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| Om Kulthum |
In last week’s article,
I thought I was clever when I dropped a word that drove the whole meaning out
of context. I thought those who know me well and follow my writings would
recognize the trick and not believe I might attack or underrate legends like Om
Kulthum[1], Mohammed Abdel Wahab[2], or Abdel Halim Hafez[3] in favor of praising the
late Al-ostaz Heikal. However, many got the point and realized what I was
aiming at through the context of the article. I was pointing at those mediocre
or even ignorant people who attack national and humanitarian figures like the
ones I mentioned before.
Now that I unraveled the
misunderstanding, I would like to talk today about people incapable of
discussing certain phenomena, whether political, ideological, or behavioral, those
incapable of analyzing circumstances, causes, and contexts that may make a
phenomenon continue to exist, and even continue to affect although they believe
it’s a negative one and full of shortcomings and flaws. Instead of discussing
and analyzing aspects of the phenomenon and seeking references according to
scientific research disciplines settled in social and humanitarian sciences in
general, and history, sociology, social Psychology, and political theories and
systems in particular, they tend to launch heavy raids of attack full of
mistakes; what some ordinary people like me call “Radh[4]
and farsh melaya[5]”.
I may excuse some who replace
the former by the latter for they are ignorant and know nothing about research
disciplines, although they may be regarded – according to others and of course
to themselves – as intellectuals just because they are known to be regular
visitors of some late night clubs’ gatherings or sitting to a distinguished
capitalist’s banquet who likes culture and loves to add those “culture” figures
to his collection. They, in turn, want to repay him for his generosity and, in
doing so, they go into attacking what he may dislike or have a negative opinion
about. However, those who have good knowledge of scientific methods of research
and respect their word have no excuse at all.
We are witnessing a congestion
of politics and thought in Egypt these days just like that of the traffic… when
every driver seeks to pose the front of his car in the beginning paying no
attention to traffic lights and probably hitting the traffic man and
pedestrians as well… when pedestrians walk in all directions without any control…
when sexual harassers, pick-pockets, and atrocities of all kinds thrive in such
chaos, starting with the atrocity of violating traffic lights and disdaining the
traffic man, to the atrocity of throwing cigarettes’ ends, empty cans, banana
and mandarin peels, and plastic bags out of the car windows… etc.
Going a bit farer, we
would arrive at atrocities of politics and thought. Such atrocities come to
reality when critical argument based on analysis and understanding
introductions, contexts and results is replaced by absence of references, hollow
attacks, and fatal fallacies. In such way, we become incapable of providing an alternative
point of view or even become coward in disclosing those opinions and stances.
We can fiercely attack
and mock muslim brotherhood, salafists, and all their religion-dressed likes.
It’s the same when attacking revolutionary socialists, Marxists, liberals,
Nasserists[6], those who have no
ideology at all, pragmatics, and others.
We have already witnessed
some recurring waves of attacks criticizing the July, 23 1952 revolution,
Abdel-Nasser and the Nasserism[7] in the past. It’s strange
those who were involved in such attacking raids didn’t make moral out of their
accumulated experience when some ruling regimes in the European, American west,
Hebrew state, and in the region started to talk about the coup and colonels’
and military rule at the beginning of the 50’s. Another circles of influence,
talking in the name of Islam, followed the same style and started attacking
apostates and heretics; those who call for Socialism and nationalization, and
who killed Imams calling for spreading Islam in 1954 and 1965. Afterwards came other
waves when well-known names like Saleh Gawdat[8], Moussa Sabri[9],
Anis Mansour[10],
and others surfaced. Those figures used to praise Nasser and the revolution at
first and later turned against it… Waves were many with
all of them focusing on the same things like repeating what was already said
and confirming what was already confirmed.
I urge those, who tend
to astonish us with what is already known, to exert some effort and thinking
into researching the circumstances that made a political social phenomenon like
the July, 23 revolution and Nasserism still exists and sometimes is on the rise,
affecting the present and future of the society, not to mention that this
effect is not limited to Egypt alone but extends to far territories like in
some Latin American and African countries who hold the same admiration to
Nasser and Nasserism. This kind of research is the only way to analyze the
phenomenon and stand against its deficiencies if it has any or to highlight
what it may possess of positive aspects in order to avoid the same fate.
I wrote many articles in
Al-Ahram and Almasry alyoum newspapers discussing the phenomenon of muslim
brotherhood and salafists. In doing so, I sought references and sources
starting from Ibn Hanbal[11]’s Fiqh and Fatwas, Ibn
Taymiyyah[12]
and Ibn Abdel-Wahhab[13] ideology, through Hassan
el-Banna[14]
letters and to Sayyid Qutb[15] and al-Albani[16] books. I believe I
presented a point of view that was committed to due research disciplines and
rules of analysis. I’m about to do the same thing regarding discussing the
phenomenon of those calling to unlimited cooperation with the Hebrew state and
the Zionist movement pouring their wrath on any one opposing them and naming
him ignorant, reactionary, and slave for dictatorship ideas and practices… to
the end of the note. I may start detecting and analyzing by referring to those
who used to name themselves “real beneficiaries” at the beginning of the
twentieth century, represented by al-Omma[17] party at that time, who
called for cooperation with the British occupation. Such historic dimension
could be a good entry to understand the circumstances that may result in such
ideologies.
I urge those who
endeavor to enlighten the public opinion with the atrocities of some ideologies
like Nasserism to stop repeating and reproducing the same discourse developed
by the waves mentioned before in the article.
As to those who have
never paid a price for any stance they ever had, either from their freedom,
livelihood, or work, and who tend to satisfy their masters… they are totally
excused.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was
published on Almasry alyoum newspaper on March 8, 2016.
To see the original
Arabic version, go to:
#almasry_alyoum#Ahmed_elgammal#politics#Nasserism#Gamal_abdel_Nasser#zionism#British_occupation#Socialism
[1] Om
Kulthum: (Egyptian Arabic: أم كلثوم) on an
uncertain date (December 31, 1898 or May 4, 1904) and who died February 3,
1975, was an internationally famous Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress active from the
1920s to the 1970s. She is given the honorific title, Kawkab
al-Sharq كوكب الشرق ("Star of the East") in Arabic. Known for her extraordinary vocal ability and style,
Om Kulthum was one of the greatest and most influential Arab singers of the
20th century. (Source: Wikipedia)
[2] Mohammed
Abdel Wahab: (Arabic: محمد عبد الوهاب) (March 13, 1902 – May 4, 1991) was a prominent
20th-century Arab Egyptian singer and composer. (Source: Wikipedia)
[3] Abdel
Halim Ali Shabana: (Arabic: عبدالحليم علي شبانة), commonly known as Abdel
Halim Hafez (Arabic: عبد الحليم حافظ) (June 21, 1929 – March 30,
1977), is among the most popular Egyptian and Arab singers. In addition to singing, Halim was also an actor, conductor, business man, music teacher and movie producer. He is considered to be one of the
Great Four of Arabic music (along with Om Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, and Farid Al
Attrach). He is known as el-Andaleeb el-Asmar (The Dark-Skinned Nightingale, Arabic: العندليب الأسمر). He is also known
as an icon in modern Arabic music. To this day, his music is still enjoyed
throughout the Arab world. (Source: Wikipedia)
[5] Farsh melaya: (Arabic: فرش ملاية) an Egyptian
idiom, literally means “to lay the sheet down on the ground”, but actually
means to insult and defame someone; just like Radh. Women living in modest
neighborhoods in Egypt used to wrap their bodies in black sheets when they come
out of home, when a woman disagree with another and wants to insult her, she
used to unfold and lay her sheet down on the ground and sit over it in order to
feel comfortable and take her time in insulting her rival with the worst vulgar
words she knew; and hence came the idiom.
[7] Nasserism: (Arabic: الناصرية أو التيار الناصري) is a socialist Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser,
one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President.
Spanning the domestic and international spheres, it combines elements of Arab
socialism, republicanism, nationalism, anti-imperialism, Developing world solidarity, and international non-alignment. In the 1950s and 1960s, Nasserism was amongst the
most potent political ideologies in the Arab world. (Wikipedia)
[11] Aḥmad
ibn Ḥanbal: (Arabic:أحمد بن حنبل ) was a Muslim scholar and theologian. He is considered the founder of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence. Ibn Hanbal is known for his restricted
opinions and religious jurisdictions in Islam.
[12] Aḥmad
ibn Taymiyyah (Arabic: ابن تيمية) known
as Ibn Taymiyyah (22 January 1263 - 26 September 1328) was an Islamic
scholar, theologian and logician.
He lived during the troubled times of the Mongol
invasions, much of the time in Damascus. He was a member of the school founded by Ahmad ibn
Hanbal and is considered by his
followers, along with Ibn Qudamah, as one of the two most significant proponents of Hanbalism. Ibn Taymiyyah sought the return of Sunni Islam to what he viewed as earlier interpretations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.(source:
Wikipedia)
[13] Muhammad
ibn ʿAbdel-Wahhab: (Arabic: محمد بن عبد الوهاب; 1703 – 22 June
1792) was a Sunni Muslim preacher and scholar from Nejd in central Arabia who claimed to "purify" Islam by returning it to what, he believed, were the
original principles of that religion as the salaf, that is first three generations of Muslims,
understood it. (Source: Wikipedia)
[14] Hassan al-Banna: (Arabic: حسن البنا) (14
October 1906 – 12 February 1949) founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
[15] Sayyid
Qutb: (Arabic: سيد قطب) (9
October 1906 – 29 August 1966) was a leading member of the Egyptian muslim brotherhood. Qutb is considered to be
responsible for the extremist ideology adopted by the muslim brotherhood.
[16] Al-Albani: (Arabic: محمد نصر الدين الألباني) (1914 – October 2, 1999) was an Albanian Islamic scholar who specialized in the fields of hadith and fiqh. He is recognized as one of the leading figures in
Salafism. (Source: Wikipedia)
[17] Al-Omma party: (Arabic: حزب الأمة) a political
liberal party founded in 1907. The party was first headed by Mahmud Pasha
Soliman with Ahmed Lotfi el-Sayed as its political architect. The party had a
slogan saying: “real beneficiaries are sons of big Egyptian families” and
another one saying: “Egypt is only for Egyptians”.
