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| Photo depicting university students in the 70's protesting extremism and repression against them |
I think there is a strong
connection between the social and cultural role played by Capitalism and the
currently-disputed case in our Egyptian, Arab, and Islamic reality; that is
religious discourse.
Before detailing, I’d
like to point to some news circulated lately by some news agencies saying, as
published by Alyoum es-Sabe’a[1]
newspaper on April 4, 2016, that: “a coterie of more than 40 millionaires of
New York state has delivered a letter addressing the state democratic governor,
Andrew Cuomo, and state lawmakers, asking them to consider imposing higher
taxes on the wealthier citizens of the state to help combat poverty and rebuild
infrastructure”. The letter suggested imposing new taxes one percent higher on
the state wealthiest adding that additional revenues should be allocated to
help fight children poverty, homelessness, fragile bridges, tunnels, waterlines,
and roads.
"As New Yorkers who have contributed to
and benefited from the economic vibrancy of our state, we have both the ability
and the responsibility to pay our fair share," the letter stated. "We
can well afford to pay our current taxes, and we can afford to pay even more”. The signatories include some familiar names like Abigail Disney,
Leo Hindery, and Steven C. Rockefeller.
The news continue: “The tax plan, known by the one-percent tax plan, was worked out
in conjunction with the Fiscal Policy Institute — a left-leaning economic think
tank”. “As a businessman and philanthropist and as a citizen of New York State,
I believe we need to invest in our people and our infrastructure”, Hindery, the
managing partner of InterMedia Partners, a media industry private equity fund,
said in a prepared statement. The one-percent tax plan would increase taxes on people making $665,000 or more in income”.
The news ended but our
inquiries, questioning, exclaiming, and stating, will not come to an end until
we ask about our national capitalism role regarding all the nation causes, atop
of them are the social ones like children poverty, homelessness, and basic
services and ailing infrastructure including the dilapidated bridges, tunnels,
water pipelines, and roads… just like that of New York wealthiest!
Here I move to the main issue
I want to connect to that desired role of our national capitalism and renewing
the religious discourse, as I believe the latter is part or a sub-branch of the
cultural discourse. First, we have to differentiate between religious discourse
of God as explained in his holy books starting from Scrolls of Abraham and
Moses to Zabur[2], Torah, Injil[3], and Quran, and
that one adopted by preachers of all religions as established by their
followers and institutions in hierarchy. It’s known that Islam does not
recognize that hierarchy or Clericism, but rather acknowledges Faqih[4].
If only our national
capitalism took responsibility of its social role and stood against phenomena
like that of Street children[5] or orphanages infamous for
using poor orphan children in panhandling, prostitution, and what is alike, and
if it could play its role in the funding crisis facing our educational and
research institutions especially libraries, laboratories, playgrounds,
students’ activities having to do with artistic innovation, it would be a vital
arm in the face of terrorism and extremism.
In this context, I
remember that a key factor in defending and delaying the collapse of our
universities against extremism and terrorism conducted by Islamist groups in
the beginning of the 70’s was the presence of the artistic and literature
activities along with the trips organized by the university. I also recall, as
I was head of the faculty of Arts students’ union and afterwards head of the
post-graduate studies students’ union, that the union had many teams active in
music, theatrical acting, poetry, novel, and journalism groups, and others. It
was adorable to find the late Ammar
Al Sherei[6] along with the rest of the music team standing
next to the fountain situated at the faculty entrance chanting in the early
morning. It’s was adorable as well to have a vibrant activity of the theatre where
many great talents came to light like for example the two great directors Essam
es-Saed and Mohsen Helmi, and the talented actors Farouq
el-Fishawi, Sami Maghawri, Mahmoud Hemida, and others.
At that time, the
regime, headed by Sadat, decided to use the Islamist groups to constrict and inhibit
the Nasserism and Marxist leftist movements. The mission was accomplished
indeed and university started to lose its soft power in producing the promising
talents in the before-mentioned fields. Not to mention those extremist groups’
initiative, supported by the regime, to attack students’ activities in acting,
poetry, literature, and gender segregation whether in cafeteria or in sitting
on grass, as considered depraved and corrupt acts by them. Such attacks later
developed to include physical assault by iron chains and fists, and
switchblades.
I believe that national
capitalism adoption of such causes like establishing theatres, playgrounds,
funding acting, music, and artistic groups and teams in universities is one of
the main ways to drain swamps of extremism and terrorism and renew our religious
discourse in the same time. I hope what New York state’s wealthiest did will be
a model adopted by the wealthiest of our beloved country especially that our
Egypt deserves more; our nation dates back to thousands of years ago while that
of New York does not exceed two hundred and fifty.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article is
published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on April 13, 2016.
#almasry_alyoum#ahmed_elgammal#Egypt#national_capitalism#70’s#Egyptian_university#extremism#Islamist_groups
Link of the article in Arabic:
http://today.almasryalyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=501170&IssueID=3930
Link of the article in Arabic:
http://today.almasryalyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=501170&IssueID=3930
Links related to the
story:
[1] Alyoum es-Sabe’a or Youm7: (Arabic: اليوم السابع, meaning The Seventh Day) is an Egyptian privately owned daily newspaper published in Arabic.
(Source: Wikipedia)
[2] Zabur: (Arabic: زبور) is, according to Islam, the holy book of Dawud (David), one of the holy books revealed
by God before
the Qur'an, alongside others such as the Tawrat (Torah) of Musa (Moses) and the Injil (Gospel) of Isa (Jesus). (Source: Wikipedia)
[4] Fiqh is the human
understanding of the Sharia — sharia expanded and developed by interpretation (ijtihad)
of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (Ulama) and implemented by
the rulings (Fatwa)
of jurists on questions presented to them. Fiqh deals with the observance of
rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam. In the modern era there are
four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice and
two (or three) within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih (pluralFuqaha).
[5] Street
children: is a term for children
experiencing homelessness who
live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often
called street kids and street
youth; the definition of street
children is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls, aged under eighteen
years, for whom "the street" (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of
livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised. (Source:
Wikipedia)
