Back to blogging freely, 3alaa posted something interesting yesterday on his blog, recalling his “release� experience in el-3omraniya police station, and more importantly, he sent strong message of solidarity to the Muslim Brothers’ detainees.
3alaa, the staunch secularist, bumped into the MB youth who were picked up during a summer beach trip in Marsa Matrouh. 3alaa speaks about how the misery of detention unites everyone, and how the brothers and the comrades became friends.
3alaa’s impression of the Brothers youth was that ‘they where from this new breed of islamists that reads blogs, watches al jazeera, sings sha3by songs, talks about intense love stories and chants “down Mubarak”. and being young most of them did not have any experience with prison before.‘
Interesting, coz it’s that same caliber of youth who are pushing the Islamist group towards moderation, and coordination with other secular forces. And it was them who pushed the MB’s leadership to join in the street protests after Kefaya presented both a daring model for breaking political taboos and, at the same time, a pressure on the group to take a stronger stand towards the regime, lest losing the base cadres who are eager for more confrontationalist stand vis a vis the government’s continuous crackdowns.
More raproachment is expected, and needed, between Islamists and leftists, in such a critical stage.
3alaa, the staunch secularist, bumped into the MB youth who were picked up during a summer beach trip in Marsa Matrouh. 3alaa speaks about how the misery of detention unites everyone, and how the brothers and the comrades became friends.
3alaa’s impression of the Brothers youth was that ‘they where from this new breed of islamists that reads blogs, watches al jazeera, sings sha3by songs, talks about intense love stories and chants “down Mubarak”. and being young most of them did not have any experience with prison before.‘
Interesting, coz it’s that same caliber of youth who are pushing the Islamist group towards moderation, and coordination with other secular forces. And it was them who pushed the MB’s leadership to join in the street protests after Kefaya presented both a daring model for breaking political taboos and, at the same time, a pressure on the group to take a stronger stand towards the regime, lest losing the base cadres who are eager for more confrontationalist stand vis a vis the government’s continuous crackdowns.
More raproachment is expected, and needed, between Islamists and leftists, in such a critical stage.
Good stuff. We need more sympathy and cooperation among the Brotherhood and the leftists.
Yes!
Very interesting. I remember last summer when Kefaya and related groups were holding meetings with the Brothers to talk about coordinating protests, ‘Alaa said something about how difficult it was to get either side to stop being suspicious of the other – if you raise the suggestion on the Left you get accused of helping the fundies in their quest for power, and if you wanted to work with Christians and secularists as an Islamist, you were accused of shirk. I think this was with reference to the Zaytoun church protest last summer. I wonder what he thinks of the prospects for cooperation between the leaderships of the Left and the Brothers now…and whether it would help to bring the parties on board to really work together against the regime. Or would the Left still just risk being tarred with the extremist brush.
Ever wondered why you don’t hear much about the Tudeh Party anymore? Before cheering on an Islamist-Left alliance you might want to open a history book.
Thanks for the link – its not often you see Socialist Worker Party pamphlets used to back up an argument.
If you’re a fan of Chris Harman I’d recommend Tariq Ali’s first novel, Redemption – a parody of the ideological contortions of the Trotskeyites following the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. You’ll recognise Harman in there as the lunatic ‘Nutty Shardman’.
For some reason my two comments to Hugh were deleted from the post, so I’m re-posting them again.
Tudeh opted for a “popular front� with Khomeini, cheering him as the great anti-imperialist, and gave up its organizational independence. What I’m calling for is a “united front� between Islamists and leftists over issues where the two tendencies could coordinate over, like the necessity of getting free elections, the stop of torture, liberating the syndicates from govt control, etc. In a united front, each tendency maintains its organizational independence, and still reserve the right to be critical.
There’s a good article I recommend on that subject.
http://www.swp.org.uk/swp_archive.php?article_id=6868
Re: Tareq Ali.. I haven’t read the novel you are referring to, I only read Fear of Mirrors, and his book on 1968, Marching in the Streets. Tareq Ali is someone indeed I have so much respect for, and its his right to describe Harman in whatever way he likes. That doesn’t mean however I’m not a fan of a Harman. Indeed I like his works a lot, and I think he authored several important books which constituted a contribution to the socialist theory and practice. (You may wanna also check out what he wrote of Tareq Ali in his book, 1968: The Fire Last Time)
[…] As I’m blogging now, 3alaa is speaking on MBC, about the bloggers community in Egypt, human rights abuses, prospects for activism in Egypt, and his encounter with the Muslim Brothers youth in detention. Two released detainees are also to appear on Dream2 TV, Saturday 8pm (Cairo time), together with two Mubrak’s National Democratic Party MPs. Kefaya activists Ahmad Salah and Nada al-Qassas are to debate political reform against Yehya Wahdan, the former State Security Colonel who became the MP for Bab el-She3reya district (formerly represented by Dr. Ayman Nour), and Dr. Sherin 3abdel 3aziz, Al-Waylee’s district MP. The talkshow host is Wael el-Ibrashi. […]
[…] 3alaa Seif, the leftist blogger who has recently come out of prison, is appealing to you to help release his friends Mohamed Sharqawi and Kareem el-Sha3er. Please check out the appeal on Human Rights First website. 3alaa, and other leftists, have been also campaigning for the release of Muslim Brothers detainees. Mr. El-Sa3id Ramadan, the editor of Ikhwan Web, sent me a list of the MB detainees who were picked up during the pro-democracy demos. The number of detainees had exceeded 900 since last March, but it has gone down to less than 600 detainees at the moment, according to Ramadan, as there has been some recent releases. The list is in Arabic, and there are missing names yet, which Ramadan has promised to send in soon. We’ll be updating the list as we receive more names. (If you are a Muslim Brother activist, and know more names, please contact the website administrator, and we’ll add the names you know.) […]