Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Reviving #Nasser in #Egypt

This photo was spreading in Egyptian social media network as well the Egyptian news websites.
Allegedly this boy saluting late President Nasser was general Abdel Fatah El Sissi. There is no confirmation whether this boy was El Sissi or not but it is spreading like fire. 
El Sisi and Nasser "Al Masry Al Youm"
At Nasser tomb where Nasserites along Nasser family went to celebrate the 23 July anniversary a big banner with the photos of both Nasser and El Sissi was hanged. In Tahrir square you can see the posters of Nasser and El Sissi together are sold.
In a very emotional op-ed by Ibrahim Eissa in Tahrir newspaper called “El Sissi Egypt” last week , the TV host and editor in chief compared to the minister of defense has done on 3th July and how he resisted the alleged American pressures to keep Morsi as a president to what Nasser did in 1956 from nationalizing the Suez Canal.
Today is the 61st anniversary of the 23 July movement in Egypt , the original coup that is considered a revolution and actually caused a social economic as well political revolution in Egypt and Arab world. I can not get over on how the Egyptian mainstream media is trying to make from Abdel Fatah El Sissi a new Nasser figure whether intentionally or unintentionally.

 It is not a big secret that there is rise of Nasserite and Nationalism in Egypt nowadays. It started with the infamous words of ousted President Mohamed Morsi “What you know about the sixties” in Tahrir square from more than a year ago referring to Nasser and what he did against the Muslim brotherhood. Of course later he quoted Nasser in a positive way especially in his African tours and celebrations like Labor Day.
As the MB and Morsi started to commit political sins and mistakes , the people began to revive Nasser’s legacy from MB’s hate and despise. Generations that knew nothing about Nasser except that he was the president that brought down monarchy and nationalized the Suez canal  kept sharing clips from Nasser’s famous speech in 1960s about MB.
The misogynist chant against the MB in the protests “If Nasser were alive , he would make you wear veil and bracelets” was a common chant in the anti-MB protests through the past year. Of course all this is nothing compared to what is taking place on ground. The famous Tamaroud movement’s  co-founders are members are members of the Popular Current movement led by Nasserite Hamdeen Sabbahi.
Tamaroud young founders already were blessed and met with none other than Nasser’s close media aide Mohamed Hassanein Heikal even twice in a week. Heikal also met by the way Abdel Fatah El Sissi and revealed alleged latest exclusive events from the backstage on CBC TV channel . The MB members already claiming that this were a Nasserite coup backed by the States and Israel thanks to Heikal !!
Of course the only thing many Egyptians have revived from the Nasser legacy is the hate of the Muslim brotherhood and that famous leader was right in oppressing the MB. “He did not oppress the MB alone and actually the police state of Nasser was one of his worst sins that no one can deny or beautify that b all measures at all” 
Amazingly nobody is paying attention to Nasser’s legacy from economic policies on the other hand and I do not have any doubt that after couple of months the Nasserites will lose their popularity because people will remember that they do not want Nasser’s socialism and big slogans in the end of the day.
The Upper Class and Upper Middle Class that are currently calling El Sisi as the new Nasser and cheering for him will not tolerate to accept Nasser's social and economic policies once again in Egypt. Of course there are generations who ignore the fact that  Nasser’s popularity in Egypt among popular classes was not because he sent the MB to jail only but because the economic and social policies that he adopted in Egypt mainly. 
Besides this I do not think that those racists who are attacking Syrians and Palestinians day and night cheering for El Sisi will tolerate or accept or even understand the Pan Arabism or Pan Africanism nationalism adopted by Nasser. There is ugly increase in Egyptian Nationalism that says Egypt above the world and above all , Arabs and Africans are nothing.. bla bla bla

Every figure is the child of his own time and his own society. Abdel El Fatah El Sisi can not be Gamal Abdel Nasser and Gamal Abdel Nasser can not be El Sissi because simply despite the uniform and their position from the Muslim brotherhood, each of them is the child of his time , his own circumstances that is completely different than the other. The Egyptian society in 2013 is different than the Egyptian society in 1952.
Nobody can ignore or deny the huge popularity El Sisi now in the streets. This is why I do not think that he needs the media to make out of him a new Nasser.
By the way this popularity now can be bless and curse at the same time because people’s hopes are up in the sky.


  1. Elsisi is going to run for president. If not him, then it will be Mimish. Wait and see. Mimish was a general and is already a civilian, head of the Suez Canal Authority, has no links to any bloodiness or violence, and he is married to Selim al-Awa's sister.

    There will be some sort of military candidate in the next presidential elections...if they happen at all. What guarantees does anyone have that the elections will be free and fair? Thr judges have all expressed their political opinions, the police all took political sides by participating in the protests, and thr military also expressed a political preference by ousting Morsi. The people expected to oversee and conduct elections are all obvious about their preferences. How can anyone guarantee in these conditions that parliamentary and presidential elections will be honest?

    I love how people were so angry with the formation of the constituent assembly for the constitution saying it was dominated by Islamists and that since they had a majority in parliament they had too much of a say. These people said that no single group should dominate. But now according to the constitutional declaration the interim president gets to choose all the people who will amend the constitution. An unelected person gets to singlrhandedly choose all the people. If people support this, then it is hypocrisy just to suit political purposes. Though we all know that Adly Mansour is just a figurehead and he takes all his orders from Al Sisi. So really it is Al Sisi who removed a president and gets to change the constitution as he sees fit.

    Finally, in the presidential elections Morsi lost Cairo. His strongest base was the S3eed. So isn't it expected that his weakest area of support is Cairo and it is the area most likely to turn against him? Bear that in mind when you consider the June 30 protests. The S3eed is in a state of uprising- you just don't ser it on tv. Heikal wants sisi to believe he is the new Nasser so that heikal can control him and protect his son's interests. The liberals dirtied their hands by joining them with the fulool.

    Maybe all of this is good. People need to see that they should never trust the military. We need the MB youth to revolt on their leaders and get rid of Shater and Badei and the rest of maktab al irshad. Liberals need to realize that the military is not thr answer and that the old regime is making a come back. Then the more moderate MB and the wiser liberals can work together in the future.

  2. Zeinobia how do you feel about El Sisi's speech calling on Egyptians to protest to give him a popular mandate to use whatever means necessary?

    1. I am not Zeinobia, but I will answer you until she has the time to do it!

      If we live, in Egypt, like other normal human beings, no one would have accepted a call for a demonstration from a military leader. But, unfortunately, we don't. And we are sitting mostly in our homes, can't go anywhere, and can't have any plans.

      And those thugs are filling the streets, carrying a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, and filling their koftans with bombs, and their heads with garbage. And with all of that, still claiming that God is only on their side, and that they will be happy to die and go to some heaven if they don't run this country again. Either rule Egypt, or burn it.

      With all of that, I would accept any call from any one, with the power to protect Egyptians, young and old, and to impose on these thugs to go back to their hell, dead or alive. Elh.

    2. Actually, I live in Madinat Nasr and do not support what El Sisi said. I also think it os very childish to believe thay the brotherhood's philosophy is "either rule Egypt, or burn it." The pro-Morsi protests would not be so large if people did not genuinely believe that he should remain in power. What is happening now is a clash between two factions of society that believe they are justified. It is speech like yours that riles up MB people and makes them think liberaliyeen are against them from the beginning

    3. I can't actually claim to be that liberal. But true, I never liked or trusted the MB, or any of those who claim that "Islam is the answer". Over the years, they lied, conspired, and killed in the name of Islam.

      But when the time for choice was there, I encouraged people to give them a chance, and to vote for a former MB, Abu Elftouh. When we were faced with a choice between the old regime, or a new one that we didn't test yet, I asked people to vote for the new one, the one from the MB. We were happy to see the man win, and we hoped that he will do good for Egypt.

      He didn't, he let the economy and security collapse further, while he put thousands of untrained and inefficient Brothers to run what they don't know how to run. He became a little dictator who blame everyone else, but himself, or his failures. He even stood up there and threatened his people who were asking him to leave or to do something. Have you ever heard of a president standing up there asking his dogs to fill the streets with blood just to stay in power? Would you want to see the face of this thug again ruling your people? You do? I don't. Elh

  3. Maybe it will be good Allah is behind all the plots and from seeming evil maybe he will draw forth good. Or maybe the process of being tested is necessary for us now. We certainly don't desreve a peacful life the way we collectively are behaving...There is no doubt sisi is scum and his sheen will soon wear off

  4. The military calling on "its" political supporters to rally in the streets and authorise it to use lethal force on its political opponents.

  5. Yes, these thugs are going to use the battle of Badr, and every great occasion in Islamic history, to fight us, the millions of Egyptian Koffars. They have now their prophet Mursi, and we are all the people of Quraish. They have God on their side, and with his Devine intervention, we will all disappear. That is what their called leaders are telling them day and night, while hiding behind their back, and the back of their women.

    Every day we hear and see one more so called Sheikh, or one more false scholar, dishing dirt to Egyptians, and on Egyptians. Even that idiot, their idol, Yousef El Qardawi, who was courting a much younger girl with poems and love letters, while still marrying to the mother of his 7 children, seems to think that he can tell us how to live, how to chose our leaders, and how our army personnel should refuse the orders of their superiors. And the sad thing is that, this former Egyptian, does all of that on Aljazeera, surrounded by his harem, in his palace, in Qatar. Elh


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