The politics of self-abasement is taking hold of Egypt even as the country slips into a state of perennial discontent. While pressing social and economic conditions continue to plague the country, the forces of reaction and progress vie for the soul of the people. Religious intolerance is putting a new face on the Egyptian domestic political scene. Egypt, paradoxically is still one of the Muslim countries that has felt the lash of religious fundamentalism least. Yet, the media in the country gives a inkling of what freedom of expression is like when religious zealots have the upper hand. In an interview with the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, controversial intellectual and writer Sayed El-Qimani, who was awarded the State's Appreciative Award a few weeks ago, defended his right to criticise the campaign launched against him by Islamists. "The State's Appreciative Award was symbolic to me: I felt my country still has courageous people who decided to give me the award despite the fact that I was accused of apostasy," he was quoted as saying. "The award has also reminded me of the number of intellectuals who were accused of apostasy and the state did not honour them," he added. El-Qimani's criticism of Islamists is two-pronged. On the one hand he sees militant political Islam as morally wrong. On the other hand, he sees religious bigotry as ultimately ineffective, and here he is far from being persuasive. "I'm not a leader of any body, nor am I a distinguished or undistinguished intellectual. I'm a citizen trying to offer this country something, which I believe is right. So, if this thing is wrong, just get rid of it, but don't call me apostate. I love Muslims, Orthodox and Catholic Christians, Bahais, agnostics," he confessed. "Because I'm a human being, and I will not assume the role of Allah by holding people to account," he explained. But the key point of El-Qimani is that he is bent on downgrading the certainties of those who believe they have a monopoly over truth. In much the same vein, he decries the state of religious intolerance. "The state of affairs in Egypt is now horrific: Muslims call Christians apostates, and Christians insult Muslims. Everybody knows that citizenship is the only key to this country's salvation," he added. "It's impossible that the government call for the implantation of citizenship while it still states an individual's religion on ID cards." He is also severely critical of the manner in which the religious authorities abuse their position of power. "Our Sheikhs own Mercedes, sit in air-conditioned offices, and they are lavishly paid by satellite channels that brainwash people and put a damper on their minds." He concludes that they have lost touch with the masses and that many people consider them charlatans. In much the same vein, many writers have expressed the view that secularists and religious zealots in Egypt are locked into a battle for the hearts and minds of the masses. Political Islam, many pundits contend, cannot be practised for long because it entails a huge drawing down of political capital. Yet religiosity has a strong hold on the popular mind. It will take some time for people in Egypt to accept the legitimacy of the secular forces and follow the logic of secular thinking. Writing in the Al-Masry Al-Youm, Amira Abdel-Rahman argued that "the West has learned that truth has thousands of faces, at a time when some medieval backward forces in our countries insist on monopolising religion, thought and opinion. While European intellectuals learnt from the spirit of Islam and its tolerance." Moreover, the writer insists, "a lot of Muslims are content with priding themselves in having the word 'Muslim' on their IDs and are firmly sticking to [religious] texts after draining them of their lofty ideals and essence." She added: "Righteousness [of women] was reduced to be equivalent to wearing veil; fasting turned to be merely abstaining from eating and drinking from sunrise till sunset; prayers were reduced to five daily rituals with intervals of committing all that is unethical," he noted. "This kind of Muslims are best described as donkeys bearing books." Criticising Egyptian and Arab people's reactions to different opinions, especially those concerning the interpretation of religious texts, Abdel-Rahman noticed that "Muslims are still lacking in a culture of accepting different opinions. Those who hold views about religious texts that are different from our views are 'idiots' or 'mean' or 'pigs' or 'atheist' or 'libertine', even if they are believing in Allah and his Messenger. We assassinated Farag Fouda, called Nasr Abu Zeid apostate, and call for killing Sayed El-Qimani. We are still controlled by the mentality of the 17th century." Writing in the daily liberal-oriented Rose Al-Youssef, Gamal Asaad tackled the same issue with regards to the Coptic Christian minority of Egypt. Copts have become extremely sensitive to any negative portrayal of themselves in the literary, cinematic and artistic scenes. "Be warned not to approach a Christian character in a novel, a movie or a soap opera, unless you portray them as pure angels that never make anything wrong. Otherwise you will be accused of anti-Christianity." He argued that this "is the law imposed by neo-Christian inquisitors who sniff around for all that is trivial to appear like heroes who defend Christianity. Those inquisitors are not ashamed of making money from this business, for it has become a source of income for every body who has no job to do." Asaad's article came after the publishing of book entitled "Al-Moallam Yaqoub: A Myth or Truth" that put in a bad light a Coptic person who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries and co- operated with the French Expedition. In other words, the Copt in question was regarded as a sell-out. Copts have always prided themselves in being nationalistic in political affiliation and ideological orientation and they do not take kindly to being portrayed, even in novels, as traitors. On an entirely different note, political commentator Diaa Rashwan launched a harsh critique in the daily independent Al-Shorouk against the chairman of the National Democratic Party's Policies Committee Gamal Mubarak. "Usually security apparatus handpicks the villagers who meet the head of the Policies Committee so as not to be faced with an embarrassing situation." The younger Mubarak, according to Rashwan, "never met with the intellectual elite which play a key role in formulating the Egyptians' political awareness." He added that "despite the fact that Gamal Mubarak is assistant secretary-general of the ruling NDP and head of its [influential] Policies Committee, it never happened that he met a politician or a representative of [an opposition] party since he started his political career eight years ago." Rashwan added that "it seems that the head of the Policies Committee in the ruling party is suspicious of the intelligentsia in general and non-pro-government media people in particular. He never met with any of the two categories throughout the past eight years." All this leads us to the intractable question of corruption in high places. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's comments made last week about corruption in Egypt ruffled the feathers of pundits. "Yes, corruption exists around the world and even in developed countries. However, in these developed countries the country and the system is shaken up when corruption takes place," wrote Mohamed Fouda in the daily official Al-Masaa. Writing in much the same vein, Sayed Abdel-Ati, editor-in-chief of the weekly independent Sawt Al-Umma criticised the government and the ruling party of claiming that an increased number of people are content with government policies. "When a university student stood up during a meeting with the Prime Minister last week in Port Said and told Nazif that he felt corruption everywhere he went and felt that Egypt was no longer his homeland, I was amazed at the reaction of his fellow students who were attending the meeting. They kept clapping and cheering for over five minutes in support of what that student said ... This situation gave the perfect reply to the laughable poll conducted by the ruling NDP and showed that the percentage of Egyptians who trusted the government of Nazif increased from 22 per cent to 39 per cent and that the Egyptian people was living in a state of satisfaction." Indeed, certain pundits draw ominous parallels to the period immediately preceding the July Revolution. Corruption and public discontent are rife. And, people are grumbling louder than ever before. This is the summer of discontent. Writing in the weekly Al-Fagr, Adel Hammouda argued that "the state of affairs in Egypt is now similar to the period that preceded the 23rd of July Revolution: paralysed political parties, a failed government, reigning chaos, rampant misery, corrupt capitalism, a country falling under increasing international pressures, dominance of feudal barons, angry, rebellious, and an ailing disfranchised social underdog class." So, what is to be done?
