</h2>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The Brotherhood and I<o:p></o:p></h2>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
Egyptian revolutionaries and democrats should resist the
Muslim Brotherhood's authoritarian, occasionally fascistic bent, but they must
take care not to treat the Islamist group as a whole as the enemy<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah, </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/55725/Opinion/The-Brotherhood-and-I.aspx" target="_blank"><em>Ahram Online</em></a><em>, Thursday 18 Oct 2012</em></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em></em> </h4>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZG1SP7kXxAhq48HUTUwpXxsWIk9-mHMGnlYsTUFNSIbHg6phGp-0sGcZkvJhuL8yztb1ieK-9M5SYMdpU5wG0tYFAr-MnlbCOdo7dbPg2XKurloGfurjVtJz0789VaQAAzUndxvAAG9s/s1600/%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A9+%D9%85%D9%82%D9%84%D8%AF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZG1SP7kXxAhq48HUTUwpXxsWIk9-mHMGnlYsTUFNSIbHg6phGp-0sGcZkvJhuL8yztb1ieK-9M5SYMdpU5wG0tYFAr-MnlbCOdo7dbPg2XKurloGfurjVtJz0789VaQAAzUndxvAAG9s/s1600/%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A9+%D9%85%D9%82%D9%84%D8%AF.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A peaceful women's protest attacked by MB thugs. In the pic a leading Muslim Brother assaults Shahenda Maqlad, veteran fighter for peasant rights and wife of peasant martyr Salah Hussein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em><o:p></o:p></em> </h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This column has been absent for two weeks. I’d been on a
longish trip to a slice of heaven on earth, Ubud, Bali. The six-day Writers and
Readers Festival, to which I’d been invited, stretched to 11 days as I
travelled from one end of the Silk Road to the other, some 20 hours going in
and a harrowing 30-hour journey back, added to which, a nerve racking, if
ultimately pleasant 24 hour delay due to a ticketing mishap. (The festival’s
organizer, the wonderful Janet, kindly put me up in a charming, if wholly incongruous
in my case, Honeymoon Guesthouse.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The paradox of the great technological revolutions in the
means transport since our forefathers’ heavy caravan traffic depended on
horses, camels, dhows and basic feet is that now we have to spend more time getting
to, queuing up, being searched, unbelted and unshod, passport controlled and
otherwise harassed and abused and laid over (actually had to spend 11 hours in
Abu Dhabi) and made to walk enormous distances, all within airports, than we do
flying in giant, if suffocating jet airplanes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You look
Indonesian,” Janet told me upon our first meeting. And why not? With the Silk
Road having been around for some two millennia, it’s actually a safe bet that a
bit of Indonesian DNA had found its way into my genetic pool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Camels had been the foremost mode of transport along the
Silk Road, and it was perhaps written in the stars that I would return to the
Mother of the World to find that most bizarre event of our revolution and,
indeed, political history, the Battle of the Camel, once again featuring large
in our post-revolutionary political life. Last Friday's reenactment of that
battle, during the early days of the revolution, was dubbed by the
revolutionaries The Battle of the Sheep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fact, I had intended this article to be about the
American elections. My last article had been about the Brotherhood, and I felt
I should let off a bit on the much maligned new rulers of the nation. But more
significantly, I am deeply convinced that we, as Egyptians, Arabs and Muslim-majority
nations have a decided, even fateful stake in the forthcoming American
presidential elections; namely in Barak Obama winning a second term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In shorthand, Obama, for all his lousy realpolitik, acted
from his very first day in office to douse the fires of the turn of the
century’s most insidious and destructive doctrine, the Clash of Civilizations;
Mitt Romney, along with his band of neo-con crazies, extreme right-wing
Zionists, Bush cronies and rendition torturers, would reignite it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Brotherhood’s fascistic convulsion in downtown Cairo on
Friday forced a change of tack. Not that I subscribe to the notion that the
Brotherhood is intrinsically a fascist movement. This, I would argue, is gross
oversimplification of a profoundly complex phenomenon, which almost invariably
has pushed those who uphold it into the arms of the Mubarak dictatorship before
the revolution and the military after it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not to say that there isn’t a fascistic kernel lying
at the heart of the Brotherhood’s doctrine and practice. The scenes of violent
attacks, horrifying in their viciousness and sheer cruelty against initially
peaceful demonstrators on Friday morning were easily evocative of Hitler Youth
beating up communists and democrats, and of Mussolini’s thugs doing the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Something of a virus, this kernel could thrive or be
inhibited subject to outside influences. On Friday morning, we came very close
to a full flourish; the bungled retreat by that day’s early evening, barefaced
lies and all, saw the inhibitors working fairly effectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Still, real experience has shown us that a cure is possible.
We need only take note of the phenomenon that is presidential candidate
Abdel-Monem Abul-Fotouh; or for that matter, and to a lesser degree, that of
once deputy Supreme Guide, Mohamed Habib. There are many other examples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In my latest article some three weeks ago now, I predicted
that Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt will not outlast President Morsi’s
four-year term. Friday and its aftermath seemed to vindicate me. Yet, like it
or not, the Brotherhood itself is here to stay, and all of Egypt has a stake in
finding that cure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which at long last
brings me to the title of this piece. “The Brotherhood and I” makes for a
relationship, long on history but very short on intimacy. Let’s begin from the
end, as some story tellers are apt to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Accountability Friday I was not being beaten up, chased
and otherwise threatened with “liquidation” like so many of my friends and
compatriots, but safely ensconced before my laptop, following the dispatches of
our reporters on the (battle) ground, and occasionally expressing my personal
impressions via social media – never, I hope, confusing the two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">At one point later in the day, FJP leader Essam El-Erian
tweeted from his account, angrily slamming the torching of two Muslim
Brotherhood-hired busses parked at the edge of the square, a peculiar tweet if
only for the fact that throughout the day the Brotherhood leaders were swearing
themselves blue in the face that they had no members on the square, let alone
members actually bussed into the city centre from the provinces. What drew my
attention was not this, however; it had been the biggest joke on the social
media for hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I did find remarkable was that El-Erian, describing the
torching as a heinous crime, said that he had directed the “Legal Committee”
(presumably of the FJP) to investigate the incident and take appropriate
measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, since their accession to power, the Brothers have been
showing a decided confusion about where the group/party ends and the state
begins. I replied, very politely in fact, asking the FJP leader what he meant
by “the legal committee”, adding that I thought it was the state security
bodies that were charged with investigating crimes of any sort.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had, it seems, entered into grounds where angels fear to
tread. I had actually dared to address the leader in person. Hell’s Gates,
thankfully virtual, had opened. An outpouring of attacks, insults and threats
ensued. My regular policy on abusive and personally insulting replies on my
twitter account is never to reply but block. On this occasion, however, I was
so amused by the jittery, indeed hysterical reaction of our ruling party
members that I replied to several of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I told them that while they saw El-Erian as their leader,
and may even kiss his hands, for me El-Erian is simply an old colleague.
Brotherhood members are known to kiss the hands of the Supreme Guide, though I
am not aware whether they do the same to the FJP head, but admittedly, I was
goading them. As for El-Erian, we’d both been involved in the student movement
of the seventies, if on different sides, and knew of each other, even if we
didn’t actually associate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The replies I got for that were even more hilarious. One
proudly told me, “yes, he is our leader and not only do we kiss his hands but
we put on his shoes as well.” (I assume, or at least hope, that last bit was in
the order of rhetorical flourish). Another told me “yes he is our leader and we
don’t permit anyone to speak of him.” A third, a sister, taunted me by saying
“did you dare open your mouth under Mubarak,” but her Arabic spelling of the
slang word for “mouth” was so uniquely atrocious I was dumbfounded. (For
readers who know Arabic it was spelled “</span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">بؤك</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, I have known a different type of Brotherhood member.
During the 18-day revolution I had occasion to meet with representatives of the
Revolutionary Youth Coalition, which provided the field leadership of the
revolution across the country. You couldn’t distinguish the Brotherhood’s
youthful representatives from their leftist and democratic comrades: eloquent,
politically savvy and, like the rest of their coalition allies, spectacularly
brave.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then there is Menem. The first Muslim Brotherhood blogger,
Menem defiantly named his blog: “I am Ikhwan”, which – since the group was
banned and hounded – was sufficient cause for arrest and imprisonment. This
duly came.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had known of Menem’s blog, but coincidence brought us
together in a more direct fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’d been running a training workshop for young journalists,
which included the young trainees' pitching stories, going out and doing them,
upon which they’d be critiqued by the trainers – a normal practice in such
events. A remarkably eager veiled young woman asked, shyly and hesitantly, if
she could do a story about Menem. She had access to his family, and could visit
him in prison, posing as a relation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Naturally I encouraged her to do it, discussed it thoroughly
with her, and was keen to follow the story's progress. I could sense though
that the young journalist’s passionate involvement in the story was motivated
by a bit more than journalistic, or even political interest. My hunch proved
correct, and they are now husband and wife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Menem is no longer with the Brotherhood, yet he remains an
Islamist activist, whose critiques of the group’s leadership are as scathing,
and often considerably more informed than most critiques coming from the
non-Islamist camp.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He was injured by a stone thrown from the pro-democracy side
of the battle ground, and tweeted somewhat bitterly about this. I commiserated
with him, wished him a quick recovery, and teasingly asked him to consider the
stone as something in the nature of “friendly fire”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take as well, our own, dare I say it, brilliant contributor,
Ibrahim El-Houdaiby, the grandson of a Supreme Guide, a former member of the
Brotherhood, Ibrahim remains an Islamist activist and writer. I need say no
more about him; merely urge you to read him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a moral to the story: Yes, we should staunchly
resist the authoritarian mind set and practice of the Muslim Brotherhood’s
leadership, and yes we should relentlessly fight, and act to inhibit, their
fascistic bent. Yes, we should continue to resolutely battle in defence of each
and every one of our civil liberties, and yes we should carry on the struggle
for realizing the aims of the revolution: Bread, Freedom and Social Justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And yet, we should take great care not to fall into the trap
of looking at the whole Brotherhood or Islamist trend in Egypt as the enemy,
merely a new NDP. The Egyptian revolution has shown glaringly that the Egyptian
people have not the slightest interest in the secularist-Islamist divide, which
– in an age of the eradication of politics – was the concern of a tiny
political and ideological elite embroilled in an ultimately futile ideological
contest. For in the absence of the testing ground of politics, ideology becomes
religion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The revolution has brought back politics to our nation –
with a vengeance. And as a great old man quoted a long time ago: “Here is the
rose; here we dance.”</span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-81597846761280876062013-11-06T11:56:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:43:11.397+02:00Minerva's owl flies at dusk: A quick reading of Egypt's presidential vote<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
Minerva's owl flies at dusk: A quick reading of Egypt's
presidential vote<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>It is not a new dawn of the Muslim Brotherhood that we are witnessing, nor is it a revival of the semi-secular police state à la Mubarak &Gaddafi, but rather the twilight of both.</em></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah , <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/43096.aspx" target="_blank">Ahram Online</a>, Friday 1 Jun 2012</em></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em></em> </h4>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheOQ3ElkYXgulAAoq4gqSBY9exGu5tTVq1iccssYgYH4EQLxgLh-qdjX-WyB4x3zwdewdc3OB5SKLH2bmb1ueYZ5RZR2NbzwH2pHNF90PoXr3Eh32JrkBgvs6pclvkjNCSeQazgTK5ZKg/s1600/20a9c309-d51b-4b75-8c5f-1b207f686358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheOQ3ElkYXgulAAoq4gqSBY9exGu5tTVq1iccssYgYH4EQLxgLh-qdjX-WyB4x3zwdewdc3OB5SKLH2bmb1ueYZ5RZR2NbzwH2pHNF90PoXr3Eh32JrkBgvs6pclvkjNCSeQazgTK5ZKg/s1600/20a9c309-d51b-4b75-8c5f-1b207f686358.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em><o:p></o:p></em> </h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For many Egyptians it is the worst case scenario. Coming to
work this morning my cab driver is seething: "They're as bad as each
other, I won't be voting," he pledged, referring to the final runoff
election between the two front-runners, due to take place in mid-June. He
lamented the relatively slim-margin defeat of leftist candidate Hamdeen
Sabbahi, "he got Cairo and Alexandria and, God bless the Prophet, Port
Said."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The as yet unofficial vote count of the first round has put
the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi and the state-backed Ahmed Shafiq at the
head of the pack, with nearly a quarter of the vote each. Sabbahi came third
with a little over 20 per cent, with Islamist/liberal Abul-Fotouh trailing
fairly closely behind, also within the 20 per cent range. As expected, no
candidate was able to secure the 50 per cent-plus needed to win in the first
round.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The meteoric rise of Sabbahi to the position of a serious
contender for the presidency has been the most surprising feature of a
surprise-laden election. The final unofficial count gives Sabbahi 21.6 per cent
of the vote compared to second-placed Shafiq, with 23.7 per cent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Moreover, Sabbahi easily won the nation's two great urban
centres, Cairo and Alexandria. In Egypt's second capital, founded over two
millennia ago by Alexander the Great, Sabbahi got a whopping 34.2 per cent of
the vote, followed by Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh at 22 per cent, with moderate
candidate Amr Moussa running third at 16.5 per cent. Alexandria, long perceived
as a major Muslim Brotherhood/Salafist hotbed gave the Brotherhood's Morsi a
mere 15.3 per cent, placing him in fourth place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The spectacular Alexandria vote not only proclaimed it the
nation's foremost revolutionary city (on Twitter, euphoric activists were
sardonically calling for making Alexandria an independent republic), but also
seemed to give rather solid credence to the anti-Brotherhood, anti-Salafist
backlash, which political analysts no less than activists had noticed
increasing during the past few months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Cairo, Sabbahi again came first by a wide margin, winning
34.6 per cent of the vote, followed by Shafiq (25.9 per cent), Morsi (21.1 per
cent) and finally Abul-Fotouh (19.2 per cent).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Egypt's first free presidential election has been one huge
bag of surprises. It ran almost diametrically counter to all the opinion polls
that had been declaring results on a regular basis up to the very eve of the
polling. Not to boast, but neither I, nor most of my colleagues here at Ahram
Online, gave much credence to these polls, though we were professionally bound
to publish their results. (See Yasmine Wali's: Opinion polls: do they reflect –
or manipulate – Egyptian public opinion?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I said so on TV on the first day of voting in the
presidential election, only to receive a phone call from a friend who works in
one of the organisations conducting these polls, congratulating me. Basically,
he told me, the polls were wholly unreliable because the organisations had
"no control over the sample." As it came out, the samples used by the
various pollsters were provided by the government's statistics body, CAMPAS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One pollster, the Cabinet Decision Support Centre, was
honest enough to reveal that some 21 per cent of their sample was drawn from
the "very wealthy", and another 20-odd per cent from the
"moderately wealthy" – which to put it mildly is rather
unrepresentative of the general population in Egypt; maybe in Switzerland,
commented our business editor, chuckling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For weeks the polls had consistently placed former Arab
League secretary-general Moussa and liberal Islamist Abul-Fotouh well ahead of
all the other candidates, which was the rationale behind their being picked for
the televised debate, held jointly by a number of privately-owned Egyptian
media organisations. Ultimately, the debate proved more a curse than a
blessing, with the two presumably top candidates' under-performing,
disappointing many among their potential supporters. One tweet at the time
seemed to put it aptly: "In the debate between Moussa and Abul-Fotouh, the
winner was Hamdeen Sabbahi."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, it was Morsi's standing in the opinion polls that gave
them the lie. No one with a minimum understanding of current Egyptian reality
could be so credulous as to believe that the Muslim Brotherhood, with its huge
political and social network, and incomparable organisational experience and
skill, could fail to garner for its candidate anything but the measly
percentages the polls were coming up with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nevertheless, if Morsi's rise to the forefront was
predictable, the retreat of the two poll favourites, Moussa and Abul-Fotouh was
indeed surprising. This was particularly stunning in Moussa's case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The Amr Moussa surprise<o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As Egypt's foreign minister (1991-2001) Moussa had been
popular in his own right; associated as he had been in the minds of the
Egyptian and Arab publics with a firm posture towards Israel, standing up for
Egyptian and Arab dignity at a time when abject capitulation seemed the order
of the day. It was Moussa who rained on the Oslo parade by bringing to the top
of the Arab-Israeli peace agenda the issue of Israel's nuclear stockpile; it
was Moussa as well who spoiled the Israel-Arab love-fest in the form of Middle
East North Africa (MENA) economic integration meetings. He famously issued a
call to Arabs to stop "scrambling" to normalise relations with
Israel, earning him a popular, if rather vulgar song: "I love Amr Moussa,
and hate Israel."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was this popularity, many believe, that convinced Mubarak
the time had come to give Moussa "a kick upstairs", nominating him to
general Arab acclaim as Arab League secretary general. There, Moussa
furthermore became increasingly vocal in advocating political reform and
democratisation in the Arab world. When the protesters occupied Tahrir Square
during the 18-day Egyptian revolution, Moussa made a point of coming out of the
Arab League headquarters at the south west edge of the square to express
solidarity with the massed protesters and engage in dialogue with them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All of which seemed to make him the ideal centrist
candidate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the face of it, in Moussa the electorate had an
experienced statesman, not lacking in charisma, famous for his perfect sound
bites, moderately popular and largely free of the stigma of close involvement
in Mubarak's corrupt and sycophantic clique. For a time, Moussa seemed the
perfect choice to bring the country out of the quagmire in which the now
fractured accommodation between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood had
pushed it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Presumably, his proximity to the state would have enabled
him to deal with a military that had become accustomed to ruling directly,
while not being its creature, at the same time that his relative popularity and
statesmanship would stand him in good stead in dealing with an
Islamist-dominated parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It didn't wash. The revolutionaries insisted on describing
Moussa as feloul, or a Mubarak regime "remnant", lumping him
nonchalantly and unfairly with Shafiq. For his part, Moussa did not seem able
to make up his mind as to which vote he was appealing to, and in trying to woo
everyone he won over much fewer than he had hoped for, or indeed expected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As election-day was coming round, the "restoration of
stability" vote, which Moussa had set out to win, was clearly leaning
towards Shafiq. The word on that particular street was that Moussa was simply
"too soft". Haute bourgeois voters, especially those within or with
ties to the oligarchic crony capitalist network surrounding the Mubaraks and
their clique, were joined by sections of the urban lumpenproletariat and
impoverished peasants in seeking a "powerful" president – i.e. a
dictator – who would crush the revolutionary rabble-rousers and bring the
Muslim Brotherhood to heel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ultimately, and despite Moussa's appeals to this
constituency, they went over to Shafiq en masse. Meanwhile, these very appeals
lost him considerable goodwill – not so much from amongst the bulk of the
revolutionaries, who didn't support him to start with – but among what proved
to be a substantial section of the electorate who supported the revolutionary
ideals, hated the Mubarak regime, and dreaded to see Islamists taking over the
executive power, after having won overwhelming dominance of the legislature.
Many of these went over to Sabbahi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The shock of Shafiq<o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Further, it seems that at least a section of the Coptic
Christian vote turned from Moussa, who had counted on it, to Shafiq. Since
voting day, Egyptian Copts have been the object of virulent attacks from
liberals and revolutionaries, who are putting Shafiq's win at the doors of the
country's Christians, accusing them of having allegedly "betrayed"
the revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It may be true that among certain Coptic circles the
"too soft" label attached to Moussa seemed to have had considerable
credence, not so much out of fear of the continuing instability blamed on the
revolutionaries but of the Islamists, who appeared bent on seizing control of
the whole country, wholly Islamising it, and even reviving the Islamic
Caliphate. A military-backed Shafiq, some among the Coptic upper classes had
been arguing, was sufficiently tough enough and strong enough to push back an
Islamist takeover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">How large a section of the country's Christian minority,
estimated at over 10 million, actually went over to Shafiq is practically
impossible to ascertain. However, the numbers certainly do not support the
contention that Shafiq came in second place thanks to the "Coptic
vote". In fact, the bulk of Shaifq's votes came from rural-dominated
provinces, such as Menoufiya in the Delta, which is virtually free of Copts.
And while it goes without saying that Abul-Fotouh, who was supported by many
liberals and even leftists, did not garner many Coptic votes, there is little doubt
that a great many Copts voted for Sabbahi. One glaring example has been Cairo's
garbage collectors, the famedzabaleen, who were happy to tell anyone who cared
to ask that they were solidly behind Sabbahi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To my mind, rushing to blame the Copts for the Shafiq vote
is much more an indication of the perhaps tiny grains of bigotry that seem to
lie just under the skin of a great many liberals, even leftist Egyptian
Muslims. African Americans perhaps can easily recognise such a phenomenon, as
much as European Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The fundamental explanation for Shafiq's 23.7 per cent of
the vote lies in the incontrovertible fact that the full machinery of the
Egyptian state was most thoroughly and with remarkable efficiency mobilised
behind him. The role that this machinery and network could play in even a
rigging-free election was greatly underestimated. Parliamentary elections,
which concluded last January, had defied predictions that the feloul, or
remnants of the old regime, would grab at least a third of the parliamentary
seats. Instead, the results seemed to indicate the ignoble collapse of the
former ruling party's network and ability to mobilise the state machinery in
its service.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The presidential elections showed that this network was
alive and well, and that, provided with intelligent planning and strong
leadership from the masters of the state, represented by the military and
intelligence bodies, the machinery of state and the network of political and
business interests tied to it could be whipped into shape, to great effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It should be pointed out here that Mubarak's ruling National
Democratic Party was never a political party in any real sense of the word.
Rather, it was a giant network of state patronage, in which the intermarriage
of money and power, businessmen and bureaucrats at the very top is replicated
down to the remotest hamlet in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why this network, doubtlessly knocked down and bleeding at
the revolution's hands, was so ably put to work in the presidential election,
though it had seemed to collapse in the parliamentary elections a few months
earlier, is open to a number of interpretations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is of course the time element. The network needed time
to heal, as well as a deliberate well organised effort to repair as much as
possible of what was broken. Above all it required that the profound cleavages
within the corpus of the Egyptian authoritarian state caused by the revolution
should be reconciled. All of this needed time, political will and the
deployment of highly proficient organisational capacity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This process of revival and repair of the <i>ancien regime</i>
under the new conditions produced by the revolution had been going on, with
fits and starts, since the ouster of Mubarak on 11 February. It is not
farfetched, however, to presume that the collapse of the concord between the
SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood over the past few months was a major incentive
to all parties of the Mubarak state and its patronage network to close ranks,
follow orders and get the machinery linking the two running as smoothly as
possible – ergo: Shafiq's second place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Only the above can explain a winning vote for a former
regime figure, who was handpicked as prime minister by ousted president Mubarak
in the last weeks of his reign, who in that capacity oversaw the infamous
"Battle of the Camel", who is susceptible to a host of corruption
charges, and whose public persona is that of a verbally challenged yet
aggressive and vengeful tyrant in waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet Shafiq's 23 per cent is not a sterling result by any
means, considering that that's the best that can be done by a decades-old
authoritarian state, run by the military, the intelligence and security
services and able to mobilise and put into motion a huge machinery made up of
the state bureaucracy and repressive machinery, as well as the extensive
network interlinking that machinery with local bosses and dignitaries spread
across the nation including anything from tribal chieftains, village heads to
billionaire industrialists and mangers of state economic enterprises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The paradox applies as well to the election's main winner
and possibly Egypt's next president, the Brotherhood Mohamed Morsi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is, in fact, the great paradox of Egypt's post-revolution
presidential election, wherein a close look at the results reveals the two
front-runners– of whom one will most likely become Egypt's president – as
losers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is obvious in the case of Shafiq – a throwback to a
regime against which millions of Egyptians fought valiantly, giving over a
thousand lives, and thousands more in lost eyes and limbs to bring down, does
not make for a promising political career. His 23 per cent, as pointed out
above, reflect the optimum capacity of that revolution battered authoritarian
regime; it's all downhill from here in on. Short, that is, of a Pinochet-style
coup d'état, in which thousands are killed, detained and disappeared. A highly
unlikely event.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The Brotherhood: the harder they fall<o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The paradox may not be as stark in the case of the Muslim
Brotherhood's Morsi, but is no less true for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here again we have a huge, experienced, well-oiled and
lavishly-financed machine being fully mobilised and most expertly deployed.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Brotherhood, moreover, oversees its own huge patronage
network, made up not only of charities and thousands of mosque-attached basic
services, including health and education, but also extensive businesses which
give employment to tens of thousands across the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Such a network could only be massively bolstered by the
Brotherhood's parliamentary triumph, which gave it 47 per cent of the People's
Assembly seats (235).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Patronage, it might be noted, has been the fundamental, one
is tempted to say only, function of the Egyptian parliament for decades.
Presumably, the new post-revolution parliament would eventually come to perform
more of the political functions that legislatures are supposed to do, yet for a
great section of the public no less than for a great many of their deputies,
patronage remains paramount; an MP is expected to use his access to the state
to deliver state favours to his constituents, whether individually or in
groups, to each according to his means, to rephrase a famous axiom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliament, its
failings no less than the constraints it has been working under, is the subject
of another enquiry. What I'm drawing attention to here is that the
Brotherhood's overwhelming presence in parliament should have given a
substantial boost to the group's presidential campaign. This is especially
true, since the Brothers and their Salafist on-off allies decided to suspend
parliamentary sessions in order to allow MPs to go back to their constituencies
to campaign for their presidential candidate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So despite what the polls were saying, everything seemed to
be going for the Brotherhood, and certainly, their candidate came in first
place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, let's stop awhile here. The Brotherhood's, or Freedom
and Justice Party's Morsi got a little over five million votes; the group had
garnered somewhere around 10 million votes in parliamentary elections a mere
few months before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even while conceding that the difference in voting patterns
between parliamentary and presidential elections may account for some decline
in voter support, a 50 per cent drop in a mere 3 or 4 months is simply too
staggering to explain away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
The revolutionary alternative<o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is supported by the evidence of our own eyes and ears.
I was stunned during the past weeks by the level of hostility to the
Brotherhood that one seemed to encounter everywhere he went, so much so that I
began to get the sense of an anti-Muslim Brotherhood anti-Salafist backlash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was born out by the numbers, which saw Sabbahi well
ahead in almost all major urban centres in the country, including its first and
second capitals, Cairo and Alexandria, and the city that gave brith to the
Egyptian revolution, Suez.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take also such cases as that of the densely populated and
horribly destitute Cairo district of Imbaba. During the 90s of the last
century, Imbaba had come under the sway of the militant Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya to
such an extent that it was widely named the Islamic Republic of Imbaba. When
the police finally, and with predictably tremendous viciousness, crushed the
Gamaa by the end of that decade, it was natural for the district to be
inherited by the Brotherhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Imbaba results in the first round of the post-revolution
presidential elections in 2012 had Sabbahi in first place (32.2 per cent)
followed by: Shafiq (23.2 per cent); Morsi (18.3 per cent); Abul-Fotouh (14.7
per cent). All of which seems to support that not only was the Muslim
Brotherhood's support waning, but that in fact there was something of a
backlash against the group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which seems to explain yet another surprising result of this
election. Abul-Fotouh, who the polls had running neck and neck for first place
with Moussa, dropped to fourth place in the actual results, following Sabbahi
who came third.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it happens, Abul-Fotouh
seems to have been tarred with the same brush as Moussa, his TV debate
counterpart. Here too we have a case of a candidate trying to appeal to
everyone, losing him the trust of many.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even before his expulsion from the Muslim Brotherhood,
Abul-Fotouh had associated himself with the revolution and its ideals from the
very beginning. Under his presidential campaign banner, he was able to gather a
kind of "rainbow coalition", made up of Islamists, liberals and even
leftists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet just as Moussa tried to appeal to both the revolutionary
and counter-revolutionary constituencies, Abul-Fotouh spoke to liberals and
democrats from one side of his mouth, and to Salafists and conservative
Islamists from the other. In his televised debate with Moussa he kept repeating
that he stood not for the application of the "principles" of sharia,
as Moussa was suggesting, but its "totality", whatever that means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was also announced, following meetings between him and
Salafist leaders, that the latter would support Abul-Fotouh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All of which seemed to impeach the pro-revolutionary
Islamist's democratic and liberal credentials, pushing many of his initial
supporters to jump ship, going over to the Sabbahi camp, and scaring away many
more undecided.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In much of urban Egypt the word on the street was "we
want neither feloul (Mubarak regime remnants) nor Muslim Brothers"; you
came up against it everywhere. It was that for a great many Egyptians – some 40
per cent of the electorate – their worst nightmare became reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Having stunned themselves and the world by staging a great
revolution, at enormous sacrifice, many Egyptians felt there were back in
square one, the very square which their despised deposed president used to
taunt them for 30 years: "it's me or the Muslim Brotherhood."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, and this for the first time in our history, we can with
a fair degree of confidence say that while a quarter of us want the Brotherhood
and another quarter want restoration, nearly half of us want the revolution
realised; not at all a bad place from which to start putting that revolutionary
house in order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">"Minerva's owl flies at dusk." The metaphor was
used by Hegel in the preface to his Philosophy of Right to underline his
argument that a stage of human history can only be understood in retrospect, as
that stage was in its twilight. I have used it in the title of this piece in a
somewhat different sense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The electoral triumph of the Mubarak regime on one hand and
that of its no less authoritarian historical antagonist, the Brotherhood, on
the other, heralds not their ascent but their decline. It is not a new dawn of
the Muslim Brotherhood that we are witnessing, nor is it a revival of the
semi-secular police state à la Mubarak, Gaddafi et al, but rather the twilight
of both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-20056103322862097112013-11-06T09:37:00.001+02:002013-11-23T10:43:35.587+02:00Egypt: Stormy Elections Close a Turbulent Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> A blast from our (sordid) past:</o:p></span></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Egypt: Stormy Elections Close a Turbulent Year<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><em>Hani Shukralla, Dec. 2005, Arab
Reform Bulletin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace<o:p></o:p></em></span></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,BoldItalic","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6-3q9eIlOTUCdyATAwpK6dMQ2SuKjddz-FoF3m1uI_M1tUaXJ_f_yV-Ussp3RbwEURsKhn4Q1ZsQlGqxNEl4sq9hC1fwnw6oKUzYEU-7v-A3f4vN8FrvkgAZYzOAzuYSWf6Me82Tuu8/s1600/beltaguie+sorour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6-3q9eIlOTUCdyATAwpK6dMQ2SuKjddz-FoF3m1uI_M1tUaXJ_f_yV-Ussp3RbwEURsKhn4Q1ZsQlGqxNEl4sq9hC1fwnw6oKUzYEU-7v-A3f4vN8FrvkgAZYzOAzuYSWf6Me82Tuu8/s1600/beltaguie+sorour.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Law of unintended consequences: Sorour giving Beltagui a lesson in Parliament Speaker "skills" </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">The
headline of the state-owned newspaper </span><i><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Al
Ahram </span></i><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">described December 7 (the last day of voting
in Egypt's month-long, three-stage parliamentary election) as “the most violent
day” of the election. The independent daily </span><i><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Italic","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Al
Masry Al Yom </span></i><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">went a bit further. Under photos of mayhem
that could have been shot in Nablus or Ramallah, the newspaper declared that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">“Egypt
can now breathe a sigh of relief. The elections officially ended yesterday.” Its
tongue in- cheek banner read in bold letters: “Ceasefire.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">The
November 9-December 9 parliamentary elections were to have been the pinnacle of
a year during which political reform and democratization overwhelmingly topped
the nation's agenda and dominated public discourse. They have proven
anti-climactic to say the least. In terms of violence, thuggery, chaotic and
manipulated voter lists, police repression, intervention and coercion by state
bodies, flagrant vote buying and vote rigging, this year's poll rivals the
worst elections the nation has seen since the uniquely free parliamentary poll
of </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">1976.
And while ballot-stuffing has been rendered more difficult in general as a
result of </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">judicial
supervision, there have been numerous well-documented instances of the most barefaced
rigging of the results, on occasion with judicial complicity, and more often in
flagrant disregard for the judiciary, including threats of violence and actual
physical attacks on judges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">The
most prominent form of electoral misconduct this time around, however, was to
attack the electorate itself. Hired thugs, many of them absurdly wielding
swords, provided the overriding image of the 2005 poll. The evidence
overwhelmingly pointed to candidates of the ruling National Democratic Party
(NDP), including renegade members running against the official party ticket, as
the real culprits behind the rampaging thugs. Invariably, the police stood by
while the NDP-supporting thugs attacked and intimidated voters. In the later
stages of the poll, the police abandoned even the pretense of a neutral
posture. They prevented voters from casting their ballots by laying siege to
polling stations, as well as to whole villages and </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">urban
districts in which opposition (mostly Muslim Brotherhood) candidates enjoyed
strong bases of support, leading to violent confrontations between anti-riot
squads and angry opposition supporters. With at least ten dead and scores
injured, one human rights organization compared NDP and police behavior in
stage three of the election to operations </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">“Desert
Storm” and “Desert Shield” combined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">Moreover,
results of the 2005 poll underline the conclusion that the Egyptian political
system<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">is
in deep crisis. For the first time in Egyptian parliamentary history, the
outlawed Muslim<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">Brotherhood
seized 88 seats of the People's Assembly, accounting for 20 percent of a total
of<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">432
races concluded so far (polling has been postponed by judicial order in six
constituencies, accounting for the remaining 12 elected seats; President
Mubarak has appointed another ten).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">And
although the NDP has maintained its overwhelming majority in parliament, easily
crossing the two-thirds mark needed to pass constitutional amendments by
seizing 311 seats </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">(73
percent of the total), a closer look at the numbers reveals a ruling party that
seems to be coming apart at seams. In fact, the official ticket of the NDP—notwithstanding
the rigging, violence and intimidation—met with resounding failure, with 287
NDP candidates having lost their races, giving the ruling party's official
ticket a success ratio of 34 percent. The NDP only gained its majority by
reinstating renegade members who ran as independents against official party
candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">No
less serious has been the equally resounding failure of the legal, secular (or
semi-secular) opposition, with the Wafd Party winning a mere six seats, the leftist
Tagammu two, the Nasserist Karama (not yet licensed) two, and one seat to a
breakaway faction from the Ghad Party. All legal opposition party leaders
failed to win back their seats, including the Arab </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">Nasserist
Party's Diaaeddin Dawoud, Tagammu's Khaled Mohieddin and Al Ghad's Ayman </span><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">Nour.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">Is
Egypt's political future destined, then, to hang between the decaying and
crumbling semisecular authoritarianism of the NDP and the rising, and
considerably more vigorous, Islamist authoritarianism of the Muslim Brotherhood?
It is too early to tell. For the time being, however, the proverbial Cairo
spring has proved to be just as fleeting as that much sung season invariably is
in our desert-besieged valley. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;">As
2005 draws to a close, it is autumn—atthe outset of which 77-year old President
Hosni Mubarak embarked on his fifth six-year term at the nation's helm—that
seems to provide a more fitting metaphor for the paroxysms and transformations
that grip the Egyptian polity. It is in terms of decay, and not yet renewal—the
twilight of an era, rather than the advent of a new one—that the sea change in
the political life of Egypt over the past year can be made intelligible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRoman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (</span></span>Published in Dec. 2005 in the Arab Reform Bulletin,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: </em><a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/files/Shukrallah.pdf"><em>http://carnegieendowment.org/files/Shukrallah.pdf</em></a><em>)<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-38336346615692715342013-11-02T11:50:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:43:58.552+02:00خدش الأحاسيس يوقظ العقول .. أحيانـًا <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">خدش الأحاسيس يوقظ العقول .. أحيانـًا <br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #ff5a00; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.shorouknews.com/columns/hany-shokrallah"><span style="color: #ff5a00; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">هاني شكر الله </span></a>|
</span><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #8b8b8b; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">نشر فى : الجمعة 1
نوفمبر 2013 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uibXF6UOahFgHnMKZx_Y9pqUl5okFDmPIxvwqrV6FqPcB83L3GjR0rGA9PXRzg1ACswOgXuPaQgeg2vyEqXAmIdejqEeWDEIs7ghcg5gE36YkC00VeCIFVCdlSDN0h59dU0G2tdsvAY/s1600/bassem+youssef.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-uibXF6UOahFgHnMKZx_Y9pqUl5okFDmPIxvwqrV6FqPcB83L3GjR0rGA9PXRzg1ACswOgXuPaQgeg2vyEqXAmIdejqEeWDEIs7ghcg5gE36YkC00VeCIFVCdlSDN0h59dU0G2tdsvAY/s1600/bassem+youssef.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #8b8b8b; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span> </h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="background: white; direction: rtl; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: black; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-ansi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">لست متابعا جيدا للسينما المصرية، ولا للمسلسلات التليفزيونية،
وفاتتنى مسلسلات شهر رمضان هذا العام وعلمت آسفا أن بعضها كان ممتازا، وكانت
أمسياتى خلال الشهر المعظم حائرة بين حمى رابعة (من خلال الجزيرة مباشر، والعياذ
بالله) وحمى التوك شو على بقية القنوات ــ والعياذ بالله. بل ولعل آخر مسلسل تابعت
أكثر حلقاته كان «ليالى الحلمية» لأسامة أنور عكاشة ــ منذ سنوات ممدودات.</span></b><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ليس هذا كرها فى
السينما أو الدراما (مسرحا أو تليفزيونا) ولكن حبا لها، وهو ما يجعلنى أكتفى
بمشاهدة انتاج نخبة محدودة من السينمائيين المصريين الرائعين، أما الدراما
التليفزيونية فأعترف أن كلا من نمط حياتى وسنى لم تعد تسمح بمتابعة حلقة يومية تلو
أخرى على مدى شهر كامل أو أكثر.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">أقول هذا تفسيرا لعدم
تعرفى على اسم إحدى «الفنانات» قرأت مؤخرا انها شنت هجوما تويتريا عاصفا على باسم
يوسف، متهمة إياه بإيذاء مشاعرها وبخدش حياءها بل وحياء الشعب المصرى (الشرقى)
بأكمله، ومتوعدة برفع دعوى قضائية ضده مطالبة بمنع بث برنامجه «البرنامج».<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">عموما، أعانى منذ
الشباب ــ وليس بفعل السن ــ من ضعف شديد فى تذكر الأسماء، فما كان منى عند قراءة
الخبر إلا أن لجأت إلى خاصية البحث عند جوجل لعلى أتعرف عليها. ما ظهر على صفحة
جوجل من صور للفنانة المذكورة لم يستدع لذاكرتى فيلما أو حتى لقطة من فيلم، أستدعى
عبدالرحمن الجبرتى وتاريخه فى «عجائب الاثار فى التراجم والاخبار»، لتطرأ على ذهنى
عباراته الخالدة عن نزول قنبر (أى قنابل) بونابرتة (أى نابليون بونابرت) على
المصريين إبان ثورة القاهرة الكبرى (1798) «ولم يكونوا فى عمرهم عاينوه» فنادوا
«يا سلام من هذه الآلام، يا خفى الألطاف نجنا مما نخاف». كما تبينت، لم أكن قد
«عاينت» الفنانة من قبل، ولكن ما أن شاهدت صورها تنزل واحدة تلو الأخرى على صفحة
الكمبيوتر حتى وجدتنى أصيح بدورى: يا خفى الألطاف نجنا مما نخاف».<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•••<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">أقر وأعترف بأننى منحاز
شديد الانحياز لباسم يوسف الذى عددته منذ أيام إطلالته الأولى علينا (من خلال
اليوتيوب) من انجازات الثورة المصرية، يجسد ببراعة فذة ومعرفة متسعة وذكاء حاد
وخفة دم مذهلة روحها المتمردة، بل والروح الساخرة والضاحكة فى أحلك اللحظات للشعب
المصرى والثقافة المصرية تحفل بالمتناقضات والتنوع والثراء ولكن تسرى فى جنباتها
السخرية أداة وسلاحا لتحمل الظلم وللتكيف معه وللتمرد عليه. هل ننسى لافتات
المعتصمين فى التحرير خلال الثمانية عشر يوما الخالدة: شاب أشعث الشعر يرفع لافتة
تقول «هاتمشى هاتمشى، إنجز عشان أحلق»، رجل يحمل طفله على كتفيه ولافتة تقول «ارحل
كتفى وجعنى»، لافتة أخرى تنادى «ارحل الولية عاوزه تولد والولد مش عايز يشوفك»،
وأخرى «طبيب أسنان: جاى أخلع مبارك»، ثم وفى يوم الرحيل يرفع شابا لافتة تقول
«ارجع يا ريس، كنا بنهزر معاك» ممهورة بتوقيع «الكاميرا الخفية». سقط المئات وأصيب
الآلاف، والمستقبل غامض واتهامات «الأجندات» و«الكنتاكى» تنهال من المسئولين
ويرددها إعلاميو السلطة و«فنانوها»، ومع ذلك يبقى الضحك وتبقى السخرية أسلحة
للتحمل وللمقاومة وللثورة. ولن أنسى ما حييت مشهد شاب ثائر ينظر ضاحكا إلى كاميرا
موبايل أحد زملائه والدماء تسيل من عينه وقد «اصطادها» واحد من «صيادى عيون»
الداخلية فى شارع محمد محمود فى نوفمبر 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•••<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">عشقنا عبدالناصر وكنا
مع ذلك نردد النكات عليه وعلى حكمه ونضحك لها (أول مظاهرة شاركت فيها وكنت فى
الرابعة عشرة من عمرى، فى الصف الأول الثانوى فى مدرسة النقراشى النموذجية، خرجنا
نهتف: «ناصر، ناصر، ناصر، ناصر ولا بديل لعبدالناصر» ــ وكان ذلك بالمناسبة عام
1964). فى أعقاب هزيمة يونيو 67 كانت قلوبنا تدمى، ونردد فى الوقت نفسه عشرات
النكات تقطر مرارة ونضحك لها مع ذلك، ونعم كانت النكات فى أكثرها على جيشنا
المصرى، وقليل منا من ليس له فيه ضابط أو جندى، شهيد أو أسير. بل ومن المفارقات
المثيرة للدهشة عند الوهلة الأولى أن سنوات مبارك الكؤود ندرت فيها النكات، وكنا
كمصريين نحار فى الملتقيات العربية حين نواجه بسؤال الأشقاء العرب عن «آخر نكتة»
ــ وهو عادة السؤال الأول عند لقائهم بمصرى، فنردد نكات قديمة، كثير منها ظهر فى
وقت عبدالناصر أو السادات وتم تحويره ليناسب الرئيس الحاصل على الدكتوراه فى
البلادة. ثم تجىء الثورة فى 25 يناير لتنطلق معها ثورة فى السخرية. فالسخرية عندنا
ــ من حكامنا ومن أوضاعنا ومن أنفسنا ــ علامة حياة وحيوية كان من الطبيعى أن
تنزوى حتى كادت تزول فى سنوات الغيبوبة المباركية.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ولكن دعنا نتوقف قليلا
عند مسألة «خدش الأحاسيس» هذه وقد باتت سخفا ممجوجا مللنا تكراره ــ تحت مبارك
وطنطاوى ومرسى واليوم بدعوى الزود عن الفريق عبدالفتاح السيسى. بل وليس غريبا أن
كثيرا من الشخوص (إعلاميين وفنانين وسياسيين ومسئولين) الذين تعرضت مشاعرهم
للإيذاء حبا فى السيسى هم أنفسهم الذين أذيت مشاعرهم حبا فى مبارك ثم طنطاوى ثم
مرسى. ودعنا نقولها صراحة وبلا مواراة: لا توجد فكرة عظيمة أو مهمة فى تاريخ
الانسانية لم تبدأ بخدش الأحاسيس وإيذاء المشاعر.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">هل لدى أى منا شك فى أن
محمدا حين بدأ دعوته بوحى من الله لم يؤذ مشاعر قوم قريش الذين جلبوا على عبادة
اللات ومناة والعزى؟ الإجابة فى كلمات الله فى قرآنه الكريم نفسه. ألم يؤذ المسيح
مشاعر القسم الأكبر من يهود فلسطين؟ وماذا عن يوحنا المعمدان، المبشر بقدوم
المسيح، وكان يخاطب الناس بـ«يا أولاد الأفاعى»؟<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ولكن دعنا نبتعد عن
المقدس (وحتى لا يتهمنى أحدهم ــ عن غباء معهود من البعض ــ بمقارنة باسم يوسف
بأنبياء الله، والعياذ بالله). ألم يؤذ جاليليو جاليلى مشاعر أغلب الكاثوليك فى
زمنه حين قال بدوران الأرض حول الشمس وليس العكس، وكانت مركزية الأرض فى الكون من
صميم عقيدتهم ووجدانهم.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">•••<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">عام 2009 وفى اطار
المنافسة على الدخول إلى كأس العالم لكرة القدم بدت مصر وقد أصيبت بلوثة عملت
أجهزة الدولة المباركية وتوابعها من إعلاميين و«فنانين» بهمة غير معهودة على
إذكائها وإضرام نيرانها، وذلك فى حملة محمومة من السباب العنصرى ضد الشعب الجزائرى
الشقيق. كتبت وقتها مقالين متتالين على صفحات «الشروق» بدأت الأول بتحذير القراء
بأن ما سيلى ربما يؤذى مشاعرهم، أما المقال الثانى فبدأته بقولى: «..أكتب اليوم لا
لأحذر ولكن لأقرر بأن الهدف الأساسى من السطور التالية هو إيذاء مشاعر أكبر قدر
ممكن من القراء، لعل فى جرح المشاعر ما قد يسهم ولو بأقل القليل فى إنقاذ العقول».<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">قصص إيذاء المشاعر وخدش
الأحاسيس والتعريض بهيبة الدولة وبهيبة مؤسساتها إن كانت تنم عن شىء فهى تنم
(والمعذرة للإمعان فى إيذاء مشاعر البعض) عن نفسية عبيد. أما المشروع السياسى القابع
فى خلفية المشاعر المخدوشة فهو مشروع لإجهاض الثورة المصرية ورسالتها الهادفة
للحرية والديمقراطية والعدالة الاجتماعية، وإعادة بناء نظام استبدادى يحط من كرامة
المواطن المصرى ويعيد المصريين إلى حيث كانوا: رعايا لا مواطنين.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">أشك كثيرا فى أنهم
سينجحون فى مسعاهم هذا، بل إن أغلب ظنى أن المرشح لأن يكون ديكتاتورا جديدا لا
يرغب فى المنصب أو يتطلع إليه. لقد سبق السيف العذل يا سادة ويا فنانات، الشعب
المصرى بعد 25 يناير 2011 غيره قبلها.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">كلمة أخيرة عن
الإيحاءات الجنسية: الإيحاء بحكم التعريف يتوقف على الموحى له، فلا يفهمه على ذلك
النحو إلا من سبق له أن «عاين» ما يوحى به.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span dir="LTR"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
نشرت في جريدة <a href="http://www.shorouknews.com/columns/view.aspx?cdate=01112013&id=470f0b98-0d34-4b5f-ba17-226fdf98db62#.UnNbKp6vycI.facebook" target="_blank">الشروق</a> 1 نوفمبر 2013</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-8828964273046087252013-10-31T18:06:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:44:21.422+02:00A People's History of the Egyptian Revolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A People's History of the Egyptian Revolution</h2>
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<i>Hani Shukrallah , 4 Sep 2013-24 Sep 2013</i></h4>
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Egypt’s current reality – muddled, chaotic and overcast with
ambiguity – can be understood only by situating it within the nation’s
tumultuous revolutionary history</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgt8CJO7U3O_ryGEvf20Bhv1MtszqOJZJQ06NQrarX3GRh902rXeF7wFB_GBlLfKhZ5mn3GCwlaAbk9cO63nKLOLtVbS9X121RQbSxtF4CpiImrdSFns1psEEQ1hwyNwZOhOkq5MATJkQ/s1600/30+June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgt8CJO7U3O_ryGEvf20Bhv1MtszqOJZJQ06NQrarX3GRh902rXeF7wFB_GBlLfKhZ5mn3GCwlaAbk9cO63nKLOLtVbS9X121RQbSxtF4CpiImrdSFns1psEEQ1hwyNwZOhOkq5MATJkQ/s1600/30+June.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<i>“The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot
be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an
inch below the surface.”</i><i>Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States</i></h4>
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1. Real revolutions are red</h4>
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Revolutions are messy affairs. If you want them sparkling
clean, sanitary and sanitised, with a love interest and a happy ending under a
fluttering revolutionary flag – well, go to Hollywood.<br />
Better still, have your revolution scripted by CNN, with Mr. Fukuyama providing
“expert advice,” opt for pastels, preferably orange, put a few thousands on the
street, have the <i>ancien régime </i>implode, rather than be overthrown,
wind it all up in as little time as possible, go home, and let the benevolent
wheels of the world market and corporate-led “liberal democracy” (in our case,
with an Islamic flavour) get on with the business of turning.<br />
Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of history.<br />
If the above is your criteria for the kind of revolution you’d like to support,
then sadly, you’ll find Egypt’s ongoing revolutionary upsurge sorely lacking.<br />
Admittedly, we’ve all of us (myself included) waxed poetically about those
wondrous 18 days in January/February 2011. There is nothing false in doing so.
There is glory in millions of people throwing off the shackles of fear and
submission, transforming themselves into subjects of history rather than its
hapless victims; there is glory (and a great deal of poetry) in the heroism,
courage and sheer determination of the young people who launched the Egyptian
revolution and kept its spirit alive for the past 30 months, against seemingly
insurmountable odds, and at great cost.<br />
Yet, the 18 days were as glorious as the long months of resistance that
followed them, against the military allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, against
the military in conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood, and against the
Brotherhood’s frenzied grab of Mubarak’s authoritarian state – and no less
messy.<br />
It may be trite to say that revolutions don’t transform the people who make
them into angels; nor for that matter do they reinvent them as fully aware,
politically savvy, strategically sophisticated agents of change. Lenin (who
knew something about revolution) said somewhere that people make revolution
“half blind.”<br />
The messiness in the Egyptian revolution, then as now, is primarily rooted in
the fact that the people who made it were unprepared for the tasks it had
thrown their way. Nor did they have anything close to a clear vision, let alone
strategy, of how to bring their aspirations for a free, truly democratic and
socially just Egypt into being. I’ve reiterated this before. See: <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/63287.aspx" target="_blank">“Egypt’s
revolution: As it might have been; as it could be”</a> (25 January 2013).</div>
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I would suggest further that no popular revolution is ever
fully prepared for the tasks, vision and aspirations that set it into motion.
For a people to garner the courage and will to rise up against oppression,
rather than to submit, subvert and make do, they need to reach for the stars,
yet the stars are invariably beyond reach.</div>
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The Egyptian revolution was less prepared than most, thanks
to 30 years of the eradication of political space, which defined the ugly
Mubarak reign. The starkest and most significant ramification of this lack of
preparedness lay in the fact that no sooner had the Egyptian people overthrown
Mubarak’s obdurate, seemingly immutable 30-year rule, than they handed power
over to his military.<br />
This to my mind fully exposes the profound hypocrisy of the heated
protestations of military coup this time around. Even in strict legal terms,
the late Omar Suleiman’s uniquely brief television address of 11 February
2011 (in which he announced Mubarak’s surrender of his presidential powers to
the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) is no less a military coup than
Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s rather more elaborate televised address
on 3 July 2013.<br />
We’ve yet to see a signed statement by Mubarak abdicating his powers to SCAF,
and even if we did, how legal is an abdication with a gun held to your head,
and tanks on the streets? Moreover, there was nothing in the Egyptian
constitution that permitted the former-former president to abdicate to an
entity called SCAF, which few of us knew existed before the 25 January
revolution.<br />
The only constitutional stipulation as to the handover of power by the
president – when unable for whatever reason to exercise his prerogatives – was
to hand these over to the speaker of parliament. The latter, a stalwart of the
Mubarak regime, was in fact sent home, the parliament he presided over
dissolved, his party banned, and he, eventually, thrown in prison.<br />
In substantive terms, if you want to speak military coup then 11 February 2011
was much more a military coup than 3 July 2013, since then the military
actually took over power, and stuck to it for a year and half. Is a coup then
not a coup if it is backed, and very likely brokered, by the Americans?<br />
By 11 February 2011 the deal was all but done. Mubarak’s regime had been
convinced that the only real opposition it faced was the Muslim Brotherhood,
and so was its military and so were the Americans.<br />
And herein lay the source of another fundamental contradiction at the heart of
the Egyptian revolution. The millions on the streets had not been calling for
the application of sharia, they were not demanding “rule by what God has
ordained;” they did not – for a single moment – proclaim the Muslim Brotherhood
as their representative. They spoke of freedom, social justice and human
dignity – notions which are as alien to the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau as
the dread word "secularism."<br />
Yet, they did not have a viable organisation of their own, nor did they possess
a clear strategy of how to go about replacing the police state they rose up
against by one which embodied – at least to some degree – their vision of a
democratic, free and just nation.<br />
And they were not seen. Everyone and his brother would come to hail the
glorious Egyptian revolution, but rulers (no less than the hordes of pundits
and commentators who move in their orbits) are inherently incapable of
comprehending a people in revolution. For them, people don’t rise up on their
own; they must be driven, instigated, incited and manipulated by some force.
Add to which, the long-held conviction that Arabs and Muslim could be governed
only by either semi-secular police states or Islamists of some sort; in Egypt,
that force could only be the Muslim Brotherhood.</div>
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2. What’s the big deal?</h4>
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A look at 'the best of all possible worlds' that was
not to be</h4>
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We now know (thanks basically to revelations by dissident MB
cadres) that a deal had been more or less struck in early February 2011 – by
the military, the late Intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman (a long time favourite
of both the Americans and the Israelis, his name had been popping up regularly
as an alternative successor to Mubarak Père), and the Brotherhood leadership –
apparently with considerable American help.</div>
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At its heart, that deal was based on what had become the
conventional wisdom of “Greater Middle East” watchers everywhere: the Turkish
model, or some synthesis of Turkey and Pakistan: a power sharing accommodation
between a secular, semi-secular or just a little bit secular military – closely
tied to the US – and “moderate” Islamists, ruling together in some sort of
electoral “democracy”.<br />
No convoluted conspiracies in any of it – a necessary caution in view of the
deluge of nonsense currently pouring out of the Egyptian media, most recently
given hilarious expression by the Upper Egyptian police arresting and locking
up (temporarily as it came out) a stork (yes, the bird, not a code name) on
suspicion of spying activities.<br />
In fact, it all seemed to make perfect sense. For the best part of Mubarak’s 30
years in office, and certainly since the fateful 9/11, policy makers in Egypt
and the Arab world as in Washington, London and Paris, had come to the firm
conclusion that the Arab police states – stagnant, disintegrating and
half-senile as they might be – were the only bulwark against Islamist takeover backed
by ostensibly and intrinsically Islamic populations.<br />
If you were sitting in Washington, or for that matter, at Intelligence Chief
Omar Suleiman’s office in Cairo, what would you choose once your long cherished
and tenaciously bolstered police states came apart? Nice reasonable Islamists
willing to play ball (with whom you already had open lines of communications),
or the “crazies” of Al-Qaeda and Jihad – Mohamed Badei and Mohamed Morsi or
Ayman El-Zawheri and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi?<br />
The sticking point was what to do about Mubarak. A question of “legitimacy”,
you might say. Initially, the idea was to keep Mubarak nominally in office
(sunning at his villa in the south Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh) until the
end of his term (then some six months away), have then Vice-President Suleiman
assume presidential powers in the interim, legalise the Brotherhood and ensure
them access to the legislature and the government. This, in return for
Brotherhood assurances regarding what matters most to American/European Middle
East policy makers, no less than the Egyptian military command: upholding the
Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty and guaranteeing Israeli security; assurances as well
regarding power sharing with the military and sundry other sections of the old
state bureaucracy, institutions and Oligarchs.<br />
The Brotherhood leadership was more than willing to oblige, and were happy to
pack up their supporters and send them home. It did not work. The millions on
the streets (including many MB youth) would not go home, but rather escalated
their protests, now joined by a great wave of industrial action. The rest is
history.<br />
The reason I’ve gone into some detail into what by now appears as a minor (and
conveniently forgotten) glitch on Egypt’s revolutionary screen is that it reveals
one of the basic laws of motion of post-revolution Egypt. The people,
unprepared for determining the course of political reconstruction, were
nevertheless more than able to act as the ultimate spoilers.<br />
I never subscribed to the view that the military had the intention of directly
ruling the country, even if in the interim they seemed to have developed a
decided taste for it (they seemed to particularly relish TV exposure). Yet this
was more in the nature of enjoy it while you can, fully knowing that the
pleasure would be transient.<br />
It was to be the best of all possible worlds. The Muslim Brotherhood
controlling the legislature and the government, allowing some presence for
non-Islamist parties and individuals (mostly drawn from old NDP dignitaries,
coming in as “independents”, or in the guise of new parties). MB control would
be balanced out further by the presidency, which was to be left to
military/intelligence preference (whether the president-to-be hailed from their
ranks or was backed by them) and meanwhile, the military would maintain and
even bolster its privileged status in the new political system, keeping intact
as well as much as possible of the Mubarak authoritarian state structure (the
only conceivable state then in military minds, thus their latter-day assertions
that the revolutionaries were out to undermine the very existence of the
state).<br />
Let’s review the evidence: Mubarak’s last cabinet under Maj. Gen. Ahmed Shafiq
was to be kept in place for the duration of “the transition”;<br />
- the SCAF, headed by Field Marshal
Tantwai, held the full authoritarian powers of Mubarak;<br />
- Mubarak himself was made exempt from
prosecution and comfortably retired at his no doubt sumptuous Sharm villa
(curtsey of former intelligence operative, bosom buddy and one of the country’s
top business tycoons, Hussein Salem);<br />
- a constitutional declaration charting the
transition “road map” was meticulously designed to effectively disenfranchise
the revolutionaries while guaranteeing the Muslim Brotherhood and, it was then
believed, the NDP dignitaries (oligarchs of various shapes and sizes, with
intimate connections to the security apparatus) joint control over the drawing
of the new constitution;<br />
- This, by virtue of their combined control
of the forthcoming parliament, which was initially scheduled for election
within three months of the Constitutional Declaration, ensuring further that
the only organized political forces in the country were the Brotherhood and the
NDP network.<br />
The Muslim Brotherhood were happy to fulfil their side of the bargain, swearing
themselves blue in the face that they would uphold the Camp David Accords and
the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, would not run a candidate for president and
would compete only for a third of parliamentary seats.<br />
Nearly unanimous predictions at the time regarding the then forthcoming
parliamentary elections gave the Brotherhood their third, the NDP network
(overseeing a huge patronage network built over decades) another third, and a
final third to a mixture of old and new parties and independents.<br />
It was picture perfect, a synthesis of Turkey and Pakistan with which the
powerful – domestically, regionally and internationally – would be happy to
work; the people would get their presumably long-held and deeply-desired
Islamist (of sorts) government, go home to slumber away for another thirty
years, or longer.<br />
Alas, it was not to be!</div>
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3. Continuing revolution, the great spoiler</h4>
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It may have been a marriage of convenience, but it had all
the hallmarks of a match made in heaven. Why did it sour?</h4>
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Looked at one way, the course of Egypt’s history since
January 2011 would appear as a progressive descent into chaos and mayhem. There
are indeed those who see it only as such – and if anything, they’ve lately become
considerably more vocal and open about saying so. The overthrow of Muslim
Brotherhood rule on 3 July has been deemed an opportunity by a variety of what
I’ve come to call – with due apologies for political incorrectness – “Mubarak’s
widows” to loudly bemoan the good old days of the tyrant, his gangs of vicious
torturers, voracious crony capitalists and ever scheming party bosses.</div>
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A wholly different picture appears, however, once you bring
the people, their consciousness, political will, social aspirations and dream
of liberty into perspective. And this is the picture of a people persistently
battling to recapture their revolution, which – almost by definition – is
constantly being hijacked.<br />
We might now resume our narrative. The initial post-Mubarak arrangement seemed
a match made in heaven, with each party getting just the right amount of
privileges and making precisely the requisite commitments. It might not have
been born of love, but then the most durable marriages aren’t. Happily, it
enjoyed the blessing of Uncle Sam and a host of other lesser aunts, uncles and
cousins in Europe.<br />
It did not pan out that way. You may count the ways, but my basic proposition
here is that whatever fault-lines and areas of tension there were in this
marriage of convenience, these could have been contained, plastered over and
more or less smoothly negotiated and re-negotiated, bargained and re-bargained
away. (After all, look at Turkey where years of a gradual, fairly trouble-free
political process eased the Kemalist, firmly secularist military out of its
monopoly on power).<br />
It should have worked. But for one thing: the Egyptian people, with tens of
thousands of revolutionary youth at their vanguard, would not let go of the
freedom and justice their revolution had promised, and by virtue of which they
felt themselves entitled to.<br />
In less than two weeks after Omar Suleiman’s fateful television address, when
millions of Egyptians celebrated the fall of Mubarak to chants of “the people
and the army one hand,” the occupation of Tahrir would resume, demanding the
ouster of the Shafiq cabinet and the prosecution of Mubarak and his clique; the
sit-in is attacked violently by army contingents attempting to break it up, for
which SCAF would hasten to apologise the very next day.<br />
It wouldn’t let up.<br />
In March, the sit-in resumes yet again in Tahrir, triggering the first serious
clash with the country’s military rulers by 8 April; tens of thousands would
again hit the streets, by 27 May the second “Day of Rage” is called, and
hundreds of thousands yet again rise up in protest, not just in Tahrir but in
many parts of the country. Among their chants is: “Tahrir is here, where is the
Brotherhood?” Ahram Online would quote prominent Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey
summing up the day in a tweet from Tahrir: “I believe today has proven that we
don't need the Muslim Brotherhood to turn out big crowds."<br />
It is outside the scope of this brief history to provide a chronology of the
relentless revolutionary upsurge of the Egyptian people during the past two
years and a half. We might note however two key events, the Maspero massacre in
October of that same year, named “Bloody Sunday” (in which 25 protesters were
killed and hundreds injured), followed soon after, in November, by the Mohamed
Mahmoud Street confrontation, possibly the fiercest and most violent since 28
January, in the course of which some 50 protesters were killed and hundreds
injured. Many lost one or both eyes, which were particularly targeted by police
shooters.<br />
In Maspero, the ruling SCAF apparently saw an opportunity to violently bring an
end to the revolution by making an example of the thousands of Copts, and their
Muslim supporters, who had gathered before the state television building in
downtown Cairo to protest the burning of a church by an Islamist-led mob.
Copts, they seemed to have thought, would be “easy meat” – in view of the
sectarian schism in the country, which for years had been deepening in scope
and intensity, thanks to the rise of Islamism and the dirty tricks of the Mubarak
police bodies.<br />
The Mohamed Mahmoud confrontation which followed would prove this a vain hope.
It was possibly the most heroic single event of the Egyptian revolution – at
the very least, the full equal of the iconic battles of 28 January and 2
February’s “Battle of the Camel.”<br />
I witnessed parts of the four-day saga, and will be haunted for the rest of my
life by the scenes of young men and women, armed with stones and the odd
Molotov cocktail bomb charging under heavy police fire, motorcycle ambulances whizzing
to and fro to pick up the injured and dead, also under fire, a young man
laughing after his eye had been shot out, and the volunteer doctors working
non-stop in a field hospital they’d set up on the street corner, itself not
quite out of firing range.<br />
Taking to Tahrir and other “freedom” squares around the country was not the
only form of resistance, however. Egyptians, almost overnight, had become
politicised as never before. Political space, which under Mubarak had shrunk
nearly to oblivion, widened exponentially, political debate became the nation’s
primary pastime – in homes, offices, coffee houses and on the country’s chaotic
transport system, it was politics, politics and even more politics. On
television, public opinion programming would outpace soap operas, even soccer.
And the internet would go wild.<br />
The new generation of activists, now in the thousands, were not about to go
home. And, in an explosion of creativity, they were constantly creating
new ways of fighting on. The “Military Liars” campaign was one such remarkable
initiative. Like the Tamarod (or Rebel) campaign a couple of years later, the
idea probably originated within a small circle of friends, but – also like
Tamarod – would spread like wildfire, with hundreds of young people informally
and without the benefit of a “mother” organisation jumping on the bandwagon,
setting up screens (usually made up of bed-sheets) and platforms on street
corners, at universities and schools – anywhere they could find a foothold –
and using almost every medium of expression available, from video footage to
street theatre, to relay their message: the military rulers are liars, this is
the truth!<br />
I don’t have a full count of the activities of the Military Liars campaign. But
they ran into the hundreds.<br />
The walls of the nation’s cities (and there are plenty of those) would provide
another medium of expression. An explosion of graffiti, some of it remarkably
artistic, would make its signal mark on popular awareness. (An aside:
anthropologists and cultural studies scholars would do well to explore the
affinity Egypt’s young revolutionaries have for black America).<br />
So determined were the young people to defend this new-found space of free
expression I recall this one occasion when the military rulers sent city
workers to paint over much of the Cairo graffiti; it was back the very next
day.<br />
Not only did the Muslim Brotherhood and their Salafist and jihadist allies
(whatever their dubious share in the 18 days), consistently boycott these
fierce and determined battles to fulfil the stated aims of the revolution, they
worked actively against them, openly urging the military to crack down,
justifying and indeed vehemently defending the killings, the abuse, the
detentions and the torture, all the while singing the praises of SCAF (in their
chants, they would call SCAF head, Field Marshal Tantawi, the Prince of the
Faithful, and condemn the protesters as atheists, infidels, communists and –
most insidiously – as Coptic Christians.)<br />
The Brotherhood-military marriage would begin to crack under the strain.</div>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
4. It’s the people, stupid!</h4>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
The people’s revolutionary upsurge strikes at the
foundations of SCAF supremacy, paradoxically whetting the Brotherhood’s
appetite for power</h4>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the risk of over-tiring a metaphor, let me recount a bit
of personal history.</div>
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My paternal grandfather was a clerk with the British army in
Egypt. I never knew what the job involved exactly, but apparently back in the
first half of the twentieth century it was a fairly lucrative job for a rather humble
<i>effendi</i> to have. My paternal grandmother was tough, witty, very fat and
barely literate, besides being an amazing cook (of traditional Egyptian fare,
naturally) and an inexhaustible wellspring of stories.<br />
As family history would have it, my grandfather was a kindly but tyrannical
patriarch rather typical of the <i>effendi</i> class of these times. Quick to
anger, he would shout commands, eat his meals with the family, take his siesta
and spend the balance of his day either at work or at a cafe with his cronies –
leaving the management of the household and the rearing of his two sons to my
grandmother.<br />
It seems to have been a fairly prosperous household, if my grandmother’s
cuisine is any indication (almost invariably involving an abundance of meat
cooked in unrefined butter), able to provide both my father and uncle with a
good education, my father at Cairo University (then, Fouad I) and my uncle at
the then highly regarded, Military Academy.<br />
All of this was passed on history as far I was concerned. By the time I could
take in my familial environment some drastic changes had taken place. In 1951,
the Wafd Party declared a National Jihad against the British occupation. (There
was nary an ounce of religious connotation to the word Jihad at the time, it
might be noted). This included a call on Egyptians working for the British army
to leave. My grandfather resigned, putting his savings into a print-shop
operation. Life-time clerks don’t make good entrepreneurs, it seems, and the
print-shop went bust.<br />
The family I grew up in was very different from that of my personal
pre-history. The balance of forces between my paternal grandparents had been
overturned. You could possibly detect a shadow of the old <i>Effendi</i>.
Though jobless, he would invariably spend most of the day (up until he was too
ill, and bed-ridden) out of the house. He would go out in suit, tie and fez,
sporting an elegant cane. Where he went, I have no idea, but there was
absolutely no doubt in my childhood mind, the upper hand in that old marriage
was solidly my grandmother’s. If there were any arguments – and there were many
– it was she who invariably came out on top.<br />
This, pretty much, describes the shifting fortunes of the SCAF-MB marriage we
discussed in the last section of this history. SCAF’s misfortune, however, was
not due to a bad investment, but to the ongoing resistance of a rebellious
people.<br />
But before resuming our historical narrative, we might pause a little before a
question which has no doubt occurred to many over the past three instalments.
What you may well ask, is the point of going over all this past at a time when
the present is charged with such urgency?<br />
Why, context of course – and the kind of memory which, in Howard Zinn’s words,
keeps revolt an inch below the surface. A major failing of much that has been
written and opined on the 30 June uprising against Muslim Brotherhood rule (or
the third wave of the Egyptian revolution) has been the remarkable absence of a
sense of its place in Egypt’s recent history. I have warned repeatedly of
failing to see the forest for the trees. And here I try to situate some of
those trees back into their surrounding foliage.<br />
Once we do this, the most significant actor in our remarkable story of
unremitting upheaval comes into sharp focus. It’s the people! Not liberals,
leftists, Muslim Brothers and Salafists, not secularists and Islamists, not
military, deep state, and Mubarak regime remnants, but an Egyptian people on
the move, in this, our time of the inundation.<br />
That so many intelligent and sophisticated analysts, scholars and commentators
can fail to see them is not new, but it’s a failure that may be barely
tolerable in normal times, but is disastrous in times of revolutionary
upheaval. If in doubt, have a read through Howard Zinn’s magnificent, A People’s
History of the United States.<br />
Having said this, the first point that needs to be underlined here is that it
was the incessant pressure from below, by the ongoing rebellion of the Egyptian
people – unafraid, determined and empowered by their revolution – that lay
principally and, indeed, overwhelmingly behind the deepening cracks in the
SCAF-Muslim Brotherhood power-sharing accommodation, leading up to its ultimate
demise.</div>
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Incredibly, this constant revolutionary pressure from below
– boycotted and vehemently opposed and condemned by the Muslim Brotherhood and
its Islamist allies – would act paradoxically to whet their appetite for power.</div>
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The military, which saw itself, and was seen by the
Brotherhood and the outside world as the “senior partner” in the power-sharing
deal was discredited as never before – indeed, more so than during its darkest
hour, in the days that followed Egypt’s traumatic and humiliating defeat at
Israeli hands in June 1967’s “Six-day War”.<br />
The police, shattered, demoralised and half rogue, yet as vicious and brutal as
ever, is under constant attack from the people, and is thus rendered unable to
regain even a semblance of its old powers.<br />
The erstwhile ruling NDP network, rooted in intimate, corruption- packed
business-state linkages, state patronage and police repression proves all but
irreparable; again under popular revolutionary pressure, its leaders are hauled
into prison one after another.<br />
A reminder: initially, the SCAF would act to bring to justice less than a
handful of the ostensibly overthrown regime, with the former organisational
secretary of the NDP, steel magnate Ahmed Ezz being a nearly unique exception.
It is only under intense pressure from the ongoing revolution that they would
be forced to prosecute Mubarak himself, Interior Minister Habib El-Adly, and
along with them, one by one, most of the top figures of Mubarak’s ruling
clique.<br />
By the day, the senior partner to the post-revolution power-sharing entente
proves more paper than tiger. And yet, the paradox at the heart of the Egyptian
revolution from day 1 sees very little change. Able to shatter the Mubarak
regime, it is unable to replace it, and yet again able to drastically weaken
the SCAF and its associated <i>ancien régime</i> handles, it continues to lack
the vision, or the organisational and political machinery, experience and skill
to fill the vacuum, even partially.<br />
For the Muslim Brotherhood, whose relationship with the revolution has been
governed from the very first day with the opportunistic mind-set of a hijacker,
there is now more than sufficient cause not so much to break the partnership
(in fact, they never do), but rather to change its terms. The self-imposed
limit of running for a third of parliamentary seats is the first to go out the
window; they run for every single seat.<br />
The election itself emboldens them further. The one third predicted for the NDP
network never materialises – who wants a patron who’s unable to deliver either
a carrot or a stick? The non-Islamist parties, the decrepit old and the as yet
nascent new, capture a measly share, while the revolutionary youth are in
possession of no unified organisation of their own, and are spread thinly among
several political parties; the latter invariably dominated by political figures
from considerably older generations, whose mindset had been configured in the
course of thirty or more years of helpless and hapless opposition. (The
contrast between the irreverence, even contempt in which the young
revolutionary generation held power, and the profound awe with which their
older comrades – however well intentioned – held it, is well worth studying on
its own).<br />
The revolution would continue to find expression on the street, and very little
if at all in the formal political realm, which – in any case – had been rigged
against it from the start.<br />
Meanwhile, to the chagrin of the SCAF, the Muslim Brotherhood would continue to
exploit the growing weakness of their senior partner, even as they dissociate
themselves and condemn in the strongest terms the very people who are doing the
weakening. Their publicly reiterated promise not to run for the post president,
which was to be the principal institutional embodiment of the power-sharing
deal would go out the window as well.<br />
If the SCAF had been worried by the Brotherhood’s earlier reneging on their
promises viz. parliamentary share, they were now extremely worried. The
alliance begins to fracture. Field Marshal Tantawi, hurtling towards political
oblivion, would tell confidantes that while he and his SCAF colleagues had never
sought to maintain direct rule, he would not go down in history as the man who
handed Egypt over to the Muslim Brotherhood – as pathetic a refrain as his
whole reign as supreme leader of the nation and Islamist-designated “prince of
the faithful” had been, and as his political demise would prove to be.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
5. 'We at the height are ready to decline'</h4>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Unable to impose its emergent political will, the Egyptian
revolution is able to frustrate, foil and bring down the political wills of its
opponents</h4>
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<br /></div>
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The course of the Egyptian revolution, always contradictory,
always complex, dialectical, non-linear and “messy,” is destined to take
prominent place in the “sociology of revolution.” An ever-present,
ever-shifting popular agency seems to bring political actors to the summit,
only to pull them down all the more swiftly. (Give it a few years, and you’ll
find universities across the world offering courses in the sociology of the
Egyptian revolution – happy to take bets.)</div>
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It was such popular revolutionary “agency” that brought down
Mubarak, clearing the way for the military to ascend to the very summit of
Egypt’s polity and society – to chants of “the people and the army are one
hand,” yet the very moment of ascendency is at once that of decline – as swift
and brutal as was the proliferation of the Field Marshal’s elongated Pinocchio
nose on the country’s city walls amid resounding chants of “down with military
rule.”<br />
And it was such popular revolutionary agency that would clear the way for the
Muslim Brotherhood to ascend to the summit of political power in the country,
only to bring them hurtling down in the course of a single year.<br />
“We at the height are ready to decline.” William Shakespeare’s words (voiced by
Brutus) sum up the dialectic of the Egyptian revolution as any words possibly
could. However, no commentator on the Egyptian revolution could have put it as
succinctly as Iranian scholar Asef Bayat: “Egyptians,” he wrote in a recently
in an article on Ahram Online, “have mastered the art of being ungovernable.
This is a formidable power in bad times.”<br />
The process of dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood had begun, in fact, before
their takeover of the presidency. After all, they had been junior
power-partners with SCAF during its disastrous year and a half rule. Even if
you’re blind to the shifting moods and consciousness of the people – as most
scholars seem to be – there is no avoiding the speech of the ballot, of which
the Brotherhood and their western sympathisers are so fond. In the space of 4-5
months, between the parliamentary elections (Nov-Jan 2011/12) and the first
phase of the presidential elections (May 2012), the Muslim Brotherhood lost
some 7 million votes, more than half of its electoral support. I very much
doubt there is another example in modern political history, anywhere, of such a
swift descent in political fortunes.<br />
Yet again the paradoxical nature of the course of the Egyptian revolution is
brought into focus. Unable to impose its emergent political will, but well able
to frustrate, foil and bring down the political will of its opponents, the
revolution’s success in bringing down the foremost opponent of the moment seems
only to clear the way for another member of the power-structure to try a hand
at filling the vacuum.<br />
We’d do well to keep this in mind as we approach the murky realm of the
revolution’s “third wave.”<br />
No revolution in history has taken on all of its foes – immediate, real and
lying in the wings – at the same time, nor should it. Popular revolutions set
out to win, not to commit mass suicide, and irrespective of the phantasms (real
or imagined) weighing on the minds of the more politically and ideologically
“formed” within the revolutionary camp, a genuinely popular revolution will
steer a course of its own, imminently practical, goal-oriented, and rooted much
more in lived experience and learned lessons than in a priori bias and/or
knowledge.<br />
There is good and bad in this, as we’ll see. But let’s – for a moment – take up
one supreme example. From day one, the Egyptian revolution faced the latent
prospect of having to take on the armed forces. It was Mubarak after all who
called the armed forces onto the streets, once his massive police force was
roundly defeated. “The people and the army are one hand,” let alone the
flowers, the welcoming of army tanks, and the photo-ops with child-kissing
soldiers on top of the tanks, doubtlessly contained much that was illusory (as
was to be revealed soon), but it contained considerable wisdom as well.<br />
I described it at the time as the “sentimental education” of the military
(plagiarising Flaubert wholly out of context). For its own reasons (not least
of which the top priority of maintaining the soundness and internal discipline
of the armed forces) the military command was hesitant to shoot into the
crowds. There is little doubt in my mind that however illusion-laden the “one
hand” might have been, it helped check the impulse to shoot.<br />
And even at the height of the revolution’s confrontation with military rule,
with all its brutality and blood-drenched repression, the Egyptian military’s
need to justify its actions, to maintain even a shadow of its positive image
among the people, would continue to act as a check on its repressive impulses.
Sceptical? See: Syria.<br />
It would also go a long way towards fomenting intense dissatisfaction with
SCAF’s leadership within military ranks, which would ultimately lead to the
overthrow of SCAF at military hands.<br />
Already in decline, the Muslim Brotherhood would nevertheless find itself at
the summit of Egyptian state and society. Who to thank? Why, the paradoxical
agency of a rebellious, revolutionary people. With no help from the
Brotherhood, the ongoing revolution had weakened, demoralised and undermined
the “senior partner” so resoundingly, SCAF all but gave up.<br />
SCAF’s last ditch effort to stave off the inevitable – characteristically
foolish and ill-advised – was to try and mobilise to the fullest extent
possible the shattered “remnants” of the Mubarak regime, backing a verbally
challenged (even more so than the Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi, if you can
believe it), corruption-tainted symbol of that regime, Maj. Gen. (rtd.) Ahmed
Shafiq, for the presidency.<br />
The great “lemon squeeze” would tip the balance in the Brotherhood’s favour.<br />
In Egyptian popular idiom, inferior food is made more palatable by squeezing a
lemon on it. Faced with two bad choices, the bulk of revolutionary Egypt would
drench themselves with lemon juice, and opt for the Brotherhood’s Morsi in the
second phase of the presidential election.<br />
In a poll rooted in fear on both sides (wherein both Morsi and his contender
would garner the balance of their votes not for love of either of them, but out
of dread of the other), the Egyptian electorate would show it dreaded
Mubarakist Shafiq more than Muslim Brother Morsi by two percentage points.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
6. One-way ticket to cliff edge</h4>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Bemoaning the Muslim Brotherhood’s lost democracy? Well,
think again</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
No sooner would the Muslim Brotherhood, the very mother of
modern day political Islam, seem to have achieved its decades-long dream of
ascending to the very summit of power in Egypt than it would rush headlong
towards ruin, possibly bringing down along with it the whole “Islamic revival”
project of the previous 30 years.</div>
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The law of unintended consequences symptomatic of a popular
revolutionary agency that is sufficiently vigorous and determined to
continuously upset the apple cart of the power structure but insufficiently
prepared to transform it, is yet again at play.<br />
The writing was on the wall. Nearly three months into Morsi’s presidency, I
would write: <i>“The ruling (in a manner of speaking) Muslim Brotherhood faces
a strategic, even fateful decision: granting that they’ll be removed from power
within 4 years at the outside, they need to make up their minds whether they’d
rather bow out gracefully or be thrown out, exit via the ballot box, or
revolution.” (</i>The Brotherhood, its fateful choices and safe exits: <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/53973.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/53973.aspx</a>.)<br />
It all depended, as I explained in the article, on the ruling Muslim
Brotherhood’s attitude towards basic civil liberties, human rights, and democratic
process. These, however, would all come under concerted attack by the
up-and-coming, would-be masters of the nation. They made their choice and would
suffer the consequences, though much sooner than I, for one, could have
imagined.<br />
I’ve written a fair bit on what would prove to have been the Brotherhood’s
route to 30 June. For those interested in looking back on Morsi’s year in
power, these examples of my own perspective might be useful:<br />
Minerva's owl flies at dusk: A quick reading of Egypt's presidential vote (1
June 2012)<br />
<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/43096.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/43096.aspx</a><br />
The Decline and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood (6 Dec. 2012)<br />
<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/59933.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/59933.aspx</a>;<br />
Revolution interrupted (8 Feb, 2013) <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/08/revolution_interrupted_egypt_muslim_brotherhood">http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/08/revolution_interrupted_egypt_muslim_brotherhood</a>;<br />
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Samson option (19 March, 2013) <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/67267.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/67267.aspx</a>.<br />
Yet before we hit the fateful 30 June – modern history’s first ever popular
revolt against an Islamist regime, we might ponder the following.<br />
The Muslim Brotherhood’s project in power would prove authoritarian to its very
core; nearly every single action they undertook after Morsi’s accession to the
presidency was designed to ensure their electoral win was a one way ticket to
perpetual rule by the self-styled interpreters of God’s will on earth.<br />
One can only marvel at the Western chorus (politicians, pundits, academics and
journos) bemoaning the 30 June fall of Egypt’s fledgling democracy, even as
they grudgingly acknowledge the “mistakes”, even the “ineptitude” of Morsi’s
rule.<br />
Think again fellows. Concerted attacks on freedom of speech and expression
don’t make for an even playing field, neither do attacks on the Judiciary and
whatever margin of independence it was able to maintain (to which, by the way,
a characteristically ungrateful Brotherhood fully owes every single electoral
advance it was able to make under Mubarak); nor also does holding the nation’s
Christians (estimated at 10 million) hostage to intimidation and occasional
pogroms; nor yet again does the willy-nilly flaunting of the law,
constitutional norms, and basic human and civil rights.<br />
Torture, possibly the Mubarak regime’s most operative instrument of government
does not make for free and fair elections, see: (<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/74930/Egypt/Politics-/Torture-continues-under-Brotherhood-rule-NGO.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/74930/Egypt/Politics-/Torture-continues-under-Brotherhood-rule-NGO.aspx</a>)
and (<a href="https://alnadeem.org/en/node/439">https://alnadeem.org/en/node/439</a>)
Nor are trumped up criminal charges, often ironically targeting the very
revolutionaries who helped pave the way to Morsi’s rule, and actually win him
the vote (<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/67790/Egypt/Summoned-activist-rejects-legitimacy-of-investigat.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/67790/Egypt/Summoned-activist-rejects-legitimacy-of-investigat.aspx</a>).<br />
For the new president to nonchalantly trample the very constitution he swore to
uphold in his oath of office by immunising his decisions against judicial
review does not bode well in terms of his and his group’s democratic intentions
(<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/58947.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/58947.aspx</a>).<br />
Yet one particularly crucial feature of Muslim Brotherhood rule has received
little attention, or rather has not received nearly the attention it deserves.
The Ikhwanisation (or Brotherhoodisation) of the country’s gargantuan and
highly intricate administrative state apparatus has been sited alternatively as
evidence of greed for power, a redistribution of spoils, as standard practice
in a “democracy” and as exaggerated propaganda by the Gamaa’s enemies.<br />
This is to miss one of the most fundamental features of the Egyptian state,
especially as it took obdurate shape in the course of Mubarak’s 30-year reign.
State patronage and police repression (intricately connected) have been the
foremost instruments of governance in the country for decades – from the very
summit of the state down to the remotest hamlet in Upper Egypt.<br />
The Brotherhood, playing the mantle of the revolution for all it was worth, was
patently uninterested in taking up that revolution’s commandment to dismantle
the profoundly authoritarian structure of the Mubarak state. Rather, it sought
to take it over as is, replacing Mubarak with Morsi, the NDP with itself.<br />
Take over the corruption-ridden, sycophantic state-owned media as is; attack
and constrain freedom of expression, organisation and protest; subdue the
Judiciary and replace Mubarak’s men with your own; bring the police under your
wing, so that the killings and torture would now be in your favour rather than
against you; effectively disenfranchise the country’s Coptic minority through
continuous incitement and by holding them hostage to pogroms; seduce and
pressure the army and the intelligence bodies into conceding your supremacy,
pending their gradual Brotherhoodisation – and give it all a taste of your very
own, whereby your opponents are now, not only subversives and agents of foreign
powers (paid in kind via Colonel Sanders and his “secret recipe”), but also
enemies of Islam, secularist atheists and Christians who reject rule by what
God has ordained, as set down by the Supreme Guide, and the Guidance Bureau.<br />
And take over the bureaucracy, not just its top echelons, but the whole octopus
like apparatus, extending into every nook and cranny of Egyptian society.<br />
During Morsi’s one year in office, not a single measure was taken to reform
anything, not a single authoritarian piece of legislation was repealed or
amended, not a single authoritarian structure touched by democratic reforms,
not a single attempt made to deal with the massive inequities of a nation
lorded over by the insatiable greed of a bunch of plunder-hungry Oligarchs with
one foot in the state, the other in business, producing next to nothing, but
consuming voraciously.<br />
Western pundits and journalists like to attribute the failings of Brotherhood
“democracy” to inexperience and ineptitude. The Egyptian people saw intent and
manifest betrayal.<br />
And even as they protested and fought back in defence of their revolution, the
new rulers busied themselves with appropriations. Tens of thousands of posts
throughout the state bureaucracy would change hands, given over to MB cadres
and their Salafi and Jihadist allies. There would be no dithering on that
front, but deliberate, systematic and meticulous planning and execution.<br />
If there was method in the madness of Morsi’s one-year rule this was it.
Ignore, shrug off, and deploy the instruments of repression – effectively or
otherwise – against the growing resistance of the people, but all this is, for
the time being, by way of distraction. The real battle as far as the Guidance
Bureau was concerned was being fought elsewhere. Dozens of deputy ministers and
ministerial advisors, governors (5 in the first batch, then a full 17 a mere
three months before parliamentary elections were due to take place), dozens
more deputy governors and gubernatorial advisors, all the way down to hundreds
of heads of local government departments on city, district and village levels –
health, education, agriculture, irrigation, social insurance, whatever, if it’s
there for the taking, grab it.<br />
Faced with protests, Mubarak used to say: “let them entertain themselves”. I
have little doubt that similar quips were being made in the course of that
year, if not by the superbly mediocre president himself, then by his “evil
genius” string-masters in the wings, Khayrat El-Shater and co.<br />
For as the people “entertain themselves”, we’ll have given them the Mubarak
state, fully reconstructed – but with a little, trim beard.<br />
Anyone who’s ever come near a polling station in Egypt, not as a foreign
tourist with a press card, but as someone who’s capable of actually seeing and
comprehending what he/she sees, knows that if you control the state bureaucracy
you control the elections.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And not just through rigging the poll. The millions of
Egyptians who live outside the upper middle class urban districts of Zamalek
and Heliopolis (who rarely bother to vote) are caught up in an intricate web of
state largess and impunity, exercised via state bosses who invariably have
footholds in business and – more often than not – local family and clan power
and patronage authority, inherited over generations. You vote in the right way
(via the clan-based mobilisation of local “dignitaries”) and you have a better
chance of receiving some state favours (anything from irrigation water for you
tiny plot of land, a licence for a cigarette kiosk, a low-paid job for your
son, or for that son to – hopefully – avoid whimsical torture at some police station).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For more on this you might look up my piece on the last
parliamentary elections under Mubarak: NDP may get more than it bargained for
(27 Nov. 2010) (<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/686/Opinion/NDP-may-get-more-than-it-bargained-for.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/686/Opinion/NDP-may-get-more-than-it-bargained-for.aspx</a>)<br />
Rigging the poll is more often than not merely the icing on the
state/business/clan patronage cake, and for a great many of the nation’s constituencies
it acts as a final assertion of patronage. How else could you explain rigging
in favour of one ruling party member against another ruling party member, each
claiming his slice of state/business patronage?<br />
And it’s the petty bureaucrats, dependent for their very livelihood and hopes
of promotion on even bigger bureaucrats, who do the rigging – as they zealously
stuff ballot after ballot on our behalf. (We’ve had candidates winning by over
100 percent of the vote, dead people voting in droves, voters actually going to
electoral stations and discovering they’d already voted).<br />
The 2011 parliamentary elections were the exception that proves the rule. Why
did the NDP patronage network (which had been predicted to win some 30% of the
seats) fail so miserably? The answer is obvious: they’d lost their control of
the state bureaucracy, which at the time was embroiled in confusion as to who
is master. No one in his right mind would cast his vote, let alone herd
clan and dependents, to back a patron who’s been rendered incapable of
exercising patronage.<br />
A fairly independent state bureaucracy, accountable to the public on every
level, is in fact considerably more crucial to a free and fair election than
international monitors or judicial supervision. Democracy means transforming
the relationship between the state bureaucracy and the people from that of
master and client to one in which a sovereign people exercise effective
oversight on their “civil <i>servants</i>”.<br />
In Egypt a free and fair parliamentary election on the national level, means
that citizens also elect governors, city heads, city, district and village
councils and that the local police station, the health, education, agriculture
and irrigation authorities (to name but a few) are subject to public oversight.<br />
That was the will and testament of the Egyptian revolution. The Muslim
Brotherhood, working from a Mubarak template, contemptuously brushed it aside,
in this as in everything else. “Let them entertain themselves,” Supreme Guide
Mohamed Badei et al must have been whispering to one another as they
nonchalantly dismissed growing popular outrage at their bungling, oppressive
regime, meanwhile busying themselves with ensuring perpetual rule by “what God
has ordained”, not by transforming Mubarak’s authoritarian state into one
governed by “righteousness” – whatever that means in the second millennium AD,
but by taking it over, each and every nook and cranny of it.<br />
On Sunday 17 June, Morsi issues a sweeping decree appointing 17 new governors,
a mere three months before parliamentary elections were due to take place. In
theory the appointments made no sense. According to the Constitution, a new
parliament means a new government, and a new government means new gubernatorial
appointments across the board. Why fill the bulk of gubernatorial posts across
the country, when forthcoming elections were due to change them all within a
few months?<br />
There was just one explanation. Egyptians got it, even if the hundreds of
Western politicians, pundits and journalists who continue to ask in the most
anguished tones: “why not wait for the parliamentary elections?” did not.<br />
The Egyptians of June 2013 were not the same Egyptians of Mubarak’s 30 years,
however.<br />
Morsi’s and Muslim Brotherhood rule would not outlast the month.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
7. Uprisings, love-fests and strange bed-fellows </h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Popular revolutions inevitably have strange bed-fellows; the
point is who gets to be on top </h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a Sisyphean aspect to the Egyptian revolution.
Incessantly pushing the boulder of radical democratic transformation up a
steep, jagged hill composed of the resistance of the old authoritarian society,
the very moment it seems to have reached the summit is also the moment it
appears to find itself back at the bottom of the hill – yet again and
again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is mirrored in the psyches of Egypt’s young
revolutionaries. One need only follow their blogs, Facebook postings and tweets
or, better still, actually talk to them, to note the remarkable mood shifts as
euphoria and renewed hope almost overnight give way to despondency, invariably
coupled with grim determination to fight on, to keep pushing that bloody,
blood-drenched boulder up that accursed hill.<br />
Certainly, on the surface of events since 25 January 2011, it looks like it:
Egyptians overthrow Mubarak, to get the SCAF, with the Muslim Brotherhood as
junior partner doing their damndest to reconstruct the Mubarak state; they rise
up against SCAF, and get the Muslim Brotherhood doing the same; they rise up
against the Brotherhood, and get the military again, with hordes of Mubarak
“remnants” cheerfully, and with brazen aplomb, jumping on the bandwagon – their
hopes of restoration seemingly at an all time high.<br />
Zeus punished Sisyphus for deceit. History was punishing the Egyptian
revolution for naivety – for being insufficiently prepared to carry its vision
of a free and just society through to fruition.<br />
Yet real human history is always much more complex and nuanced than its
mythical representations – or, for that matter, than whatever literary metaphor
we choose to enfold it in. Real revolutions never actually fall back upon
themselves, even when they most seem to have done so. The path of such
revolutions is never linear, moving from one triumph to the next. Rather, they
realise themselves in convoluted ways, their legacy, values, and the new
political will these embody, making their imprint on history even as they
appear at their darkest moments, at their most defeated.<br />
We don’t need to search far for historical precedent. The French revolution
would lead to Bonaparte then to Bourbon Restoration, yet Old Bumblehead (Louis)
the 18th, famed for having “learned nothing, forgotten nothing”, was no more
than a glitch on French and human history’s panoramic screen.<br />
Each of the three waves of the Egyptian revolution would carry with it its own
distinct baggage of illusions, weaknesses, distortions and unique challenges,
yet each would find the revolution had inched closer to its objectives, more
able to impose its will, leaving its antagonists weaker, their ranks considerably
more fractured and disorganised. And, no less significantly, at each phase, the
revolution finds it has “re-educated” sections of its traditional opponents,
rendered them more willing to concede at least some aspects of the people’s
revolutionary will, even as many among them act to undermine and hijack it.<br />
Two points need to be underlined here. The first is that the Egyptian
revolution has always had “strange bed-fellows”, which it has tended to shuffle
and exchange – not for the most part consciously or willingly, but effectively
– as it strove to fulfil its destiny.<br />
The second point -- by no means unique to the Egyptian revolution -- is that
not only do popular revolutions exploit fractures in the prevailing power
structure; they tend to count on them. Indeed, such fractures seem to be a
precondition for a popular uprising’s ability to overturn a particular regime,
even if it falls short of replacing it with a truly new and genuinely popular
power of its own. The examples are manifold: from the Russian revolution, which
seemed to have required a world war to overthrow Tsarist autocracy, up to the
much more recent overthrow of Apartheid in South Africa and the military
dictatorships in much of Latin America.<br />
Mind you, it goes both ways. Insofar as you use (consciously or not) the
divisions within the extant power structure, you open yourself up to being used
by them (there’s no “free lunch”, at least not in this dynamic). Invariably,
the very forces within the power structure you neutralise or win over, however
transiently, will want their “pound of flesh” in return.<br />
For “it must follow, as the night the day”: counting on fractures in the power
structure and using them – consciously, half-consciously, or not at all –
renders the revolutionary upsurge of the people vulnerable to that power
structure’s attempts to manipulate and even hijack it.<br />
Whether you default on your debt, give over half a pound or ten or have your
kneecaps shot out depends on a great many factors, all of which boil down to a
basic balance of forces between the revolution and its strange bedfellows.<br />
One crucial feature of this always-highly-complex dynamic is awareness.
Revolutionary risings invariably “re-educate” sections of the ruling class –
sentimentally or otherwise – but yet again, in doing so, they also render the
revolutionary ranks vulnerable to a host of illusions about those they’ve
“re-educated”. Teachers take pride in their brighter, more responsive students
– though it might transpire that they’ve only taught them to become better
cheaters.<br />
It’s a fact of life that while you can re-educate the ruling classes in
becoming cleverer or even into conceding different rules of the game,
ameliorating their dominance, you can’t educate them out of their fundamental
nature; individual members certainly, but not whole institutions, interest- and
privilege-based sections of it.<br />
Love fests of the sort we saw repeatedly from the 18 days of 2011 onwards
reveal an intermixture of two contradictory impulses in people’s awareness:
their will to win, on the one hand, and their illusions on the other. Thus, the
“people and the army are one hand” and the photo ops on the top of tanks; the
Tahrir inauguration of prime minister Essam Sharaf; the Tahrir inauguration of
president Mohamed Morsi; and, most recently, “the people, the army and [even]
the police are one hand”, with portraits of El-Sisi held high in Tahrir next to
portraits of Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Illusions, after all, are never merely
products of the moment, but no less of memory.<br />
None of it was lasting. The morning after would invariably bring with it
break-up and acrimony.<br />
The basic argument I have tried to elaborate throughout this “short history”
goes farther, however. The Egyptian revolution did not merely make use of the
rifts within the various power structures it came up against from 25 January
onwards, and was in turn used by them, but was – in fact – the formative
element in creating them.<br />
By their very nature, power structures sit on fault-lines made up of the
diverse interests and orientations of the groups and institutions amalgamated
within them. Authoritarian power structures tend to be more internally
disciplined, fixed and less adaptive, but as such are considerably more brittle
than the more “hegemonic” variety, wherein changes in the power structure’s
external environment (made up first and foremost by the “hegemonised”) is much
more readily reflected in renegotiating the power relations within it. (An
African-American Democrat, of Muslim descent, coming to the White House on the
heels of a right-wing Republican in daily conversation with a jealously
Christian God being a notable case in point).<br />
For fault-lines to become deep schisms, in power structures as in the Earth’s
crust, you need pressure from below, in the shape of volcanic activity or
indeed, popular uprisings. My basic thesis here is that it was the ongoing
revolutionary upsurge of the Egyptian people that would repeatedly disrupt
attempts at rebuilding the power structure, transform fault-lines into
fissures.<br />
I have – rather presumptuously, I admit – borrowed the title of this essay from
Howard Zinn’s remarkable A People’s History of the United States, which in turn
inspired another remarkable, if less universally-known work by Chris Harman, A
People’s History of the World, for this reason: Where many have seen the
turbulence of the past 30 months of Egyptian political history in terms of
“elite” conflicts (civil and military, civil forces and “deep state”,
secularists and Islamists, liberals, Muslim Brothers, leftists and feloul), I
see first and foremost the hand print of the revolutionary upsurge of an
Egyptian people unchained, battling on for emancipation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
8. Tanks at the tip of revolt </h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
30 June was a massive revolutionary uprising by millions of
Egyptians. Was it also a military coup? Sure, but so was each wave of the
Egyptian revolution – the alternative is Syria</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We need first to clearly set out the most fundamental
feature of the 30 June uprising; to see the forest, before we can begin to
examine the trees, shrubs and weeds. This in a word is: revolution. Millions of
Egyptians once again rose in rebellion against their rulers, and for the first
time in modern history brought down an Islamist regime through a popular
uprising.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is history making, and I’m speaking world, rather than
merely Egyptian history. Take it or leave it, but on 30 June the death knell of
so-called “Islamic revival” – going back to the late 70s of the last century –
was sounded.<br />
Having devoted much of my writing over the years to critiquing the “Islamic
revival” paradigm (Westernised elites versus immutably Islamic populations/
Arab-Muslim exceptionalism/ Muslims’ allegedly immutable Islamic identity), I
expect to revisit this topic in the future, but for the moment let’s leave it
in history’s hands.<br />
At all events, win or lose, Islamism – for the first time since its “revival” –
is under attack not by state agents but by the people – millions of people in
Egypt, in Tunisia and even in the heart of its most perfect model –
Western-cherished Turkey itself (even if kept at arm’s length, EU-fashion).<br />
I have no intention here of playing the numbers game, which has been rendered
absurd by sheer exaggeration – on all sides. However many millions went out on
Egyptian streets on 30 June and 3 July, there is little doubt that these were
the largest numbers of protesters the country – and possibly the world – had
ever seen. And they were no longer confined to the big cities.<br />
From its start, the Egyptian revolution had been almost wholly urban. The Tamarod
(Rebel) campaign, the abject failure of Muslim Brotherhood rule and the
widening cracks in the power structure combined to resolve – at least in part
and possibly momentarily – one of the fundamental contradictions at the heart
of the Egyptian revolution. For the first time since 25 January, the
revolutionary upsurge would involve large sections of rural Egypt, south as
well as north.<br />
The breadth, depth and intensity of the Egyptian people’s rejection of Muslim
Brotherhood rule did not require millions on the streets (however many) for us
to see it. Anyone who hadn’t just stepped off a plane or confined his/her stay
in the country to wine and cheese soirees with English speaking academics could
have done so.<br />
And it wasn’t merely the ineptitude of Brotherhood rule, the gas shortages and
economic hardship. Self-conscious “intellectuals”, secretly basking in their
cultural superiority even as they pay homage to subaltern resistance, tend to
see the poor as creatures of basic needs and wants, motivated solely or
principally by their next meal-ticket.<br />
It doesn’t work this way. People don’t rise up in rebellion because they’re
starving, but because they’re aware – however partial and clouded such
awareness may be. On year in power proved more than sufficient for a rebellious
Egyptian people, who had thrown off the shackles of fear, submission and
servitude to see the hideous Mubarak state behind the Muslim Brotherhood’s
bearded mask. They rose up in rebellion.<br />
You might like to check my: <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75509/Opinion/Something-in-the-soul.aspx">“Something
in the soul” (3 July 2013)</a>
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75509/Opinion/Something-in-the-soul.aspx
And: <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75712/Opinion/Egypt%E2%80%99s-second-revolution-Questions-of-legitimacy.aspx">Egypt’s
second revolution: Questions of legitimacy (4 July 2013)</a>
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75712/Opinion/Egypt%E2%80%99s-second-revolution-Questions-of-legitimacy.aspx<br />
Popular uprising says the most fundamental fact about the overthrow of Muslim
Brotherhood rule in Egypt on 30 June, but what of its stickier aspects, its
“strange bed-fellows”?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The revolution or military coup debate is both tired and
childish, revealing as it does an almost deliberate blindness to the real
course of the Egyptian revolution since January 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And let’s put it bluntly: if it’s military coup you’re
looking for, then there’ve been military coups at every major wave of the Egyptian
revolution, against Mubarak in February 2011 and against Tantawi, Enan and the
bulk of their Supreme Council in August 2012, as in that of June/July of 2013.<br />
To put it even more bluntly, the ultimate instrument for the actual removal
from power of these three consecutive regimes has been the military – not NATO
bombers, an Egyptian Free Army, or worker and peasant battalions at the
barricades.<br />
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, and invariably comes at a hefty price, but
denial doesn’t make it sweater or any less real.<br />
In strategic terms, the Egyptian revolution always came up against the task of
neutralizing the army, if not necessarily winning it over. We might hate to
admit it, deny it or gloss over it (strategic thinking hasn’t been a particular
forte of our revolutionaries, sad to say), but rejecting it would imply that
the actual practice of the Egyptian revolution (civil disobedience and largely
peaceful protest) has been misguided from the start: “Aux armes, citoyens” and
good luck to you (though you might give a thought to the advance in weapons
technology since 1789).<br />
As for Western liberals and leftists who continue to bewail the military stigma
tainting our revolution (conveniently if paradoxically, in this particular
third wave and not the previous two), they might have a look at Syria.
Translate the number of victims of the ongoing Syrian carnage as percentage of
the population into Egyptian terms, and you get nearly 3.5 million Egyptians
killed. If that’s what it takes to keep your consciences clear, friends; it is
a price we would rather avoid, thank you. We might add as well that it is a
price the Syrian revolution would have much rather not been forced to pay, even
if the Jihadists seem to have a particular relish for it.<br />
With this in mind, we might get back to military coups and conspiracies in
Egypt post-25 Jan 2011. That the first wave of the Egyptian revolution involved
“a military coup” at the tip is not a subject for debate; it’s fact.
Conspiracy? Sure, since it’s highly doubtful that Mubarak was privy to SCAF
discussions of his possible ouster. The Americans almost certainly, but not the
old man himself who, like the late Shah of Iran and many other tyrants the
world over, must have felt betrayed by his own men and erstwhile allies. Morsi would
drink from the same cup two and a half years later.<br />
Yet the second ouster – of SCAF itself – a little over a year ago (12 August
2012) bears closer inspection. Morsi has been credited widely with a brilliant
coup, if not a military one, in unseating the Muslim Brotherhood’s now humbled,
battered and demoralized partners in Mubarak’s inheritance. Brilliance, to say
the least, has hardly been a feature of the Brotherhood’s performance in and
out of power, yet the real point here is that crediting Morsi and his group
with unseating SCAF reveals either complete ignorance of the institutional
makeup and real dynamics of the Egyptian state, or plain hypocrisy. Morsi did
not overthrow SCAF, the military did.<br />
The story is now well known: Field Marshal Tantawi and Chief of Staff Enan
called in to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with Morsi, are made to cool
their heels in one salon, while in another, Abdel-Fatah El-Sissi, the youngest
member of SCAF, is being sworn in as Armed Forces chief and defence minister.
It goes without saying that El-Sissi wouldn’t have dared make that particular
visit to the Presidential Palace behind his commanders’ backs without already
having ensured the full support of the most important field commanders of the
armed forces. Had it been otherwise, “the coup” against the Brotherhood
would’ve come much earlier.<br />
The fact that the officers corps (from general to lieutenant) overwhelmingly
welcomed, even celebrated, the humiliating removal of their high command is
equally well known to a great many Egyptians, many of whom have friends or
relations in the army.<br />
And it was not because the army had been Islamised or Brotherhoodised in the
interim, though Western observers had a field day pontificating on El-Sissi’s
possible Islamist sympathies, presumably evident by virtue of his wife’s veil
and his regular observation of Muslim prayers.<br />
It so happens, the Egyptian military had been scrupulously immunised against
political allegiances of any sort, and in particular against political Islamism
in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular, which the Mubarak regime
no less than his military saw as their most serious challenge. Officers showing
even the least sign of sympathy to Islamism would be weeded out with great
alacrity, while the Brotherhood’s top leadership was made fully aware that any
attempt to infiltrate the military would be considered the ultimate deal
breaker in the “banned but tolerated” formula under which the state and the
Brotherhood played their cat and mouse games from the time of president Anwar
Sadat onwards. Simply, it would be back to the concentration camps, with which
the Brotherhood had become quite familiar under Nasser.<br />
The reason the second tier of the military command structure opted to utilise
Morsi’s presidential legitimacy to rid itself of its high command – to wide
ranging support from the officers’ ranks – was fundamentally military in
nature. It was to protect the military institution itself, and the nearly
sacrosanct and privileged position it had held for decades within the Egyptian
state. The aged, tyrannical and bungling leadership of the SCAF had in the
course of its year and a half rule brought the military to the most terrible
moment in its history.<br />
Hated, despised and ridiculed as never before, the writing was literally on the
wall – take a walk in any large Egyptian city, and you’ll find remaining
examples of the profusion of anti-military graffiti of the time.<br />
Needless to say, it was neither Morsi nor the Brotherhood, nor indeed the
Islamist trend as a whole that brought the military to this unenviable
position. Till the very end, Muslim Brotherhood leaders and officials persisted
in singing the military’s praises and condemning any and all resistance to
SCAF’s authoritarian rule, even as they acted to use that resistance to shift
the balance of forces within the post-revolution ruling alliance in their
favour.<br />
Again, it was the people’s continuing revolutionary upsurge that led to the
unseating of SCAF, and – as an unintended consequence – caused the reordering
of power relations within the power structure of the country, with the
Brotherhood now enjoying nearly uncontested supremacy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
9. Mapping the fault-lines</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
It seemed to be working: the army was – more or less – back
in the barracks, the police were now doing their torture and killing for the
Brotherhood, the Judiciary was being subdued and MB and Mubarak Oligarchs were
making nice</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Muslim Brotherhood supremacy would prove eminently fleeting,
as we now know. It needn’t have been, at least not in terms of the new power
arrangement as it unfolded with the overthrow of SCAF.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The new military command had deeply absorbed the extremely
harsh lesson of SCAF’s reign: if the Egyptian military was to maintain its
institutional integrity, cohesion as well as its privileged status within the
power structure, it was best to stay out of the political morass that was
Egypt’s post-revolutionary reality. El-Sissi set about trying to heal the
scars, focusing almost exclusively on internal institutional concerns.<br />
The Muslim Brotherhood rulers, for their own part, were happy to maintain and
even widen the privileged status of the military in the Egyptian state
structure. The Constitution drawn up exclusively by the Brotherhood and its
Islamist allies would ostensibly set this in stone, including the military
prosecution and trial of civilians, which the people had resisted fiercely.<br />
The police, which under Mubarak had become the mainstay of the regime (far
superseding the military in this respect), seemed happy to work under the very
Muslim Brotherhood leaders they’d hounded and persecuted for decades, even as
they maintained open lines of communication with them throughout.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 25 January revolution had delivered a devastating blow
to the gargantuan police apparatus in the country, and from 28 January 2011
onwards we would have a police force that had gone partially rogue, partially
on undeclared strike (with horrific ramifications for the personal security of
citizens, including the rise of vigilantism and mob violence throughout the
country). They would flex their muscles mainly on such occasions as would allow
them to reassert their viciousness and take vengeance on the rebellious people
who had so soundly humiliated them. This had been the case under the SCAF and
would remain so under the Muslim Brotherhood.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In January 2013 Morsi would hand pick his new interior
minister, Gen. Mohamed Ibrahim, from among police ranks (he’d been assistant
Interior Minister for Prisons). Ibrahim would continue in his post till today,
with nearly everybody conveniently forgetting that if Morsi is to be prosecuted
and tried for the killing, injuring and torture of protesters, Ibrahim would
have to share the dock with him, just as former interior minister Habib El-Adly
shared Mubarak’s on similar charges.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Throughout Morsi’s year in office, not a single attempt
would be made to reform the police (a major demand of the revolution), not a
single attempt would be made to bring retribution to the killers and torturers
(another prominent revolutionary demand, let alone an oft repeated pledge by
Morsi and his group), and the killings and torture would continue – now against
the opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood rulers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unlike the military and the police with which the
Brotherhood was obliged to deal as partners in power, even if now in a
subordinate capacity, the judiciary seemed there for the taking, for a number
of reasons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the course of the previous three decades, Islamists and
in particular the Brotherhood had made a fair headway within judicial ranks
(rulings of apostasy providing a prime example). Nevertheless, the bulk of the
top judiciary in the country was proving an obstacle to Brotherhood plans, basically
through the Supreme Court’s unconstitutionality rulings against electoral laws.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How far such rulings reflected an anti-Brotherhood political
bias, or yet another instance of the assertion of a measure of judicial
independence from the executive authority is debatable. Yet there is no
denying, first, that such rulings were almost symptomatic of Mubarak’s reign,
wherein two Mubarak parliaments (elected in 1984, 1987) were dissolved by the
Constitutional Court, forcing Mubarak “legislation tailors” to amend and
re-amend electoral laws to render them passable under the court’s oversight –
an authority which even Mubarak could not openly flaunt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How far such rulings reflected an anti-Brotherhood political
bias, or yet another instance of the assertion of a measure of judicial
independence from the executive authority is debatable. Yet there is no
denying, first, that such rulings were almost symptomatic of Mubarak’s reign,
wherein two Mubarak parliaments (elected in 1984, 1987) were dissolved by the
Constitutional Court, forcing Mubarak “legislation tailors” to amend and
re-amend electoral laws to render them passable under the court’s oversight –
an authority which even Mubarak could not openly flaunt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there is no doubt; secondly, that judicial supervision
of the polls was the single obstacle to outright rigging. Under pressure to
introduce political reforms, the Mubarak regime provided for “full judicial
supervision” of the 2005 parliamentary elections, without which the
unprecedented win of 88 parliamentary seats by the Muslim Brotherhood would
have been impossible. The Mubarak chorus launched a concerted attack on “the
politicisation of the judiciary”, and by 2007 the stipulation for full judicial
supervision was removed. The 2010 parliamentary elections would give the
Brotherhood zero seats in parliament.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With not a little irony, the Muslim Brotherhood would take
up where Mubarak left off. The aim here as in every other field of government
was not to foster the independence of the judiciary, which indeed had been
subject to continuous attack and subversion of its independence under Mubarak,
but to take it over and subordinate it to Brotherhood will and, indeed, whim.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In yet another twist of irony, the Brotherhood would use,
wholly cynically, the flawed court cases against the Mubarak clique as a
pretext for its attack on the judiciary. Yet whatever the complicity of some
sections of the judiciary in this (evident more on the prosecution than on the
bench side of the institution), the real culprit here was the unreformed police
force, and behind it, the wilful failure of the SCAF-Brotherhood alliance to
introduce even an iota of a transitional justice process. It was a case, as I
pointed out at the time, of the criminal being charged with investigating his
crimes, and even providing incontrovertible evidence for his having committed
it. In short, a farce.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Brotherhood would make considerable noise about
“retribution” (a hilarious video of Morsi’s electoral campaign unearthed by the
brilliant TV satirist Bassem Youssef, shows Supreme Guide Badei audibly
whispering the word “retribution” in Morsi’s ear as the then presidential
candidate was making a public speech); they would – of course – do nothing
about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Islamist mobs would lay siege to the High Constitutional
Court to prevent it from convening and issuing then inevitable rulings of
unconstitutionality against both the Islamist-dominated Shura Council and the
Constituent Assembly, on the same basis that led to the dissolution of the
lower house of parliament, and indeed to the dissolution of two Mubarak
parliaments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Morsi – now almost universally hailed as Egypt’s first
freely elected president – would exchange his ostensibly constitutional
“legitimacy” for a “revolutionary” one, immunise the twin assemblies and his
decisions against judicial review.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, initially and despite judicial rumblings, the Muslim
Brotherhood’s drive to subdue the judiciary seemed to be meeting with
tremendous success. They would prevent the Constitutional Court from issuing
its then eminent rulings of unconstitutionality against the Constituent
Assembly and the Shura Council; retire some 3000 senior judges (clearing the
deck for their own people), and would get rid of the most troublesome members
of the Constitutional Court itself. Morsi would illegally appoint one of his
own as Prosecutor General. The latter, Talaat Ibrahim, would show himself to be
the same kind of obedient henchman of the new masters of the nation, just as
his predecessor had done under Mubarak and SCAF.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This ostensibly highly successful attack on the judiciary
would prove a significant nail in the coffin of Muslim Brotherhood rule in the
country. But that would come later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, of course, there were the Mubarak-era Oligarchs and
NDP feloul. Both have been attributed with extraordinary influence in both the
30 June uprising and beyond – indeed such influence as would have saved the
Mubarak regime and aborted the revolution back in January 2011.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But irrespective of the opinions of impressionable foreign
journalists and conspiracy-theory inclined Egyptian intellectuals, the
Brotherhood/Mubarak remnants fault-line was not, initially, as sharp or as
profound as some would like to believe. The presidential elections had
witnessed the highest and most efficient level of mobilisation these “remnants”
would be able to pull together since the first few months of the Egyptian
revolution left them largely headless, shattered and demoralised. The fact that
the best presidential candidate they – along with the SCAF and the security and
intelligence bodies – could come up with was the hopelessly mediocre Ahmed
Shafiq is revealing of the extent of their political disintegration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet these are imminently realistic people. Unlike Muslim
Brotherhood leadership and cadre, whose highly opportunistic pragmatism is
constructed within a sense of Divinely-inspired and -sanctioned mission (lies,
betrayals and subterfuge come a lot easier when ostensibly approved by God
Himself), the Mubarak feloul were always and would remain the ultimate homo
economicus, driven by very little more than crass self-interest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leading NDP cadres had been ardent socialists under Nasser,
zealous supporters of open door economic policy and realignment with the West
under Sadat, and devoted neo-liberals under Mubarak.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To describe them as secularists is a joke born out of sheer
ignorance. One need only recall the amount of Islamist-oriented legislation and
rhetoric throughout the Mubarak years, the book bannings and the bouts of fury
by the NDP dominated parliament against books and works of art deemed
“un-Islamic”, the constant ruling party led redrafting of school curricula to
render them more “Islamic”, the continuous fostering of bigotry and anti-Coptic
sentiment by these same NDP leaders throughout these same squalid years.
Indeed, the closed, exclusivist and bigoted “Islam” that came to overwhelmingly
dominate public discourse in the country during Mubarak’s three decades in
power was as much a product of his regime, as of its Islamist opposition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For its own part, the Muslim Brotherhood was willing to play
ball. Morsi’s year in office would see the release of most top NDP leaders from
prison. Reconciliation negotiations with Mubarak era Oligarchs charged with, or
sentenced for corruption were ongoing with nearly all of them (under which
charges and/or sentences would be dropped in return for their handing over some
of their loot back to the state), including the most notorious representative
of the bunch, Mubarak-buddy and business tycoon, Hussein Salem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Muslim Brotherhood’s most prominent Oligarchs, Khayrat
El-Shater and Hassan Malek, we would find out, had an open line of
communications with business tycoon and minister of industry under Mubarak,
Rashid Mohamed Rashid, who just happened to be in the UAE avoiding a 15-year
prison sentence for corruption back in Egypt.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The president himself (who never tired of reminding us of
his “legitimacy”) would take along Rashid, a fugitive from Egyptian justice, on
a visit to Qatar. Apparently, business connections involving El-Shater, Malek
and Rashid with both Turkey and Qatar would prove stronger than to be affected
by such trivialities as old regime/new regime, revolution, corruption, prison
sentences and the Supreme Guide’s cherished “retribution”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The real love-fest, however, was occasioned by Morsi’s visit
to China (in Sept. 2012), in which he was accompanied by some 60 Mubarak era
business tycoons, the most prominent of whom was Mohamed Fardi Khamis, a
leading member of the NDP and of Gamal Mubarak’s inner circle, who was
implicated in organizing and financing the notorious Battle of the Camel.
Needless to say, the Muslim Brotherhood’s very own Oligarch, Hassan Malek,
headed the business delegation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To hear the Mubarak Oligarchs talk upon their return from
China; one could not help but be moved by the fervor of new-found love. Both
publicly and privately, they would marvel at how affable, reasonable and
open-minded they’d discovered the new Islamist president to be. Their plunder
and greed would go on as before, their privileged access to the state and state
resources unthreatened and unchecked, even if they have to open up their ranks
a bit wider to allow the new up-and-coming Islamist actual and would-be
Oligarchs their share of Egypt’s ever bountiful pie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fault-lines certainly, but just like those on which the
SCAF-MB power-sharing accommodation had seemed to sit comfortably; they would
prove eminently vulnerable to volcanic eruptions from below.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<i>To be continued!</i></h4>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<i>(The above was published as a series of 9 installments on
Ahram Online: http://english.ahram.org.eg)</i></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-51360699073459779652013-10-31T12:02:00.002+02:002013-11-23T10:45:01.756+02:00Atef Said's: The People and the Revolution <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-people-and-the-revolution/"><span style="color: #1c9bdc; font-family: Calibri;"><strong>The People and the Revolution</strong></span></a></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">By <a href="http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/the-people-and-the-revolution/" target="_blank">Atef Said</a></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifGePZOhwo6FRV82rpOdZ-VSLMXXTe_d_5LACmd8kiaFNHU4ZUlI1znsQa182u9OKSwfDHjDxHVPEJiK8KXxtURTeIwvCbFRjaQjl4Nfa5XHvHeGO7RcHORqXTAhCt8HtpeemU-NhjdU8/s1600/atef+said.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifGePZOhwo6FRV82rpOdZ-VSLMXXTe_d_5LACmd8kiaFNHU4ZUlI1znsQa182u9OKSwfDHjDxHVPEJiK8KXxtURTeIwvCbFRjaQjl4Nfa5XHvHeGO7RcHORqXTAhCt8HtpeemU-NhjdU8/s1600/atef+said.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Atef Said</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<em>(I had the great pleasure of meeting, and sharing a panel with Egyptian activist and scholar Atef Said in June of this year at the </em><a href="http://www.socialismconference.org/" target="_blank"><em>Socialism 2013</em></a><em> conference in Chicago, USA. Below, Atef offers a brilliant, if overly kind discussion of my "People's History of the Egyptian Revolution", and does so more eloquently than I wrote the piece. I hope his call for "mobilizing ideas" on the subject matter helps motivate a wider debate. It is also a powerful incentive for me to actually finish the damn thing.)</em></h4>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Revolutions are messy affairs. If you want
them sparkling clean, sanitary and sanitized, with a love interest and happy
ending under a fluttering revolutionary flag—well, go to Hollywood.”</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">“Where many
have seen the turbulence of the past 30 months of Egyptian political history in
terms of ‘elite’ conflicts (civil </span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">and<i> military, civil forces and ‘deep state’, secularists and Islamists,
liberals, Muslim Brothers, leftists and feloul*), I see first and foremost the
hand print of the revolutionary upsurge of an Egyptian people unchained,
battling on for emancipation.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Hani Shukrallah (Egyptian Writer)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em>Recently
prominent leftist journalist and writer Hani Shukrallah wrote a series of
articles under the title of “</em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/82372/Opinion/A-people%E2%80%99s-history-of-the-Egyptian-revolution-.aspx"><em>The
People’s History of the Egyptian Revolution</em></a><em>.”<o:p></o:p></em></span></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shukrallah was
the former editor-in-chief of <i>Al-Ahram Weekly</i>, the best English-language
paper in Egypt, between 1991 and 2005. He is also the founder of Al-Ahram
Online, and was its editor-in-chief from 2011 until early 2013 when the Muslim
Brotherhood government forced him to resign. He is the author of </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Egypt-Arabs-World-Reflections-Twenty-first/dp/9774164865/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383056220&sr=8-1&keywords=Egypt%2C+the+Arabs+and+the+World%3A+Reflections+at+the+Turn+of+the+Twenty-First+Century" title="Egypt, the Arabs and the World: Reflections at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century"><span style="color: #1c9bdc;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i>Egypt,
the Arabs and the World: Reflections at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century</i>,</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
published in 2011 by the American University in Cairo Press. He is perhaps one
of the most elegant political writers in the English language in Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Against the
numerous narrow accounts that have been offered of events in Egypt—particularly
those that leapt to huge conclusions after short-term successes—Shukrallah’s
series offers a careful, nuanced analysis. He discusses how messy the
trajectory of events was, and also how unprepared the revolutionaries were. He
also warns us against one-dimensional analyses. We cannot, for example, focus
only on the celebrated 18 days of revolution in 2011, without examining what led
to those protests and their aftermath. Similarly, it is of little use to
debate, often in dichotomous and reductionist terms, whether the ousting of
Morsi in July 2013 constituted another phase of the revolution or a military
coup—particularly when underlying assumptions such as whether or not Morsi was
democratically elected in the first place remain hotly contested. And like the
events in 2011, the ousting of Morsi in 2013 needs to be understood in its
proper historical context. People have been protesting since 2011 to voice
their disappointment with the continuation of human rights abuses, the ongoing
corruption of political elites, and the continuation of unilateral decision
made by the country’s consecutive rulers. In other words, what happened in July
2013 should be seen as part of the longer trajectory of the January 2011
revolution. Moreover, complex and varied processes are at work, combining mass
uprisings and military interventions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shukrallah starts
his first installment of the series with a quote from Howard Zinn, from whom
Shukrallah took inspiration. The quote goes: “<i>The memory of the oppressed
people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such
memories, revolt is an inch below the surface.</i>” Shukrallah then adds: “<i>No
popular revolution is ever fully prepared for the tasks, vision and aspirations
that set it into motion.” </i>He highlights the importance of looking at the
ups and downs what has been happening in Egypt since 2011. He seems to have
taken up the late Charles Tilly’s call to understand revolutions as
trajectories, not merely in terms of a superficial dichotomy of success
or failure. Shukrallah’s account explores the rollercoaster of
emotions experienced by people during the revolution; he writes in the seventh
installment:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a
Sisyphean aspect to the Egyptian revolution. Incessantly pushing the boulder of
radical democratic transformation up a steep, jagged hill composed of the
resistance of the old authoritarian society, the very moment it seems to have
reached the summit is also the moment it appears to find itself back at the
bottom of the hill – yet again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we focus only
on questions of whether or not revolutionaries seize power as the ultimate
criteria defining revolutions, we will fail to see that problems emerge and
re-emerge at various points in time. Far from a discrete moment in time,
Shukrallah highlights how we might, for example, think of the Egyptian
Revolution as having three waves: one against Mubarak, then another against the
Supreme Council of Armed Forces, and the third against Mohamed Morsi,. Part of
a single broad trajectory, each wave or phase, nonetheless, requires separate
investigation to understand their similarities and their differences.
Shukrallah writes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Each of the three
waves of the Egyptian revolution would carry with it its own distinct baggage
of illusions, weaknesses, distortions and unique challenges, yet each would
find the revolution had inched closer to its objectives, more able to impose
its will, leaving its antagonists weaker, their ranks considerably more
fractured and disorganized. And, no less significantly, at each phase, the
revolution finds it has ‘re-educated’ sections of its traditional opponents,
rendered them more willing to concede at least some aspects of the people’s
revolutionary will, even as many among them act to undermine and hijack it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Why is such
writing important for scholars of revolutions in sociology?</span></b><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> Let us go back a bit. Sociology is a
pioneering discipline when it comes to studying revolutions. Some classical
sociological studies of revolutions are masterpieces that have been assigned in
reading lists across the social sciences and humanities. Many of these early
canonical works focused on comparative, macro-causal understandings of
revolutions. But few, if any works provided in-depth ethnographic accounts of
revolutions. As a result, the discipline lacks the richer understanding that
comes only from people’s stories and narratives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The irony is that
there seem to be a lack on interest in one of the most central concepts in
revolutions: “the people.” As sociologists and social scientists in
general, we tend to think of the “people” as a general, overly amorphous term
that cannot be studied as such. Instead, we break it down to classes,
organizations, civil society, elite, union, and other “concrete” entities more
friendly to social scientific study. The outcome, however, is that we have
sacrificed understanding how ideas such as the “power of the people,” for
example, have a special meaning during times of organizing and at very
exceptional moments such as revolutions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some scholars
have suggested that the Arab Spring saw the emergence of new subjectivities,
especially in the age of new media. Was it a coincidence that one of the key
slogans at the center of mobilization in these events was “the people want the
removal of the regime”? The people may be an invented category, like many
categories in political theory. But we ought to remember that this category and
the very idea of “we the people,” were originated in revolutionary contexts.
The term is revolutionary par excellence. It is the social movements of
ordinary people that both scholars and activists care about the most.
Shukrallah’s series is a refreshing invitation to think through the relevance
of the category of people in the Egyptian revolution and the Arab Spring, and
perhaps to studies of revolutions at large.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">* <i>feloul is a
term many Egyptian scholars and activists use to refer to the people belong to
the Mubrak regime.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-34748509531665436382013-10-29T19:04:00.000+02:002013-11-23T10:45:29.677+02:00'Something in the soul...'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
'Something in the soul...'<o:p></o:p></h2>
<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
Egyptians are overthrowing an Islamist regime, once again
defying lazy stereotypes about the region <o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<em>Hani Shukrallah , Wednesday 3 Jul 2013<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxkWt-fdhGggrsdlahMlila4y4OXT26QW76b2dmzwRngNHoWzaxi-3rP6_eaO0DRBgjmjmAu2oY70YG8drYw_Vx9423Tvm-1XL3MyppTOOsPJH0Sa5kneEUv5FaBEv4iQT_aEKPYFJc0/s1600/3+July.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkxkWt-fdhGggrsdlahMlila4y4OXT26QW76b2dmzwRngNHoWzaxi-3rP6_eaO0DRBgjmjmAu2oY70YG8drYw_Vx9423Tvm-1XL3MyppTOOsPJH0Sa5kneEUv5FaBEv4iQT_aEKPYFJc0/s1600/3+July.JPG" height="231" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Egypt is making world history; in particular, world
revolutionary history. Already, it is firmly up there with the two axiomatic
revolutions of the modern world, the French and Russian revolutions. The
popular upsurge on 30 June has been described as the biggest demonstration in
the history of mankind; we would be hard pressed as well to site other examples
of two major revolutionary upsurges in the space of two and a half years,
overthrowing two regimes (and make no bones about it, the Muslim Brotherhood regime
in Egypt is over and done with), meanwhile putting somewhere between 30-40
percent of the nation’s adult population on the streets in a single day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Simply, there is no historical precedent for any of this.
Let alone that even in the grimmest of times during the past two and a half
years, under the military/Muslim Brotherhood alliance, under the Muslim
Brotherhood/Military alliance, and under the Muslim Brotherhood’s frenzied
power grab, popular resistance did not cease for a single day. And it was thus
that the first wave of the Egyptian revolution slipped – just like waves are
known to do – into the second.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also, for the first time in modern political history, a
popular revolution is in the process of overthrowing an Islamist regime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thirty-four years in Pakistan, another 34 years in Iran, 24
years in Sudan, a foreign invasion to oust the Taliban in Afghanistan (and
never mind for the moment the fractured and corrupt caricature that has
produced), a foreign invasion actually bringing Shia Islamists to power in
Iraq, which Saddam had been Islamising already via a debased marriage of
degenerate Arab nationalism and Sunni Islamism. Against that backdrop, the
overwhelming conviction everywhere was that once in power, Islamists were there
to stay – short that is of foreign invasion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Egyptians, however, did it, in 12 months. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All of which makes it doubly imperative for the
revolutionary and democratic forces in the country to be fully aware of their
place in history, and for God’s sake to not let the trees blind them to the
wonderous magical forest that lies just beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom,”
said Martin Luther King Jr. so many years ago, his memorable words quoted by
none other than Barak Obama in his 12 Feb. statement on the Egyptian
revolution, which a day earlier had successfully overthrown Hosni Mubarak’s
obdurate 30-year rule. For the American president it was rhetorical flourish,
even as his administration, both before 11 February 2011 and since, acted consistently
to help strangulate that very “something” in Egypt’s soul.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet for the rest of us, there are few phrases that sum up
Egypt’s continuing revolution as aptly or as eloquently. For over 30 years, the
overwhelmingly predominant perspective on Arabs and Muslims was that they were
somehow a uniquely notable exception to King’s words, even in their most
vulgarised, stunted<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sense, as
neo-liberal free market economics accompanied by some form of equally stunted
parliamentary democracy, more often than not overseen by local Mafiosi billionaires,
and their networks overseas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, ours’ was not an “orange revolution” of the kind so
favoured by global capitalism; if it has any colour at all, it is the deep red
of the blood of our martyrs, no less than as a reflection of the centrality of
the social at its very heart. Egypt’s revolutionary banner back in Jan. 2011,
as it is today proclaims: Bread, Freedom, Social Justice, and Human Dignity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As predominant dogma would have it, the political, social,
cultural and economic behaviour of Arabs and Muslims could only be understood by
reference to Islam, wherein, supposedly, “freedom” has little or no place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tens of thousands of words have been written pontificating
on this theme; Mr. Huntington created his absurd little meta-theory of “the
clash of civilizations”, the very thrust of which was to presumably explain
Arab/Muslim “exceptionalism”; Mr. Fukuyama grudgingly admitted that Muslims may
indeed be the globalised world’s single exception to his “end of history”,
constituted by neo-liberal economic policy and oligarchic liberal democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On one occasion during these fatuous decades, I had to
suffer through a lecture by an intensely post modern American scholar in which
he argued that Islamism in the Arab and Muslim worlds was the Muslims’
equivalent of the feminist and gay liberation movements in the West. This
mind-numbingly boring drivel was thankfully delivered in English, and to an
American University in Cairo (AUC) audience, who lapped it up. Had it been
delivered to real, as opposed to “fashionable” Islamists, the young post-modern
scholar would have been hard put to escape the lecture hall bruise free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Needless to say, this predominant rubbish was shared and
upheld as jealously on our side of the Atlantic/Mediterranean as on theirs. The
policy ramifications were simple: Arabs and Muslims could be governed only by
“semi-secular” police states or Islamist regimes, preferably with some form of
“representative, electoral” political system (even if the Iranian variety could
be dismissed, purely arbitrarily), and even more preferably, based on an
accommodation between generals and mullahs – to which US ambassador in Egypt,
Anne Patterson, seems particularly wedded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve spent the best part of the last thirty years critiquing
this predominant paradigm, at a stage of our history which I had come to
describe as the “Arabs’ age of ugly choices.” Today, on 2 July 2013, having
just returned from Tahrir, it is with joyous glee that I thumb my nose at the
literally thousands of pundits, academics, commentators, politicos and
post-modern fashionistas, even as I, most humbly, bow to the indomitable spirit
and love of freedom of my people: thank you Egyptians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>(Published on Ahram Online: </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75509/Opinion/Something-in-the-soul.aspx" target="_blank"><em>http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/4/0/75509/Opinion/Something-in-the-soul.aspx</em></a><em> 3 July 2013)</em></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-79428552011388204012013-10-28T10:25:00.001+02:002013-11-23T11:20:16.841+02:00Coverage in black and white: Mainstream media and post-30 June Egypt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you were looking for truthful, objective and balanced
coverage of the profoundly complex, intensely polarised Egyptian scene after
the 30 June uprising, you had to look outside the mainstream media – at home or
abroad<o:p></o:p></h3>
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Hani Shukrallah , Wednesday 23 Oct 2013</h4>
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<o:p></o:p> </h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br /></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
1. Egypt media <o:p></o:p></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Think of American mainstream media in the aftermath of 9/11
and you might get a general idea of the state of the Egyptian equivalent since
the June 30 uprising against Muslim Brotherhood rule—allowing, that is, for
less sophistication and a considerably greater measure of crudity. The
fluttering flags at the top of television screens, along with variations on the
“war on terror” banner, were copied almost identically, if less tastefully, by
both state-owned and private Egyptian television stations from CNN, FOX, and
the rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The triggers may have been vastly different, but it was the
same flag waving, frantic patriotism, and warlike mindsets, wherein the best
interests of one side take precedence over any other consideration. This
includes the unquestioning acceptance of whatever the “leaders” of “our side”
churn out in terms of information or misinformation. Saddam Hussein’s nuclear
capability and culpability in 9/11 were no more unimpeachable by halfway decent
journalism than the alleged caches of chemical weaponry in Rabaa al-Adaweya
Square and the claims of U.S.-Muslim Brotherhood collusion and conspiracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet the respective merits, or lack thereof, in the descent
into bad journalism in either of these cases are not our concern here. The
point is in the drawn battle lines: it’s hurray for our side and let the devil
take the hindmost, regardless of basic standards and ethics of journalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On June 30 millions of Egyptians rose up against Muslim
Brotherhood rule; their rebellion was supported by the armed forces, the
police, and the intelligence bodies, among other organs of state. While there
was little doubt in anyone’s mind in the country that the majority of Egyptians
supported the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi and his group, the
Brotherhood and their Islamist allies had the support of a fairly sizeable
minority of the population that, moreover, was well organized and highly
committed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thus, on one side, a popular rebellion, unprecedented in
scale and intensity and easily surpassing that which had overthrown Mubarak,
and on another, a political/ideological movement that had just realized an
80-year old dream, that believed itself chosen by God to fulfill His will on
earth, and that is the best organized and financed—if among the least
politically savvy—political organization in the country. Add to this the fact
that the military, the police, and other state bodies had sided with the
uprising, putting their heads on the block in the event of failure, and you
have all the ingredients of a life-and-death confrontation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A contest of this nature might well put the best
journalism—the most rooted in sound tradition and institutional
sophistication—to harsh test. It would, however, strike an Egyptian journalism
that already had been in the throes of deep crisis. To even begin to unravel
the salient features of this crisis, a little background is necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the best part of half a century, Egypt’s media was
overwhelmingly dominated by state ownership and control, with private
enterprise nonexistent or negligible. The monopoly began to fracture in the
2000s, especially during the second half of the decade. New privately-owned
daily newspapers began to emerge, increasingly competing with the giant
state-owned news organizations. This was followed by the emergence of private
satellite television channels, which in turn—and as the decade was drawing to a
close—took viewers away from state-owned television, which had been
considerably more government controlled than the print media. State television
had also been facing stiff competition from the emergent Arab satellite news
channels, most notably Al Jazeera. The Egyptian revolution of January 25, 2011
would drive this process considerably further, yet to this day terrestrial
television channels remain the exclusive monopoly of the state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">State media enterprises, both print and broadcast, had in
the course of Mubarak’s 30-year rule degenerated into bloated,
corruption-ridden, and supremely inefficient dinosaurs, their survival<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the livelihoods of the thousands they
employed dependent on state largesse and their monopoly status. Even when faced
with steeply declining readership and growing competition from the
up-and-coming private dailies, the state-owned print media maintained its grip
on a wholly disproportionate segment of available advertising monies, thanks to
government meddling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fact, one chief editor of a top state-owned news
organization was known to shrug off dwindling readership, saying it meant
bigger profits, what with the backing of a crony capitalist state guaranteeing
the daily some 70 percent of the country’s total print advertising budget, paired
with savings on expensive newsprint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet the situation was untenable even before the Egyptian
revolution triggered a deep economic recession, which continues to this day and
sends advertising revenues in all media, especially print, down the drain. Even
the most successful print news organization, al-Ahram, owed billions in unpaid
back taxes. The ERTU (Egyptian Radio and Television Federation) was
consistently making such huge losses that one media expert suggested that
shutting down the gigantic state-owned organization would be sufficient to
finance the government’s yawning budget deficit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sycophancy and the perception of the journalist as an
obsequious servant of the president had become the rule. The chairmen and chief
editors of the main state-owned newspapers were, effectively, presidential
appointees, often in fierce competition among themselves over presidential
favor. In a private conversation with one pre-revolution chief editor, I
suggested that the only way to face the competition from privately-owned
dailies was to move toward “greater balance.” The answer was droll, if honest:
“And you want those sons of … [he went on to name a number of his prominent
peers at the head of other state-owned dailies] to malign me with the
president?” On the occasion of Mubarak’s last birthday in power, that
particular editor published a full-page editorial article under the title, “The
Day Egypt was Reborn.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The sycophancy and bidding wars among top-ranking editors
and journalists became particularly embarrassing after February 2011. Come the
revolution, with its unsavory habit of changing rulers every few months, the
leaders of state-owned media outlets went into a tizzy of shifting allegiances.
On the morning after Mubarak’s ouster, the top newspaper in the country,
al-Ahram, ran a heroic banner headline proclaiming, “The People Have Overthrown
the Regime;” just a few days earlier the paper’s banner headlines, under the
same editor, proclaimed unyielding love and support for Mubarak by Egypt’s
teeming millions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shamelessly, the top journalists in the country would go on
changing fawning loyalties with every major change in the post-revolution power
structure, from Mubarak to Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi and his Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. (One
senior journalist and erstwhile member of Mubarak’s Policies Committee would by
the time Morsi was in power explain to colleagues how he’d discovered that, at
heart, he’d always been a Muslim Brother.) Now, it’s back to the military,
currently led by General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, and the fawning is considerably
more heated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For its part, the privately-owned media, which had created a
window of dissent and a semblance of professionalism under Mubarak and beyond,
has floundered badly in the face of the challenge of post June 30 intense
political polarization. It is worth noting that even within the state-owned
media, cracks always existed through which the more professional and ethical
journalists could make some impact. The post-June 30 polarization has all but
sealed those cracks, pushing state- no less than privately-owned journalism
into an abyss of frenzied bias and unprofessionalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reasons behind the failure of the privately-owned media
are many. Institutionally and financially fragile, these fairly young news
organizations, whether print or broadcast, were already suffering from poor
management practices, including inordinately intrusive interference by owners.
With the bulk of their senior editors and journalists drawn from the
state-owned media (for many years, the sole source of journalism in the
country), they were not free of the mindsets, perspectives, and prevalent
practices that had evolved over decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most significantly, the very role and mission of journalism
has remained bound within an authoritarian mindset, wherein the dominant
perception is one of “mobilizing” or “guiding” public opinion rather than
presenting the public with the truth. A free press is still seen more as a
diversity of opinions and media outlets rather than a commitment to balanced
and truthful coverage by journalists and their respective media organizations.
This has been starkly apparent in the broadcast media, wherein public opinion
talk shows have become the single most important source of “news” available to
the Egyptian public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Intense political polarization after June 30, coupled with
the bellicose posture occasioned by the severity of the confrontation with the
Muslim Brotherhood, did away with whatever diversity had existed in journalism
beforehand. Television presenters and anchors have been transformed into
overzealous preachers shouting harangues from their various pulpits. Meanwhile,
the few exceptionally talented and ethical among them, such as ONTV’s Reem
Maged and Yousry Fouda and the enormously popular CBC satirist Bassem Youssef,
have disappeared off the airwaves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the time being, in print and on television, it’s the
season for passionate bias, bizarre conspiracy theories, “deep state”
propaganda, and a virtual collapse of journalistic standards. Egypt’s top
journalist and most prominent political analyst, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, put
it bluntly in a recent television interview. The Egyptian people need the
truth, he said, and they’re not getting it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">(The above was first published by the Washington-based
Middle East Institute: </span><a href="http://www.mei.edu/content/continued-descent-egyptian-media"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.mei.edu/content/continued-descent-egyptian-media</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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2. Western media<o:p></o:p></h4>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nearly everybody failed the test of Egypt’s post-30 June
turmoil. Mainstream media everywhere, in the West, in the Middle East as in
Egypt itself, earns a well deserved “F” for their coverage of the intense and
bloody polarization of Egyptian society that followed upon the overthrow of
Muslim Brotherhood rule in the country. They equally receive failure marks on
objectivity, balance and honesty, even bare facts.</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/world/middleeast/egypt.html?ref=mohamedelbaradei" target="_blank"><em><span style="color: #005689; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">New York Times</span></em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;"> story</span></span></a> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">would describe Mohamed Baradei as one of
Interim President Adly Mansour’s vice-presidents (there was only one, Baradei
himself); some weeks later, </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/596888/egyptian-soldiers-will-no-longer-swear-loyalty-to-president/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">AFP story run by the </span></span><em><span style="color: #005689; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">International Herald Tribune</span></em></a><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
would describe defense minister Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi as (guess?!) – you got it:
Egypt’s vice president (he never held that particular post).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nitpicking? Possibly, but I suggest revealing nonetheless.
Even for an editor sitting in New York or Paris, who has not bothered to
actually follow the Egyptian scene before writing stories about it, such
rudimentary information is a Google search-click away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But let’s get a teeny bit Freudian here. Certainly, such
foolish “slips” cannot have been deliberate, yet there is some logic to them,
even if on a subconscious level. Baradei is rather positively perceived by NYT
readers, so he can’t be The Vice-President (which might, however vaguely
reflect positively on the “military coup”), but one of several. El-Sissi, on
the other hand, is evil incarnate, the real ruler of the country and the
architect of the coup. So, for an AFP editor or reporter, he can’t be a mere
defense minister, he must at least be vice-president.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On 30 June the New York Times would report on the anti-Morsi
demonstrations under the title: “By the millions, Egyptians seek Morsi’s
ouster.” </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/world/middleeast/egypt.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">story</span></span></a> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">would acknowledge that
“the scale of the demonstrations… appeared to exceed even the massive street
protests in the heady final days of the uprising that overthrew President Hosni
Mubarak in 2011.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet, the <i>Washington Post</i>, which throughout almost
militantly hoisted the pro-Morsi “democratic legitimacy” banner, would speak of
“rival protests”, under the vague headline: </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;">“<a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-30/world/40292480_1_brandished-wooden-clubs-liberal-and-secular-activists-muslim-brotherhood" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">Tension
roils Egypt as protests grow</span></span></a>.” </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a surprising bit
of gratuitous editorializing, the Post story would report that some pro-Morsi
supporters “brandished wooden clubs, canes and metal pipes”, but goes on to add
that these were “to defend themselves in the event that clashes erupted between
the two camps.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you wanted background, Morsi supporters in fact had been
known to use clubs, canes, metal pipes and indeed, swords, guns and knives to
attack anti-Morsi protesters (as had occurred on a number of occasions since
Egyptians took to Tahrir Square as early as 12 October 2012 to protest his
rule, and was most shockingly revealed on the night of 8 December of the same year,
in the armed attack by Muslim Brotherhood supporters on protesters sitting in
before the Presidential Palace.) But background notwithstanding, how was it
that the Post correspondent was able to discern whether the clubs, etc. were to
be used defensively or offensively?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Journalism is about truth, which is always nuanced, complex
and multifaceted. The act of reporting is one of discovery. So when a
journalist sets out to cover a story which he/she has all but scripted already
and is out for the odd observation, quote, color to beef it up, the very
mission of journalism goes out the window.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This, sadly, happens only too often, but is especially
manifested when a local story becomes of international interest. For it is then
that the big shots in the business are called upon to deploy in the field. They
do so in droves, bringing along their baggage of biases, preconceived notions
and, in the case of a Third World Muslim nation, a host of inherited and
continuously updated banalities as to what makes “us” tick –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this, plus a storehouse of ignorance of the
country, its people and history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Western media and experts would also pontificate on how
Egyptians are indoctrinated from childhood to worship their armed forces,
neglecting to even note that just a mere year before, and for a full year and a
half, “down with military rule” was being chanted by hundreds of thousands in
the country – and that in fact it was the fierce resistance to military rule by
these hundreds of thousands that brought down the Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces (SCAF). This resistance, incidentally, was consistently boycotted and
condemned by the Muslim Brotherhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yet this is not unusual for foreign journalists reporting on
a Third World nation, even in the most mundane of circumstances. They just love
to spew out easy generalizations. How many times have you come across a quote
of Herodotus’ silly remark about Egypt being “the gift of the Nile” or, more
significantly, the assertion of the fundamentally Islamic identity of Muslim
peoples?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The common denominator of nearly all mainstream coverage of
the Egyptian scene after the 30 June uprising against President Mohamed Morsi
and Muslim Brotherhood rule was not just bias, however, but zeal. And while one
may find some excuse for this in the case of Egyptian journalists – who almost
literally were standing on opposite sides of the barricade – I fail to see why
visiting Western journalists would get so hot and bothered about it. Yet,
foreign or local, a Crusading journalist is by definition a very poor one,
looking not for truth but for ammunition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One could offer several aspects to the failure of Western
journalism to provide honest, unbiased and truthful coverage of the post-30
June Egyptian scene, yet all of these have one thing in common: they say much
more about the reporter than the issues and people being reported. Almost
invariably they reflect purely Western considerations and concerns, which
feature very little, if at all in those of the “locals”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take the decades-old paradigm that Muslims’ political,
social and cultural existence and behavior can only be understood in terms of
Islam – whatever that means. This revival of 19th century European Orientalism
had – since the late 1970s – firmed up into an overwhelmingly predominant
conventional wisdom, so much so that none other than Francis Fukuyama would
grudgingly admit that Samuel Huntington may be right after all; that Islamic
nations could prove the single global exception to his “end of history” thesis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shaken during the first months of the Arab Spring, later
developments would seem to consolidate this conventional wisdom. So much so
that the hysterical reaction to the Prophet Mohammed-insulting film (Sept.
2012) would drive Newsweek to yet another “Muslim rage” cover. An old Freud
fan, I described this at the time as “regression to infantile Orientalism”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With such baggage, Western journalists were ill-equipped to
see and try to understand a popular uprising by millions of Muslims against an
ostensibly Islamic regime – and a “moderate” one at that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Take as well, the strategic shift in Western nations’
foreign policy towards the Arab Middle East. Since the fateful 9/11, American
policy makers and their European allies were coming increasingly to the
conclusion that failed “semi-secular” police states – selling themselves to the
West as bulwarks against militant Islamist mayhem – were in fact breeding
grounds for extremism and militant Islamist terror. It was almost a dream come
true that the very mother of modern Islamism, Egypt and its Muslim Brotherhood,
would provide an Islamist alternative that is reasonable, friendly to the West,
willing to commit to Israeli security and to Arab-Israeli peace accords, and to
play – at least formally – by democratic norms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It makes some sense that denial would prove to be the best
way to see such a sterling model (whose potentially beneficial spill-over
effects could reach as far as the war-torn hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan,
where American soldiers continued to die) go down the drain. And there is
nothing new in mainstream Western media identifying with the more strategic
requisites of their nations’ foreign policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Even the most benevolent impulse would show itself as of
purely Western concern. Among many on the liberal side of the profession,
“Islamophobia” is quite properly an arch enemy, to be fiercely fought whenever
and wherever it rears its ugly head. Yet, a Muslim population cannot be
“Islamophobic”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I’ve always
thought “Islamophobia” an unfortunate term, since what it describes is
anti-Muslim racism, and racism as anyone who has had a taste of it knows, has
nothing to do with fear (however irrational) and everything to do with
contempt. (British “Paki-bashers” were bashing away long before “Muslim rage”
became all the rage).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In dread of being white supremacists towards the Muslim
community in West, liberal journalists and editors didn’t seem to care about
showing Western supremacist colors towards the millions of Egyptians who rose
up in revolt against Muslim Brotherhood rule. In their eyes, these millions –
despite continuous fierce resistance to authoritarianism for two and a half
years – could have no political will of their own; were driven by the
machinations of the deep-state and the military, and at best, misguided
liberals and leftists who wouldn’t heed the good advice of the doubtlessly more
rational, wiser and more politically sophisticated European and American
counter-parts. Britain’s The Guardian would expose some not so spick and span
petticoats in a recent </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/07/arrested-spy-stork-killed-eaten-egypt" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: blue;">cutesy piece</span></span></a> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">about Egypt’s
notorious “spy stork” being hunted and eaten – hungry people will eat whatever
they can get their hands on, there’s nothing cute or amusing about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All in all, the Western coverage of Egypt’s tumultuous
political upheaval since 30 June has been as polarized and partisan as that in
Egypt itself. During the 18 day uprising against Mubarak (Jan/Feb 2011) we
would go to Al Jazeera, CNN or the BBC for coverage of at least some of what
was truly happening in the country. Since 30 June of this year, mainstream
media at home, in the region or abroad has all but shut out the very notion of
a balanced story. For the time being, it’s either look outside the mainstream
or shuttle between biases in the hope of picking out some truths, here and
there.</span></div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<em>(Published on Ahram Online: </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/84578/Opinion/Coverage-in-black-and-white-Mainstream-media-and-p.aspx"><em>http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/84578/Opinion/Coverage-in-black-and-white-Mainstream-media-and-p.aspx</em></a><em> - 23 Oct. 2013)</em></h4>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-1305350572523009582013-10-28T07:37:00.000+02:002013-11-23T11:20:52.518+02:00Western media and the Brotherhood: Secrets behind the love affair<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why does the Western media refuse to see the
epochal resurgence of Egypt's revolutionary spirit? Because love is blind<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><em>Hani Shukrallah , Monday 10 Dec 2012</em></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><em></em></span> </h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3f0heWGgQX-yoTC__27B-A_zme5GsRJH5tjXlQWA4sLESUudf07jA8tSFrdf0_Iys-y18QTvrVMLpcSBsHgrFD28HIMXQUFTxcfOjWL07afardnceeoyNmxPJjGhQVQBE-V12hobl1Y/s1600/newsweek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT3f0heWGgQX-yoTC__27B-A_zme5GsRJH5tjXlQWA4sLESUudf07jA8tSFrdf0_Iys-y18QTvrVMLpcSBsHgrFD28HIMXQUFTxcfOjWL07afardnceeoyNmxPJjGhQVQBE-V12hobl1Y/s1600/newsweek.jpg" height="215" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><em><o:p></o:p></em></span> </h4>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Friday morning, and as Egypt’s resurgent
revolution was preparing to lock horns yet again with forces bent on its
destruction, I received (an exceedingly) long distance call from an Australian
broadcast journalist. They wanted a phone interview with me on the
confrontation between “the Muslim Brotherhood and the pro-Mubarak forces,”
explained the female voice on the other side of the line. Utterly baffled by
the bizarre question, it took me a while to reply. Finally, with admittedly a
nasty chuckle, I said it seemed that by the time Egypt’s news gets half way
across the globe to reach down under, it tends to be rather distorted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My Australian colleague took my unpleasantness
in stride, and genially asked if they could phone me a little later for the interview.
Yet, and despite my having agreed reluctantly to the interview, I was so
disgusted with what I felt was the Western media’s almost obdurate
unwillingness to understand, or even see what was going on in our country, I
decided not to take it after all. Repeated rings of my mobile phone went
unanswered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Distance, in fact, had nothing to do with it.
Egypt was once again making world history; millions of Egyptians across the
country were engaged in open popular revolt against the rule of the Muslim
Brotherhood, almost literally the mother of all modern political Islamist
movements, not least the dread Al-Qaeda, which had occupied the centre stage of
global politics – and Western media attention – for close on three decades.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So remarkable was this
new wave of the Egyptian revolution, its reach extended from the heartland of
Brotherhood-support in Upper Egypt to Mediterranean Alexandria, which in turn
had appeared to have thoroughly renounced its rich cosmopolitan heritage to
become the distasteful playground of grim Taliban-like Salafists.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was, moreover, the
first ever popular uprising against a ruling Islamist movement, much wider in
scope, intensity and social composition than any of the revolts we’d seen
hitherto against the Ayatollahs’ rule in Iran.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet, the Western
media seemed unmoved and uninterested. “They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So pronounced has been
the Western media’s neglect and disinclination to even see with a bare minimum
of clarity the epochal transformation taking place in Egypt that over the past
week my Facebook page has been regaled with postings of: </span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PETITION: The Egyptian
Revolution 2.0 Needs International Coverage.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though the petition
was strongly reflective of the above, I did not sign it – for two reasons. As a
journalist I am constitutionally averse to any kind of pressure on media
professionals, whether it takes the shape of government censorship, attacks by
fascist hooligans of the sort we’ve been witnessing Brotherhood and Salafist
thugs making on Cairo’s Media City, or even the benign form of a Facebook
petition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Secondly, it’s futile.
You have neither the clout, power of intimidation, blackmail nor means of
tangible punishment that the pro-Israel lobby has been deploying most
effectively against the Western media for decades (and which, it so happens,
our own MB has been aping on a considerably more local scale through its
e-militias, truncheon-wielding militias, no less than its take-over bid of the
state owned media, and its “constitutional” bid to muzzle all media.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nor should you. And
pleading is embarrassing, let alone ineffectual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why then this obdurate
blindness that seems suddenly to have struck the Western media vis-à-vis Egypt?
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I would suggest two
basic reasons, one deep-seated, almost visceral, while the other is conscious,
interest-bound and utilitarian.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The default setting of
the Western media’s perspective on Egypt, as on Muslim-majority nations in
general, is derivative – a function of “Western Man’s” very sense of identity.
The great Edward Said has shown just how fundamental has been the “Orient”,
particularly the Muslim “Orient”, to the formation of the identity of modern
Europe, later redefined as “The West”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And while the “West”
may not particularly love Islam and Muslims, it simply adores their
“difference”, just as a miserably married couple will revel in the misfortune
of their divorced neighbours. It makes them feel good about themselves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was thus that
modern Europe denied the great Muslim/Arab tradition of rationalism and
humanism, even as it appropriated it. Al-Farabi (Latinized, Alpharabius</span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">), </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Sina
(Avicenna) had not given this tradition over to a Europe just emerging from its
“Dark Ages”, but were mere postmen of history, delivering the message from
Europe’s ostensible infancy in Ancient Greek. And thus too, the West’s
“rationalism” came to be contrasted with the Muslim Orient’s “mysticism” and
supposedly unquestioning adherence to religious dogma, the West’s attachment to
freedom versus the Muslim attachment to despotism, individualism versus
tribalism, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During the past thirty
years or so, and in conjunction with the rise of political Islam, such
Orientalist nonsense was revived, dusted-off, polished and updated with
extraordinary zeal. Not surprisingly, the Islamists willingly and enthusiastically
jumped on the bandwagon. Practically overnight, the myth of fundamentally
Islamic peoples who had been ruled by “Westernised elites” and were now coming
into their own, became the conventional wisdom permeating all discourse on
Muslim-majority, particularly Arab nations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Arch-Zionist and one
time British spook, Bernard Louis would tell us such things as: “To the modern
Western observer,” Islamic behviour in the modern world may appear anomalous,
anachronistic and absurd, but he would hasten to add, “it is neither
anachronistic nor absurd in relation to Islam.” By 1990, well before the 9/ 11
atrocity, Louis would take his bizarre-Muslims theory a little bit further,
giving us the Clash, “the perhaps irrational but surely historical reaction of an
ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage.” Samuel Huntington would
later “develop” it into one of the most ridiculous pieces of political theory
ever (badly)-written, “The Clash of Civilizations”, first in essay, then in
book form.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But clash, dialogue or
love-fest, the real point is the dissimilarity. In contrast to the rest of the
world, and specifically to the “West”, the behavior of Muslims, be it
political, social, or cultural can only be understood “in relation to Islam”,
and this an Islam divested of the greatest and most enlightened of its
traditions, an Islam defined and delimited by modern day Islamists,
conservative, literalist and regressive. Not only was the great tradition of
Islamic rationalism to be denied, but every other feature of the richness and
diversity of our inherited and contemporary culture. Everything from a Thousand
and One Nights to Om Kalthoum would be thrown by the way side.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mubarak, no less than
Islamist forces in Egypt and outside were happy to subscribe to variations of
such a reductive perspective. For the sitting dictator, it was proof positive
that his vicious police state was the only bulwark standing between the world
and an Islamist flood sweeping the country, beloved Israel, the Greater Middle
East, crossing over into the European heartland, and exploding a nuclear device
in some major American city.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the dictators in
waiting, it was proof positive that they were “the authentic” representatives
of an overwhelmingly “authentic” population, (“90% of the people,” to quote Mr
Morsi, who won the presidential election by a bare 51% of the vote) – all they
need do is convince the “West” that, in power, they would make nice with
Israel, keep the Greater Middle East safe for the World Bank, IMF and
multi-national corporations, and that their often rabid civilization clashing
was really confined to domestic “others”, including liberal ninnies, commie
agitators, licentious riff-raff such as artists, writers and journalists, and,
of course, local Christians, Shiites and Bahaais.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Arab Spring,
especially the Egyptian revolution, came to unseat the all pervasive,
pernicious paradigm. And for a brief period the Western media seemed happy to
discover that for Arabs and Muslims too, there was “something in the soul that
cries out of freedom,” as Obama was to quote Martin Luther King Jr. in his
salute to the Egyptian revolution on 12 February 2011.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet, even during those
glorious 18 days of Jan-Feb of that year, I would constantly get Western
journalists querying me about “the crucial” or “decisive” part Islamists,
particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, were playing in the revolution. Where they
got such certitude I was at a loss to understand, seeing that there were
millions on the streets, that you’d be hard pressed to find a single sign or
chant in Cairo’s Tahrir or anywhere else in the country calling for the
application of Sharia’a or “governance by what God has ordained,” that the
revolutionary banner of: Bread, Freedom, Social Justice, had not an ounce of
Islamism in it, that Christians and Muslims, women and men, fought together
shoulder to shoulder, and that egalitarianism among all Egyptians had been the
overriding ethic of the Egyptian revolution.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All too soon, the
readiness of the Brotherhood and its Salafist allies coupled to the
unpreparedness of the revolutionaries (due to 30 years of the eradication of
politics under Mubarak) seemed to bear the deep-seated bias out. The extremely
nuanced and complex reality of post revolutionary Egypt would be made to
disappear, and the Western media’s coverage of the emergent political landscape
in the country would regress into – what I’ve come to call – infantile
Orientalism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Deep-seated bias is
only one part of the explanation, however. The second secret to the love affair
is much more down to earth, essentially a function of </span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">realpolitik</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. For the US-led Western alliance, the Muslim
Brotherhood in power in Egypt proved to be the answer to a prayer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Notwithstanding all
the rhetoric about the liberation of “Islamic Palestine”, Egypt’s new rulers
would swear themselves blue in the face that they would uphold the commitment
to the peace treaty with Israel, collaborate with the “hated enemy” in fighting
terrorists in Sinai, bring in American troops and sophisticated spying
equipment into the troubled peninsula’s demilitarized Area C, all the while
maintaining “strategic ties” with Washington.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It would take the US/Egypt
brokered truce in Gaza, however, to have Western media and pundits drooling
over Mr Morsi and his up-and-coming Muslim Brotherhood run and controlled
regime. All of a sudden, they discovered that not only was the MB president as
compliant as his predecessor on “Israeli security”, but that he was proving a
much more effective partner in this respect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Suddenly, the
realization hit home: Here was a democratically elected president (albeit
narrowly), backed by “authentic” Islamist Muslims, not only in Egypt but
throughout the Greater Middle East, able not only to intimidate and pressure
Hamas into “reasonableness”, as Mubarak’s Omar Suleiman was known to do, but to
do so in his capacity as Big Brother to the errant Palestinian branch of his
movement. A unique and previously unexpected prize of this order was simply too
precious to squander, even for the sake of such niceties as basic liberties and
human rights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So precious indeed,
that one Israeli political writer suggested only last week that Netanyahu’s
Israel might be in the process of making a strategic shift in its attitude to
Hamas. Translated from the Hebrew by Media-Clips-Isr, Alex Fishman, writing in </span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yedioth Aharonot, </span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">suggests that under Netanyahu’s leadership
Israel was in the process of changing its policy on the Gaza Strip, and that
“Instead of toppling Hamas, it wants to give the Hamas regime power so that it
will ensure quiet and to push it toward the Sunni, anti-Iranian coalition of
Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.” Far-fetched, you might say. Possibly, I admit I
haven’t been following Israeli politics as I should, what with domestic
Egyptian developments overwhelming time and thought. Yet, very indicative, to
say the least.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rehabilitating Hamas
with a view to “safeguarding Israeli security”, as defined by Netanyhau, no
less than setting up a regional Sunni coalition against Iran are, it goes
without saying, top agenda items in US/European policy in the Middle East.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But there is a more
compelling reason for the Western alliance and its media’s love affair with
Egypt’s Brotherhood – one of even greater strategic import. For some time now,
the US and its allies had come to realize that the rickety, aged and
corruption-ridden police states in the region, however servile, were very poor
guardians of their vital interests. The Arab Spring seemed to have given rise
to a new and ostensibly much more solid foundation on which to anchor these
interests. And as predicted by nearly everyone for years, some form of
political Islam seemed the only viable alternative at hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> In Egypt, by far
the biggest Arab state and home to Al-Azhar, the very fount-head of Sunni
Islam, the Mother of all Islamist movements, the Muslim Brotherhood, had come
to power and was ready and able to be the sort of loyal friend and guardian of
“vital” Western interests as its predecessors had been, and to do so in a
considerably more “legitimate” and effective manner.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Embroiled for
the past decade in a seemingly endless and harrowing battle against
“terrorism”, specifically against Islamist radicalism, and with Europe
increasingly phobic about the “demographic nightmare” of the Muslim “enemy
within”, the US and its allies now had a model of the kind of Islamism they
could have only dreamed of. By its very existence, such an Egyptian model was
bound to undercut the dread radicals and ameliorate the “Islamist threat”, all
the way from the heart of Paris to the Qaeda infested hills of Afghanistan and
Pakistan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This veritable
treasure was as valuable to hold onto as its opposite, the collapse of such a
model, was to be dreaded. Indubitably, such failure would provide a powerful
boost to Islamist radicals everywhere, a further argument that Jihad rather
than a “Western, Secularist-imported democracy” is the only way forward.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The love affair is
thus explained, and as the popular saying goes “Love is blind.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet, here at home,
the souls of millions of Egyptians continue to cry out for freedom, come what
may.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<o:p><em>(Published on Ahram Online: </em><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/60191.aspx"><em>http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/60191.aspx</em></a><em> - 10 Dec. 2012)</em></o:p></h4>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-62037816921665141282013-10-27T16:12:00.002+02:002013-11-23T13:50:06.265+02:00الوطنية الكروية بين عودة الروح وطلوعها <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2 dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;">
<b><span lang="AR-EG" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">عندما كتبت أهاجم قرائي</span></b></h2>
<h3 dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;">
<b><span lang="AR-EG" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-EG; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">في نوفمبر 2009 دخلت
مصر في حالة لوثة كروية/وطنية/مباركية عملت وسائل الإعلام على إزكائها وصب الوقود
على النار، فكتبت مقالين متتالين في جريدة الشروق (المصرية) – أعيد نشرهما أدناه،
للتذكرة بأن حالات الحمى تضبب العقول</span></b></h3>
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<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnq_H5pYHpmI3NuWgjnOHJUu8iJi29uCzsi3vM04ME9JjvWCY1Jw3ipM_ojuvM1P22u52KgzDbLumslabtqTXAFroSEjyAZeeX1UpNSEHYRwEFphO5H4OQZldXflgOEt-PcDRPirVd1I/s1600/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1+%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKnq_H5pYHpmI3NuWgjnOHJUu8iJi29uCzsi3vM04ME9JjvWCY1Jw3ipM_ojuvM1P22u52KgzDbLumslabtqTXAFroSEjyAZeeX1UpNSEHYRwEFphO5H4OQZldXflgOEt-PcDRPirVd1I/s1600/%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A1+%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></b></div>
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<b><span dir="LTR" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></h2>
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<a href="http://shorouknews.com/columns/hany-shokrallah"><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #ff5a00; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">هاني
شكر الله </span></b></a><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #ff5a00; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">|
</span></b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #8b8b8b; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">نشر فى : السبت 21
نوفمبر 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> أحيانا ما تسبق
محطات التليفزيون برامجها أو متابعاتها الإخبارية بتحذير للمشاهدين بأن ما سيتبع
من محتوى أو مشاهد قد يؤذى أحاسيس بعضهم، لسبب أو لآخر، وأجدنى محتاجا لأن أبدأ
هذا المقال بتحذير مشابه للقراء، فعلى الأرجح سيجده الكثيرون منهم مؤذيا لأحاسيسهم،
تلك التى التهبت حماسا وتفجرت صخبا وفاضت فرحة وحزنا خلال الأيام الماضية بمناسبة
لقاء كرة القدم بين مصر والجزائر لتحديد أى منهما يدخل «المونديال» ليسارع بالخروج
منه. <br />
<br />
وبجانب التحذير هناك توضيح واجب، أضيفه قبل النشر. هذا المقال كتب قبل يوم
«الأربعاء الحزين»، وكنت أتوقع الفوز لا لشىء غير أن الجميع فى هذا البلد تقريبا،
وكلهم يفهمون فى كرة القدم وأحوالها أكثر منى، كانوا واثقين منه ثقة تامة، ومن ثم
فالكتابة التالية ليست مدفوعة لا بالإحباط من الهزيمة ولا هى تنطوى على شماتة من
أى نوع. <br />
<br />
ودعنى أقر بادئ ذى بدء ــ وكى أعطى الفرصة كاملة للانسحاب المبكر درءا لجرح
المشاعر ــ بأن حالة الوطنية الكروية التى تدفقت عارمة فى أنحاء الوطن، وزانت
الشوارع المصرية بألوان العلم المصرى الزاهية لم تبعث فى نفسى أملا بل حسرة، ولم
أرَ فيها عودة للروح وإنما مؤشرا جديدا على «طلعانها». <br />
<br />
ولكن دعنى أسأل من صمد من بين القراء متابعا لحديثنا الجارح هذا: ألا تعتقد أن
هناك قدرا ما من المبالغة فى خطاب الحلم والأمل واللحظات التاريخية والانتصارات
التاريخية، وفى مشاهد الدموع والأحضان والهتافات والمسيرات المليونية، وفى مانشتات
الصحف ومهرجانات التوك شو؟ أليس هناك شىء ما مخجل فى أن نقارن مباراة للكرة أيا ما
كانت أهميتها فى عالم الكرة ببناء الأهرامات والسد العالى وبمعجزة العبور فى 73؟
ألا ترى عزيزى القارئ ــ رغم كل ما فاضت به مشاعرك خلال الأيام والأسابيع الماضية
من مشاعر وطنية جارفة ــ أن فى هذا كله نوع من الابتذال لتاريخنا، ولما ينطوى عليه
ذلك التاريخ من بطولات وإنجازات وتضحيات حقيقية، وفى أمور أكثر أهمية من مباراة
لكرة القدم، ساهم فى تحقيقها مصريون يتجاوز عددهم الـ11 شخصا؟<br />
<br />
وهنا فى الواقع يكمن الوجه الأساسى لانزعاجى من مظاهر الانبعاث الوطنى التى تطل
علينا بين الفينة والأخرى لتسبح بنا فى بحر من التدله فى حب مصر، وذلك هو شكى
العميق فى أن هذا البعث الموسمى ــ كروى الطابع والهوية ــ ينطوى على محتوى حقيقى
من أى نوع، أو أن شيئا ما ايجابيا يمكن أن ينتج عنه. <br />
<br />
دعنا نحاول إذن أن نمسك ببعض المكونات الرئيسية لحالة اليقظة الوطنية الكروية،
استكشافا لما تحمله من محتوى، أو ربما خواء، بادئين بوجهها الأكثر قبحا، وهو ذلك
الماثل فى إحاطة المنافسة الرياضية بحمى قبلية متصاعدة، تقوم على كراهية الآخر،
والتحريض ضده، واللجوء إلى أى مفردات عنصرية جاهزة أو يمكن تصنيعها على عجل لوصم
ذلك الآخر ككل قبيح جدير بالبغض والاحتقار، وفى نهاية المطاف مستحق لممارسة العنف
ضده. <br />
<br />
هناك نوع من السخف فى البحث فيمن بدأ بالتحريض ضد الآخر، وليس عذرا لنا أن الغوغاء
الجزائريين كانوا أكثر همجية وأشد عنفا من أقرانهم من الغوغاء المصريين. <br />
<br />
وليس عذرا مقنعا أن بلدان أخرى «متقدمة» تشهد عنفا وتحريضا كرويا. التحريض فى
بلدان كبريطانيا وألمانيا يجرى فى الهامش الأيديولوجى والإعلامى، أدواته الأساسية
هم المتطرفون والإعلام الأصفر بكل أنواعه. أما عندنا ــ سواء فى مصر أو فى الجزائر
ــ فقد لعب الإعلام الرسمى، ولا أعنى الحكومى، ولكن ما يسمى بالإنجليزية الـ</span></b><b><span dir="LTR" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">mainstream</span></b><span dir="RTL"></span><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span dir="RTL"></span> أى التيار العام، الدور
الأكبر والأشد خطورة فى التحريض والتهييج وإثارة أحط المشاعر عنصرية وبدائية
وتغييبا للعقل. (من الواجب مع ذلك الإقرار بأن كبريات «الصحف القومية» المصرية،
وبخاصة جريدة الأهرام التزمت إلى حد كبير بتناول أخلاقى ومسئول).<br />
<br />
واقع الأمر أنه بين عشية وضحاها تحولت الجزائر إلى عدو مصر الأول، وتحول الشعب
الجزائرى إلى الهدف الأبرز لكراهية المصريين وازدرائهم، وكذا فيما يبدو أصبح الشعب
المصرى بالنسبة للشعب الجزائرى ــ وواقع الأمر أن ذلك لم يحدث فيما بين الهوامش
الأكثر تخلفا وجهلا وتطرفا فى المجتمعين ولكن فى القلب من «التيار العام» لكل
منهما. <br />
<br />
الاستعداد العالى للشعوب العربية للانقلاب على بعضها البعض، لأتفه الأسباب،
والاستعداد العالى عندنا هنا فى مصر، للانغماس فى حالة من الحمى الوطنية قوامها
التحريض على شعب عربى آخر، تكشف عن عمق وحدة المرض الذى أصاب الوطن العربى فى
العقود الأخيرة، يكاد يكثفها المثل الشعبى المصرى المعروف: «ما قدرش على الحمار،
اتشطر على البردعة». حالة فشل عام وإحباط عام وإخفاق على كل المستويات وشعور عميق
بالمهانة تبحث كلها عن متنفسات سهلة، عن مجالات لإخراج بعض مما يختزن فى النفوس من
غضب وإحباط وشعور بالإهانة شرط ألا يكلفنا ذلك جهدا أو يعرضنا لعقاب ــ إنها
بالضبط حالة الموظف أو العامل الذى يهينه رئيسه فى العمل فيعود إلى بيته ليضرب
زوجته. وما أتعسها من حالة. <br />
<br />
(مفارقة طريفة حزينة: خلال الأيام الماضية خرج أهالى غزة رافعين الأعلام المصرية،
مشجعين للمنتخب المصرى ومبتهجين بالفوز المصرى فى مباراة السبت، وكان المصريون قد
«هبوا» دفاعا عن السيادة الوطنية ضد محاولات «الغزو» التى قام بها كهول غزة
ونساؤها وأطفالها إبان العدوان الإسرائيلى المتوحش على أراضيهم يناير الماضى). <br />
<br />
ويبدو لى أن الكسل هو العنوان الأبرز لحالة البعث الوطنى كروى الطابع، فهى وطنية
لا تطلب منك شيئا، تضع كل طموحاتك وآمالك بل و«الحلم الوطنى» بأسره، فى 11 شخصا
وربما ضعف أو حتى ضعفى ذلك الرقم من مدربين وإداريين ولاعبين احتياطيين، وكل
المطلوب منك هو الدعاء والتهييص (ضرب الجزائريين بالطوب أو التعرض للضرب على
أيديهم يعد «أوبشيونال»)، وذلك فى مزيج نموذجى من التدين الشكلى وافتقاد الإرادة
الوطنية الذى يشكل أحد العناوين البارزة لحياتنا المعاصرة. <br />
<br />
ليست المشكلة فى الوطنية الكروية إنها وطنية ناقصة أو قاصرة، لمجرد أنها لا تنصب
على القضايا الوطنية الأهم، ولكنها بالتحديد لأنها تستعيض عن الوطنية الحقيقية
بوطنية مزيفة. لسنا بحاجة للمشاركة السياسية فى تحديد مستقبل بلدنا، لسنا على
استعداد لبذل الجهد وتقديم تضحية من أى نوع للدفاع عن كرامتنا الوطنية ضد أعدائنا
الحقيقيين. نمسح منازلنا ونلقى بالمياه الوسخة والزبالة فى الشارع، ونتعامل مع
الشارع كما لو كان ساحة حرب للجميع ضد الجميع. يكفينا وطنية أن نشجع المنتخب
الوطنى لكرة القدم كل بضعة شهور.<br />
<br />
ولكن لنلاحظ أيضا كم هبط سقف طموحاتنا «الوطنية». نريد انتصارات تاريخية لا نبذل
جهدا لتحقيقها أبعد من التصفيق والهتاف لـ11 لاعبا أعلناهم مصب «حلمنا الوطنى»،
حيث جعلنا من الفوز فى مباراة لكرة القدم «حلما وطنيا، وحيث المباراة/ الحلم هى
مجرد الدخول فى المنافسة على كأس العالم وليس الفوز به، وهو دخول نعرف مسبقا أنه
يمر بباب دوار، أى دخول يتبعه خروج، ونعترف صراحة بأن «تاريخية» المباراة تنبع من
أنها قد تكون فرصتنا الأخيرة فى دخول كأس العالم لعقود مقبلة. <br />
<br />
منذ بضعة شهور كتبت فى هذا المكان، التالى: «مباريات المنتخب الوطنى لكرة القدم
تبدو المؤشر الوحيد لوجود ما يمكن أن يسمى بالشعب المصرى، يختفى بانتهاء المباراة
فى حالة الخسارة، وبعد بضع ساعات من الاحتفال فى حالة الفوز».<br />
<br />
روعة الوطنية الكروية أنها وطنية لا تحتاج إلى مواطنين، يكفيها مجرد «مشجعين». <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">وداعا للعقل أهلا بالعضلات </span></b></h2>
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<b><span dir="LTR" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b><br /></div>
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<a href="http://shorouknews.com/columns/hany-shokrallah"><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #ff5a00; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">هاني
شكر الله </span></b></a><b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #ff5a00; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">|
</span></b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #8b8b8b; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">نشر فى : الخميس 26
نوفمبر 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
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<b><span lang="AR-SA" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 7pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> استهللت مقالى
السابق بتحذير (مستعار من التقاليد التليفزيونية) بأن ما سيتبع سيكون على الأرجح
مؤذيا لمشاعر الكثير من القراء. وأكتب اليوم لا لأحذر ولكن لأقرر بأن الهدف الأساسى
من السطور التالية هو إيذاء مشاعر أكبر قدر ممكن من القراء، لعل فى جرح المشاعر ما
قد يسهم ــ ولو بأقل القليل ــ فى إنقاذ العقول. <br />
<br />
المشهد المصرى هذه الأيام تغلب عليه حالة من النكوص العقلى مذهلة فى اتساعها
وشمولها وسطوتها، وكأن أكثرنا جهلا وتخلفا وتعصبا قد أمسكوا بزمام عقولنا، وهو
يذكر بحالة البلاهة التى أمسكت بالشعب الأمريكى بعد 11 سبتمبر، ولكن هناك على
الأقل قتل أكثر من ثلاثة ألف شخص بأفظع الصور فى عملية إرهابية كبرى، فما عذرنا
نحن؟ <br />
<br />
«مجزرتى» الجزائر والخرطوم لم تسفرا، وفقا للتقارير الرسمية، عن قتيل واحد ولم
يتجاوز عدد المصابين بضعة عشرات، وصل فى تقدير وزارة الصحة المصرية لـ31 شخص فقط
لا غير، أكثرهم أصيبوا بإصابات طفيفة لم تحتاج تدخلا طبيا من أى نوع. أين القضية
إذن؟ <br />
<br />
مشجعو كرة القدم البريطانيون من أكثر مشجعى الكرة فى العالم شراسة وهمجية، قاموا
فى نهائى كأس أوروبا 1985 بين ليفربول وهوفنتوس الإيطالى (والذى انعقد فى استاد
هايزل فى بروكسل) بالهجوم على مشجعى هوفنتوس، مما أدى إلى مقتل 39 من المشجعين
الإيطاليين وإصابة المئات منهم، فيما أطلق عليه وقتها «كارثة استاد هايزل». الحادث
روع أوروبا، وعالم كرة القدم، ولكنه لم يسفر عن قطع للعلاقات الدبلوماسية بين
إيطاليا وبريطانيا، ولا عن استدعاء لسفراء، ولا عن تبادل للاتهامات والسباب
العنصرى بين مسئولى البلدين وأجهزة إعلامهما وفنانيهما، وجماهيرهما، إلخ. <br />
<br />
وجهت الإدانة من الجميع ــ بمن فيهم المجتمع البريطانى نفسه ــ لمن ارتكبوا
الجريمة من البلطجية البريطانيين، وأكثرهم من المنتمين للمنظمات الفاشية أو من
المتعاطفين معها، كما تقرر حرمان جمهور الكرة البريطانى من حضور المباريات
الأوروبية لمدة خمس سنوات، مع سنة إضافية لمشجعى نادى ليفربول. <br />
<br />
ويبقى مع ذلك أن خير دليل على حالة النكوص العقلى التى أصابتنا خلال الأيام
الماضية هو الشعبية المفاجئة لعلاء مبارك، وما يقال عن تسارع المئات والآلاف
لترشيحه لرئاسة الجمهورية خلفا لوالده، وذلك بسب تصريحات «صقورية» الطابع أدلى بها
عقب «موقعة» الخرطوم. لا أعرف غير أقل القليل عن الابن البكر لرئيس الجمهورية، ولا
أحمل تجاهه من مشاعر غير تعاطف عميق لمصابه الفادح، وأعرف ــ كأب ــ إنه أفدح ما
يمكن أن يصيب إنسانا. <br />
<br />
ولكن لو صح ما يقال فى بعض وسائل الإعلام أن جماهير الشعب المصرى قررت، بين عشية
وضحاها، اختيار شخصا لا تعرف عنه غير أقل القليل، لمجرد انه أدلى ببعض التصريحات
حادة اللهجة تعليقا على مباراة لكرة القدم، لو كان الأمر هكذا فعلا لكان ذلك
إعلانا بأننا على نفس الصورة التى يتصورنا بها الحزب الحاكم، شعب من البلهاء، فاقد
للأهلية، لا يصلح لاختيار حكامه، ولا يحق له اختيارهم. <br />
<br />
مهرجان السباب العنصرى ضد الشعب الجزائرى هو أيضا دليل فادح وفاضح على حالة النكوص
العقلى التى يبدو أنها قد طالت المجتمع المصرى بأسره، خاصة أجهزة إعلامه
و«فنانيه». المشاعر العنصرية فى أى مكان وزمان وبصرف النظر عن المستهدفين بها هى
تجسيد للجهل والتعصب وتغييب العقل، ولكن عادة ما أن تكون ذات جذور عميقة ولأسباب
لا تقل عمقا وتعقيدا، أما أن تنطلق موجة عنصرية ضد شعب عربى ربطته بمصر روابط نضال
تاريخى مشترك، وأن يكون انطلاقها بسبب «ماتش كورة»، وأن يكون انطلاقها من قلب
«التيار العام» فى المجتمع، فى مزاد مفتوح للإعلاميين والفنانين والسياسيين وأى
مار فى الشارع، يتنافسون جميعا على استخدام أقذع الألفاظ وأشدها عنصرية وأكثرها
بذاءة، فهذا ما يكاد يستعصى على الفهم، ولا يفسر بغير الاعتراف بأننا قد صرنا
مجتمعا معلولا، ومختلا. <br />
<br />
لست من مشاهدى التليفزيون إلا نادرا (باستثناء القنوات الإخبارية)، كما حرصت خلال
الفترة الماضية على الابتعاد تماما عن القنوات الفضائية المصرية التى تحولت أكثرها
إلى منابر شحن وتحريض، سبق اللقاءين الكرويين ولعب دورا بارزا فى إشعال نيران
العنف والعنف المضاد التى شابتهما، ثم استمرت قنواته تتبارى فى تحويل تلك النيران
إلى حريق شامل يستهدف تدمير العلاقات بين شعبين عربيين شقيقين لسنوات وربما عقود. <br />
<br />
أتيح لى مع ذلك أن أشاهد حوارا واحدا (وصلنى عبر البريد الإلكترونى) أجرته قناة
فضائية مصرية مهمة، مع ممثلة مصرية تعرفت بالكاد على ملامحها، تقول فيه بالحرف
الواحد: «احنا لازم نقاطع الجزائر دى تماما، وده شعب متخلف وحقير، وبجد مينفعش إن
احنا نتعامل معاه..». <br />
<br />
وبصرف النظر عن الألفاظ المبتذلة يبدو أن الجميع متفقون على أن «الكرامة» بل
و«الرجولة» المصرية قد تعرضت لإهانات لا تغتفر على أيدى الجزائريين، وهى إهانات لا
تمسحها سوى الدماء، لو أخذنا الخطاب الشائع على محمل الجد. وهكذا انطلقت حملة من
النقد العنيف للحكومة لأنها أرسلت إلى الخرطوم مشجعين «أطرياء»، و«فرافير»، فى حين
كان من واجبها أن ترسل عشرات الآلاف من البلطجية وجماهير «الألترا»، فهؤلاء هم
«رجال» مصر الحقيقيون، كان بمقدورهم أن يذيقوا أقرانهم من البلطجية الجزائريين
العلقة مقابل العلقة، وينتصروا بذلك لكرامة مصر ورجولتها. <br />
<br />
وفى الحقيقة فإن التغنى برجولة جماهير الفقراء، أولئك «المصريون الحقيقيون»، حسبما
وصفهم المثقفين والإعلاميين والفنانين الذين تبادلوا بدورهم الاتهامات الضمنية
«بالفرفرة»، يخفى وراءه ما يكنه هؤلاء من احتقار عميق لأولئك «المصريين
الحقيقيين». فالمعنى المستبطن هنا هو أن التوظيف الأمثل لهؤلاء الجماهير هو
كبلطجية. <br />
<br />
إذا كانت الدعوى لانتخاب علاء مبارك رئيسا للجمهورية لمجرد إصداره لتصريحات حادة
اللهجة عن الجزائر تنم عن بلاهة فاضحة، فإن دعوى تحويل الجماهير المصرية إلى
بلطجية محمولين جوا تنطوى بالفعل على نكوص ذهنى وحضارى مروع. فقط المجتمعات شديدة
البدائية هى التى تجعل من القوة العضلية قيمة عليا، ومعيارا لـ«الرجولة»، ومكمنا
للسطوة والنفوذ، بل وربما لزعامة القبيلة أو القوم بأسرهم. وإذا كان الأمر كذلك،
فلعلنا وقعنا أخيرا على حل ناجع لمشكلة رئاسة الجمهورية التى استحوذت على اهتمام
الرأى العام، واحتلت موقع الصدارة فى النقاش العام فى الفترة السابقة على العدوان
الجزائرى المقيت. <br />
<br />
فلماذا لا نعقد تصفيات مصارعة وملاكمة وتاى كوندو وغيرها من فنون القتال اليدوى،
يسمح فيها باستخدام السنج والمطاوى وعبوات البيروسول، والفائز ننصبه زعيما للأمة،
تنتهى ولايته بمجرد ظهور فتوة أقوى وأشد بأسا من بين صفوف الشعب المصرى الحقيقى.
زعيم كهذا هو المؤهل لأن يقود جماهير البلطجية الغفيرة دفاعا عن كرامة الأمة فى
معاركها الكبرى ــ فى استادات كرة القدم داخل أرض الوطن وخارجها. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-39124768078675952872013-10-26T16:16:00.005+02:002013-11-23T13:44:07.060+02:00Kiss and kill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Me on Ikwanweb (or When tongue-in-cheek proves prophetic)</h2>
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I wrote the piece below for The Daily Star-Egypt in 2006. The newspaper later changed hands and staff - and their old online archive can no longer be found. Yet a google search will bring it up on Ikhwanweb: <a href="http://newmuslimbrotherhood.com/article.php?id=3354&ref=search.php">http://newmuslimbrotherhood.com/article.php?id=3354&ref=search.php</a>. </h3>
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Kiss and kill</h3>
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Hani Shukrallah, The Daily Star (October 3, 2006)</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“What could America do to help push democratization
forward in Egypt?” an American friend connected to U.S. policy-making circles
asked me recently. My usual answer to that particularly persistent question
is: “democratize Israel.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">America’s foremost ally and strategic partner in the Middle
East is a self-defined Jewish state, in which 20 percent of the population
are Palestinian Arabs, and where 5.3 million people lord it over 5 million
others, 3.7 million of whom (the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank) are
totally disenfranchised (Palestinian self-rule remains the farce it has
always been, notwithstanding all the internal bickering over who rules in an
effectively empty self-rule arrangement, in which Israel holds all the
strings – from money to life itself). None of it seems to provide the U.S
with a suitable model for promoting democracy in the region. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Moreover, it has been my long-held belief that Arab
authoritarianism is intimately tied to Israel’s continued oppression and
dispossession of the Palestinians, and aggression against neighboring Arab
states. And this not only because it provides authoritarian Arab regimes with
the excellent pretext of having to safeguard the “internal front” or
“homeland security” against a foreign threat (a pretext with which Americans
should have become quite familiar since 9/11), but even more significantly
because of the extremely distorting effects this seemingly endless
victimization of Palestinians and Arabs has had on the intellectual and political
climate in the Arab world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I could also have mentioned: “end the occupation of Iraq”;
“let up on Iran”; “stop fanning the flames of a clash of civilizations”; “try
to refrain from making statements that describe the destruction of </span><a href="http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3232" target="_top"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Lebanon</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
and murder of thousands of Lebanese civilians as ‘the birth pangs of the New
Middle East’”; “don’t pass laws that sanction torture, obliterate due process
and make a mockery of the principal of a fair trial”; “stop trying to
undermine International Humanitarian Law by subverting the Geneva
Conventions”. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I said none of this however. It was a friendly, laid-back
conversation. I was in no mood for lecturing. And, unlike many of my fellow “intellectuals”,
I make an effort to learn from experience. It would have been an exercise in
futility. However polite my American interlocutor may have been, in his/her
mind little wheels would have been turning to the effect that “here we go
again, another Arab blaming everyone but themselves for their own failures.”
My awareness of that particular line of thinking is rather bolstered by the
fact that, in part, I happen to share it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, instead, I suggested that rather than harping on
about El-Ghad Party’s Ayman Nour’s imprisonment, President George W. Bush
should make a powerful statement defending the Muslim Brotherhood, calling
for their legalization as a political party and condemning their ongoing
repression. After all, the Brotherhood happens to be the largest political
opposition in the country; they hold 87 parliamentary seats; and they
continue to suffer the greatest share of political repression. Such a
statement, I pointed out, would be tantamount to dropping a whole flock of
birds with a single stone. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is only right and proper. Whether you happen to like
the Brotherhood or not, there is no denying that their recognition as a legal
political entity is absolutely crucial to achieving even a semblance of a
democratic political process in the country. Moreover, a top-level American
statement in defense of the democratic rights of the Brotherhood would go a
long way towards countering the charge of double-standards with which both
the authoritarian regimes and the pro-democracy opposition, in Egypt and
throughout the region, hold Washington’s claims of promoting democracy and
human rights in the Middle East. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It would possibly help also in countering the increasingly
virulent perception, from Morocco to Pakistan and beyond, that Washington’s
perpetual “war on terror” is, in fact, a war against Islam and Muslims, a new
Crusade designed to undermine and subvert Muslim societies, obliterate our
cultural and religious identity and impose Western-style democracy,
licentiousness and depravity on our peoples. However unfair these charges
may be, a statement by President Bush in defense of the Brotherhood (with or
even without benefit of a special communication from God) would be considerably
more effective in changing Arab and Muslim hearts and minds than a hundred of
these Iftar banquets he’s been in the habit of hosting over the past few
years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is also the fact that since the Hamas electoral
victory in the Palestinian territories early this year, most Arabs – and a
considerable number of American Middle East experts as well – have come to
the conclusion that the Bush Administration has had a change of heart
regarding its declared top-priority objective of promoting democracy in the
Greater Middle East. Such a perception was further reinforced when Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice visited Egypt, soon after, and met with President
Mubarak. In a subsequent interview with the editors of the state-owned press,
Mubarak asserted that Ms. Rice was convinced that Egypt’s “gradualist
approach” to political reform was the proper path to take, and that she had
even told him of her belief that “a full generation” was required before
democracy could be achieved in the Arab world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">True, the American administration has continued to insist
that it is as committed as ever to the cause of democratization in the
region, with President Bush lately issuing even stronger and increasingly
more flowery statements on the matter. But, ask around. No one here really
believes it – especially when they see the US and its European allies
starving the Palestinians for having exercised their democratic right to
choose their own – albeit powerless – government. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One final, juicy bird, I suggested, tongue-in-cheek. A
statement by President Bush in defense of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,
while only right and proper, would outstrip all the persistent efforts of
domestic secularists in undermining the group’s political and ideological
sway. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was reminded of all this when last week, jailed Ayman
Nour and his Ghad Party made a flurry of statements vehemently denying any
involvement in a letter sent to President Bush urging him to intervene to
free Nour. An official statement issued by the Ghad Party charged that the letter
was a hoax perpetrated by the Egyptian Interior Ministry to “defame Nour and
destroy him morally.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some weeks earlier, President Bush singled out Minister of
Industry and Foreign Trade, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, as a model of Egypt’s
young reformers in whom he pins his hopes for political and economic reform
in the country. The minister hastened to make a statement denying any
responsibility for Bush’s compliment. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A couple of years before, the American President declared
his enthusiastic support for Iran’s reformers. They lost the election.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this part of the world, it seems, President Bush’s
kisses leave a lot to be desired. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-36867579999024205012013-10-25T11:48:00.001+02:002013-11-23T13:44:39.427+02:00A terror of hamburgers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<em>My latest bit of interview pastiche reminded me of a previous one, at the start of the "War on Terror":</em></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
A terror of hamburgers</h2>
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
<o:p></o:p> </h2>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Al-Ahram Weekly - 27 Sep 2001</h4>
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.8pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.8pt 1.8pt 1.8pt 1.8pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 1.8pt; mso-table-rspace: 1.8pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 400px;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
</div>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
Hani Shukrallah wonders whether he is a cultural misfit
</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDSG3E95o7JK1VpWicUnBopu-ZuWsjIcYRudpYmYRA3wieyhRv-P46wP8Ape3aLNxzMnq2DPVkudu_OzQTZ9sz-gxZcTotZkqyVZZgBnGfyg8XqHg0FBaGVNo6PoDQPN0ahGL0wpLER0/s1600/pepurger.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDSG3E95o7JK1VpWicUnBopu-ZuWsjIcYRudpYmYRA3wieyhRv-P46wP8Ape3aLNxzMnq2DPVkudu_OzQTZ9sz-gxZcTotZkqyVZZgBnGfyg8XqHg0FBaGVNo6PoDQPN0ahGL0wpLER0/s1600/pepurger.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Being a journalist myself, I'm fully aware that I make a
very poor interview subject. I have an irritating habit of thinking while
speaking, hem and haw a lot, and have never seemed to develop the knack of
speaking in bites -- all in all, I'm just not very quotable. All of which is a
foreign journalist's scourge. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The dissatisfaction, in my experience, has been mutual. A
journalist likes to conduct interviews, not give them, and with a weekly
column, I often feel that my interviewer would have been served best by taking
an appropriate quote from it, thereby saving us both a lot of bother. Moreover,
on the few occasions when my interviewer has courteously sent me a copy of the
published story, my two-line contribution more often than not appears stunted,
abrupt and banal. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Foreign correspondents and I, therefore, have tended to
avoid each other on the whole. But since the free and civilised world's
declaration of war on evil, it was statistically inevitable that at least a few
of the droves of foreign correspondents and TV crews descending on the country
these days would find their way to my cell, home or office phone. The referral
is almost always through a third person, and almost never a response to my own
writing. Who has time to read, with deadlines to meet? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So while I have no idea who it was that referred the crew
from a big US TV network to me and my cell phone, the poor jet lagged
journalist who called was destined, in a few short minutes, to discover that
she'd been sorely misdirected. "We would like to interview you on
camera." "OK, but not today," I replied with resignation (it was
my day off and I had yet to recover from our last issue). That was OK with her
too. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The purpose of the interview, I was told, was to question me
about my feelings regarding the proliferation of American culture in Egypt.
Aha, I thought to myself: we are to dig at the roots of Islamic terrorism,
speak of cultural invasion and pontificate about the threat to our cultural,
religious and national identity. This, after all, is why we produce the Ayman
Zawahris and Mohamed Attas of the world. In the best traditions of objective
journalism, we are about to explain the "seas of people in which the
terrorist fish swim." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But then I happen to believe that this whole cultural
invasion/cultural identity ruckus is so much stuff and nonsense. I didn't put
it that way; the woman was exceedingly polite and friendly, and I felt I had to
be as well. It more or less came out in our 10-15 minute phone conversation,
however. I like blue jeans, hamburgers (although I'm fully aware that they're
bad for you) and Woody Allen films. I honestly don't know what
"authentic" Egyptian, Arab or Islamic culture is supposed to be.
Nevertheless, I don't for a moment think of myself as alienated from my society
or hopelessly Westernised, consider speaking a second language a privilege
rather than a curse and am envious of those who fluently gab away in three and
four (sadly, my attempts at French and Spanish were hopelessly inadequate). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I also happen to believe that cultural identity is a dynamic
composite creature that is constantly being recreated -- and that, like
everything else, it is subject to political choice. The diverse cultural
components that make up my psyche sit, by and large, very happily together (my
self-torment being of an existential rather than a cultural variety), and I'm
constantly amazed at how fundamentally similar we all are. There is bad, i.e.
dehumanising culture, and there is good culture that brings out the best in us;
that helps liberate us, I tried to explain to my prospective interviewer. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">She found what I said "very interesting,"
complimented me by telling me that I seemed "very moderate" -- which
is probably the worst insult anybody can direct at me -- and went on to
explain, rather awkwardly, that she'd have to check with her editor. "Umm,
we're actually doing background right now..." </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thankfully for both of us, I haven't heard from her since. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-51018072829081955412013-10-24T15:03:00.001+02:002013-11-23T13:44:59.114+02:00The interviewer as co-author<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: left;">
</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;"></span></o:p></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Beware
of Western journalists seeking interviews on Egypt’s political situation these
days! More likely than not, you’ve been scripted already - or is it photoshopped?</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5WnIYaSL84eZwg5dx7t6Udm60xeLhw671vq91DCc8WFrsB2PT45fHe_5Du8RwNqqsua5TE37p1vcC1jdxSPxkyHnE6siM2JNHjoxQviDfi4qd0ZmRXhxISMTQmgcGQ37Ypr5DH5LZ8o/s1600/ahram-photoshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5WnIYaSL84eZwg5dx7t6Udm60xeLhw671vq91DCc8WFrsB2PT45fHe_5Du8RwNqqsua5TE37p1vcC1jdxSPxkyHnE6siM2JNHjoxQviDfi4qd0ZmRXhxISMTQmgcGQ37Ypr5DH5LZ8o/s1600/ahram-photoshop.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
gave an interview a few weeks ago to a German journalist – and as usual forgot
completely about it. Today I fell upon a translated version only to discover
the good journalist had (as I put it in a tweet) “co-authored” my answers to
his questions. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find what I actually said
among what my interviewer decided to put into my mouth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Some
examples:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Title in quotes: “Egypt’s media
are propaganda machines” – never said so, and being an Egyptian journalist I’m
quite aware that the reality – as grim as it might be – is much more complex.
(see: my most recent article on the subject: Coverage in black and white”: <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/84578/Opinion/Coverage-in-black-and-white-Mainstream-media-and-p.aspx"><span style="color: blue;">http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/84578/Opinion/Coverage-in-black-and-white-Mainstream-media-and-p.aspx</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I am standing in front of my life's work and
thinking that it was all in vain.” Never said it, don’t think it, and would
never dramatize myself in such pathetic terms in any case.</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“It's opium for the people. With all of this, the
military is bending the people to its will.” Never said any of it, would never
use “opium for the people...” (since I’m well aware of the original, highly
nuanced reference) and don’t believe the military or any other institution or
force is “bending the people to its will”. Sheer fabrication.</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Of course the criticism of the army leadership is
right.” – What criticism? I don’t talk in inanities. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Repression breeds repression.” Nor in banalities. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #333333;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“In February, I was thrown out by the Muslim Brotherhood.
They made sweeping changes in our team.” – I was thrown out (in January not
February) and there were no changes made in our team. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 0.5in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most shocking of all: “</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Egypt lacks everything that makes freedom of speech
possible: education, equipment, knowledge.” This after a magnificent popular revolution,
the supreme exercise of freedom of speech. Let alone that such a statement is
purely and simply racist. Since I don’t have blonde hair (and having just
returned from a week at the beach am for the time being more black than brown),
was born and bred in this country and - it so happens - am an Egyptian citizen,
I would actually thrash anyone who’d make such a statement in my presence. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Which reminds me: In 1991 I was invited by the Parliamentary bloc of the
German Green Party to take part in “a hearing” on prospects for democracy and
peace in the Middle East post-Gulf War I, (as it turned out to have been.) There
was a host of Arab intellectuals and writers, many of whom had been battling
for democracy in their respective countries for decades, and paying a heavy price.
In one session, a German journalist stood up to state – with remarkable
arrogance – that he doesn’t hear Arabs speaking of democracy and human rights
except in Europe. His basic argument being that these were Western values that
Arabs simply did not subscribe to. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Ahmed Al-Khatib, a veteran Kuwaiti parliamentarian and a great man replied
politely and wittily that the reason the said German journalist doesn’t hear talk
of democracy and human rights in the Arab world is possibly due to the fact
that most of those who say this are already in jail. Not known for my
politeness, I reminded the young Arian gentleman of the German nation’s
contribution to democracy and human rights under a certain Adolf. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For the rest of it. Even the minor contributions I made to my own interview
were bungled and misrepresented. The moral of the story being: don’t give
interviews to Western journalists – at least, unless you know them extremely
well, and especially while they continue to suffer from MB fever. </span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11205221185965016340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4340637479520460889.post-7915034997456357492013-10-24T08:51:00.001+02:002013-11-23T13:47:59.279+02:00Revolution, Interrupted<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
</h2>
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #CCCCCC .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 8pt;">
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<h3 style="border-color: currentColor currentColor rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1pt; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #CCCCCC .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 8pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">There's a reason Egyptians keep taking to
the streets: The Muslim Brotherhood has proved to be little more than the old
Mubarak clique with beards.<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjii5plU3y0kKlUn7_sKbp4ePLlk5XS76Tr0PvSud-zrHsCT2_VS4bGfOoNOCbVUmqCc5yg8Ix3_hJ0jQf-z_Za4Gvg_vVFNQETGpRJZFAH6xrvp8_2tlgP8awphHgYbroM_3j-6vx0Pos/s1600/1334659004-muslim-brotherhood-endorses-khairat-alshater-for-president-egypt_1135699.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjii5plU3y0kKlUn7_sKbp4ePLlk5XS76Tr0PvSud-zrHsCT2_VS4bGfOoNOCbVUmqCc5yg8Ix3_hJ0jQf-z_Za4Gvg_vVFNQETGpRJZFAH6xrvp8_2tlgP8awphHgYbroM_3j-6vx0Pos/s1600/1334659004-muslim-brotherhood-endorses-khairat-alshater-for-president-egypt_1135699.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<h4 style="margin: 1em 0in; text-align: left;">
<em>BY HANI SHUKRALLAH |FEBRUARY 8, 2013<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">CAIRO —
There is no denying that Egypt's revolution has turned more violent and grimmer
since its ecstatic early days. For all its nobility of purpose, it has proved
unequal to the enormous tasks history had placed on its shoulders. It was
stalled and hijacked -- first by the military in uneasy collaboration with the
Muslim Brotherhood, and then by the Brotherhood in uneasy collaboration with
the military.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
can look like mere chaos is actually the natural product of a revolution whose
signature demands remain unfulfilled. And there's no wishing it away anymore:
Hosni Mubarak's regime is alive and well, in all but name. The only difference
is that its representatives sport the trim beard preferred by Brotherhood
leaders, if not the grizzly, flowing beards of their Salafi allies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet
again, a single political party seeks to exercise uncontested hegemony over
Egypt's state and society. Not only has it kept in place a legal code laden
with repressive legislation, but it has maintained the structures of
authoritarian rule erected by its predecessors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two
years after the revolution against Mubarak's police state, not a single step
has been taken to reform Egypt's hated police force, which ran riot during 30
years of uninterrupted state of emergency. Today, it continues to function as a
lawless militia feeding on torture, murder, fabrication, and detentions without
trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Egyptians
received another reminder of this fact last Friday, Feb. 1, when a citizen
captured on video a horrific scene of roughly a dozen police officers --
dressed in full anti-riot gear -- beating and stripping naked a middle-aged
protester, Hamada Saber. Possibly more disturbing was the televised
"confession" Saber was later made to give, in which the battered,
clearly terrified man claimed that he'd been stripped and beaten by the
protesters and that the police were actually helping him. Saber later reversed
his initial account, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21314782" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">admitting</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> that
the police were to blame and that his confession was coerced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
"confession" was even more revealing than the incident itself: Two
years after the revolution, Mubarak's police remain as willing to use threats
and torture to fabricate evidence and extract the most ludicrous of testimonies
-- and the Muslim Brotherhood remains unwilling to demand change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
abuses of Egypt's police under President Mohamed Morsy's administration are
increasingly attracting international attention. In the course of a single week
of protests marking the second anniversary of the revolution, some 50 people
were killed and hundreds more injured in street battles between the police and
Egyptian citizens. In </span><a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/egypt-uprising-commemoration-unleashes-death-and-destruction-2013-01-28" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">a statement</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> on the violence, Amnesty
International noted that eyewitness accounts "point to the unnecessary use
of lethal force by security forces during a weekend of clashes with
demonstrators."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And as
for the new constitution drawn up exclusively by the Muslim Brotherhood and its
Salafi-jihadi allies, it has proved to be potentially even more authoritarian
than the 1971 constitution under which Mubarak consolidated his rule.
Maintaining the previous constitution's bizarre penchant for rendering basic
rights and civil liberties subject to the stipulations of a profoundly
anti-democratic legal code, the new constitution subjects them as well to the
unstated "principles of Islamic law," as elaborated by the
collectivity of acknowledged Sunni jurists -- most of whom lived and delivered
their rulings during the Middle Ages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Two
additional twists to the new, "democratic" </span><a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-s-draft-constitution-translated" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">constitution</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> potentially establish an
Iran-style, if Sunni, theocracy. Prominent Salafi leaders have interpreted the
constitution as allowing judges to refer directly to Islamic law in passing
sentences -- cutting the hands of thieves, stoning adulterers, and the like --
without having recourse to specific penalties stipulated by the legal code. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Muslim Brotherhood's<b> </b>use of torture and street thugs is also hauntingly
evocative of standard Mubarak regime practice.<b> </b>Following the Dec. 5
attack on protesters demonstrating before the presidential palace -- employing
guns, knives, swords, and tear gas -- Morsy delivered a televised national
address in which he claimed he had solid evidence, including confessions, that
some 80 detained protesters were paid agents of Mubarak regime
"remnants." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
fact, the detainees, who had been </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/world/middleeast/allies-of-egypts-morsi-beat-protesters-outside-palace.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">captured and tortured</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> by Brotherhood thugs,
were all cleared and released the next day by the district prosecutor. At that
point, the Morsy-appointed prosecutor general </span><a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/attorney-general-releases-damning-account-protest-detentions" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">punished</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> the prosecutor by transferring him to a
remote province -- triggering open rebellion in the prosecution service and
forcing the prosecutor general to retract his decision. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For his
part, Morsy has yet to offer an apology or explanation for his wild
accusations, which under the Egyptian legal code renders him liable for
prosecution and a prison term for slander.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Freedom
of expression and freedom to peacefully protest have also been under concerted
attack by the new regime. The Brotherhood, rather than acting to guarantee the
independence of the state-owned media, has sought to bring these outlets under
its sway -- maintaining and even increasing their obsequiousness to the ruler
of the moment and their nearly unmitigated lack of professionalism. The
Brotherhood did so even as it acted to intimidate and strangle privately owned
media: Its Salafi allies </span><a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/jihad-organization-calls-new-siege-media-production-city" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">laid siege</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> to Greater Cairo's Media City, home to most
private TV stations, and </span><a href="http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/jihad-organization-calls-new-siege-media-production-city" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">called</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> for the "purging" of the media,
while the government launched a record number of<i> </i>cases against the
president's critics in the media, most prominently liberal satirist </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/02/egypt-bassem-youssef-jon-stewart-investigation/" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Bassem Youssef</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> -- Egypt's Jon Stewart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even
the Brotherhood's single claim to democratic governance -- allowing free
elections --is now being subjected to increasing challenge. The constitutional
referendum, the single poll held under Brotherhood rule, was </span><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2012/al-monitor/egypt-constitution-voting.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">tarnished</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> by various recorded incidents of electoral
rigging, including the barring of potential "no" voters from gaining
access to polling stations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new
parliamentary electoral law has also been tailored to perpetuate the Islamists'
dominance of the legislative branch. The Brotherhood has gerrymandered Egypt's
electoral system so that it is very far from one man, one vote: Under the new
law, Qalyubia governorate, effectively a working-class suburb of Greater Cairo,
has been allocated 18 parliamentary seats, while the Brotherhood-dominated
Upper Egypt governorate of Sohag is allocated 30. The number of voters in
Qalyubia exceeds the number in Sohag by 300,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
is no little irony in the fact that the only relatively free polls Egypt has
known in decades might prove to have been those held under military rule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And two
years after a revolution whose equivalent of the French Revolution's <i>liberté,
égalité, fraternité</i> was "bread, freedom, social justice,"
Egyptians find themselves governed by a regime deeply rooted in class privilege
and pursuing the very same social and economic policies that favor the rich at
the expense of the poor.<b> </b>Muslim Brotherhood leaders, not least the
president, have continued to ignore demands for progressive taxation, a fair
minimum wage, and the need for sweeping reform of the bloated, inefficient, and
corruption-ridden bureaucracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
new-old regime's social intentions were made even starker by the one
significant piece of economic legislation put forth by Morsy: An increase of
the sales tax, which would have hit the poor and middle class the hardest, was
stealthily passed in December and then announced a week later at 9 p.m. --
practically on the eve of the second round of voting on the constitutional referendum.
It was then </span><a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/60166.aspx" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">comically retracted</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> a few hours later,
around 2 a.m., after Morsy said he had "felt the pulse" of the
masses, most of whose members were presumably asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile,
basic public services are in a state of general collapse. The most recent
evidence of this is the </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/15/egypt-train-crash-army-recruits" target="_blank"><b><span style="border: 1pt windowtext; color: #003366; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">recurring railway disasters</span></b></a><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, which in the course of
Morsy's presidency have claimed the lives of nearly 80 people, including more
than 50 children, and caused the injury of hundreds. Public hospitals are
nearly everywhere bare of the most basic medicines and equipment, including
beds -- critical patients are made to lie on dirty, littered floors. Public
education, ostensibly free, has in fact become almost prohibitively expensive
for most Egyptian families, even as standards have hit rock bottom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
revolution continues, but…</span></b><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For all
these reasons, "normalcy" has not returned to Egypt. Protesters will
continue to take to the streets en masse until the demands of the revolution
are met.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
second anniversary of the revolution provided yet another illustration of this
fact. Egypt once again witnessed demonstrations in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square
and all major Egyptian cities, a state of emergency in the three Suez Canal
cities, lethal police violence and attacks by unidentified armed thugs, and the
icing on the cake -- a late-night presidential statement issuing threats while
calling for dialogue. It was like déjà vu all over again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yet
this is not a mere replay. It is difficult to imagine this uprising ejecting
Morsy from the presidency in the same way Mubarak was ousted from power two
years ago. The major difference, of course, is electoral legitimacy. It can't
be denied that the Muslim Brotherhood and its hard-line allies do continue to
enjoy a popular base and are in possession of a huge party apparatus with tens
of thousands of indoctrinated, committed cadres.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">True,
winning an election is not all it's made out to be. I would hazard that, had
Mubarak been willing to run in a free and fair presidential ballot, he would
still have won -- simply on the strength of state patronage. An unrigged
election is not the same as a free and fair election, which assumes a fairly
even playing field. And there is also no denying the Brotherhood's swift loss
of popularity once it achieved power, which has been a sight to behold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But
still, this is not the extreme isolation of an ossified and decaying clique,
like the last years of Mubarak's rule. Nor can the Brotherhood and its Salafi
friends be compared to the bloated, dilapidated network of state patronage that
was Mubarak's ruling party, nor even to what Mubarak loyalists liked to call
the "Ahmed Ezz militia" -- a reference to the mostly yuppie men and
women assembled by the infamous steel magnate to rig elections and whip the
tattered party apparatus into shape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Meanwhile,
the profound cleavage at the heart of the revolution remains in place. Egypt
experienced an almost strictly urban revolution, with the countryside -- which
accounts for a little over 40 percent of the population -- largely standing
aside. This urban-rural divide is playing out again in Egypt's current political
struggle as the Brotherhood loses support in the country's major cities. In the
first round of the presidential election, the cities overwhelmingly voted for
non-Islamist candidates, and in the constitutional referendum the cities also
slipped away. This dynamic is further substantiated by the hundreds of
thousands of protesters who have won nearly uncontested preeminence on the
streets of major cities throughout the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the
Brotherhood and its allies' support in rural and semirural Egypt remains
strong. This support allows them to fall back on claims of "electoral
legitimacy" through mobilizing their supporters in the countryside,
especially in Upper Egypt. They are also further bolstered by the traditionally
higher voter turnout in rural Egypt compared with urban voter turnout.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whether
the Brotherhood can maintain its electoral advantage, however, depends on the
vision of its political leadership.<b> </b>Its odds aren't good: The Islamist
movement came to power in Egypt after having disposed of its most intelligent
and politically sophisticated leaders. By 2008, such notable figures as former
Deputy Supreme Guide Mohamed Habib and former Guidance Bureau member Abdel
Moneim Aboul Fotouh had been divested of any real influence within the group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
leadership has subsequently fallen fully in the hands of what the group's
reformist members describe as "the organizational wing," which
controls recruitment, indoctrination, and the internal hierarchy, as distinct
from "the political wing," which was involved in day-to-day political
activism, including collaboration with other non-Islamist political forces.
This organizational wing is made up of Salafists and hard-line followers of
Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb, and it is the movement's most regressive,
doctrinaire, and least politically savvy force.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Following
the revolution, the reformist trend found itself outside the Brotherhood
altogether. In fact, all the Brotherhood representatives in the Coalition of
the Youth of the Revolution -- which provided field leadership in the 18-day
uprising that toppled Mubarak -- are now outside the group, divided among the
ranks of Aboul Fotouh's Strong Egypt party and the Egyptian Current. These
figures are now moving even further away from the Brotherhood, toward a new and
democratic Islamism -- a potentially historic development for Egypt and the
entire Muslim world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a
Facebook posting a few months ago, I joked that of all world revolutions,
Egyptians seem to have picked the French Revolution to emulate -- that is, a
struggle that raged, in various shapes and forms, for nearly a century.
Hopefully, we're not in for another 100 years of this tumult, but the path
toward the realization of the revolution's great aims remains long and
tortuous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Egypt's
polarized political and social forces continue to be too evenly matched, and
the schism between the protagonists too deep, for any viable resolution in the
short term. The Muslim Brotherhood may have won -- for the moment -- the
reluctant backing of the military and the police, but they're by no means its
creatures. The country's security services have minds and imperatives of their
own that are by no means identical to, or even commensurate with, those of the
Brotherhood leadership. The judiciary also continues to jealously defend its
independence from repeated Brotherhood attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 20.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.2in;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
most important of all: The revolution continues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<em>Published in Foreign Policy: </em><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/"><em>http://www.foreignpolicy.com/</em></a><em> 8 February 2013.</em></h4>
</div>
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