tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58090359465227705172024-03-28T20:28:58.172-07:00Tarek HeggyTarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-12778916409315462882023-11-27T21:02:00.000-08:002023-11-27T21:02:55.554-08:00The focus of my intellectual project<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxdlKLuoY8dk5rrIXu_h3BbLp1UiJFAi6xSkd-wJZ9oZGHFSu2J_fYd_rGhJWcEBOLXaU8rJl6pfp0OJiTMkkTiApoy9dElCFnwqLlJ-6_-ZA7qflUzkz2gwvFpfwzvXxngK2BXnnflfKz_OVyu6KppoIOcGjY8GjJlBdRBWICbBFV68u_lQyZwV95tk/s594/IMG_4472.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxdlKLuoY8dk5rrIXu_h3BbLp1UiJFAi6xSkd-wJZ9oZGHFSu2J_fYd_rGhJWcEBOLXaU8rJl6pfp0OJiTMkkTiApoy9dElCFnwqLlJ-6_-ZA7qflUzkz2gwvFpfwzvXxngK2BXnnflfKz_OVyu6KppoIOcGjY8GjJlBdRBWICbBFV68u_lQyZwV95tk/s320/IMG_4472.jpeg" width="310" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Plurality is the first and greatest reality of life. It is a realization of the diversity within nature, geography, and organisms, including the multiplicity of human forms, thoughts, and behaviors.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Pluralism obliges us to accept “otherness” for without an acceptance of “the other,” the alternative is rivalry, fighting, and war.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Pluralism and otherness in turn require a belief in and acceptance of a third tenet which is “coexistence.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">These three basic cornerstones: pluralism, otherness, and coexistence necessitate an acceptance of four additional laws, which are:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">* Relativity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">* Human Rights.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">* Women's rights as human beings who enjoy equal rights (full equality) with men, and any ideas and systems that contradict this are cultural yields of other ages.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">* Scientific thinking, as defined in the nineteenth century by the famous French philosopher Auguste Comte, eliminates everything that is not scientifically proven from the circle of scientific thinking to become a “personal matter.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-67127817028760371722023-08-01T08:16:00.002-07:002023-08-01T12:27:45.696-07:00Humanity’s first goal: GOODNESS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9RpJQLcc4_w5CJhze81L31KQ08LPeeCXDbp0Z1bWwiGDhngWV71-xNdivJHLgUnGRGxgASB0zwJ4DiwPoHaDWjvC38xQ6brTF9aB7C5tDoh82T3ZWk6Eg44Tr30sFhxlOYAiX76ggvn8WhWBNUUo441b5zyljcjIE0RtJff7_ZcW49TlWjk2t-M6smk/s611/IMG_2726.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="611" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9RpJQLcc4_w5CJhze81L31KQ08LPeeCXDbp0Z1bWwiGDhngWV71-xNdivJHLgUnGRGxgASB0zwJ4DiwPoHaDWjvC38xQ6brTF9aB7C5tDoh82T3ZWk6Eg44Tr30sFhxlOYAiX76ggvn8WhWBNUUo441b5zyljcjIE0RtJff7_ZcW49TlWjk2t-M6smk/s320/IMG_2726.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is strange that the meaning or connotations of the expressions “good and evil” differ from the meaning of the expressions “permitted and forbidden.” Logic dictates they should coincide. But the vast difference between them today confirms it is the “historical”, “manmade”, and “masculine” mind which produced the concepts of “permitted and forbidden” whereas the concepts of “good and evil” have a human dimension to a large extent.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> I invite the reader of this article to review the list of what is counted within the societies of our region as “forbidden” and they will discover specifically what is meant by the “historical”, “manmade” and “masculine” mind which is responsible for codifying the sanctity of dozens and hundreds of things.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have no doubt that the mind which distinguishes between “good” and “evil” is superior cognitively, intellectually, and culturally to the mind which looks at things from the perspective of “permitted” (halal) and “forbidden” (haram).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is also no doubt that the references used by the people of “halal” and “haram” are based not mostly but exclusively on “texts” and the sayings of “those before them” rather than on the basis of reason, thought, and logic.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have never written or spoken the above without my ears ringing with the name of “Abu Hamid al-Ghazali” (died in 1111 AD). He is the one who established in the minds of Muslims in general and in the minds of “jurists” in particular that the human mind is incapable of perceiving these facts on its own! I devoted fully two years of my life (during the eighties of the last century) on the study of the logic of Al-Ghazali through reading all of his writings. This was immediately followed by another two years of intensive study into the complete writings which pronounced a contrary (even opposite) logic to that of Al-Ghazali—by whom I mean the logic of Ibn Rushd (died in 1198 AD), which I read with the utmost scrutiny.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is a shame for the people of our region not to honor (deservedly) the works and thinking of Ibn Rushd but rather follow that of two jurists, (neither of whom reaches 1% of the value and stature of Ibn Rushd), namely Ibn Taymiyyah (died in 1328 AD) and Al-Jawziyya (died in 1350 AD). The reader should also not lose sight of the fact that the hegemony, control, and influence of the clergy class is (absolutely) in full control of defining what is “halal and haram,” thereby guaranteeing their position as the “main reference source” while eliminating the capacity of all others, including senior scholars, thinkers, and encyclopedic intellectuals, from having input on what is permissible and what is not.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As is no secret, the logic of “halal and haram” does not allow for the concept of humanity to exist! In contrast, the logic and “good and evil” fully allows for the wide expression of humanity. At its core, the “logic of halal and haram” has and always will be the pillar of the US & THEM mentality with all of its negative consequences.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The author of these lines still dreams of an educational, cultural, and intellectual project that promotes the mentality, culture, and logic of “good and evil” using a human formula. I have even dreamed that the logic of “good and evil” be used as a guide and compass to replace the logic of “halal and haram” as the reference through which one lives a humane life. This cannot be achieved before bringing all jurisprudence in line with the saying of the founder of the science of jurisprudence, Abu Hanifa al Nu’man: “We learned this opinion, so whoever brings us one better, we accept it.”</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is no doubt who will fight against this call, including individuals and institutions that will see a reduction in their power and influence, who have used holiness as their first and last reference!</span></div></div><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-42164029599257916792023-05-27T09:43:00.002-07:002023-05-28T12:24:29.795-07:00Egypt's Cultural Project--a recent interview with Dr. Suha Ali Ragab <p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17dlkTdkJZqGODCF9cMBT6_KUj22s1hWTUsFWcjdbBP-BoCctcFUIjKdthejRhz1YyrY6RIUp6Osmb0FM44RPjifBjn7Fu-3n0WvGvlYiDtO0Ys-2LM71MBOoSLKrnHCvMRDFkNQvn67BouXYkIFA4DR421IjFGXb5kFTBaCqiHO3tTt5TSHcTB_p/s960/Egyptian%20Cultural%20Project.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17dlkTdkJZqGODCF9cMBT6_KUj22s1hWTUsFWcjdbBP-BoCctcFUIjKdthejRhz1YyrY6RIUp6Osmb0FM44RPjifBjn7Fu-3n0WvGvlYiDtO0Ys-2LM71MBOoSLKrnHCvMRDFkNQvn67BouXYkIFA4DR421IjFGXb5kFTBaCqiHO3tTt5TSHcTB_p/s320/Egyptian%20Cultural%20Project.jpeg" width="259" /></a></div><p style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: It has been said that the biggest cultural problem Egypt faces is what it takes and what it does not take from Western societies. What is the solution to this problem from your point of view?</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: Western civilization has developed through a combination of what is a cumulative human crop and what is purely European. It is not difficult to differentiate between the two. The values of progress are a cumulative human product of the march of human civilizations. These values are the reason for the progress of Western societies. The most important values of progress are pluralism, altruism (acceptance of the other), coexistence, women's rights, human rights, relativism, secularism, and modern education centered on creativity not indoctrination. As for the cultures composing Western societies, which are the fruit of the history of these societies, it is neither possible nor logical that this can serve as a guide for Western civilization.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: How can cultural industries become a source of national income in Egypt?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: We are facing a great tragedy when Egypt, with its geographical advantages and historical treasures, is not among the most attractive countries in the world for visitors and tourists. The nature, weather, and beaches of Egypt; ancient Egypt, Coptic Egypt, Mamluk and Ottoman Egypt and modern Egypt are an enormous wealth, which Egyptians can use to achieve economic abundance. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: What are the requirements for the development of cultural industries?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: What is required, according to the terminology of modern management sciences, is called "vision". Proceeding from this vision, strategies are developed to serve as a reference for a package of policies to take the Egyptian collective mind from its present medieval state to the horizons of modernity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: “We succeeded in ending the organization of the Brotherhood, but the battle is long to eliminate their ideology.” This was your saying. Does this represent an obstacle to Egypt's cultural project 2030?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: Yes. The continuation of this situation finds a society that got rid of the rule of the Brotherhood but did not rise to the horizons of modernity, with the survival of many ideas of fundamentalism common among the sons and daughters of its people. This makes Egypt vulnerable to historical setbacks with a potential for ominous consequences.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: In your book "Critique of the Arab Mind," you assert that there are erroneous cultural concepts. What are these concepts?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: The most dangerous of these concepts stems from teaching the essence of indoctrination and not scientific thinking and creativity, the rampant religious obsession, the incompleteness of the civil state and the transgression of some institutions to its borders as part of the Egyptian state.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: What is the role of youth centers and cultural palaces in raising the horizons of modernity?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: What youth centers and cultural palaces do is almost "nothing". Ten years ago, I spoke during a televised interview on this very important subject. I said that the total number of these centers and palaces is the same as the number of Egyptian villages, i.e., four thousand. You can imagine what these centers and palaces can do of great cultural work that pulls millions of Egyptians out of the trap of the Brotherhood and the Salafists and their reactionary fundamentalist discourse. But a systematic plan must be put in place to make this happen. And as alienations can be made, so can attraction. They are centers and palaces that must attract audiences with interesting activities such as old and new films and plays, not with lectures that the audience will see as something ridiculous.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: How can Egypt’s Cultural Plan 2030 be implemented?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A: I doubt the existence of "vision", "strategies" and "written programs" in the conventional sense of Quality Management. Without that, we will remain in the world of good intentions that cannot achieve the desired end. Therefore, we have to start by setting and formulating these things: vision, strategies, and programs. This is the only way to create and implement any cultural plan.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;">——————————</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Dr. Suha Ali Ragab conducted with me today the aforementioned talk, which will be published by “Cairo” in its next issue. Cairo is a weekly magazine published by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.</p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-71817710547657993262023-05-15T06:29:00.007-07:002023-05-15T06:36:28.250-07:00The Arab-Israeli Conflict Between Reason and Hysteria<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_xkbOTqKjykShRgW9dnv-48qH3SFChizorJokCx6W-Rbxzv77hxRaryjLejJKgP-rSc59keHxFmteYCrqZ3LT0WIUy8m716mlCPqnCTp5UYfN9Llw1rKHSPHdShY8D_uXsqD8QkoIZcD5JpSB3dtLv0z35gTTtM67pqkG4pI44LXNZFpL1t4u27C/s531/614bba0f8acf607eaf032a99.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="531" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_xkbOTqKjykShRgW9dnv-48qH3SFChizorJokCx6W-Rbxzv77hxRaryjLejJKgP-rSc59keHxFmteYCrqZ3LT0WIUy8m716mlCPqnCTp5UYfN9Llw1rKHSPHdShY8D_uXsqD8QkoIZcD5JpSB3dtLv0z35gTTtM67pqkG4pI44LXNZFpL1t4u27C/s320/614bba0f8acf607eaf032a99.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><p style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">There are those in the Arab world today who do not recognize Israel’s right to exist in the first place, and whose ultimate aim is its destruction. Despite our complete rejection of their logic and the premises from which they proceed, and our conviction that they have set themselves a goal that is not only unattainable but one that will bring about unimaginable loss and destruction, we will content ourselves here with merely expressing our profound disagreement with their viewpoint, without resorting to the mud-slinging tactics they do not hesitate to use against whoever disagrees with them. We want to state for the record that, on the one hand, their logic is seriously flawed and that, on the other, they are, thankfully, in the minority. The vast majority in the Arab world, at the grass roots level and at the level of political movements and organizations, favours a settlement along the lines of the Arab initiative endorsed by the latest Arab summit in Beirut. Initially launched by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, it was previously known as the Saudi initiative. In other words, the majority of Arabs would like to see a final settlement based, either in absolute or relative terms, on the following five points"</span></p><ol style="color: navy;"><li dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">The creation of a Palestinian state on all or most of the territory occupied by Israel in June, 1967.<br /> </span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">The establishment of a capital for the Palestinian state in Arab Jerusalem, and an end to Israeli control over important Muslim and Christian holy places.<br /> </span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">A unanimous Arab recognition of Israel, an end to the state of hostility and the establishment of normal political, economic and cultural relations between the Arabs and Israel.<br /> </span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">Removing all Jewish settlements from the Palestinian state, which are a tinder-box waiting for a spark.<br /> </span></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">Solving the issue of Palestinian return in a manner acceptable to both parties, not on the basis of the absolute right of return but on the basis of a set of compromise solutions (and indemnity agreements) agreeable to both parties.</span></p></li></ol><p style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">It is to this majority that the present article is addressed. If the vision outlined above is acceptable, it follows that political negotiations conducted around an agenda made up of the five points proposed as the basis for a settlement are the only way to end this bloody conflict. It also follows that if the Israelis are not ready to conduct peaceful negotiations, the Palestinians are entitled to resort to armed struggle to bring an end to the occupation and achieve their national aspirations. However, I believe the right to armed struggle is subject to limitations, the most important being that it be directed against the occupation forces, a limitation that was strictly observed in the first Palestinian intifada. Overstepping the limits and focusing on suicide operations against civilians inevitably swells the ranks of Israeli refuseniks opposed to a peaceful settlement; it also erodes international sympathy for the Palestinian cause and alienates global players who might otherwise have played a more forceful role. As I write this article, the BBC has just broadcast a statement by a group of prominent Palestinian intellectuals, including Hanan Ashrawi, condemning the suicide attacks in principle, and accusing them not only of not serving the Palestinian struggle but of provoking a backlash detrimental to the Palestinians. This viewpoint is shared by most of the Palestinian intelligentsia, whether those in the Diaspora or those who did not leave their towns and villages since 1948, who are now known as Israeli Arabs.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="ltr" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">In my opinion, and notwithstanding the unforgivable excesses and atrocities committed by the Israeli side, the Arab side urgently needs to make a sober reappraisal of its positions and policies and to realize that years of allowing itself to be driven by passion, years during which it suspended its critical faculties and turned its back on reason and common sense, has sucked it into a vortex of tragic losses and missed opportunities. For example, if reason had prevailed in 1947, the Arabs would have accepted the Partition Plan; if it had prevailed in 1948, they would not have been led into a war by leaders who knew, or should have known, that the outcome of a military confrontation would not be in their favour. Similarly, creating a climate that led to the 1967 war was far from rational. We are still reeling from the devastating effects of that war, still scrambling to recover part of what the Arab side lost in less than one fateful week in June 1967. Lack of reasoned judgement, of the ability to make a sober assessment of political imperatives, manifested itself once again with the stand taken by most of the Arab world against Anwar Sadat in the late nineteen seventies. It was also evident in Yasser Arafat’s decision to abort the efforts made in Taba in early 2001 to work out an acceptable and balanced framework for a final settlement, when common sense dictated that he accept what was on offer in principle while announcing that a number of issues remained unresolved</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">This aversion to allowing considerations of rationality and wisdom to prevail is one of the main reasons why Sharon and his like-minded cohorts were able to come to power in Israel in February 2001, running on a platform that defies all modern political norms. For they represent a political ideology predicated on theological considerations running counter to all that humanity has achieved, invoking what they call ‘religious rights’ and others see as beliefs rooted in mythology and legend to pursue what is clearly a political agenda.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;"> In focusing on Arab mistakes and miscalculations, I am in no way absolving the Israelis of blame for missed opportunities. A great deal can be said about the number of times Israel has slammed the window of opportunity shut, the way it has seized every chance it could to abort any settlement, starting with Ben Gurion in the early fifties up to Sharon half a century later. But our concern here is with our own mistakes; for it is only by correcting those mistakes that we can hope to move forward.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">To that end, we must first review the file of how the Arabs have been dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict from the nineteen forties to the present day in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. An objective and neutral person looking through the file will discover that the position adopted by the Arab communist parties in 1947 (as well as by a number of prominent Egyptian politicians like Ismail Sidki and Hussein Heikal, even by Mahmoud Fahmy el Nokrashy before he too succumbed to the war fever, and by the renowned thinker and writer Taha Hussein as defined in his literary review, “The Egyptian Writer”) was the most rational and sensible position, even though we all attacked it in the past. A review of the file will also lead to the inescapable conclusion that the Palestinians are in dire need of a new leadership that is very different in terms of background and educational and cultural formation from the cadre that came back from Tunisia after Oslo. Not only does the current leadership have a dismal record of missed opportunities, but it has been instrumental in reinforcing the status of the Israeli right. To watch the members of the current leadership spouting the resounding slogans of which they are so enamoured is to realize that they are fossils from another age, exactly like the representatives of the extreme right in Israel, some of whom are even more out of step with the times. </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">It is essential for the countries sharing common borders with Israel-Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt- to realize that ending the Arab-Israeli conflict is the gateway through which they need to go before overcoming the many other problems they are facing, the only way they can embark on a process of democratic reform, economic development and social peace and not fall prey to forces opposed to education, civilization and modernity, indeed, to the values of progress in general. Long before the conflict attained its present unmanageable proportions, that is precisely what the Egyptian Marxists were advocating in 1947 and 1948. We condemned them for their stand, but we now know that theirs was the voice of reason. As we see the predictions they made at the time turning into reality before our eyes, we can only admit that they were among the few whose vision was rational and far-sighted. </span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">The time has come to translate this vision into reality. This can only come about if Arab public opinion is made to see that the five points outlined at the beginning of this article, which are the essence of the initiative endorsed by the Arab summit in Beirut, are a matter of life or death for the region. The Arab public must be made to realize the dangers of blindly following the school of ‘big talk’ which has cost the countries and peoples of the region dearly and which is capable of costing them even more if they continue to follow slogans which, though apparently nationalistic or religious, are in essence an invitation to remain in thrall to a conflict that is destroying the very fabric of our societies.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">To that end, we need to focus on forming new generations driven by reason rather than by volcanic passions fuelled by voices which give themselves the right to speak in the name of religion or nationalism. It is a task that is rendered all the more difficult by the victim mentality that has developed in our part of the world, where a deep conviction has built up over the last few decades in the minds of many that everything negative in their lives is the result of conspiracies hatched against them by the outside world. True, conflict and competition are facts of life, and the annals of history are rife with conspiracies. But what is certain is that our responsibility for the negative aspects of our life is far greater than that of anyone else. What is also certain is that the world is not made up exclusively of wolves waiting to pounce on us. Here we must have the courage to ask ourselves an important question: Four decades ago, India, China, Japan and Russia (the Soviet Union at the time) supported us on many issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict. Today, these countries are not only no longer as close to us as they once were, but have moved closer to Israel than ever before. Why is that? The answer to that question holds the key to a solution of many of our problems. Most societies are concerned today with improving their lot by optimizing their potential in all areas: industry, construction, services, economic life and social welfare. We, for our part, are locked in a time warp. We alone continue to talk in the language of the Cold War, not realizing that no-one today can remain in a cave isolated from the rest of the world. We must wake up from the dream that any country can be important outside its own borders without first ensuring that it is internally strong, stable and solid and without contributing to the march of history. Any country that is weak on the domestic front can only be weak on the international front; there can be no exceptions to this rule.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">It is all too easy to get caught up in the big talk syndrome, to succumb to the resounding slogans and impossible, not to say illogical, demands made by those who pass themselves off as warriors battling against impossible odds, when in fact they are nothing but false prophets drawing the gullible into a net of false hopes and dreams. The worst of it is that it is not they who bear the consequences of their irresponsible talk, but the destitute denizens of the refugee camps. What is more difficult is to adopt a position based on reason, common sense and a realistic assessment of the situation, and which does not involve making enemies of influential parties capable of affecting the course of events. Big talk deals with impressions and generalities, common sense with facts and specifics. The record of the former is abysmal; the latter can be the way to a brighter future.</span></p><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">I am well aware that in writing this article I am inviting trouble. The self-appointed knights in shining armour riding on their steeds of big words and empty slogans will rush to fire their arrows of insults against my person and accusations against my integrity. For personal defamation is the fate of all who dare to cross them, regardless of whether their proposals have any merit. This will not deter me, however, from calling on Arab public opinion and on those responsible for shaping it to turn their backs on meaningless slogans in favour of reason and common sense. It is all too easy to play to the gallery, to tell people what they want to hear. But the task of any intellectual who is consistent with himself is not to pander to his readers but to write what he believes can contribute to creating a future better than the dark days our region has lived through for over half a century by suspending its critical faculties and allowing meaningless slogans rather than rationality to shape its destiny. </span></p><hr style="color: navy;" /><p class="MsoTitle" dir="LTR" style="color: navy; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">This text is the original English version of an article published in Ha'aretz newspaper in Hebrew on July 5, 2002.</span></i></p><div><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></i></div>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-13254802072964668592023-04-24T07:19:00.000-07:002023-04-24T07:19:49.757-07:00 Why Hate America?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDywJsfbWcQzcTMIh642gDkI_1yzyyRLVp4xyux_wqNd1hAKosIDfTEpJI6Eo6kCYN0eDCp_anBclQnKddEZWWGOceuuR_IBVdzVHW0vSIzwdyvzkY4JZj0fmmg5i8oENjzWliQ8JvNWB-Xqde-XZuKe4tl78drL3mLCSProw3slbOU8mvfqx1msKA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="196" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDywJsfbWcQzcTMIh642gDkI_1yzyyRLVp4xyux_wqNd1hAKosIDfTEpJI6Eo6kCYN0eDCp_anBclQnKddEZWWGOceuuR_IBVdzVHW0vSIzwdyvzkY4JZj0fmmg5i8oENjzWliQ8JvNWB-Xqde-XZuKe4tl78drL3mLCSProw3slbOU8mvfqx1msKA" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was invited (a few days ago) by one of the most important British political and strategic research centers (in London, where I live) to give a speech in which I try to answer the classic and popular question: Why do billions of people hate the United States of America. This text is my literal account of the words which I delivered, as I attempt to summarize decades of </span><span style="font-size: large;">thinking about this question. I hope to have succeeded, in part, in my response to this question, which is one of great importance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have visited the United States about forty times since 1985. These visits covered about half of the states as well as most of its regions. I can say that the themes of my visits centered around the following six cities: New York and Washington D.C., Boston, Houston, Dallas, and San Francisco. In these visits, (during my presidency of one of the largest multinational oil companies), I dealt with many large oil leaders in the state of Texas. I visited and spoke in the largest research centers for political and economic studies in Washington D.C. and New York, as well as speaking at more than twenty universities including Princeton, Columbia, California Berkeley (and others). I was also received by the State Department, the National Security Council, and the Congressional Committee on Religious Freedom. Editions of some of my books were also issued in the United States (in Portland, Oregon). Throughout this time, I’ve thought carefully about one of the questions that I heard the most in my life, which is: Why do many people around the world hate the United States? Whenever I heard this, it raised many questions in my mind. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Why do most young people in societies which hate the United States dream of immigrating to it and becoming Americans? Time spent in dialogue with those haters of America show that most of them are "extremely impressed" with the "American dream,” with “public freedoms in the United States,” with the adherence of all to its constitution and laws, and to the value of the American citizen who is treated “as a human being.” When I hear expressions of hatred and loathing for the United States from many in various parts of the world, including people representing all political, economic, social, educational, cognitive, and cultural spectrums, I am also reminded of two things. The first is that dimension of human nature which makes the inferior exaggerate its criticism for the more advanced and wealthier. The second is the wellspring of "leftist hatred” of America. It is appropriate for me, in particular, to know the nature, raw material, sources, and goals of this "leftist hatred" as I wrote my first three books on the subject of Marxism! And the truth is, none of the above succeeded in getting me to share the feelings of these haters of the United States, so that I hate it as they do. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is difficult for me not to see aspects of American superiority in dozens of fields, or to ignore the elements that make most of those who hate America dream of immigrating to it and becoming citizens of the United States themselves. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is also difficult for a man who knows the subtleties of the techniques of modern management science not to admire the mechanisms of work, creativity, and superiority of American economic entities, or to not admire what American universities are doing in terms of improving science and human lives. However, I cannot deny the presence, urgency, and strength of the important question: Why does the United States receive so much hate from most of humanity? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">During the years of the last decade (2001-2010), the real cause of this hatred began to appear clearly to me. As I traced it, meditated on it, and examined it, my certainty increased that I discovered the real reason for this hatred, even if no one has yet expressed it clearly, which I hope to now provide in this article.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The source of this hatred is the inability of the leaders of American society to consider the “values of American society” as an integral and organic part of “American interests.” The United States, whose foreign policies serve “American interests,” did not realize, since the United States of America became the largest power on earth on the eve of Japan’s surrender in August 1945, that “the values of American society” must be among and even at the top of the list of “American interests.” The following factors contributed to the exacerbation of this schism between “American values” and “American interests”: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(1) the pragmatism (purely practical nature and spirit) that characterizes the American mind. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(2) the relative lack of the American mind in the sense of history and the sense of culture for historical and geographical reasons that do not need clarification. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(3) The predominance of the financial motive within the American culture. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As Voltaire said, “the more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it takes on the appearance of wisdom!” The folly of American politics and politicians since August 1945 was that no one stood up and shouted: Gentlemen-- our values are our most important interests! The dichotomy between the values of American society and its interests is not only the source of this hatred but is also bringing harm to the American states in a way that American politicians still do not understand to this day! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">How do we explain to any human being the relationship of the American administrations for years with the rulers of the banana republics in Latin America? And how do we explain to any sane person the shameful American silence towards violations of human rights, women's rights, and the rights of minorities in the allied societies of the American administrations? How do we explain to any human being the knowledge of the American administrations about the terrifying stories of corruption of its partners around the world, and the silence of these administrations for decades about these amazing cases of corruption? In short: How do we justify to billions of people that what America accepts for non-American peoples, it would never tolerate for 1% of its own citizens!? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">From here stems the hatred, which is definitely justified. The strange thing is that the American political circles do not see this gap between what is accepted abroad and what cannot be accepted at home; that they do not see how this produces huge waves of hatred for the United States, and that they remain blind to the fact that the values of American society should be the cornerstone of American interests and policies. Excluding the values of American society from the list of American interests will bring enormous harm and huge losses to American society.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">London, January 10, 2013</p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-42106242365330771522023-04-15T09:53:00.003-07:002023-04-16T06:21:08.136-07:00Ezer Weizman : An excerpt from my autobiography <p><span style="font-size: medium;">During my many visits to Israel, I met dozens of important Israeli personalities in the political, academic and cultural arenas. A person whom I much admired was Ezer Weizman, who (when I met him for the first time in 1994) was the President of Israel. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b8L0IRlu1FfW-jogkVh4z-uX2JIQBtXjjYcpIwy8AC-9XikxWVhwwNMN_j9T70LBhiPZNalpNIwBmUgxM-yRHscMPeeDRU0xg-pQ8gxrHJ5FHe0ypluS_i9DolYXpTSU33C-ruG-nZg86RHilOEXME_6rjEEHfzzIokSXaVV9U62AaNMHsHd7Xr_/s1024/1a28d6a5-17c9-4dfb-8b0e-9eb7e61c9929.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7b8L0IRlu1FfW-jogkVh4z-uX2JIQBtXjjYcpIwy8AC-9XikxWVhwwNMN_j9T70LBhiPZNalpNIwBmUgxM-yRHscMPeeDRU0xg-pQ8gxrHJ5FHe0ypluS_i9DolYXpTSU33C-ruG-nZg86RHilOEXME_6rjEEHfzzIokSXaVV9U62AaNMHsHd7Xr_/s320/1a28d6a5-17c9-4dfb-8b0e-9eb7e61c9929.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZB8rU5CU_dDm-QeRErIM6iqvXHblQmwjOghyEJvs2xVAsYgeat6UONILqhk_AUuIwDIseXsro9BSRadz_crN5wRCKLXyhCbzMZY-Hp6wEzMC0znFYjCy_Nu0Fy6zxSHYkW_JvE58LaewV3uUx_g-keuuzBIl0l_esQRrM7OUOAGcrywbfg3jsTv-t/s1024/ddac2730-0bc1-4906-b50f-69fec7cb05eb.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZB8rU5CU_dDm-QeRErIM6iqvXHblQmwjOghyEJvs2xVAsYgeat6UONILqhk_AUuIwDIseXsro9BSRadz_crN5wRCKLXyhCbzMZY-Hp6wEzMC0znFYjCy_Nu0Fy6zxSHYkW_JvE58LaewV3uUx_g-keuuzBIl0l_esQRrM7OUOAGcrywbfg3jsTv-t/s320/ddac2730-0bc1-4906-b50f-69fec7cb05eb.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzIpAPMAzzNjaOQq-68a7UglDeSyp522pN3NEjDDb7pr_7OogwDpKfnwXgQ4OpHSAFT08zCHy6tOgoAApDYfd9pJIsf_BG4R4xmgZem-6x2Sf0ygkfiaeDvMstD0DP41Jpoy0RHuzkrLbtb3nIAQyiGdB821KNS4h9XnQV_CYHzNH-kRWCGjOh3BVI/s1024/f9fce7ca-c8e8-46cb-8252-6fa3f49705a8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzIpAPMAzzNjaOQq-68a7UglDeSyp522pN3NEjDDb7pr_7OogwDpKfnwXgQ4OpHSAFT08zCHy6tOgoAApDYfd9pJIsf_BG4R4xmgZem-6x2Sf0ygkfiaeDvMstD0DP41Jpoy0RHuzkrLbtb3nIAQyiGdB821KNS4h9XnQV_CYHzNH-kRWCGjOh3BVI/s320/f9fce7ca-c8e8-46cb-8252-6fa3f49705a8.jpeg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Born in 1924, Ezer Weizman was the nephew of Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the State of Israel, who had a major role in establishing the state in 1948. Ezer Weizman is a great historical figure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In addition to our meetings at his official office in Jerusalem, I visited his home in Caesarea on several occasions. I remember that during my first visit there, I saw two side-by-side pictures on a table, one of which was of the former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the other was of his only son Shaul who was struck by a bullet fired from an Egyptian sniper across the Suez Canal. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On that day, I said to Ezer: two side-by-side photos, one of your son and the second of the supreme commander of the Egyptian army, one of whose soldiers fired a bullet across the Suez Canal from its western bank, hitting your son in the head while he was present as an Israeli soldier near the eastern bank of the Suez Canal! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Ezer's comment at that moment was: despite the accuracy of your comment, what Anwar Sadat did remains a legendary historical act, one which laid the foundation stone for peace between Israel and Egypt.</span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-39252687601755114292023-04-02T07:20:00.001-07:002023-04-02T07:20:34.678-07:00 The Three Jewish sects: Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Karaite<p><br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8CFj-6Q7jzNYyn2mQfyXrDBjZTxTIH7lJ6sjUOwB5BcULr3yX13JtNKD8pvDB71QxvBJMQZ66tQiAMAMudsW5-ZTCZl4xf7vRk5jAtzA8EL4Yg8otF6CMuQ5Bh-vl5bWlFJKNDpQX_swLjT3v9Xfq102wOlgE_AQhNTjNBCWHZJz4ukb4CYIY6ih/s261/Karaite%20Jews.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="193" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG8CFj-6Q7jzNYyn2mQfyXrDBjZTxTIH7lJ6sjUOwB5BcULr3yX13JtNKD8pvDB71QxvBJMQZ66tQiAMAMudsW5-ZTCZl4xf7vRk5jAtzA8EL4Yg8otF6CMuQ5Bh-vl5bWlFJKNDpQX_swLjT3v9Xfq102wOlgE_AQhNTjNBCWHZJz4ukb4CYIY6ih/s1600/Karaite%20Jews.jpeg" width="193" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The Ashkenazi Jews or Ashkenazim hail from Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and those communities close to these European countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The origin of the Sephardic Jews or the Sephardim is Spain. However, when Muslims and Jews left Spain together (in 1492 AD) due to their expulsion, the Sephardic Jews spread to several eastern countries, the most important of which were Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">As for the Karaite Jews, who are fewer in number than the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim, the majority of them lived in Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and Russia.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The number of Jews in our world today is estimated at 16-17 million, among which approximately 11-12 million are Ashkenazim, 5-6 million are Sephardim, and only one hundred thousand are Karaites.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Between the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim, there are differences regarding a large number of issues within the law (halakhah). However, the differences between them (together) and between the Karaites are much greater. The Ashkenazim and the Sephardim (together called the Rabbinic Jews) believe in the Torah and the rest of the chapters of the Bible (the Tanakh) as well as the “Talmud” (its two parts: the Mishna and the Gemara) and the Midrash. In contradistinction, the Karaite Jews follow only the 5 chapters comprising the Torah, i.e., Genesis and Exodus, the Book of Leviticus, the Book of Numbers, and the Book of Deuteronomy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">As for the "Mizrahi Jews," they are not a religious sect but rather are Oriental Jews. Their number represents one-fifth of the world's Jewish population as well as half the Jews within the State of Israel. The origin of the word Mizrahim--מִזְרָחִים is derived from the name of Egypt in the Hebrew language: Mizraim: מִצְרַיִם. Note that the Mizrahi Jew may be from either the Sephardic tradition or from the Karaite.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-39128904351812770012022-12-27T09:13:00.000-08:002022-12-27T09:13:38.660-08:00 The Dilemma of “Us” and “Them”<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_umh0WA_U-hTWnxeCzD9QwmDG8GTFqzHhxq8vmgXQeR-pSiMI5Q4MbNT6wF6YBRsR7bkVCHuq_x2dDBFnPxomAy8id02WKxfDQaMD5r_DjTospictOZMGmnoqgeq6-RqGj-njB2w7XEJYoHVRyCnN45W82sW2c_hZ9SnmgKHGRaQBvOATty7o9Cta/s720/TH%20Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="720" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_umh0WA_U-hTWnxeCzD9QwmDG8GTFqzHhxq8vmgXQeR-pSiMI5Q4MbNT6wF6YBRsR7bkVCHuq_x2dDBFnPxomAy8id02WKxfDQaMD5r_DjTospictOZMGmnoqgeq6-RqGj-njB2w7XEJYoHVRyCnN45W82sW2c_hZ9SnmgKHGRaQBvOATty7o9Cta/s320/TH%20Blog.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">In all cultures, the "us and them" dilemma plays negative roles, but these roles vary. I tend to believe this dilemma reaches its highest level (i.e., its worst manifestation) in societies with a pastoral history, while it is less acute in agricultural and industrial societies.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">During the last half century, a theocratic/religious culture has spread in Arabic-speaking societies. Because this culture was born in a pastoral environment(s), the mentalities of many in Arabic-speaking societies have become characterized by a culture of hostility towards the "other", even in non-pastoral societies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If it were up to me, I would make the educational material in our society serve the value of accepting the other and understand the issue of "us and them" in a positive way. In a society like Egypt, this is not a difficult task. Egyptian society is not comparable to societies in the same region, with some twenty sects.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The question of the culture of "us and them" and the value of accepting the other is not a secondary issue, but an extremely important and serious one.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A large percentage of the citizens of Arabic-speaking societies today have a non-positive and sometimes even hostile view of the “other” in all its forms including the religious other, the ethnic other, and the other in terms of identity and nationality.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">What has happened during the last decade in societies such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and before all of them Lebanon, in terms of fragmentation, rivalry, and divisions that sometimes have reached the point of fighting, was one of the repercussions of the "dilemma of us and them.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The author of this article has written a lot about the “values of progress.” As such, there is no doubt that all of these values (i.e., the values of progress) are based upon what some call “altruism” and others call “acceptance of the other,” which is the basis of a positive mentality regarding "us and them". Acceptance of the other is the cornerstone of another very important value: "coexistence".</span></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"> Written on December 27, 2022.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-88155643347392218872022-12-22T07:20:00.000-08:002022-12-22T07:20:00.906-08:00Jews of Arabic-speaking societies<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWl0iqlUMLvdwUnNb1a9MPi1GvJqX4v2kvtnqjp7pZjbdPHvK6hEqFDhXnNSmUAXzRj4Wn1injPSN_ZhF_aKkYOHX7mmUWVLI9rR6wo0JSErLHplNOHNJxVpc6HA048vfYvP-QEjyalDbP6XK80c7ASwcamQUKQZQ98npSdIhRVwz_AqWYmWb2jz4O/s594/The%20Cornerstones.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWl0iqlUMLvdwUnNb1a9MPi1GvJqX4v2kvtnqjp7pZjbdPHvK6hEqFDhXnNSmUAXzRj4Wn1injPSN_ZhF_aKkYOHX7mmUWVLI9rR6wo0JSErLHplNOHNJxVpc6HA048vfYvP-QEjyalDbP6XK80c7ASwcamQUKQZQ98npSdIhRVwz_AqWYmWb2jz4O/s320/The%20Cornerstones.jpeg" width="310" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the topics in which I maintain an ongoing interest is that of the "Jews of Arabic-speaking societies." I have read a great deal about them and met many of them as well. There is no doubt that my interest in the Jews of Egypt was the starting point. I then spent years (during the seventies of the last century) in Morocco, during which I became interested in Moroccan Jews. Finally, I developed an interest in the Jews of Iraq. While I could write a book about the Jews of Arabic-speaking societies, I will limit myself here to highlighting one dimension, which is "the Jews of Arabic-speaking societies and the degree of modernity within these societies." The time span for this topic is the period from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A study of the conditions of these societies in general and the condition of Egyptian society in particular confirms the existence of a relationship between the presence of the Jews in these societies and the degree of their modernity. The conditions of Egypt during this era prove the argument which finds the presence and activities of the Jews reflecting the modern trends in Egyptian society. Further, the imposition of an intended (forced) end to the presence of the Jews within Egypt was accompanied by a process of apostasy from modernist tendencies. This argument does not suggest that the Jews within a society, such as within Egypt, were the spearhead of the modernist tendencies, but rather the Jews and their activities were a manifestation of that society’s modernist tendencies. The presence of the Jews was the result of a political, social, and cultural climate characterized by three values: "pluralism", "altruism" (acceptance of the other), and "coexistence". </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Since the fifties of the last century, the prevalence of these values has markedly declined. This decline has been accompanied by the exodus of most Jews and the beginning of a period of pressure on other Egyptian minorities, foremost among them Christian citizens. There is no doubt that the "citizenship of Egyptian Christians" during the first half of the last century was closer to perfection than the citizenship of Egyptian Christians in the decades following.</span></p><div><br /></div>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-79186905753951116482022-07-06T09:22:00.004-07:002022-07-06T09:25:28.576-07:00The Cornerstones of my Mindset<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqlMuBeOICAMjP14adbQIz8JIKq8ff7ZV4tpSM8Qi0fXppi9Us8rsWHMqRgrNPOmOp6ZVaqalLGMU9RkelgAEEyaeR6IG5vN_-tBppAquFnXvTfGV7kfQDMB9JMn0iie2uWZ8MTUN1mHFJRfDEjKXXB0HbGJdWGGvHbKtoia79WLi5NJ26Rfx4-uV/s594/The%20Cornerstones.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtqlMuBeOICAMjP14adbQIz8JIKq8ff7ZV4tpSM8Qi0fXppi9Us8rsWHMqRgrNPOmOp6ZVaqalLGMU9RkelgAEEyaeR6IG5vN_-tBppAquFnXvTfGV7kfQDMB9JMn0iie2uWZ8MTUN1mHFJRfDEjKXXB0HbGJdWGGvHbKtoia79WLi5NJ26Rfx4-uV/s320/The%20Cornerstones.jpeg" width="310" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I know very well the size of the gap between my thinking and the thinking of the majority in Egypt:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I firmly believe that religion is a personal matter and not a general reference for society.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in positive laws that change over time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in reason, not transmission and intuition.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in scientific thinking according to its stable definition in the most advanced world since the nineteenth century AD.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in pluralism, altruism (accepting the other) and coexistence.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe that women are 100% equal to men and that they have all his rights.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in citizenship as a framework for the relationship of the sons and daughters of society to their country.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~And I believe that non-Muslim Egyptians (primarily the Orthodox Copts) have the same and all the rights of Egyptian Muslims, including the right to occupy any position, including the presidency.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~And I believe that the issues of Egypt are more important to me than the issues of others, including the Palestinian issue.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">~I believe in the right of the state to fully supervise all the institutions that the state grants its budgets. This includes state supervision over the education provided by these institutions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And I know that my belief in these ten things is what makes the gap between my thinking and the thinking of the majority of contemporary Egyptians so great.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But I don't care about that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My knowledge of history assures me that this is a natural, timeless, and changeable difference. If this difference weakened my resolve, I would have little faith in these ideas. I am sure that “science,” “reason,” “light,” and “progress” stand with me.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-13436271079833289992022-06-07T08:22:00.002-07:002022-06-07T08:27:03.353-07:00The Muslim Brotherhood’s Past and Present: An Analysis of “9 Bedford Row’s” Reports<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;">My essay on the MBs that was published by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Despite the fact that this essay was written six years ago, it could be read as if it was written earlier today.</span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://mfaegypt.org/2015/12/15/the-muslim-brotherhoods-past-and-present-an-analysis-of-9-bedford-rows-reports/">The-muslim-brotherhoods-past-and-present-an-analysis-of-9-bedford-rows-reports.</a><br /></span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="entry-meta" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; display: inline-block; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif;"><span class="posted-on" face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background: rgb(35, 47, 62); box-sizing: inherit; color: white; display: inline-block; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0.4rem 0.4rem 0px; padding: 0.5rem 1rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://mfaegypt.org/2015/12/15/the-muslim-brotherhoods-past-and-present-an-analysis-of-9-bedford-rows-reports/" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: white; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in 0s;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />DECEMBER 15, 2015</a></span><span class="byline" face=""Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif" style="background: rgb(35, 47, 62); box-sizing: inherit; color: white; display: inline-block; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0.4rem 0.4rem 0px; padding: 0.5rem 1rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://mfaegypt.org/author/tarekheggyblog/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: white; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in 0s;">DR. TAREK HEGGY - POLITICAL THINKER, AUTHOR OF 30 BOOKS & VISITING PROF AT A NUMBER OF EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES</a></span></span></div><span face="Ubuntu, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #404040;"></span></span><h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: silver; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 3.65625px; overflow-wrap: break-word; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Muslim Brotherhood’s Past and Present: An Analysis of “9 Bedford Row’s” Reports</span></h1><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #404040; font-family: Ubuntu, sans-serif; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Over the past four years, a great deal of both scholarly work as well as media analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood has been produced, focusing in particular on its year in power in Egypt. What is striking is how partisan and politicized much of this literature is, particularly since the removal of the Brotherhood from power in 2013. Any mention of the Brotherhood frequently provokes polemical debates between writers and commentators, often falling across an East/West divide. As a result, much of what is published eschews balanced and objective analysis.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">It is against this backdrop that I was pleasantly surprised – while undertaking my most recent research project on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and its year in power in Egypt – to come across two thorough and incisive reports published by the British <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Nine (9) Bedford Row</em>. The first report on “<a href="http://9bri.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Report-on-the-History-of-the-Muslim-Brotherhood1.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #232f3e; transition: all 0.1s ease-in 0s;">The History of the Muslim Brotherhood</a>”, comprehensively documents the history and development of the Brotherhood since its establishment in 1928, as well as its organizational structure, ideology and method of expansion. The second report on <a href="http://9bri.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Report-II.9BRi.Muslim-Brotherhood-in-Power.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #232f3e; transition: all 0.1s ease-in 0s;">“The Egyptian Experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Power”</a>, discusses in meticulous detail the reasons for the rise and fall of the Brotherhood between 2012 and 2013.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">In this blog post, I will review and discuss some of the most important findings of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">9 Bedford Row’s</em> two reports, which highlight many unknown truths about the Brotherhood. It is my firm belief that the Brotherhood never had any intention of establishing a democratic state in Egypt, and that they simply attempted to manipulate democracy to achieve their own ends. The West tends to forget that the Brotherhood abused their year in government to hijack Egypt’s 2011 revolution and to consolidate their rule. Brotherhood figures have continued, to this day, to state that the organization is not committed to Western democratic values, which they believe do not honour the rule of God.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">In fact, the Brotherhood’s sinister objectives can only be understood upon closer scrutiny of its history of violence and its ties to Islamic extremist and terrorist groups. The first report by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">9 Bedford Row</em> is key to properly understanding this context.</span></p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Brotherhood’s History of Violence and ties to terrorism:</u></span></li></ol><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Established in Egypt in 1928 to reinstate the Islamic Caliphate dissolved by Kemal Ataturk, ever since its earliest days the Brotherhood has embraced the rhetoric of violence. Hassan El-Banna, the Brotherhood’s founder “demanded controls over all media of communication,” as he regarded theatres, films, radio, popular music, and the press as promoting vice and immorality. He called for strict surveillance of public spaces and heavier punishments for “crimes against morality”. He tolerated and condoned acts of intolerance and violence against religious minorities as well as women who did not wear “correct Islamic attire” (paras 52-55).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Because El-Banna sought to expand the Brotherhood’s reach as far as possible, the movement accommodated and at times encouraged militant and extremist reactionary elements. In fact, he went so far as to express his readiness to declare war against “every leader, every party and every organization” that did not implement the Brotherhood’s programmes (para 59, 63).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Throughout the 1940’s, the Brotherhood’s “Secret Apparatus”, a paramilitary unit established by El-Banna, perpetrated serious acts of political violence. Among those they assassinated were a prominent judge, the Cairo Chief of Police and Egypt’s Prime Minister. In 1954, they attempted to assassinate President Nasser (para 101-113, 140-143).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Even after its was dissolved in December 1948, the Brotherhood turned to more violence, militarization and clandestine action. It remained in the grip of the Secret Apparatus for decades, embracing the jihadist philosophy spearheaded by El-Banna and promoted by his disciple Sayyid Qutb.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Brotherhood splinter groups such as <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">al-Takfir wal Hijra</em> assassinated thinkers who publicly criticized the group’s radical ideology. <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tanzim Al-Jihad</em> (established by Al-Qaeda’s second man, Ayman Al-Zawahri – a Brotherhood member), assassinated President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 after he had signed a Peace Treaty with Israel. These groups as well as others linked to the Brotherhood have also carried out terrorist attacks against tourists and religious minorities.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Equally, the Brotherhood has ties with terrorist organisations established outside Egypt by leading figures within its “international network”. According to <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">9 Bedford Row’s</em> Report, Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Aballah Yusuf Azzam the three founders of al-Qa’ida were prominent members of the “international network” (para 209, 270-313). All three were strong advocates of Sayyid Qutb’s writings, which formed the basis of their justification for the use of violence both internally and externally (para 211-213, 276, 279).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">The Brotherhood’s teachings have been adopted as a reference point for many terrorist organisations that target both Islamic and Western societies and people.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">For instance, Article II of the Charter of Hamas states that “The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine. Moslem Brotherhood Movement is a universal organisation which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterized by… its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts…the spreading of Islam… and conversion to Islam” (para 15). Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks was also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, as was Muhammad Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers. As offshoots of Al-Qaida, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">ISIS</em>, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are also indirectly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. All of these groups have cited Sayed Qutb as an inspiration for their actions.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Although the Brotherhood has tried to publicly distance itself from the actions of these groups, it played a central role in providing the ideological framework which forms the core of al-Qa’ida, Daesh, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab and Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, particularly <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">takfirism </em>(the elimination of any deviation from what they consider to be the Islamic Sharia), global <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">jihad</em> (to bring about the rule of God by force), culminating in the establishment of a global Islamic Caliphate.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">US counter-terrorism experts have acknowledged that the Brotherhood continues to advocate the use of violence against innocent civilians. Brotherhood members have provided public support for violent acts of terrorism undertaken by militant Islamist groups. These include former Brotherhood Member of Parliament Rajab Hilal Hemeida, who has publicly praised Bin Ladin, Al-Zawahri and Al-Zarqawi, stating that he “supports their activities” and that “terrorism is not a curse when given its true meaning” (para 319). Other leading Brotherhood figures such as Wagdy Ghoneim, Youssef Al-Qaradawi and Mohamed Badie refer to Bin Ladin as a “martyr”, reject the “crusader” alliance to defeat “brothers in ISIL” and advocate the use of both violent <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">jihad</em> against Western governments and peaceful <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">jihad</em> to “eliminate” and “destroy” Western civilization from within (para 263, 320). They also advocate killing so-called “apostates” from Islam, which includes any Muslim person or government that does not subscribe to their radical ideology.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">In addition, the Brotherhood was implicated in providing material and financial support to militant organisations, a fact confirmed by European and US investigative authorities and courts, as well as the UN Security Council (paras 337-352). As a result, it was banned in Syria, Iraq, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Given this legacy and ethos of violence, it is no wonder the Brotherhood and its leadership, up until the time of writing, have been involved in a series of acts of indoctrination, intimidation, subversion of the rule of law, clandestine activity and political violence, including during their year in power and during the mass protests against their rule (para 259). As discussed in more detail below, the Brotherhood’s power grab in Egypt during 2012-2013 and the protests it sparked must be viewed within this much broader context.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;"> 2. <span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: underline;">T</span><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">he Brotherhood’s Rise to Power and Subsequent Fall</u></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">The second report by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">9 Bedford Row</em> highlights the distortion and political manipulation that led to Morsi’s rise to power. Within a few months of the revolution, the Brotherhood had established a political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which it claimed was independent (although all party leadership positions were reserved for members of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council). The party was able, through false promises, to win a majority in parliament (which was subsequently dissolved by the Supreme Constitutional Court – SCC).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Reneging on their promise not to present a candidate in the country’s first presidential election, the Brotherhood nominated Morsi after the disqualification of Khairat El-Shater, its main financier, who had been previously convicted for charges of money laundering and financing of terrorism (para 11-15, 27).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">During these presidential elections, a number of challenges undermined the secular/liberal candidates, not least of which was the confusion besetting the electoral map following the revolution, the large number of candidates (which resulted in splitting the secular/liberal vote), the political organisation of the Brotherhood after years of operating clandestinely and subsequently its ability to mobilise its supporters as opposed to other, newly formed, political parties. This is in addition to reports of irregularities, such as electoral bribing, all factors which culminated in Morsi receiving 24.77% of the vote in the first round, thus qualifying for the presidential run-off.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">It was during the run-off that voters truly found themselves between a rock and a hard place. They could either vote for Morsi (and hence the Brotherhood) or Ahmed Shafiq, who was widely perceived to be tied to Mubarak’s regime. Large numbers of people boycotted the vote or voted for Morsi to avoid Shafiq. In spite of this, Morsi’s victory was very narrow, securing only 51.73% (para 32-49).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Having secured control of both the executive and legislative branches of government, the Brotherhood proceeded to monopolise the Constitution-drafting process. In a clearly undemocratic process, they appointed 65 Islamists to the one hundred member Constituent Assembly, leaving only 16 seats to secularists, 5 to Copts and 6 to women. By the time the Assembly’s first session was convened, 25 members had already resigned in protest of the Brotherhood’s dominance, with representatives from the Coptic Orthodox Church resigning shortly thereafter (para 58).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Throughout this process, the Brotherhood’s strategy was “to conceal its true objectives … distorting the true intentions of its political platform to appease the concerns of secular and Christian sects” (para 59). This included making false overtures to women’s equality and minority rights, while condoning violence against both women and Egypt’s Copts and other Christians. It also included openly threatening and intimidating political opponents, secretly releasing convicted Islamist extremists, and embarking on a process of “Islamification” (or rather “Ikhwanisation”) of State institutions</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">In his less than one-year tenure, Morsi repeatedly exceeded his executive powers and defied the rule of law. Less than two weeks after assuming the Presidency, he flouted Egypt’s SCC by re-instating the Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved by court order. He replaced Egypt’s Prosecutor-General, appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council, with his own appointee, known for his Islamist leanings.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Morsi’s power-grab took new heights when he issued a decree declaring that the judiciary was barred from reviewing his decisions, and in particular barring the SCC from dissolving either parliament or the Constituent Assembly (whose constitutionality was being challenged before the Court) (para 97-112). This was coupled with a rush to appoint Islamist sympathisers to replace those who resigned from the Constituent Assembly. This was intended to allow the Assembly to finalise the constitution before the SCC had a chance to rule on the body’s constitutionality. In a mockery of a process, the draft Constitution was approved within nine days. Brotherhood supporters besieged the SCC to prevent the judges from accessing the building.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Morsi’s decree and his attempt to impose a hastily-drafted, unrepresentative and clearly unacceptable constitution intensified the wave of mass protests against his rule. These protests had never ceased throughout his one-year as President. In fact, a report issued by the presidency during Morsi’s last days in office stated that “a total of 24 million people had taken part in 7709 protests and 5821 demonstrations” even before the final mass protests that removed him (para 187).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">From 1 May 2013, the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Tamarod</em> (Rebellion) campaign started collecting signatures for a petition calling for Morsi’s ouster and for early presidential elections. The petition is reported to have collected more than two million signatures in the first ten days and more than twenty-two million signatures by 29 June 2013. This far outnumbered the 13.2 million votes Morsi won in the presidential elections (para 236). Between 30 June and 3<span style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> July, millions of people took the streets throughout the country, demanding Morsi’s immediate resignation. However, Morsi remained defiant, refusing to bow to the will of the protestors, and even turning a blind eye to increasing incitement to violence from Brotherhood members and supporters.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">In fact, during the protests, Morsi contacted Ayman Al-Zawahri and his brother Mohamed, inciting them to rise against the Egyptian army in the Sinai and to compel all jihadi elements to come to the Brotherhood’s aid. Al-Zawahiri promised to “set the Sinai aflame” (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">First Report</em>, para 328-29). Until this day, terrorist attacks in the Sinai continue to claim innocent lives, destroying many livelihoods and all but crippling Egypt’s tourism industry.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">On 1 July, fearing violence and bloodshed between the protestors and the Brotherhood, the army gave Morsi an ultimatum to resign within 48 hours. Two days later, the army announced a political roadmap, naming the Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court as interim President (para 263-268).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">Conclusion</u>:</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Although the Brotherhood purports to present a “moderate” view of Islam, this could not be farther from the truth. The Brotherhood has never embraced democratic principles other than as a vehicle to reach power through their manipulative religious rhetoric. They have openly rejected the civil nature of the state, seeking to impose its rigid and radical views. These were the views decidedly rejected by the majority of Egyptian people in June 2013. God only knows what kind of violence, bloodshed and civil strife could have ensued had the army not taken a stance in favour of the protestors and against the regime. One only needs to look around Egypt to other countries in the region to sense the degree of carnage and chaos that could have ensued.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: medium; font-weight: 700;">Egypt is now firmly a state that stands up to, rather then sponsors, finances or condones terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood that once ruled Egypt has intricate links with other terrorist organisations that have not only wreaked havoc in the Middle East, but have also extended their reach to the United States and Europe, claiming thousands of innocent lives. No country is immune to Islamic extremist terrorism, which has at its core the exclusionary, radical and violent ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that also provides moral, material and financial support to these groups. We should not fall into the trap of dealing with each of these groups in isolation or to discriminate in terms of how we treat them. They all share common origins, a common ideology, and common methods of violence and intimidation. It is only through realizing this fact, and through comprehensively addressing the problem from its roots that we may hope one day to eradicate the scourge of terrorism once and for all.</span></p></div>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-78824464609661069652022-06-03T11:17:00.001-07:002022-06-04T14:26:28.417-07:00My watershed moment: 5th June, 1967<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09lWYNj-aFjPpSbesvEBkCg2_TaO_3hXQn-qUp0gRNlRTKoM5ZZJMA68K-kN2exknVPPvfTgOQ9XT5StP4jK-tK7bhm1DOwadOPYySrqGxWCd0BWxp9x2h7IEyEhwwzhLY3QEw2Jjllt9a0wv8RoydPaaCsLT6mwZr1WmSk-chmT8L9_NCMdI8jr_/s976/The%206%20day%20war.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09lWYNj-aFjPpSbesvEBkCg2_TaO_3hXQn-qUp0gRNlRTKoM5ZZJMA68K-kN2exknVPPvfTgOQ9XT5StP4jK-tK7bhm1DOwadOPYySrqGxWCd0BWxp9x2h7IEyEhwwzhLY3QEw2Jjllt9a0wv8RoydPaaCsLT6mwZr1WmSk-chmT8L9_NCMdI8jr_/w320-h180/The%206%20day%20war.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A few minutes ago I recorded an interview that shall be broadcast by an Egyptian radio station on 5th June, 2022 about 5th June 1967.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This is what I said in this interview :</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The year 1967 was a watershed year in my life. It was there that I began my law studies at the university. And it was the shock that separated me from the thinking/mindset of the herd. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On a day like this, June 5th, 55 years, ago my search for facts began via scientific thinking tools.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On a day like this 55 years ago my mind started its salvation from many ideas and started getting faraway from dogma, ideologies, and more importantly: from hate !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">* this interview was conducted in Arabic, and subsequently translated into English by myself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-o06Lt-tmXUcIECMoxaZE8J-96W1xn-iC5baElUHgwfVRAY_DtRj5-GgnYEWpgBbS2SqJd624p__JNb5I_0l6FeUCacYM5JoADIarMVKat0fBqQhK6i4BToQ55abhTMzKR2l0l5tTOdadlhlcKyiCWmKJRDXDtzZaO_f3-ODP0Bz9NuGd_DIFBuAV" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-o06Lt-tmXUcIECMoxaZE8J-96W1xn-iC5baElUHgwfVRAY_DtRj5-GgnYEWpgBbS2SqJd624p__JNb5I_0l6FeUCacYM5JoADIarMVKat0fBqQhK6i4BToQ55abhTMzKR2l0l5tTOdadlhlcKyiCWmKJRDXDtzZaO_f3-ODP0Bz9NuGd_DIFBuAV=w400-h300" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This photo is of the section of “Judaism & Israel” in my private library.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">700 volumes about :</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Bible.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Torah.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Meshnah.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Gemara.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Midrash.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The History of the Jewish People.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The History of the Modern Israel Project from 1897 till 29th November, 1947.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The establishment of The State of Israel (14th May, 1948).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The 1948, 1956, 1967 & 1973 Wars.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Political Life in Israel throughout the past 74 years.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Israeli Literature.</span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-68858293576927371112022-05-25T17:54:00.029-07:002022-05-31T16:40:42.756-07:00 Recent interview conducted by Professor Aryeh Tepper for Sephardi Ideas Monthly<div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Aryeh Tepper teaches at Ben-Gurion University and is a Visiting Scholar at the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. He is Chief Editor and Director of Publications for the American Sephardi Federation.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></div>Mr. Heggy recently emailed the following message to his friends and followers:</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><i><span style="text-align: center;">I have 30,000 books in my library in several languages with sections that address all fields within the social sciences, humanities, arts and literature. Not too long ago, a European journalist marveled at one of the largest sections of my library which includes hundreds of books on "religions." In response to a question from him, I said: my country, Egypt, is comprised of more than Muslims, so how can I not try to know all I can about each religion? In 1967, the year I entered the university, an earthquake occurred in my life, the June 5th war. How can I not try to know all that I can about Israel and the Jews?</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;">I immersed myself in the study of the Bible with its two covenants. I studied the history of Christianity, the history of the Egyptian Church, and theological issues. As such, my relationship with my fellow Christians became as it is now. And I delved into a study of the Torah and other sacred books of the Jews, the history of the Hebrews and the Jews over the last 40 centuries, the miserable history of the Jews in Europe after the Romans expelled them from the Holy Land in 70 CE until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and the history of Israel since its state was established three years following the end of World War II. As a consequence of these intensive studies, my vision of the Jews and of Israel has become different from those who do not know a fraction of what I mentioned.</span></i><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>Sephardi Ideas Monthly</b>: Mr. Heggy, your curious spirit reflects an Egyptian heritage that has been pushed aside by the rise of Political Islam. In your critiques of Political Islam, especially in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood, you point to Muhammad Ali's Egypt (1805-1952) as an alternative. Perhaps you could share with our readers what Muhammad Ali's Egypt represents for you: what thrived in Muhammad Ali's Egypt that has been lost?</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>Tarek Heggy</b>: Go back to the Napoleonic conquest at the end of the 18th century. Egyptians were deeply impressed by the new technical wonders that had been developed in France and Europe. Local observers compared Western technological progress with their own condition, and they knew they had much to learn. Muhammad Ali's Egypt accordingly looked northwest. Muhammad Ali himself and his successors did two things simultaneously: they sent hundreds of Egyptians to study things like modern engineering techniques and irrigation systems in Europe, and they employed hundreds of European experts in all Egyptian government departments. Egypt wanted to become open and modern. Amazingly, the first Prime Minister in Modern Egypt was an Armenian, Noubar Pacha (1825-1899).</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;">For me, as person who devoted his life and work to advocate for modernity, I can’t be but impressed by this facet of Muhammad Ali's Egypt. However, this openness was aborted by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who aimed to direct the Egyptian mind from the West to pan-Arabism. Then came Anwar Sadat, who opened Egyptian society and culture to Islamist influence. </span><span style="text-align: center;">Currently, the influence of Islam on the Egyptian mindset is undeniably the number one influence.</span></span><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: center;"><b>Sephardi Ideas Monthly</b>: Your critical remark about Anwar Sadat opening Egyptian society and culture to Islamist influence is interesting. Outside of Egypt, Sadat is almost exclusively remembered as a brave peacemaker who was tragically assassinated. Your assessment of Sadat is more complex.</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>Tarek Heggy</b>: Six years ago, after her speech to the British parliament, I shared with Mrs. Sadat my multi-layered judgment of Anwar Sadat. Sadat, undeniably, did very well in the October 1973 war with Israel, a war against an army that was much more powerful than his. Without this step, Sadat wouldn’t have been able to do what he did in November 1977 and reach out to Israel. Thanks to that move, Sadat then returned Sinai to Egypt after it was occupied in June 1967. </span><span style="text-align: center;">However, while Nasser banned the Muslim Brotherhood, Sadat let the Brotherhood operate in the shadows. Sadat didn't recognize the Brotherhood, but he tried to use them for various political purposes. This de-facto alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood allowed the Brotherhood to grow, and it was a curse that Egypt still suffers from.</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>SIM</b>: And the Muslim Brotherhood actually assumed power during 2012-13. They were ousted, however, by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following the mass public insurgency of July 2013. </span><span style="text-align: center;">Since assuming power, President El-Sisi has pushed back against Political Islam and, as you like to point out, has called for the renewal of religious discourse in Egypt. El-Sisi's anti-Islamist program is part of the larger regional pushback against Political Islam, but he faces enormous challenges, as the forces of Islamism in Egypt are very strong. How do you assess el-Sisi's situation?</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>TH</b>: President el-Sisi is the first Egyptian political leader to speak about the imperative need to renew the religious discourse. In my opinion, this is precisely what Egypt currently needs before anything else. President el-Sisi is the first head of a state to speak about the necessity of renewing the religious context. It is quite obvious that the Islamic institutions in general and al-Azhar University in particular have rejected this call. As far as Al-Azhar, it advocates what could be described as an alloy of the three Islamist contexts: the Wahhabi, the Salafi and the Ikhwani (Muslim Brotherhood) contexts. For the sake of perspective, you must remember, nearly a quarter of all Egyptian students receive an Islamic education in schools managed by al-Azhar. </span><span style="text-align: center;">Personally, I believe that President el-Sisi has been very wise in avoiding a societal conflict about this subject. Meanwhile, I do see that there are quantitative changes that might ultimately help him achieve his goal, totally or partially, without an undesired clash with al-Azhar.</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>SIM</b>: Your remark about Al-Azhar is interesting because some have argued that the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmad al-Tayeb, played an important role in defeating the Islamists and extremists after el-Sisi took power. That said, some anti-Islamist intellectuals have, like you, argued that Al-Azhar remains very problematic. What is your opinion? Does the Muslim Brotherhood still have a large following at Al-Azhar, despite its outlawed status in Egypt and the public pronouncements of al-Tayeb?</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>TH</b>: I certainly oppose the current role played by Al-Azhar in Egyptian society. Al-Azhar continues to endeavor to set THE TERMS OF REFERENCE with regard to ALL political, cultural, and societal dimensions of our national life. This role that Al-Azhar continues to seek is undeniably supported by Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb. Despite the fact that Al-Azhar is not formally related to the Wahhabi, the Salafi and Ikhwani streams, they all have common strategic goals. Political Islam movements are different ONLY tactically, yet they are strategically THE SAME ANIMAL. All of these movements, organizations and groups ultimately aim at an Islamic State that combines all the world’s Muslims and applies constitutional & legal systems based on al Shari’a (Islamic laws). I should also note that it is quite well known that both Al-Azhar and its current Sheikh have never supported Egypt’s President call to modernize religious education.</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>SIM</b>: Your last point about modernizing religious education is a helpful segue to our final question. How can you shape the future of Egyptian culture when the forces of Political Islam are so deeply entrenched in Egyptian society?</span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"><b>TH</b>: My forty-year study of Political Islam in general and in Egypt in particular lead me to believe that saving the collective Egyptian mindset from the plague of Political Islam requires hard work that aims for short term results and, at the same time, for a long-term outcome. </span><span style="text-align: center;">While the most effective tool for the long-term goal is education, the powerful tool for short-term results is THE MOSQUE & THE PREACHERS. Egypt has some 200,000 Mosques that, altogether per year, witness between 10-11 million Friday sermons. It's an unrivaled platform that can be used for the most destructive or constructive ends.</span></span><br /><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://americansephardi.org/projects/sephardi-ideas-monthly/" target="_blank">Sephardi Ideas Monthly</a><br /></div></div><p></p></div>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-34058514700292592872022-03-31T06:37:00.002-07:002022-03-31T06:58:45.948-07:00My intellectual interest in Christianity & Judaism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwV-CEz9u1ZMjQYGvPYpGf4N5gP169V5KF_VuzCFzM5hD5EWjes7Ged88mLaHG11KhjaY7Mw67SWvtQ99ZnjGvbHE1Y_GDgdc9p4f25euaMajtbOBa0Wal9WsdOIecHbic0rVv9hKAzOmbzrt9a-HmSjZD-TZlQmtMIZPP2d59OIVji28tWUsqX68n/s1024/TH%20Library.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwV-CEz9u1ZMjQYGvPYpGf4N5gP169V5KF_VuzCFzM5hD5EWjes7Ged88mLaHG11KhjaY7Mw67SWvtQ99ZnjGvbHE1Y_GDgdc9p4f25euaMajtbOBa0Wal9WsdOIecHbic0rVv9hKAzOmbzrt9a-HmSjZD-TZlQmtMIZPP2d59OIVji28tWUsqX68n/w321-h240/TH%20Library.jpeg" width="321" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have 30,000 books in my library in several languages, with sections that address all fields within the social sciences, humanities, arts and literature.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Months ago, a European journalist marveled at one of the largest sections of my library which includes hundreds of books on “religions.” In response to a question from him, I said:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My country is comprised of more than Muslims so how can I not try to know all I can about each religion?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 1967 (the year I entered the university), an earthquake occurred in my life; the June 5th war. How can I not try to know all that I can about Israel and the Jews?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I immersed myself in the study of the Bible with its two covenants. I studied the history of Christianity, the history of the Egyptian Church, and issues of theology. As a consequence, my relationship with my fellow Christians became as it is now. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I delved into a study of the Torah and other sacred books of the Jews, the history of the Hebrews and the Jews over the last 40 centuries, the miserable history of the Jews in Europe after the Romans expelled them from the Holy Land (70 AD) until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and the history of Israel since its state was established 3 years after the end of World War II. As a consequence of these intensive studies, my vision of the Jews and of Israel has become different from those who do not know 1% of what I mentioned.</span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-71912683029168643702022-03-12T22:22:00.001-08:002022-03-12T22:22:23.093-08:00A study in Judaism<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMg8L4vBxQZNZsOYI5P34vYHBevFjJqZvA4MafqPGhUBwr9E_ewUKZU0YDtL_FvcqXuvTszwmFTiURRyJHdJoZfFlyD1HISk1fgTa9gSk8-3-ZuNfz9CxspKtjloIpXQayQ24tEUZ6li8m2cno9SMo8jdnuD8HPu2lQvr2nnHl9T7bMKeQb5HSCUc6=s568" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="568" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMg8L4vBxQZNZsOYI5P34vYHBevFjJqZvA4MafqPGhUBwr9E_ewUKZU0YDtL_FvcqXuvTszwmFTiURRyJHdJoZfFlyD1HISk1fgTa9gSk8-3-ZuNfz9CxspKtjloIpXQayQ24tEUZ6li8m2cno9SMo8jdnuD8HPu2lQvr2nnHl9T7bMKeQb5HSCUc6=w403-h272" width="403" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><p>My close friends know I have devoted a great deal of time and effort on the study of Judaism. This has included studying the Bible, which are the books of the Old Testament for Christians. In addition, I have specifically studied the Torah, the Talmud (the Mishna and the Gemara) and the Midrash. I’ve also read a great deal about the basic Jewish sects: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and the Karaites. </p></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Over the past 45 years, I have visited many synagogues in the six continents and memorized (by heart) the Psalms (in both English and Arabic).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">I recently re-read a book about Jewish women's clothing, which makes a woman who follows the teachings of the Haredim (Jewish Orthodox) a mirror image of a Muslim woman who follows the teachings of the Salafis. I have also studied the issue of purity, from the Jewish standpoint, which is (relatively) similar to the same point in Islam and completely different from the idea of purity in Christianity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">As I translated my interest in studying Christianity by founding the Chair of Coptic Studies at the American University in Cairo (1998), I did something similar when I founded a scholarship in my name for post-graduate studies in Jewish/Islamic relations at the University of Toronto, Canada. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.jewishstudies.utoronto.ca/graduate/phd-program/scholarships-and-awards">https://www.jewishstudies.utoronto.ca/graduate/phd-program/scholarships-and-awards</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-54993278472865790932022-03-11T06:23:00.000-08:002022-03-11T06:23:11.445-08:00 The Masculine Mentality under the Microscope<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj78sTkAhx488ZMxEADictK-uPIRzj9_I0l-SZOJgz8l2Taf2gtA6unHHQlNV6IdAdigHXi3sE6r9va4CNMOxZXA4CuvBvB_zd5zhiHWHPqFwnj45hUgP1Uj3_TtU4mXjTVGaPYiYzk2wqRgCfUmK7WRH6zbwmGbmcaVAFGO9mbPuT8SuOiY94ZvEBJ=s612" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="612" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj78sTkAhx488ZMxEADictK-uPIRzj9_I0l-SZOJgz8l2Taf2gtA6unHHQlNV6IdAdigHXi3sE6r9va4CNMOxZXA4CuvBvB_zd5zhiHWHPqFwnj45hUgP1Uj3_TtU4mXjTVGaPYiYzk2wqRgCfUmK7WRH6zbwmGbmcaVAFGO9mbPuT8SuOiY94ZvEBJ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A recurring comment is that women are responsible for their inhumane situation in the societies of our Arabic-speaking region. This is an "unscientific" statement. Historical, anthropological, and sociological studies confirm that “male culture” is the offspring of two parents: (1) men, and (2) religious institutions, meaning men again. These studies also confirm that man has historically used two tools to consolidate the patriarchal culture which gives him supremacy over women. The first tool is his physical strength over that of women. The second tool is that he is the one who achieves the material income and that party which spends on the other party. If the importance and effectiveness of the first tool has decreased in the modern era, the effectiveness of this second tool has decreased to a lesser degree. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Historically, and since the clergy are above all males, religions have been employed to legitimize the spirit of masculine culture and to legitimize all the details of the relationship between men and women, which is established on the basis that the man has the upper hand, the right to command and forbid, and the one who deserves to prevail, dominate, and be obeyed. And as women were subjected to this type of relationship for centuries, and as it has been accompanied by the diligent employment of religion, it effectively established the supremacy of men to the extent that the heavens themselves become angry at the woman who angers her husband! Even the angels curse the woman whose husband sleeps while he is angry with her, because many women believe in the man’s loftiness, in his being the master, and in the fact that she is obligated to serve him, obey him, and comfort him. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Contemporary psychology presents us with the theory or idea of the "Stockholm Syndrome", which these words sum up: the prisoner's fascination with his jailer. This can be applied to what has happened in the cases of many women who become dedicated to defending this mosaic of patriarchal culture: the supremacy of the man to command and the admonition that she (the woman) is obligated to obey with the full acceptance of his being the supreme party. This is reinforced through religious texts which say that if there is a person worthy of being prostrated towards after God, it will be the man to whom his wife must prostrate. This supremacy contradicts the Oneness of God to whom He alone deserves to be prostrated. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In conclusion, historical, anthropological, and sociological scientific studies show how the patriarchal culture arose and took root, and the role of the clergy in consolidating it. It also shows the beginning of the process of a relative erosion of patriarchal culture in some advanced societies. Finally, it is psychology that reveals the nature and truth of the impact of the Stockholm Syndrome on those women who turn to lawyers to defend the superiority of men and all his advantages, with their rights as a being higher than those of women, and even as a being that angers God (and angels) and deserve His wrath. However, this dedication to the belief by some women of the superiority of men is not the cause of the patriarchal culture but rather a symptom stemming from it. </span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-12458843299547402262022-01-03T13:41:00.002-08:002022-01-06T10:33:21.134-08:00Contemplations on the Situation in the Middle East<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoN4y8fP31EAfcBSV8hIlQuH4ogeUAHoRGQtxqQqOlvZANF9lEVH6t08G9uk_sqxsLNPP51HdRjPYAff7txlwDt4aZ0ADwtK4y0kLqSaDl1xJBnqdJfNxl1aVa-0A65q0336SeLzgjeQDKoDD-nz6LJGpxTRkkrUKiqTKDgVJx8b6qVo9QjidBDdzt=s575" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="575" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoN4y8fP31EAfcBSV8hIlQuH4ogeUAHoRGQtxqQqOlvZANF9lEVH6t08G9uk_sqxsLNPP51HdRjPYAff7txlwDt4aZ0ADwtK4y0kLqSaDl1xJBnqdJfNxl1aVa-0A65q0336SeLzgjeQDKoDD-nz6LJGpxTRkkrUKiqTKDgVJx8b6qVo9QjidBDdzt=w415-h223" width="415" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>In 1979, Khomeini returned (from Paris) to Tehran and established the theocratic state (governed by divine guidance), marking one of the worst events in the Middle East in the past thousand years, especially that the world by then had gotten rid of this kind of rule and rulers. </p><p>That step had many repercussions, including the reaction in Sunni Muslim societies, which I will summarize as follows:</p><p>The rise of Shiite Islamic fundamentalism to rule Iran coincided with the formation of Sunni Islamic fundamentalist movements in most Islamic societies, including the “Sahwa” movement.</p><p>When the plan to empower the Muslim Brotherhood to rule Egypt had failed, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates confronted the expansion of the Brotherhood, which was supported by several Western parties, a wave of change took place in Saudi Arabia against fundamentalism and in favor of modernity. This change succeeded in aborting the scenario of the growth of Sunni Islamic fundamentalism that ignited the events of the so-called Arab Spring, which seemed to drag the Sunni Muslim majority communities towards this chaos.</p><p>Despite the current bloody events in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, there are some reasons to be optimistic. These include the Egyptian, Saudi and Emirati roles, the Brotherhood’s failure to establish a fundamentalist (theocratic) rule in Syria, Libya and Tunisia and the positive possibilities of the expected scenario in Sudan.</p><p>I reiterate that the experiences of Kemal Ataturk in Turkey and Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia teach us (or should teach us) that “modernizing societies with superior decisions and orders” will always be highly vulnerable to setbacks, as happened in Turkey and Tunisia by the two fundamentalists, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Rached Ghannouchi.</p><p>Countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE must realize that the alternative that guarantees sustainability and success is to lay the foundations for the modernity of their societies through modern educational curriculums.</p><p>I recite a question I have repeatedly asked during sessions in which I have been invited to speak in several European parliaments, including the British House of Commons, the British House of Lords, the Italian House of Representatives and the Australian parliament. </p><p>The question is, “In which European country has modernity been achieved and its values propagated by superior orders?”</p><p>I did not say that modernity and democracy are not important, but I said that democracy is the result of societal developments. It is not artificial rain that falls by superficial decisions.</p><p>Modernity and its values are the supreme goal of all my intellectual and cultural activities since the publication of my first book 44 years ago. However, I do not believe in achieving modernity and rooting its values through superior political decisions. Instead, it could be attained by providing a political vision that seeks to modernize societies by introducing modern educational systems whose results produce citizens willing to develop and believe in the values of modernity. </p><p>Speaking of the Middle East region, I could say that its current situation is very complex and conflicting.</p><p>The situations in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are very worrying, mainly due to the imperialist Iranian presence in these countries.</p><p>The conditions in Jordan, Algeria and Morocco are “almost stable,” with clear historical statics.</p><p>The situation is Tunisia is not stable. It could either develop or worsen.</p><p>There is cautious optimism in Sudan.</p><p>Libya’s fate will be determined by mid-2022, while Qatar could be described as “a very special case.”</p><p>I remain optimistic about the future of paths of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, as well as that of the Sultanate of Oman.</p><p>I deliberately avoided to mention the Palestinian-Israeli and the Arab-Israeli issues in this contemplative view on the Middle East region, as it is impossible to address them briefly.</p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-22343191230345164552021-12-24T08:23:00.004-08:002021-12-24T08:23:28.780-08:00Women Facing Injustice throughout History<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9oq40SoNLj4kNIzQfND08dbC52onKijIX4GilJMb-fudL6YJmZ9qnwIUMa9R0pwHAw_x9dCkguSJID_0DEFf-wdqTGD0IPy_oT9pxtO1G0Z2VRR7wgiI0o23VZIBnS0SGf7JSy6qADmBFwNfwUHt_-Dlkj_eTCcHVxX6smLclqbnX7SPCWuoAGqca=s720" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="720" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9oq40SoNLj4kNIzQfND08dbC52onKijIX4GilJMb-fudL6YJmZ9qnwIUMa9R0pwHAw_x9dCkguSJID_0DEFf-wdqTGD0IPy_oT9pxtO1G0Z2VRR7wgiI0o23VZIBnS0SGf7JSy6qADmBFwNfwUHt_-Dlkj_eTCcHVxX6smLclqbnX7SPCWuoAGqca=s320" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><p>Women are responsible for their inhumane situation in the societies of our Arabic-speaking region. This is one of the recurring “unscholarly” statements.</p></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Historical, anthropological and sociological studies affirm that “male culture” is the result of men and religious institutions (also male).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">They also state that the man has taken advantage of his physical strength and the fact that he is responsible for the expenses for the family and household, as well as his wife, as a justification to consolidate the patriarchal culture that makes him dominant. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This rationale has become less effective nowadays. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Since all clerics are males, religions have been employed throughout history to legitimize the patriarchal culture and give the man the power to be dominant, prevail and be obeyed. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Women were subjected to this type of relationship for centuries, in addition to the self-serving deployment of religion that underlined the supremacy of men to the extent that it decrees angels curse the woman who lets her husband sleep while feeling angry with her. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Since then, many women have believed that the man is the master and in the fact that she is obliged to serve, obey him and comfort him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Contemporary psychology presents us with the Stockholm syndrome, which is a psychological response wherein a captive begins to identify closely with his or her captors, as well as with their agenda and demands.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This applies to the cases of many women who have become dedicated to defending the patriarchal culture. They believe in the man’s dominance and use religion as a means of defense. Some texts say that if there were a person worthy of prostration after God, it would be the man.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">However, women were exempted from this prostration since it contradicts the oneness of God.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In conclusion, the historical, anthropological and sociological scientific studies have shown us how the patriarchal culture has been established, as well as the role played by clerics to consolidate it. They have also indicated the relative elimination of the patriarchal culture in some of the most advanced societies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, psychology reveals the nature and truth of the impact of Stockholm syndrome on women who defend men’s superiority and rights and stress that God and angels get angry at wrathful women. Their admiration of man’s dominance is only an example in the patriarchal culture. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">History proves that men have always oppressed women, and they should be ashamed. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Who gave men the right to set the rules that women have to abide by? Men have even set the rules of what women should wear. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is not time enough for men to apologize for oppressing women.</span></p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-65966563123249497932021-12-24T08:11:00.004-08:002021-12-24T08:11:36.693-08:00My Cultural Project<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm6Xp_MizzY7FaJw_qBMqjSTCZt2iCE_kt6CIrBXvqwHdq5YkoDMatrEfpbXPlNGqs89gyRJvdK6VVoDer55X7OoOx9E5I00JUa3JSIBNO8l-mMZWnmBhCUK1WmV_JMr4LRAyYMd4e4vQLx4v5EIvRrhJF0LmQMt2UNJdb012gWpAcVtRmmRgzBcV9=s594" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjm6Xp_MizzY7FaJw_qBMqjSTCZt2iCE_kt6CIrBXvqwHdq5YkoDMatrEfpbXPlNGqs89gyRJvdK6VVoDer55X7OoOx9E5I00JUa3JSIBNO8l-mMZWnmBhCUK1WmV_JMr4LRAyYMd4e4vQLx4v5EIvRrhJF0LmQMt2UNJdb012gWpAcVtRmmRgzBcV9=s320" width="310" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">I have written, published, lectured and spoken a lot since publishing my first book 43 years ago. I have so far published 35 books, dozens of articles, lectures, seminars and have been interviewed on television, radio and press in several languages, mostly Arabic, English, French and Italian.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Despite the variety of subjects I tackled in my books and conversations, they all aim to promote the ideas and values of modern humanity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">These ideas and values are neither Western nor Eastern and do not have a nature and identity other than being the outcome of humanity, modernity and progress.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All that I have written and am still writing, and what I have said and am still saying are aimed at consolidating the recipient’s acceptance and conviction of these values:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Pluralism is one of the key features of life, ideas and systems. The antithesis of pluralism is death, as life, by its nature, produces various patterns of living, ideas and systems. Pluralism enriches life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Altruism, or accepting others, is not only one of the most wonderful aspects of human reasoning but also a natural and inevitable result of pluralism.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Among the values that result from pluralism and altruism are coexistence and the culture of peace.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Pluralism, altruism and coexistence are the result of the “love of life,” a value missing in some cultures that value death more than life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All the aforementioned values are clearly correlated and complement each other.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">One of the values that I have written about often is that the “rights and duties of women as human beings are equivalent to men’s.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Promoting women’s rights requires shedding light on “masculinity” as one of the most heinous behaviors created by humans, as well as unveiling the shameful role of religious institutions, which have always supported patriarchal ideologies, systems and values. They presented what some (ignorantly) misread as evidence of “Heaven’s” support for masculine values.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Also, my writings, conversations and interviews have underlined the importance of basing educational systems on the rules and principles of “scientific thinking.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">One of the most important values of modern humanity is having a civilized state since finding values of modern humanity is very difficult in any society in which the state is not completely civil.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is not possible to talk about the values of modernity without highlighting the mechanisms for ensuring and protecting “human rights” as defined by the international law.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">However, is the modernity European?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Yes and No!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is humane, but it was formed in Europe.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The “humanness of modernity” is the subject of my next article.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-73706501318522683962021-12-24T08:02:00.001-08:002021-12-24T08:02:34.386-08:00Random Thoughts<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVzYRA0wqq63W8LbPCo-8DSsmqbDiDD1dkNfSIoShg905ZX1pY5pAv-JHmz4Ce0RmWk5i8UbRzwDOQ3VAzzcqzz4yimDUTnySKvRe-A2OboBje6Kmi6Cx05qZmoYoGsKENX4qxbl8QDIo5Mb0hd9-ZNnOS2OHPbD5jDzFG5XaKJB5GQIZN1BqFo_pS=s594" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVzYRA0wqq63W8LbPCo-8DSsmqbDiDD1dkNfSIoShg905ZX1pY5pAv-JHmz4Ce0RmWk5i8UbRzwDOQ3VAzzcqzz4yimDUTnySKvRe-A2OboBje6Kmi6Cx05qZmoYoGsKENX4qxbl8QDIo5Mb0hd9-ZNnOS2OHPbD5jDzFG5XaKJB5GQIZN1BqFo_pS=s320" width="310" /></a></div><p style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are familiar with the history of the societies of the Arabic-speaking Middle East region...</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we know that the collective mind of its peoples still can’t consider religion to be a personal decision and links theology to all matters of life...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we have been following the developments in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Libya during the past decade…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are aware of the extent of the apostasy that Tunisian society witnessed after its exceptional leader, Habib Bourguiba, drove it to the threshold of contemporary and modernity…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are aware of what the Gaza Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas) did when it won the elections and took control over the Palestinian Authority-run territories...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we understand the phenomenon of the occurrence of the so-called Arab Spring events in the Arab republics but not in the monarchies…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are among those who studied the Algerian Civil War in the 1990s, referred to as the “black decade,” in which thousands of people were killed…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we are aware of these seven key facts and yet don’t recognize the criminal policies of former US president Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and many other western politicians that are aimed at pushing Arab societies to perform an artificial democratic act, similar to that which brought Hamas to power in Palestine in 2006…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If we add to these seven facts the tragedy of many countries, such as the United States, European Union, Canada, and Britain not including the Muslim Brotherhood in their lists of terrorist organizations, while considering Hamas a terrorist group…</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is noteworthy that any political science student knows that Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood Organization and that it had been for years called the “Gaza Branch of the Muslim Brotherhood Organization.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Therefore, many first-world countries consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be the core of political Islam and that one of its branches is the Hamas Movement.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However, they designated the branch as a terrorist organization while turning a blind eye to the main source and trying to let it rule in several Arab countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A few years ago, I was invited to speak about the Muslim Brotherhood in the British Parliament. After the lecture, a session was organized for the parliament members who attended and wanted to ask questions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">“Do I understand from what I heard from you tonight that democracy is not your top priority?” a baron asked me. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">“Definitely not,” I answered immediately without any hesitation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Baron thought he had won the round, so he again asked with a sarcastic tone, “what is your priority over democracy?”...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I once again answered directly that my priority is his as well. It is to ensure my family members return home safely at the end of each day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The attendees took us by surprise and applauded my response.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">“The aforementioned seven facts and my answers to the questions indicate two things,” I added.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">First, you should understand the societies of the Arabic-speaking Middle East region are not the usual stereotypes and great intellectuals must not consider them as stereotypes.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Second, you should let go of the information given to you by the intelligence services about the Muslim Brotherhood. Every intellectual knows the truth about these services’ historical ties with the Brotherhood!!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">-</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite the various factions within Sunni Islam, I believe that the biggest “battle” fought among them was between the Mu'tazila and the Hanbalis.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Mu'tazila could not win this battle before Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun (Ibn Harun al-Rashid) took over the rule.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the most accurate descriptions of this battle is that it was the most important contest between the “people of reason” (the Mu’tazila) and the “people of transmitted scripture” (the Hanbalis or Ahl al-naql), whose orientation is based on fatwas by Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzi).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Since al-Ma’mun’s death, Hanbalis became predominant.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Luckily, I studied this battle from three different perspectives, including jurisprudence, history and politics.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was keen to study carefully all that Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim had written.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My passion for theology (philosophy) also led me to read most of what the Mu'tazilites wrote and most of what was written about them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you ask why am I writing about this subject now, especially when I had previously addressed this matter in my books and article? It is because I believe that that the current deterioration in the way millions of Muslims think as well as the Islamic religious discourse is a direct result of the crushing defeat of the school of reason, which was followed by a thousand-year-old intellectual inertia after closing the door on flexibility in applying independent juristic reasoning (ijtihad).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The consequences of this tragedy are far greater than most people think. It is the direct cause of very dangerous phenomena, such as the exodus of most of the Muslims from the path of human progress and their lack of scientific thinking.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many of the Muslims are in total conflict with humanity. This conflict begins with isolation and reaches the extent to which they carry weapons and explosives (terrorism).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Objectivity requires me to mention that I do not see that any time soon there will be an end to this crisis that has been escalating since the ninth century A.D., when the Hanbalis used to slaughter the Mu'tazila in the alleys of Damascus.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">-</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The terrorism tree is like any tree, it has roots, stems and branches.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for the roots, they are “Salafism” represented by the writings of several Hanbali jurists and preachers, such as Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim and those who followed their path.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for its stem, it is the Muslim Brotherhood School founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna (1906/1949). However, it currently represents the ideas of Sayyid Qutb (1906/1966) more than any other Brotherhood figure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, the branches are the numerous organizations such as al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, al-Jihad, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Islamic Courts Union (Ittihad al-Mahakim al-Islamiyya) (Somalia), Boko Haram (West Africa), al-Shabaab (Somalia), ISIS, al-Nusra, Bayt al-Maqdis...etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">All of these entities share an ideology that represents their intellectual foundations. They also share strategic objectives but distribute the tasks among them. The planning, politics and dealing with the world are the tasks entrusted to the Muslim Brotherhood, and specifically the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra, Bait al-Maqdis and Boko Haram are among the armed groups tasked to change the reality on the ground by force.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This distribution of tasks has taken place outside western societies, making it difficult for them to see the whole actual picture. They are not aware that all of these mosaics constitute one entity, which is the “political Islam project” that aims (strategically) to establish a global entity to obliterate the idea of contemporary countries.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />This global entity is the “Islamic State,” whose foundations contradict all concepts of modern value systems. These include freedoms, foremost of which are the freedom of belief, expression, pluralism and altruism (accepting others), coexistence, religious and cultural tolerance, critical thinking, women's rights, rule of law, secular state, constitutions, laws and access to free education.</span><p></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-84327781681620049092021-12-03T15:03:00.000-08:002021-12-03T15:05:06.599-08:00Lebanon in the Balance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpr7n76GwC3kK8sEZaCbH9UbEsPOOxhxORYe14QeGPL3FBHyFm-8zt7NO27dCW45pPE5mGRh0YCPo5K__JRJkrAB5WkpRGaJVpTQo4TXuQCmR85YCxR98jwM5-IrfmYTuv_6hFhFTYKdY/s255/Lebanese+Flag.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="255" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpr7n76GwC3kK8sEZaCbH9UbEsPOOxhxORYe14QeGPL3FBHyFm-8zt7NO27dCW45pPE5mGRh0YCPo5K__JRJkrAB5WkpRGaJVpTQo4TXuQCmR85YCxR98jwM5-IrfmYTuv_6hFhFTYKdY/s0/Lebanese+Flag.png" width="255" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In a recent interview with the Majalla publication, I was asked about Lebanon. The question was as follows:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you assess the political situation in Lebanon, which I know you love?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I love Maronite Lebanon. Lebanon reflects my love for the old Egypt, the cosmopolitan Egypt, i.e., the Mediterranean Egypt, of which only its memory and scope remain in old Egyptian movies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am an Egyptian man who has devoted his intellectual, mental, and cultural life to promoting the values of progress and modernity, confronting calls for the cultural “past” and “fundamentalism.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This was the reason behind my fondness for Lebanon since the 1960s. The country was modern and incorporated the cultures of the Mediterranean.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However this Lebanon, too, suffered as much as Egypt did 70 years ago but on a different level and in a different manner.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I can give you my assessment of Lebanon’s current political situation and add my “vision” for the future of political life in this unique country compared to the other Arabic-speaking countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The current situation in Lebanon is the result of the following: First, a history of sectarianism that the Lebanese have not been able to overcome since September 1920, when General Henri Gouraud declared the state of Lebanon. Second, the Iranian demon represented by “Hezbollah,” which did not exist prior to the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. Third, the situation in the vicinity since 1979, mainly represented by the policies of Syria, Iran, Israel, the Sunni/Shiite conflict, and others.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Unless the elements inside and outside Lebanon change, the current situation will certainly remain as it is. These elements are namely Iran’s influence in the region and in Lebanon, prioritizing the Lebanese citizenship over sectarianism, and the external pressures on Lebanon.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I believe the current situation in Lebanon and the external influences on the country will not witness major changes anytime soon. Therefore, I think that the life conditions of the Lebanese Christians will most likely become worse and eventually may lead them to establish their independence in one way or another.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In addition, another fact that worsens the situation of the Lebanese Christians is that the population growth of the Shiite Lebanese, the majority of whom completely follow the Iranian regime, is more than twice the rate of the population growth of the Christian Lebanese.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, throughout the past 50 years, Arabic-speaking societies have witnessed a religious obsession phenomenon, which led to a decrease in the number of Christians in these societies and an increased pressure on the remaining Christians. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This came in line with the growing societal divisions that amounted to civil wars in some Arab countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Lebanon now finds itself amid this incendiary situation and its unsolvable dilemmas, which impacts the Christian Lebanese as well.</span></p><p><br /></p><p>The Majalla is a current affairs magazine that brings the Arab World into focus for its international readership. It is published online in English, Arabic and Persian. </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-30888012840242642272021-08-30T09:25:00.004-07:002021-08-30T09:29:11.017-07:00The Historic Persecution of the Jewish People<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQOFMAZLN8M8BdutqQm7EPdY56p9EsvyClTwlDNcssVFNjIN6pKOMmLXOD195Bhg6Q6Omo71TtFrAyG6dDi71pSfIt-f3-nYIP-5DJt0bK6PfQzp5e7VHRtV9HdVqmU2VmUfucwD_UBA/s300/Dreyfus+Affair.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXQOFMAZLN8M8BdutqQm7EPdY56p9EsvyClTwlDNcssVFNjIN6pKOMmLXOD195Bhg6Q6Omo71TtFrAyG6dDi71pSfIt-f3-nYIP-5DJt0bK6PfQzp5e7VHRtV9HdVqmU2VmUfucwD_UBA/w374-h210/Dreyfus+Affair.jpeg" width="374" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> There are many theories trying to answer this question:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Q: Why was the persecution of the Jews common, especially in Europe, during the 19 centuries preceding the terrible Dreyfus affair in 1894?</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are those who attribute this to the fact that the Jews, from the Christian perspective, were the killers of Jesus Christ...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are those who linked that persecution to the dominance of the Jews in the field of lending...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Others linked that persecution to the role of some Jews in areas such as nightclubs and related activities...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have read most of what has been written on this subject and the theories that have attempted to explain this phenomenon.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My thorough study of history, and especially that of Europe, as well as my good knowledge of hundreds and perhaps thousands of Jews, makes me satisfied with my own interpretation of this persecution:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My interpretation is based on the fact that the persecution of the Jews has no reason other than jealousy because of their superiority in most of the fields they have entered. And since this jealousy needed a reason that seemed acceptable, the theory that they deserved to be persecuted for being the descendants of the killers of Jesus Christ seemed to be an acceptable justification!!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In addition to what I mentioned above, I was and still am an expert regarding the feelings of many people towards those who are clearly superior to them. This is a sin that many of the undistinguished do not forgive!!! </span></div>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-62386580098680047892021-06-14T06:34:00.000-07:002021-06-14T06:34:11.142-07:00Interview by a Danish magazine (Weekendavisen).<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSKOojXoKSnfj3LqXrhDA-g4YvLGzLvBuMwdyp27Je6WqVNB4W_eSZ27gbTAl77HfldXm4opb4HicqNIebfOaGWQsKc5gMAQtW4FnRYCgs8I_SEVAazphZ5g0UvQ7fCMIltSWEVuSxSJw/s706/Weekend+Advisor+TH+interview.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="504" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSKOojXoKSnfj3LqXrhDA-g4YvLGzLvBuMwdyp27Je6WqVNB4W_eSZ27gbTAl77HfldXm4opb4HicqNIebfOaGWQsKc5gMAQtW4FnRYCgs8I_SEVAazphZ5g0UvQ7fCMIltSWEVuSxSJw/s320/Weekend+Advisor+TH+interview.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><b style="text-align: center;">INTERVIEW</b><span style="text-align: center;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "WEA Sans", sans-serif; text-align: center; vertical-align: inherit;">When the Arab Spring broke out ten years ago, it was with high hopes for a brighter future. </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "WEA Sans", sans-serif; text-align: center; vertical-align: inherit;">But the uprising was doomed from the start, according to Egyptian author and political thinker Tarek Heggy.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Layal Freije</b> speaks with Egyptian author and political thinker Tarek Heggy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The locked-in Arab Mind</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>When the Arab Spring broke out 10 years ago, it was with great hopes and dreams of a brighter future with human rights and democracy. But the uprising was doomed from the start, says Egyptian writer and political thinker Tarek Heggy, who already in the years leading up to the revolution foresaw why the Arab mind is not ready for an upheaval.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Istanbul, Turkey</b> - Take a map of the Middle East and look at it. Name all the countries where the Arab Spring sowed a hope for democracy and human rights, and then assess the state of the countries now, ten years after the revolution.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It is the acclaimed Egyptian liberal writer and political thinker, Tarek Heggy, who suggests that I take a map and study it closely. In fact, he urges anyone talking about the 2011 revolution to look at a map of the Middle East if they want to understand how wrong things went in Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Syria - even in Tunisia, which is otherwise highlighted as an example of a successful revolution, where religious forces have since gained traction.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the map you can see how the countries together form a semicircle along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, a semicircle marked by poverty, chaos and, in the worst cases, war. A semicircle in crisis.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Many people in Europe talk about the failure of the Arab Spring, as if it could have been a success at all. I would argue that success could not have been possible at all."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Tarek Heggy is known for not mincing words when he talks about the Middle East and especially his native Egypt. For 30 years he has dealt with ideologies, religion, and politics in the Arab world, and has written countless works in which he tries to explain why the Arab world is "backward," as he calls it. And why modernity and progress in the Middle East have not kept pace with the developments that have taken place in the West.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The year before the Arab Revolution, Tarek Heggy published the book <i>The Arab Cocoon</i> in 2010, and shortly after the revolution first took root in Egypt in 2011, the book <i>The Arab Mind Bound</i> followed. Two works in continuation of each other, which without mentioning the demonstrations that would later spread in the Middle East, explained why a successful system of change in large parts of the region cannot be done through a revolt strictly from scratch.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Two heavy chains</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">If you want to understand why the uprising failed - and why the situation today in several places is even worse than before the revolution, you must look at what Tarek Heggy calls "the Arab mind." You cannot talk about the Arab Spring without also talking about the Arab mind, he states. The two things are connected, and this is where one finds the answer to why the revolution was doomed to fail.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Arab culture is bound by two heavy chains, Heggy believes. The first chain is due to the forms of Islam that have been promoted in the Middle East: the radical Wahhabism that originated in Saudi Arabia and the political Islam advanced by the Muslim Brotherhood. The second chain is the dysfunctional education system, which is specifically tied up in religious ideologies, and which thus prevents the population from learning to think independently and critically.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"There is a need for hard work on education and religious institutions because they are extremely dangerous," said Tarek Heggy. He cites the religious university Al-Azhar in Cairo, which is affiliated with the mosque of the same name, as an example of one of the entrenched problems in Arab communities. Al-Azhar works as an institution to promote religion in Egypt, operates more than 8,000 educational institutions across the country (according to latest figures), and has a religious influence on Muslims throughout the region.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Al-Azhar's power is due to the low level of education. There are 100 million people in Egypt. One third of them are illiterate, and two thirds are called educated, but one can still ask questions about their education. They can read and write, but that does not mean that they are educated," says Tarek Heggy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">To this must be added the many millions of Friday sermons that take place every week in the Middle East. As long as religion and state are not separated, political Islam will have power over education. The population is not encouraged to think either freely or critically, and this helps to keep the religion - and thus the region - locked in a certain negative pattern. One ends up in a spiral of ignorance that never ends.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Just look at the reaction to the name Darwin in the Arab world. People get excited if you just mention Darwin - and they know very little about what Darwin's theories are about. They react like that because it sounds hostile to religion. Religion is their salvation. It is the promise of a better life."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When at the same time one has a culture that educates its citizens to believe that their misfortune is due to the enemy - that it is US foreign policy that oppresses the region, that Israel is a constant threat, that capitalism steals from the Muslim countries, and that colonialism put an end to progress - is it even harder to get countries to take the step towards what Tarek Heggy calls ‘modernity’, as has already been done in the West.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"I have always opposed the claim that many people repeat: that our problems are created outside our borders. That may be true to some degree. But principally and mainly we are the ones to blame. Our problems have roots in our own countries. They are related to our leaders, our religious institutions, our social inequality and the lack of opportunities for a large part of society," says Tarek Heggy, who believes that the Middle East needs to look inward instead of exalting and romanticizing the past. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>God's enemies</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One should not misunderstand Tarek Heggy. He is not a critic of Islam. He does not believe that Islam is the root of all evil in the Middle East. He talks about the politicized Islam, the one that has found its way into the educational institutions, the civil service and all the way to the core of power that is holding back the region.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The Arab Spring could never have been a success as it required a population ready to take over when governments fell. But the people were not trained to build what they had overthrown.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">On the other hand, the Islamist forces were ready to take power, Tarek Heggy believes, and calls for a re-examination of the map and the state of affairs in several places in the Middle East. Many Arab countries today are markedly influenced by political Islam in one form or another - this applies to both countries that have been hit by war in recent years and those that fought for a revolution in 2011.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Iraq is influenced by political Islam, sometimes it is Shia Muslims who decide, other times it is Sunni. In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood has many followers. We cannot deny that political Islam plays a role in the region. It has even reached Tunisia."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">One of the clearest examples is in Tarek Heggy's own homeland Egypt, where the now deceased political leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Morsi, took power in the country in 2012, shortly after then-President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown by the masses. Back then, the Brotherhood preached about a brighter future. But Tarek Heggy did not believe it. "Religious parties believe they represent God and will not pass the power on to anyone they believe is God's enemy," he says.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"When Morsi was elected, I thought it was my personal finale. I have spent 30 years of my life writing about modernity. I have written 34 books and hundreds of essays with a recurring theme: modernity. The choice of Morsi meant that I had wasted 30 years of my life writing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Counter-revolution</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was overthrown and Mohamed Morsi imprisoned. At the time, it was not the people who caused the regime change, but the military, led by the current president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Today, the situation in Egypt is, on many parameters, worse than under Mubarak.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Admittedly, new roads and large buildings are being built, but it has become more dangerous to demonstrate, journalists are imprisoned for writing critically about the regime, and in 2019 al-Sisi changed the constitution so that he can remain in office in the first instance until 2030. Things are no better in Syria and Yemen, which are considered by the international community to be two of the greatest humanitarian disasters of recent times. In Libya, the civil war is raging, while Tunisia is suffering from an acute economic crisis.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The revolution was a failure. It developed in several countries into a counter-revolution that exacerbated the situation. But what does the future hold for the people of the Middle East? Is it as dystopian as the time immediately after the Arab Spring?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"It depends on where on the map you look," says Tarek Heggy. "If you move your eyes away from the semicircle and towards other parts of the region, you will be able to point to countries that are actually making progress. But here it is worth noting what types of countries are in question."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"People do not ask why the Arab Spring took place in the republics, but not in the monarchies. That is a very important issue," he said.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"It turns out that monarchies are better at serving their people. Saudi Arabia did not have an Arab Spring, the United Arab Emirates did not have an Arab Spring. Bahrain had a short one, but it was more about religion than anything else. It was the Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims who disagreed," he says.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Tarek Heggy acknowledges that it is a "strange phenomenon" that it is precisely the rich Arab monarchies - which in addition to oil money are most known for conservative interpretations of Islam, oppression of women and human rights violations - where the population is most satisfied with their governments in the Middle East. But there is a good reason for that. While political Islam is still a problem in the monarchies, something else is happening in relation to education.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"The country where most people are applying for master’s degrees and PhDs in the Arab world is Saudi Arabia. And those people have an impact on society because they contribute with a quality education."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Tarek Heggy does not believe that monarchies are an ideal form of government in the region. The Middle Eastern monarchies do not live up to human rights on several parameters. But the political Islam that characterizes the Arab kingdoms seems to work better in countries ruled by emirs because they ultimately have the last word over the imams. In the republics, power lies with the military and the religious political parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Combined with a general lack of freedom and proper education, it has caused the development experienced in the monarchies to stagnate in the republics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"In Egypt, it is sometimes as if the state is competing with the Islamists to show they are more Islamist than the Islamists," says Tarek Heggy, giving an example.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"Before the month of Ramadan in mid-April, several members of the Egyptian parliament talked about criminalizing eating in public places during Ramadan. In contradistinction, there was a decree in the United Arab Emirates that allowed restaurants to serve food to guests during the holy month."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">There are several such examples in the monarchies, says Tarek Heggy. Among other things, a man in Saudi Arabia can no longer be divorced from his wife without informing her that they are now divorced. As in other countries, a divorce must now go through the public system.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">When President al-Sisi tried to introduce a similar law in Egypt it failed, despite being a small and harmless change of law. The day after the proposal, he received a message from Al-Azhar that religion was their territory, and he should not intervene.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>The spiral of ignorance</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">While the monarchies, according to Heggy, seem to be taking small steps toward modernity, his reading of the future is "not very optimistic" when it comes to the republics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"There is a good reason why the Muslim Brotherhood has a strong presence in the Arab republics and not in the monarchies. This is because there are similarities between the way the military and the Muslim Brotherhood are thinking about things."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Before the political system in the republics can really change, religion must be made a private matter and the states must be governed on the basis of secular values, Tarek Heggy believes. This was seen in Tunisia in the middle of the 20th century under President Habib Bourguiba, and in 1923 when Kemal Ataturk, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, announced that the Republic of Turkey would no longer be ruled by Islam.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Back then, it was not the people's own choice, but the leaders, that enforced secularism. And that, according to Tarek Heggy, is not the right way to do it. That is why today one experiences sympathy for Islamist forces in Tunisia and Turkey, where the latter has taken great strides away from secularism. According to Heggy, secularization must take place from scratch. It is the people who must want it if it is to really make a difference.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It may sound like Tarek Heggy is contradicting himself. A successful revolution requires critically thinking citizens, but as long as education is governed by religious institutions, the citizens are not trained to think independently. To separate religion from the state, however, the citizens themselves must want secularism. And then we are back to the vicious spiral of ignorance. That's what Tarek Heggy means when he talks about the locked-in Arab mind.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">He does not rule out that new hopes and new revolts may flare up in the republics again. After all, the people understand well that better and richer societies exist in the world. But a new uprising will in all probability be another failure, says Tarek Heggy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">"The masses can easily destroy a building. But if they do not possess the right knowledge, they will not be able to build a better one."</div></div><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-49153329705911953802021-06-04T13:30:00.001-07:002021-06-04T13:30:36.136-07:00Bullets<p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(<b>1</b>) Glory -- a strange phenomenon.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CTOEX_ETlnl5ov8TVen2tdFYBq2t5XGB6PZErnuJLmXD19VrxTT9d-2ghkz0pVjZYy5aZqVBUVVvZ4oW70uCADk7lxD9UQHjafSxqKxnmj2rpBq1lH1zAaSJwO9cgS6fREpR_JEMjB0/s455/Napoleon-v-Wellington.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="455" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CTOEX_ETlnl5ov8TVen2tdFYBq2t5XGB6PZErnuJLmXD19VrxTT9d-2ghkz0pVjZYy5aZqVBUVVvZ4oW70uCADk7lxD9UQHjafSxqKxnmj2rpBq1lH1zAaSJwO9cgS6fREpR_JEMjB0/s320/Napoleon-v-Wellington.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let's look at two names:</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Napoleon Bonaparte</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He was born in 1769 and died in 1821</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And the</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Duke of Wellington</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He was born in 1769 and died in 1852</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first was the commander of the French army in the famous Battle of Waterloo.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The second was the commander of the British army in the same battle.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first was defeated</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> And </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The second was victorious.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">However, the victor is known to the people as "the one who defeated Napoleon!” Wellington's fame may be less than 1% of Napoleon's!</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7t8aBcxiGNpBshKGv7wlqNYKbuf66EUqIZMc7ufkZkpXS52Mj88WPoJB2UXVfJHqgFamMzmU-fx4gR63dWxdsL03SAsCJfSmEWUNm0YoIvr4aaoiV-RKYyT6IGkaPzck96V3lXORV6k/s800/Oriental+Institute.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb7t8aBcxiGNpBshKGv7wlqNYKbuf66EUqIZMc7ufkZkpXS52Mj88WPoJB2UXVfJHqgFamMzmU-fx4gR63dWxdsL03SAsCJfSmEWUNm0YoIvr4aaoiV-RKYyT6IGkaPzck96V3lXORV6k/s320/Oriental+Institute.webp" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(<b>2</b>) Among the issues on which I disagree with many Egyptians has to do with numerous Egyptian antiquities found in many of the world's major museums. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Most Egyptians demand these monuments be returned to Egypt.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I believe the presence of these antiquities in hundreds of museums on all continents is more beneficial to the glory of historical Egypt.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsIwXjilgj6NPbPpXT_UDiM7COC2qBswbpdai7PSqIDGmqstALIwA6_qw-_OvsRK3pn7K5OqUsBhTgaHyJCkSBlry21swMIrbIxbVYH5H5iQmBXxLTVQfsWivwZwrdssO3qqwtqD0hhk/s299/Italian+TH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsIwXjilgj6NPbPpXT_UDiM7COC2qBswbpdai7PSqIDGmqstALIwA6_qw-_OvsRK3pn7K5OqUsBhTgaHyJCkSBlry21swMIrbIxbVYH5H5iQmBXxLTVQfsWivwZwrdssO3qqwtqD0hhk/s0/Italian+TH.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(<b>3</b>) Like many Egyptians, I have an extraordinary love for Italy. And though several of my books have been published in Britain, France and the United States, my pleasure in translating two books of mine into Italian and publishing them in Milan has made me happier than with any of my books published elsewhere. When a number of Italian academics arranged for me to lecture at ten universities, from Turin in the north to Calibra in the south, my joy was indescribable.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">* the Arabic version of the above BULLETS :</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://m.ahewar.org/s.asp?aid=720966&r=0">https://m.ahewar.org/s.asp?aid=720966&r=0</a></span></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5809035946522770517.post-59998014999381390992021-06-02T08:18:00.001-07:002021-06-02T08:24:49.642-07:00The Islamist Mindset<p>Due to their religious beliefs, many Muslims have no doubt that they are “right” and others (all others) are “wrong.” In parallel, these Muslims are certain that GOD is with them. Such beliefs do not allow their followers to accept and respect values such as Plurality, Otherness, Religious & Cultural Tolerance, Coexistence, Women’s Rights ... etc. </p><p>Meanwhile, a pernicious consequence of these beliefs is that these Muslims never consider themselves as “defeated,” even when they are materially smashed! (Consider Hezbollah in 2006, Hamas in 2021 and many similar cases). The same applies for other Sunni and Shiite Muslims with respect to post-1979 Iran. </p><p>This is an extremely important feature of the Mindset of millions of Muslims and of ALL Political Islamists. I am confident that most Westerners in general and Western Scholars in particular, are unaware of this “peerless” mental/cultural character.</p><p>This will continue to produce failure after failure in many Western policies. As an example: shortly, US troops shall withdraw from Afghanistan after two decades. Nonetheless, the Taliban remains there and significantly so! Another example: after numerous severe strikes, Hamas also remains in place and significantly so!!! </p><p>I know that many Western Scholars shall be upset when I say/write that they never “fully understood” Islamism. But I am 100% certain of this. Meanwhile, I completely understand that the reason is not their “inability” to understand, but the abnormality of the Islamists’ mindset. It is the mentality that makes many Islamists “certain” that they shall, sooner or later, “recover” the Iberian Peninsula along with several similar “ambitions!”</p><p><br /></p>Tarek Heggyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03992278542016524841noreply@blogger.com0