Where is Egypt Headed?

Tarek Heggy
Tarek Heggy

Where is Egypt Headed?

During the second half of Hosni Mubarak's rule (from 1995 to February 11, 2011), I was one of those who expressed, with pen and tongue, the catastrophe that was taking place at that time; I mean the formation of the so-called "oligarchy of power and wealth" by the youngest son of Hosni Mubarak, i.e. an alliance or cabal of rulers and wealthy people.

Fortunately for the Egyptians, during the thirty months from January 25, 2011 to July 3, 2013, two catastrophic projects collapsed:

* The project of reaching the power/wealth alliance or cabal to rule Egypt.

* The Muslim Brotherhood’s rule of Egypt project and what would have led Egypt to it.

If the two projects had continued as planned, they would have taken Egypt to an ugly fate full of ruin, delay, social conflicts, and even civil war.

Despite the importance of destroying these two destructive projects, the reality of Egyptian society confirms that although Egypt has escaped the “rule of Muslim Brotherhood,” dozens of phenomena and facts confirm that it has not yet been saved from the “Muslim Brotherhood thought.”

The thought of Muslim Brotherhood permeated the minds of millions of Egyptians, during the “three decades of hibernation from 1981 to 2011” and Mubarak and most of the leaders of his years of rule only understood how to deal with their enemy and the first enemy of Egypt -  the Muslim Brotherhood -  by security means and tools.

As for developing and implementing a vision and policies to stop the penetration of Muslim Brotherhood ideology, it was unavailable due to the modesty of the culture and thought of most of Egypt's leaders during those thirty years. Consequently, the Brotherhood benefited to the fullest extent from that reality.

Internally, they existed as a parallel state that carried out the tasks of the state more than a few times. This was accompanied by great efforts through mosques and medical / health and educational services.

As for outside the country, they communicated with many agencies, institutions and governments and sold them an unreal image of themselves and their political project. The United States of America was their first target, and they succeeded to a large extent in marketing themselves to most of these parties.

And since I was (and still am) invited to speak in parliaments and universities and Middle Eastern research and studies centers in most countries of Europe, North America and Australia, I could see the traces of their hard work, which was employing senior lawyers and many institutions to help them establish an image of them that is acceptable according to the standards of these countries and their societies.

Returning to Egypt, while I am aware of the value of saving Egypt from the two projects I mentioned at the beginning of this article, and with my knowledge of the size, magnitude and importance of what has been accomplished in many projects, I realize that the “most important” is still waiting to be accomplished, and I mean the development and implementation of cultural/educational/media project that will be able to eradicate the germ of Muslim Brotherhood ideology from the folds of the collective Egyptian mind, which is impossible to achieve unless it is accompanied by a total (complete and comprehensive) renewal of religious discourse.

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