At a press conference last week, SCAF’s Mukhtar Al-Mullah issued a number of statements that revealed the hidden intentions of the military to kill the nascent democracy in Egypt. When towards the end of the conference he was asked about me, he refrained from answering. And when asked about Alaa Abdel-Fattah, he tried to justify the detainment of Alaa, and then concluded by a very telling sentence, “Maikel Nabil and Alaa Abdel Fattah are Egyptian citizens, and we are very keen to protect all Egyptians, but we’re talking here about one citizen out of 85 million”.  Al-Mullah did not say who that “One Citizen”  was, Alaa or myself but what difference would that make?

-     The Military in their stupidity think that One Citizen is without value and easily marginalized… Their minds do not comprehend the fact that One Citizen put an end to Mubarak’s regime, one citizen: Khaled Said.

-     The first thing that came to my mind when I read Al-Mullah’s words was a quote by John Stuart Mill: “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind”…  This is precisely the difference between fascism and freedom. Fascists claim that there’s no harm in sacrificing One Citizen for the good of the community, and it was under this banner that people in Germany, in the Soviet Union, in fascist Italy, Nasserist Egypt, Baathist Syria and Maoist China, in Cuba and Milosevic’s Serbia, lost their freedom to tyrants who massacred whole communities while claiming each time that it’s just One Citizen, sacrificed for the community.

      In my lectures on liberalism I always said “that if the individual was at odds with society, as liberals we should take the side of the individual against society.”  Protecting the individual (the One Citizen) means protecting the values ​​of individualism and individual liberties. Those who claim they can build a society made up of oppressed members are deceiving themselves, for if the individual is the building block of society, how do you construct a building out of stones that are crushed and broken?!

–     Neo-fascists forget that all great deeds in history were done by “One Citizen”.  It was One Citizen named Galileo who maintained that the earth was round, while all the inhabitants of the planet denied it. One Citizen named “Muhammad”  who brought Islam to humanity; the message was not revealed to 85 million people, but to One Citizen… Throughout history, human creativity has always been individual creativity: Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Nietzsche, Darwin, Edison – great deeds were always carried out by individuals who stood out, even while the rest of society did not go far beyond their natural instincts… The sacrifice of one individual for the good of the community is the argument put forward by tyrants to enable them to persecute thinkers, philosophers, scientists and all others who offered their services and their creativity to humanity.

-     I am not addressing myself to the military, for they are advancing toward their end like the enchanted, ignoring all indications of their fate. I am addressing myself to society, a society that was taught to accept the violation of One Citizen’s rights for the greater good of the community, as if the power that oppresses one will be able to later respect the rights of the community. This society that has accepted the displacement of the Nubian community in the name of national interest, that has accepted the expulsion of Egyptian Jews, the confiscation of their property, the revoking of their nationality, in the name of the interests of the majority. The same society that has sequestered homosexual rights, that has limited the individual freedoms of individuals under the guise of maintaining the family system and the interests of the greater society. It is time for the 85 Million to understand that their freedom is tied to the freedom of that One Citizen, that all freedom is lost once they allow the wolf to choose the first victim from amongst the herd, that they cannot regain the freedom of society unless every One Citizen is free.

Immediate freedom for Alaa Abdel-Fattah, for myself, for Ayman Mansour, for Amr Al-Beheiry, for each and every One Citizen in Egypt. Not because that would be the moral thing to do, but because you will never be free as long as the “One Citizen”  remains captive.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg general prison – prison hospital
2011/12/15

Once upon a time the human being knew nothing and it scared him. Therefore, he created knowledge in order to feel safe. This knowledge consisted of a story about a man and a woman who was shunned from a haven called Heaven and forced to live on Earth, just like their descendant, the scared human being. But this story did not make the scared human being feel safe.

No, he concluded that knowledge had done him more harm because it had made him realise that only Heaven was safe. The scared human being decided to ignore knowledge, ignore the fact that he was living on Earth and planted a thick and tall privet hedge around his home so as to make his own haven of which he had control.

It is not what you fear that is important, it is why you fear; it is the fear of loosing what you know.

It is the fear of loss that makes you lock the doors at night, it is the fear of loss that makes you draw the curtains and it is the fear of loss that makes you grow the thickest privet hedge around your home.

I do not speak of material loss. If that was what you thought, then you have already suffered great loss despite your protected haven. No, I speak of your fear of loosing the ability to suppress the same knowledge that your ancestor suppressed, which is the knowledge of the unsafe world.

Suppressors of Oppression

A human being can be a freedom fighter or an oppressor, but there is someone much more dangerous than the dictators and it is he who is fearful, he who is the suppressor of oppression.

Have you ever switched channels because the news showed mutilated bodies of opponents to a dictatorial regime? If yes, then you are a suppressor of oppression. Your unwillingness to confront the reality of life is not only harmful to yourself, but the entire human race, seeing as you are a part of it.

How can you be made to recognise the truth about the situation of the human being? You are not willing to let them into your haven, but how would you react if they sought to live in your peaceful haven? You, who are fearful, what would you do if the oppressed people found the hole in your hedge, broke down your door and tore away your curtains?

you fumble for the white
the price is reduced so you buy black tennis socks

you throw yourself behind the metal shopping cart, you hide your shining head
you tuck your progeny into your armpit, you pray to your dead projection

dark disguised heads are gobbed onto the white floor colourful knitwear drag the dust away black curls scrub the white floor brown feet black nails slip on the white floor yellow plastic sandals somersault on the white floor thick brows fall upon eyes black fingers on metal, on your metal

today’s sample
black fingers with a side of red sauce served on the white floor

You are not living when you are in hiding. If you realise that you are indeed a dead soul in a moving body, then you will not die if you step out from behind your privet hedge, into the street and face the world.

If you recognise the fact that you are dead but are willing to burn the hedge and live, then you will be at the risk of dying. But your death is not a loss because that moment before death, the moment you face that, which takes away everything, you are alive. You are alive, because you are not afraid and because you are aware.

Paradise of Cinderella

Is your Paradise filled with sunlight, flowers, peaceful animals, red apples and sparkling water and are you clad in clothes woven with threads of gold?

Paradise is where you have no worries and a Paradise on Earth is what the descendants of the scared human being are desperately trying to create. Then all will be well.

It may seem well, but it is not. No matter how thick your privet hedge is, no matter how thick your curtains are, your haven will always be under constant threat. This is a simple fact because even though you cannot see the world outside, it sees you clearly.

Your Paradise on Earth is merely a product of your imagination. Bad things do not seize to happen because you do not hear about it. Unawareness makes you scared, not knowing makes you even more scared of that which goes on in the world.

You would realise this if you pulled the curtains away and looked at your reflection in the windows. Look! Look closely and you will see that you are in truth wearing worn-out, dirty clothes, your face is wrinkled and your hair is grey. You are Cinderella.

You are Cinderella because you have defeated your fear and now there is just one obstacle left for you to overcome: the obstacle of rising from obscurity.
You are Cinderella, because she was thought to be obscure when she in fact was anything but. She was made obscure, but she did not believe it herself.

Your Judgement Day

It is as if we are waiting for something to happen, something that will clean up the world, nicely vacuum it and neatly dust it off. Some would say it is Judgement Day and let it only be Judgement Day. Seeing as God is merely the projection of what the human being wants to be, let us judge ourselves the way God would have judged us.

The accusation: You thought yourself obscure.
You plead guilty but insist that you committed the crime while being afraid and therefore claim insanity.
Your punishment: You must grow taller, you must speak louder and you must believe in the difference you can make for the oppressed people.

You must rise from obscurity. You have to rise from obscurity. It is easy once you realise that there is no such thing as obscurity.

A philosopher once said that a belief is true if it is of use, so I ask of you: Do not be fooled into thinking that you are doing yourself a favour by suppressing the fact that millions of people are oppressed and need your help.

You must rise from obscurity like Cinderella.

This’ll be my first departure from Australia since repatriating nearly a decade ago. After spending 20 years based in Verbier, Switzerland, I’ve been rediscovering Australian culture, from Sydney to Yamba, Sandy Beach to Tamworth, to Newcastle, to Auburn in Sydney, before moving north again to Byron Bay. It seems settling down is not to be a quick and easy process for me.

I met comedian Akmal Saleh one night in a service station outside Tweed Heads. I was returning from the Gold Coast having watched the ‘crew screening’ of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when who did I see filling up petrol in front of me? Akmal Saleh no less.

Being a fan, and knowing he’s a resident of the Byron Shire I thought I’d go say g’day and see if he’d do a comedy piece for my www.byronvibe.com website. With a flash of his brooding eyes and a shrug of his shoulders, his inimitable pursed grin replied “yeah, sure”.

A couple weeks later, we were wandering down main street in Byron, vox popping with Frank and some other randoms, having a laugh. (View clips here

After several months passed I get a call from Akmal asking if I’d be interested in going to Egypt to shoot a story. I had to think for all of a micro second before responding with an emphatic YES.

Of course the project had a low probability of coming off, as every project seems to at first in the film biz, so I didn’t get too excited as it was february and the trip was scheduled for August. There was a while to go and any number of factors could cancel the project, the instability of the new military government but one of note.

But we had good advice on that matter from an expert on Egyptian affairs who had recently returned from Egypt as well as another friend of Akmal’s who’d been a solicitor in Egypt for many years, and that seemed good enough for me.

Months rolled by. A couple of meetings at Lulu’s in Mullum. Phone calls from Akmal and I’m thinking, “this guy’s serious! Maybe it will happen!”

Sam has been a solicitor in Egypt for many years

Mitigating circumstances meant Akmal had to go in August or he couldn’t go at all… We tried to get a couple of production companies on board, but really time had run out and we had to make a decision: Go it alone or cancel the trip. But Akmal was keen, so with a month left he said “let’s go!”

New passport and visas had to be sorted. Camera equipment had to be sourced. The desire to shoot with Sony’s latest F3 rig had to give way to the reality of running gun in a place like the streets of Egypt and we decided on Sony’s less cumbersome and more discreet EX1, a compact yet high def solution from the friendly guys at Pro Cam in Brisbane.

With a week to go, packing down my gypsy abode should have been an easy process, but a spent tension pulley in the fan belt config meant I had to tow it to the Gold Coast at a cost which would have been better spent on the trip to Europe (yes, Europe, after Egypt, but that’s another story). The damn plastic spindle cost 90 bucks but the replacement of it cost $800 as they had to pull the front end off…

This setback could only be looked at one way. As a preparation to the many contigencies that I knew Egypt was going to throw at me once we were on the ground. Like a war of attrition I began to cross tasks off my list of things to do, before finally cramming tripod, audio gear, cameras and lenses, clothes, laptop and mobile-office kit into two backpacks and a ready-to-shoot bag. About a 50kg load all up.

Parking the ‘Hotel Benz’ at Karin’s (thanks Karin) I loaded my gear into Catie’s Van (Akmal’s wife and the production’s Line Producer) before we proceeded to the Gold Coast airport. The plan was for me to go two weeks prior to them to film the Abu El Haggag religious festival in Luxor which was advertised as being on the 17th and 18th July. This festival is a coming together of Muslims and Christians in a two day parade through the streets of Luxor around the ancient mosque of Abu El Haggag.

Abu El Haggag Mosque and Temple

Nothing like getting thrown in the deep end, on my own in a country I’ve never been to, don’t speak the language of (hoping my french will get me by if English doesn’t), with some expensive camera kit in tow, much to the consternation of family and friends who see the evening news regarding instability in the region…

But I was on my way to the airport, the one sure sign a project is on and the only time one allows oneself to get excited about the journey ahead, because today, I’m off to Egypt.

Often i read in CNN, BBC or Reuters that Libyans are divided and the country could very possibly decent into another civil war between competing tribes or Islamists v. Secularists. Personally, I do not know the extent of tribalism or sectarianism in Libya as I have never been there. **If you are from Libya, please comment below and tell me** As we have all too often seen in the Arab World, tribalism and social divides can lead to violence and civil war. The foundation of democracy is respect for the rule of law and the respect for the constitution as the supreme law of the land. This is why the writers of the Constitution of Libya and other revolutionized Arab states have a huge task in front of them.

They must draft a constitution within the next 10 months that codifies and manifests the visions that they have for their nation and their people. Most nations that draft constitutions start from scratch, barely benefiting from other constitutions. However a constitution is like a software program and any programmer will tell you that there is no need to make a new version of a program from scratch. They learn from other programs and in some cases even use those programs and change them to suit their specific needs. There is no shame in asking from help to draft a constitution, and the judges and lawyers drafting these ones need to closely study the constitutions of the U.S, Canada and France. These constitutions all guarantee the fundamental rights of freedom, liberty and the means to be happy. I think Arabs countries should go the route that Canada has gone down and adopt “fundamental freedoms” that are guaranteed by the constitution. These should include the right to freedom of thought, of assembly, speech and the press.

The constitution will be the most fundamental part of forming new democratic societies and I think this should be done before a leader is elected. For the constitution to feel like it is absolute and concrete, it must exist before the first president/prime minister is elected. A respect for a constitution and a sense that it is more than just a piece of paper but instead the general will of the entire population has to exist if the rights we all dream of are to be realized.

Riding on the heels of his latest album release, “difrent,” Stephan Said has been keeping busy with a project of the same name which aims to erase the borders that separate us with the power of music. His vision, in everything that he does, is to unite people under the common desire for peace; not just the older generations which most cater to. He wants to showcase and, at the same time, inspire the youth of the world. To give them the incentive to continue speaking out with music as their guide to a better world for all. His journey in music, starting in early childhood years, led eventually to a reconiclation with his own bi-racial heritage and that inner peace fuels every action that he has taken since. Difrent, the album and project, are a direct palpale manifestation of that. It is a movement as powerful as humanity’s capacity for empathy, something that I feel is the core of music itself. With that said, I thorougly enjoyed the experience of getting to know him a bit more on a personal level and I hope that you do too while you listen in on this interview. Podcast posted at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Recently, Stephan has been partaking in the Wallstreet protests which you can check out live footage of here:

When Ismail Sidqi pasha refused that Egypt would get-in the war of 1948, he wasn’t a traitor to Egypt or loving Israel. All about it is that Ismail Sidqi was responsible for an economic renaissance in Egypt; he was the one to develop Alexandria and its beaches… The man feared that the war would destroy all the economic steps which Egypt took in the past years preceding the war.

But, Ismail Sidqi didn’t continue on his stance, El-Wafd party took a populist stance and went with the flow, supporting the war decision. Ismail Sidqi felt as a politician that he would lose people if he kept his stance, so he withdrew and supported the war, preferring popularity between the people over the interest of Egypt.

We are all subjected to Ismail Sidqi’s situation and we are required to to ask many questions, such as: Is this war in the interest of Egypt? Are we obliged to get involved into the war? Would we choose between the interest of Egypt and our desire to go with the flow along with the crowds to achieve personal political gains? This article discusses these barbed questions.

Firstly: Peace and Democracy
We all know that Egypt had a democratic parliamentary life till the coup d’état of 1952, and since this coup till this moment, we suffer from a totalitarian bloody militarist rule. But, we have to ask ourselves: Why did a coup happen? Does that have a relation with the case of peace and war?

The historical sequencing of events… Egypt entered a war in 1948 despite it wasn’t qualified to fight Israel from the side of development of weapons and efficiency of combatants, so this war changed two important elements:
1- Egypt’s commitment to the treaty of 1936 concerning to the evacuation of the British of Egypt. The treaty included the emergence of the British army after 20 years (in 1956) on a condition that the Egyptian army be advanced and able to defend Egypt. The palace deliberately intended to plunge Egypt to the war, from one hand for king Farouk’s desire for becoming a caliph of Muslims and on another hand, to destroy the Egyptian army, therefore to disable the evacuation process. That exactly what happened, after the defeat of the Egyptian army in the war, the weakness of the Egyptian army appeared to everyone, everything which was already built inside the army was destroyed, therefore, Egypt lagged what it pledged in the treaty of 1936, therefore, the evacuation won’t be on its time… That resulted dangerous political complications, most importantly the cancelation of the treaty of 1936, cutting-off of the diplomatic solution to solve the conflict, which paved the ground for a coup d’état solution to the evacuation issue. The war occurred on the way of Egypt independence.

2- The Egyptian soldiers were subjected to a huge defeat in the war of 1948, the toughest of it was the fall of many Egyptian soldiers under the siege of the Israeli army, the Egyptian soldiers became under the mercy of the Israelis who allowed the passage of food to them in order not to die of hunger. Then, in February 1949, Egypt was compelled to sign the armistice agreement with Israel in order to be able to get back its besieged soldiers. Those soldiers came back to Egypt in shame and dishonor (Gamal Abdel Nasser was personally of them), they went to a war and strongly lost it and were besieged, because of them Egypt was compelled to sign an armistice agreement with Israel to get them back.

In order for those soldiers to take away their shame of themselves, they created the lie of the corrupt weapons, despite the nonexistence of any proof on it. When the judiciary investigated in these rumors and proved their falsehood, they accused the regime of corruption. They didn’t have the courage to admit that the war was lost because of their failure. Starting from here, the claims to cleaning the army began, so the movement of the soldiers happened, which was at its beginning (as the statement of Muhammad Naguib) a movement of military soldiers aiming at cleaning the army, then the army would move back to its barracks. But, after the soldiers found themselves in control of everything, they didn’t abandon the authority, despite that the revolution court proved the nonexistence of any corrupt weapons in the war of 1948 which was the rumor that the coup d’état happened for.

We lost democracy and we suffered from oppression for 60 years, we were obliged to make the 25 January revolution, all of that because of a rumor or the soldiers shy of their defeat in the war of 1948. If we hadn’t entered the war, there wouldn’t had been the defeat and there would had been the rumor, there would had been the coup d’état and we would have been now celebrating 90 years of parliamentary democracy in Egypt. The relationship between peace and democracy is very strong. War opens the door for internal tyranny under the slogans “military secrets, the homeland interest, national security, no voice comes above the battle”. In wars, countries enforce “state of emergency/marshal law”, these are procedures to limit freedoms of citizens, not the enemies. In wars, armies inflate, opening the way for military coups (that’s why Ancient Rome banned the entrance for armies to the capital). Moreover, tyrants exploit wars to turn away the attention of their peoples from democratic reform, we all see how Arab tyrants exploit Israel to distract the Arab peoples from democratic reform issues and to distort the image of honorable opponents with silly charges of the type “Zionism, normalization, agent…”.

Secondly: Peace and Economic Growth
Regardless od the case of Ismail Sidqi which started my article with, Tawfik el-Hakim narrates, in his masterpiece “The Return of Consciousness”, information uncovering for us how wars destroyed the Egyptian economy.

- Tawfik el-Hakim narrates how the Egyptian army, under commands of Nasser, threw sacks of gold to the tribes of Yemen during the Yemen war, in order to sway them to the Egyptian side, which cause the depletion of the Egyptian gold stock… At the time when simple Egyptians were happy with Nasser who made them employees in the government, earning a few Egyptian pounds monthly!

- Tawfik also includes, the cost that Egypt paid during the 6 years between 1967 and 1973. He spread the numbers and said that what Egypt spent on the wars, if it had been spent on internal development, the share for each village would have been a million dollars (noting the difference between the value of the currency at that time; a million dollars in 1967 is equivalent to 5 million dollar by today’s standards). Imagine, what would Egypt look like now if we didn’t enter those wars, and spending this money on building schools, hospitals, streets and developing the civil society? What’s really silly is the governmental non-sense, in order to escape this question says that Israel was the one to start the war and occupied Sinai, when in reality, Nasser had announced the war in his speech on 15 July, 1967, before that he had used the right of land blockade against Israel which is of the rights of the the belligerent country… That if we ignored the historical novel which says that the decision to expel the international forces was taken by the Field Marshal “Abdel Hakim Amer” without Nasser knowledge, at the time when the Field Marshal the Army Chief of Staff, contesting Nasser in his authority!

Taking a look at the world around us… Look how America was hit from its war budgets and how America is solving the problem now by pulling its armies from Iraq and Afghanistan, also by dismantling some of the military bases in Europe.

See how the civil war weakened the Somali people and turned them into poor people despite the natural resources which Somalia has. See how the nuclear ambition of North Korea transformed the citizens into poor people, thousands of them die of hunger monthly. Look at the Axis countries in the second world war (Japan, Germany, Italy) and how they entered the war as strong countries and went out of it smashed under foreign occupation, and still are paying the price of this war till our day.

Peace is the strategic choice for all the people who want to live in luxury. On the other hand, the people who choose the wars would suffer poverty forever till they realize that wars drain their resources and the effort of their people.

Thirdly: Peace and Life of Humans
Does the one who takes the decision of war realize that he is making a decision of execution tens of thousands of humans, including who are going to have permanent disabilities in the war? The life of the one who takes the decision of the war won’t be subjected to danger, he would keep sitting in his air-conditioned office in the capital, while the youth and the patriots from both side are paying their souls because of the failure of the political leadership in reaching a diplomatic peaceful solution.

I can’t believe any official numbers regarding the Egyptian victims in our wars with Israel. Some militarists estimated the victims of Egypt in the war of 1973 as million martyrs! Other than the injured, the lost and the prisoners of war. I can say that when Israel aired the documentary “Spirit of Shaked” about executing Egyptian prisoners of war, Egyptians asked themselves if there were still Egyptian prisoners of war in Israel, but none of the officials knew the answer of the question.

What is the reason to make a country enters a war to lose its youth and the rest lose their limbs, imagine the population percentage between both genders (as what happened in Germany after the second world war, the percentage was one man for every 5 women)! Why all that when there are alternative solutions to solve conflicts?
I know that in the last decades, suicidal orientations have appeared under the naming “martyrdom.. industry of death, asceticism in life, challenging death…), but here I speak to reasonable who seek the interest of their homeland and not committing suicide, who search for life not death.

The goal of any conflict is to solve the conflict, not to exterminate the other. The goal of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is to achieve the full Palestinian right, not exterminating the Israelis. If you were looking for the Palestinians’ interests, then the solution is in peaceful negotiation, not in entering war which both sides die in, the Samson style (on me and my enemies)? But, if you were seeking suicide, please, commit suicide quietly without killing millions of innocents with you.

Epilogue
When I was choosing the title of the article, I wanted to title it “Peace to Egypt, not Israel”, but I preferred it to be “Peace to Egypt Before it is to Israel”… Because, peace would benefit everyone, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, even Iran and Turkey. Peace will benefit the whole world. Our role as Egyptians is to think sanely of the interest of our homeland, the interest of our revolution, the project of democratic transformation, our ambition for economic growth and our fear on lives of our brothers, our children and friends.
The peoples have to choose and each reasonable society have their mind and know their own salvation.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg prison – 2 ع [‘ayn]
2011/8/7

Over the years, different people the world over embraced different interpretations of “freedom.”

Janice Joplin used to sing of freedom as “…nothing left to lose.” Is that what it means to be free? Or is that the state of mind that is needed to put everything on the line, and to venture forth in search of freedom?

The framers of the U.S. Constitution thought of freedom as conferring certain inalienable rights to the citizenry, such as freedom of religion, speech, a free press, free assembly, and free association.

On January 6, 1941, President Roosevelt spoke of the four fundamental freedoms that people “everywhere in the world” are entitled to: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

However you define it, the notion of freedom has captured hearts and minds of people in all four corners of the world. And still somehow, it is often difficult to define what exactly it means to be free. Yet we realize, as we fight for freedom, that it is important to understand what it is to be free, so that at the end of the day, we know what it is we’re looking for, and recognize what it is when we finally find it.

Certainly there is a role for government to play in assuring to their people the basic right of freedom. Liberty is enhanced to the extent that governments undo the shackles of oppressive rule, external control, interference, regulation, etc. Freedom also grows as a person comes to believe that he is the master of his destiny and that he can make the decisions to chart his course in life, without excessive and unreasonable interference from government. And of course, freedom connotes a fundamental respect for human life, and the protection of a person’s right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

However, just as government can play its role, the individual himself has a role to play as well, in fighting for and sustaining a sense of personal freedom. It could well be argued that the greatest freedom of all is the freedom to think. Rene Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” Inherent in the human condition, and our existence as free human beings, is our ability to think, and I would add, our ability to think clearly, with common sense and personal dignity, unhampered by the biases, suspicions, prejudices and superstitions which are thrust upon us, at an early age, by the societies we find ourselves.

As we search for freedom in such diverse places as the Middle East, or the Far East, or the West, or wherever the need arises; if it is really freedom we’re after, and if we dare to be true to ourselves, then we have no choice but to let go of past prejudices and wrong-headed thinking, in favor of what makes sense, and what promises hope for the future.

Our challenge, as freedom fighters, is not an easy one. All too often, we are called upon to put everything on the line, in hope of finding something that may never be found. But perhaps the greatest challenge of all, as we seek our freedom, and the freedom of others, is to break the chains that bind us to the thinking of the past, and that keep us imprisoned in the psychological cages that we have built for ourselves. If we find the courage and the wisdom to break these chains of the mind, then, and only then, will we shine the light on the path to freedom.

Please join us, with your comments, at www.sellingavisionofhope.org

Also, of the books I read in prison “In Search of Identity” for the former president “Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat”. He narrated a story, thought to be about Napoleon Bonaparte, which caught my attention. The story says that when Napoleon was in captivity, his jailers wanted to humiliate him, so they made the gate of the cell low so that he would be forced to bend his head whenever he wanted to exit or enter from the cell. However, Napoleon refused to bend his head, so he used to sit on the floor and enter sitting, so that he wouldn’t bend his head. This story reminded me of a saying for Amal Donqol in the poem “The Last Words of Spartacus” when he said “I’m hanged on the gallows and my head is bent, because I didn’t bend it alive”… So, I decided that I won’t bend my head to my enemies as long as I’m alive, even if that lead to my head being bent on the gallows.

Also, in Sadat’s book, he talked about circumstances of his imprisonment and rumors about that there was at one of the prisons an imprisoned count who was never acting as a prisoner, but as if he was still a count. Prisoners used to laugh at him continuously because he doesn’t live his reality, while his dignity refuses that he detracts his self-esteem… Here in prison, they continuously want to destroy the strength of my personality and always tell me “you’re imprisoned, you’re guilty, you’re sentenced to 3 years in prison”. As for me, I still see myself as the blogger and the famous political prisoner who tens of thousand are interested in his views. I will never allow prison to break me.

Despite my great hatred to Hitler, I can’t prevent myself from strong admiration for committing suicide when he was defeated in a battle… Hitler had a great feeling of dignity and megalomania, he didn’t accept the handcuffs be put on his hands or to be subjected to insult by armies of his enemies, so he preferred death over the insult of his dignity… My dignity also prevents me from accepting insult from militarists, I refuse life in the circumstances of continuous attempts to break my pride.
I’m not the first one to enter a hunger strike objecting my imprisonment… Sadat did it before me… Gandhi did it as well and when the Indian people came violently to free Gandhi, fearing his death because of his strike, he commanded them to step-back, because he refuses to be freed by violence.

When I feel that I could die because of the strike, I remember Mohamed Bouazizi… Mohamed Bouazizi is my greatest source of strength in my strike… Mohamed Bouazizi’s death was the reason for the start of the Arab Spring and changing history… That’s what I tell myself: never mind dying, if my death is going to benefit millions after me.

Ernesto Che Guevara was used to saying “I prefer to die standing to live kneeling”. It is said that when he was executed, they made him kneel, then started shooting bullets to his head. His enemies wished to see him kneeling… OK, the man doesn’t concern me, only his wonderful saying concern me. I won’t kneel for injustice and I’ll die with my dignity and it’s more honorable to me than a life with no dignity.

Holy books for Jews mention a story of the Babylonian captive when the people of Israel captives in Babylonia were living the life of slavery. At that time the Jewish people were invoking their god to free them from eating the bread of slavery (the bad bread which was given as food to slaves). But, I decided not to wait for anyone to free me, I’m a master and I refuse to eat the bread of slavery, I won’t eat any food as long as I’m in prison, till I get my freedom.

I could die as a result of my hunger strike, but that would benefit thousands of prisoners after me. After that, the authorities won’t ignore any hunger strike. There have be some sacrifices so that the extent of human rights in any homeland extends.

If I were free these days, I would have organized for a general hunger strike for all who were militarily tried… It is said that another 12 thousand were militarily tried in the past months. If only a thousand prisoners of them made a strike demanding to be be civilly tried, then that is enough to shake any regime in the universe.

Freedom has a price and we should pay it

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg General prison
The interior section – prison hospital
2011/9/11 after 20 days on a hunger strike

What is the origin of Hijab? (with an emphasis on garments like Chador, Burqa and Abaya)

As the one who started the debate, I like to write my opinion here. Persian Chador dates back to pre-Islamic era and is not necessarily developed after introduction of Islam to Iran. It also applies to Arabs. They had these kind of Hijabs before Islam.

Also there is a verse in Quran which shows that Hijab has existed before establishment of Islam:

I think Hijab developed as a phenomenon related to patriarchy. For example, I as a Middle Easter man, always wanted to avoid other men observe my wife’s attractive body. That’s because they may be motivated to go after her and make my situation vulnerable. So I have forced my wife to wear something which vanished her sexual attractiveness. And here Hijab comes.

I confess I do not know the answer. Now its your turn to express your opinion.

I also like authors and visitors of Muslimah Media Watch contribute on the discussion and help us find the answer. Everyone is welcomed.