Ahmed Feteha is the business editor of Ahram Online, Egypt's largest English language news
website. His 9/11/01 recollection below was not about the tragic New York Twin Towers' atrocities, but what was in the hearts of many Egyptians in the aftermath.
"I remember when the 9/11 attacks happened, the teachers at my Cairo middle school celebrated the event. It was God's revenge, they told us. Americans are finally paying the price for their enmity to Islam, they said. It's no wonder that in a country where teachers felt free to cheer terrorism, voters would later put the Muslim Brotherhood in power."
That admission clearly exposes the crux of the American dilemma: How do we look into terrorists' hearts, real soulful inspections, when deciding what changed in order for it to be deemed an end to the war with terrorists? The WW1, WW2, Korean and Vietnam Wars were agreed upon surrenders or truces between nations. This war, after all, is not fought between any particular countries, governments, militaries or people; instead it is fought as a jihad, a Holy war of religious zealots' conversions of infidels to Islam down to the bitter end. So, it is about intangible Islamic religious beliefs forced upon everyone in the world - either you are Islamist or not.
Madrassa school in PakistanIt's obvious that one major problem of these countries is due to poor public education for the masses. One in every four Egyptians is illiterate.
Despite the free education and long-running literacy programs, the number of illiterates has changed little in over two decades. Nearly 17 million adult Egyptians can neither read nor write, according to recent government data and their meager curriculum subsists solely of religious studies of Islam beliefs and little else taught in Madrassas, Muslim schools which are often just a part of a mosque. They are typically heavily indoctrinated with anti-infidel hatred targeting Christians, Jews and other non-Islamic believers. Public media broadcasts in television and radio are radically aired bias with a prejudiced slant too.
So with this constant reindoctrination of the population, especially the children, youths and young adults, hateful religious rhetoric lives on forever. Is this war on their hearts and minds ever to be won? How and when do any of these backward countries develop literacy programs leading to higher levels in education, training and skills to compete regionally and globally if they are ever to achieve a higher standard of living? Or, is there some surreptitiously mandated plan for these masses to remain uneducated forever in order to control them to maintain for the common good of a ruling theocratic hierarchy? It certainly seems so, doesn't it?
The Muslim Brotherhood movement after over seventy years in promoting Islamic ideals as a dominant lifestyle has not achieved it in Egypt. Again in less than two years, the Egyptian people have rejected their government. They could not tolerate an Islamic theocracy with draconian, religious Sharia law dictates that did nothing to change quality of life. The people decided in favor of a more modern, secular style democracy that embraced governance over daily living with basics such as rules under Egyptian Civil laws, more jobs, adequate housing, stocked grocery stores, ample gasoline and fewer power blackouts. Ironically, the people had felt a need to change and oust the Muslim Brotherhood but still have absolutely no clue on what to do now afterwards. It's like a dog running around in circles chasing its tail and once it catches it, what does it do with it?
In the 19th century, Edmund Burke, the philosophical founder of modern conservatism, wrote that liberty without wisdom and virtue "is the greatest of all possible evils." Ahmed Feteha further added, "Millions of my countrymen exercised liberty this week. Only serious introspection about the events of the past two years will lead to wisdom."
All these well said platitudes ring true and sound profound. The only problem is they will fail on the Egyptian people to see and hear them because they're unable to read or listen due to illiteracy or indocrination, certainly not better education. The teeming masses in Cairo's Tahir Square who demonstrated for liberty are without any wisdom as Ahmed Feteha described. What about his countrymen conducting serious introspection on the past events of two years under the Muslim Brotherhood to gain understanding? Consequently this Egyptian mob mentality is stupid, too dumb to appreciate past mistakes and too slow to realize future liberties squandered.
The real true tragedy here is that more Americans soldiers and civilians will be killed as these Islamists plod along in their Jihad to continue on in a war of terror dying endlessly, and for what end? - Please, are you reading this blog site Barack?