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I promised to write a short message to the Muslim
Brotherhood youth; the ones I've met in prison and on the
streets; the ones I consider comrades. However, it's very
difficult to write anything these days and avoid mentioning
Lebanon, so let's go with the flow.
I'm sure most of you support HizbAllah just like me. I'm
sure most of you got excited about their recent actions and
I'm sure most of you are as annoyed as I'm with the people
criticizing HizbAllah for their "adventure"
There are many things I don't like about the Muslim
Brotherhood, but the one thing that annoys me the most
is their tendency not to be adventurous. I've heard many
arguments from respected Brotherhood leaders about how a large
organization like the Ikhwan needs to move with caution, and
how it is a duty to protect the Brotherhood members
and their families from our tyrannical government. There
is no doubt those are very reasonable arguments, however,
when people say these arguments while discussing HizbAllah's
adventure we defend it, we find answers to these reasonable
arguments. We argue that sometimes staying safe is not an
option, and that you have to sacrifice and pay the price of
your adventure
than pay the price of sitting idly and
waiting.
look at the state we live in, look at how hopeless we
Egyptians have become; look at how the government cracks down
on citizens even if they don't get involved in politics at
all; look at how optimistic and proud HizbAllah's adventure
made us. Yet you [Muslim Brotherhood] remain conservative in
your actions and moving slowly. Even the younger generations
od the Muslim Brothers are cautious!. Isn't it part of being
young to be daring and a bit reckless? don't you all burn
inside with the need to act, the need to do something? the
urge to engage in an "adventure"?
Whenever
someone tries to convince me that the Brotherhood is no good,
that as a secularist and a leftist I should consider them my
enemies instead of my comrades; I think of two adventures that
the Brotherhood youth shared with other political powers
in Egypt; one is the Free Student Union and the second is the
judges solidarity protests. These two adventures are an
example of when creativity, energy, daring and sense of
adventure in us the youth of Egypt, were coupled with the
courage and compassionate support of the not so young
Egyptians who are a bit more experienced in political work
came together and united us all in beautiful acts of
resistance and made me feel as proud and optimistic as I felt
when I first heard the news about HizbAllah's adventure.
I guess what I'm trying to say albeit very clumsily is
let's take a
leaf from HizbAllah and go on more adventures
together.
cheers,
Alaa
Ikhwanweb: Alaa Abd El Fattah is a
famous Egyptian blogger whose writings have inspired many
young Egyptians to be more engaged in political activites.
Alaa was recently released from jail after he was arrested
during latest protests in solidarity with Egypt's pro-reform
judges. You can visit his website at www.manalaa.net
which is maintained by him and his wife Manal.
Commentary by Ikhwanweb
Dear Alaa,
You are
right. What our beloved Egypt needs the most
during these stagnate times of its political life is the
energy and the creativity of its youth coupled with the wisdom
of its elders in order to sail safely towards freedom and
prosperity. We have to understand that Hizbollah is
fighting a ruthless occupation that has no regard
to the sanctity of human life, and the struggle that
Hizbollah is enduring is quite different from
that of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yes, it
is sometimes healthy for any political movement to be
adventurous if the surrounding circumstances force it to
go that route, however, any adventure has to be always
calculated especially when the future of a whole nation is at
stake, otherwise we will create chaos and enable our
adversaries to undermine our cause.
As you
alluded to in your message, the Egyptian opposition is
always able to deliver when it is united and this is what we
should all make it a top priority. There is no difference
between Muslim Brothers, leftists, or liberals as long as we
are all united in our love to this country and in our pursuit
of democracy and reform.
Sincerely,
Khaled Salam
Editor
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