First, I’d like to say many happy
returns to everyone… may you all be well… the feast has come but we have
nothing to say but to excerpt the words of the poet al-Mutannabbi who said:
Feast… how did you come again?
Like the last time… or with
something new this time.
As to lovers… long distances
separate us.
I wish you didn’t come while they
are away.
I don’t want to go on mourning our
martyrs of brave army and policemen… also civilians including Christian clergymen
who all paid their life in sacrifice for their country.
Now I move to what we have talked
about in last week’s article regarding the question imposed by my friend, the
elite Arab thinker and media man Mr. Ghassan Tahboob. He inquired about the
alternative that is supposed to fill the space resulting from rejecting the
muslim brotherhood movement and all their likes who claim to be the only reference
for Islam that must be followed.
It was very favorable that I received
a lot of comments on the subject discussed through my e-mail and Facebook page.
Of course, the space allocated for the article will not be enough to publish
all I received – and they are all important participations including those
disagreeing – so I beg your pardon to publish only some of them.
I start by the blame directed by Dr.
Wael Lutfi, professor in Cairo University, who has already given me a copy of
his book “regaining identity”. In this book, a civilized model with all the criteria
we talked about and looking for in an alternative was depicted. I here
apologize for Dr. Wael for I haven’t written a review on his book so that
readers can know about the importance of this book and that was due to painful
health problems that disabled me for a long time but I promise I will do. Now, I
shall lay before you what Mr. Tahboob said to explain the idea which I published
without him expecting me to do such thing. His lines represent the main idea of
the subject we tackle.
And I here excerpt some of them:”…
what I wrote was nothing but what a man thinking in loud voice would say due to
the knowledge he gained for his interest and keen daily follow for half a
century for the events, ideas, and developments in our Arab world and the whole
world. If I knew that Mr. Ahmed Elgammal would publish my message, I would have
cared more about ordering ideas and maybe add more… but I will narrate some of
them… our generation has embraced big dreams and saw them break one after
another… we saw attempts for union failing… we saw countries squashed… others
dismantling… we saw Israel going more tyrant and expanding… we saw the whole
world changing around us while our Arab world stayed still… also, our
generation has witnessed empires falling down… others going stray believing in illusions
of end of history and clash of civilizations… we witnessed all these illusions
falling down as the theory saying that the end of history is set by the decisive
victory for capitalism is contradicting itself by the global financial crisis
that took place in 2008 with its percussions still affecting us until today… also,
clash of civilizations is apparent the most inside the West itself, for
example, that continuing rise for the ultra-far right in Britain, France,
Germany, Austria, Netherlands, and others… ringing the bell for a probable new fascism
on the way… and here before our eyes, we can see the dilemma of the European
Union before and after Brexit voting… and Britain itself which divided vertically
and domestically over supporters and opponents… crisis in Russia’s relations
with the USA and Europe… all those are considered branches of the Western
civilization tree… and the scene is complete when we look at the deep division
in the USA on the domestic level which is well-revealed by the rise of the
ultra-far right presidential candidate Donald Trump.
I enlist all those changes that took
place during two decades – and they are nothing but abridged headlines and very
small part of all – to let you know that we are not the only ones going through
huge changes… not the only ones feeling uncertainty regarding the future. Modern
and post-modernization states and communities are haunted by uncertainty due to
economic recession, rise of unemployment rates, growing of populism, and
distrust in the capability of official institutions to find solutions for domestic
crises. These states and communities are going through huge changes that are
not less severe than those faced by our Arab region except that they are
violence and blood-free until now… however violence rates can be seen; the
latest was the assassination of a British member of parliament on the hands of
a British fanatic who considered her human commitment a betrayal to her
country!! And like what happened to us when we were forced and pulled to the
past and attempts to cancel our future… today, the same thing happens when some
western nations are dragged to the fanatic national past that produced Nazism, Fascism
and caused two world wars.
After five years and more of what
the western media called “the Arab Spring”, I guess the Arab world has become
more aware of itself and the dilemmas it faces… also more aware of progress
requirements and positive changes needed, ahead of them is to maintain the
state and its institutions whatever criticism we have over their behavior as the
alternative to the state and its institutions are the unknown, destruction,
violence militia, accusations of blasphemy, killing… all these pretexts used by
some regional and international powers to serve their interests like what we
all saw in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq…
Like everyone, I felt pain for the
destiny that countries of that so-called Spring ended to but when the Egyptians
succeeded in retaking their country in that same day three years ago, my pain
ended… when Arab countries gathered around Egypt that is coming back to its
people, that represented a light in the end of that “Spring” tunnel… If Egypt
rises, the whole Arab world will do… if the Egyptian nationalism is fine (like
once said by our Master, Mr. Ahmed Bahaa ed-Din), then the Arab nationalism
will be fine… I’m optimistic about the future… I also would like to say that “Spring”
that took place more than five years and more has long been late… may be more
than a hundred years late, during which, our life in the Arab world has been
filled with vagueness, confusion of establishing standards and its practical
depictions: like citizenship, the national state, democracy, progress,
modernization, good governance, inability to shape the relation between
religion and state… between religion and politics… this vagueness and
unsubstantiated speech have to come to an end… and they are already… but slowly”.
Then Mrs. Magda Abaza, the one with
the determined national stance and enlightened thinking and whom I care about
reading every line she writes, wrote: “we are witnessing now an era of huge
changes in our region and the international circles… all parties are trying to
outline new policies right now since the book is open… unfortunately, we have
no political powers on ground ready to do any collective work as many of them
have fell in the mire of foreign funds and subordination while the rest lacks
many things I believe everybody knows about… But the Egyptian state is firmly
rising despite all obstacles it has in the institutions and corruption spread
through many decades gone… and it is fully aware of its role and it’s regaining
it along with all glory of Egyptian heritage… the experiment this time is
positively different because it depends on people away from traditional plans
or supportive political entities, despite the difficulty of this because it
increases the state dependency on pure instinct… today, in addition to the
necessity to push in the way of changing some laws obstructing to restructuring
those institutions, the state is in need of every active cadre to be in
position and working hard… we shall even recall that spirit of the War of
Attrition… I hope we can all live up to the challenges we face…
Also, Dr. Gamal Hassan, the novelist
and Psychiatry professor in Britain, wrote: “building the individual aware of
the era we are passing through by freeing him from poverty and need is the
first to do… and there are efforts exerted by the state along with its
institutions to get rid of the slums and reintegrate the people living there…
also to provide goods at competitive prices… we shall do this to prevent anyone
from affecting this individual while voting… I also believe that a preliminary
balance in foreign policy is getting clearer each day to reach an equation that
can balance between the nation interests and not provoking the ever-lying-in-wait
powers in the region whatever masks they wear…
As to Dr. Ahmed Morsi, he invited us
all to discuss saying: “it is damn serious and we need to think outside that
box filled with misery… let us all meet after the feast to open that box… let
us have another box gathering all of us… I invite you all to participate.
Mr. Salah Hegazi wrote: “this question about the
alternative is just what Shakespeare once said “that is the question” in his
epic, Hamlet!!! This question is not new at all… it was imposed before since
the setbacks of the Arab renaissance age starting from the beginning of the
nineteenth century and the defeat of all efforts to change the traditional
culture in pre-modernization communities as described by the French sociologist
Durkheim who wrote and
corrected what the German sociologist Tönnies said… as long as the
society along with its social and economic structures are pre-modern, then the
danger of muslim brotherhood and salafists coming back is still standing… this
danger is gone only when the society changes from a consumer into a productive
industrial one… only then, this society will depend on productive professional
ties and religion merchants will have no role to play… we shall detail that
later…
Finally, I come to what my friend,
Mr. Osama Affifi editor-in-chief of al-Fekr al-Moa’ser, wrote: “believe me
Ahmed… Arab nationalism is the answer… only the Arab Nationalism ideology will
help protect this nation from sectarianism, racism, tribal fanaticism and subordination…
it will open the door for a progressive freeing human Arab formula… now is the
role of loyal Arab nationalist to reconsider the contemporary Arab thought and
to engage with the changing reality to come up with a progressive Arab
alternative only from Egypt that is recovering now despite all setup plans
against her and the region.
In the coming article, I shall
publish more opinions that are not less important… thus widening the circle of discussion
regarding the question asking “what is the alternative after muslim brotherhood
and their likes are gone?!”
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article
was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on July 6, 2016.
To see the
original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #alternative
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