Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi
What are the reasons behind all the problems facing Arabs? How can this human mass go from one extreme to another in the mere blink of an eye? How can it live with all these contradictions and fail to rise up to change its reality? When this mass tries to make changes and has some success it is always fond of going back to the past and its old situation.
How can a culture of herds continue to control these people, defying all earthquakes, volcanoes and revolutions? How can they make new dictators whenever there is a lack of them in the Arab world? Dictatorship and its making, patriarchs and the making of the patriarchal system have turned into an Arab culture par excellence. This culture also provides fuel for the growth of dictators, despots, merciless Pharaohs, saviours, inspiring leaders. All this reminds us of the “Autumn of the Patriarch”, a novel by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who passed away recently.
The current conditions of the Arab world and its culture cast doubt on values, such as freedom and justice. They describe democracy as a deviation from the right path and even as corruption, and that it will bring about extremist groups and that is why it should be fought and aborted.
Arab peoples are depressed. They have been raised on the acceptance of dictators at home, on the streets, at state institutions and also in schools. We can easily see this in a number of verses the Andalusia poet Ibn Hanye wrote in praise of the Caliph. In these verses, the poet draws similarities between the Caliph and God or messengers. The verses go as follows:
What you will not the will of the fate and
Rule, you are the only and overwhelming power,
As if you are Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH), and
As if your supporters are his supporters.
An Egyptian journalist used the same verses in describing his country’s president. This also reminds me of the story, which the ousted president Mohamed Mursi was part of. Some writers had praised Mursi and glorified him to the extent of comparing him with Prophet Joseph who emerged to become the highest authority in Egypt. A famous preacher who kissed the hand of the president in front of everybody on central Cairo’s Tahrir Square was behind all this.
People also continued to glorify former president Hosni Mubarak for about a quarter a century until Egyptians rose against him in 2011.
Before Mubarak there was also an Egyptian president who was described by the late Syrian poet Nizar Qabani as the last “Arab messenger”.
I need to say that whatever these people, who are part of the deep state, do, contribute to the making of new a Pharaoh who suits the nature of every stage in the
Arab world.
What are the reasons behind all the problems facing Arabs? How can this human mass go from one extreme to another in the mere blink of an eye? How can it live with all these contradictions and fail to rise up to change its reality? When this mass tries to make changes and has some success it is always fond of going back to the past and its old situation.
How can a culture of herds continue to control these people, defying all earthquakes, volcanoes and revolutions? How can they make new dictators whenever there is a lack of them in the Arab world? Dictatorship and its making, patriarchs and the making of the patriarchal system have turned into an Arab culture par excellence. This culture also provides fuel for the growth of dictators, despots, merciless Pharaohs, saviours, inspiring leaders. All this reminds us of the “Autumn of the Patriarch”, a novel by the Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who passed away recently.
The current conditions of the Arab world and its culture cast doubt on values, such as freedom and justice. They describe democracy as a deviation from the right path and even as corruption, and that it will bring about extremist groups and that is why it should be fought and aborted.
Arab peoples are depressed. They have been raised on the acceptance of dictators at home, on the streets, at state institutions and also in schools. We can easily see this in a number of verses the Andalusia poet Ibn Hanye wrote in praise of the Caliph. In these verses, the poet draws similarities between the Caliph and God or messengers. The verses go as follows:
What you will not the will of the fate and
Rule, you are the only and overwhelming power,
As if you are Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH), and
As if your supporters are his supporters.
An Egyptian journalist used the same verses in describing his country’s president. This also reminds me of the story, which the ousted president Mohamed Mursi was part of. Some writers had praised Mursi and glorified him to the extent of comparing him with Prophet Joseph who emerged to become the highest authority in Egypt. A famous preacher who kissed the hand of the president in front of everybody on central Cairo’s Tahrir Square was behind all this.
People also continued to glorify former president Hosni Mubarak for about a quarter a century until Egyptians rose against him in 2011.
Before Mubarak there was also an Egyptian president who was described by the late Syrian poet Nizar Qabani as the last “Arab messenger”.
I need to say that whatever these people, who are part of the deep state, do, contribute to the making of new a Pharaoh who suits the nature of every stage in the
Arab world.
