Thursday, March 7, 2013

When Gameela spoke on behalf of millions of Egyptians

First of all I should thank Mr. Youssef Taha who translated the original speech of Gameela Ismail published in Tahrir newspaper from Arabic to English 1000 times for his effort and time.
Gameela Ismail
Second of all I would like to thank Mrs. Gameela Ismail for representing millions of Egyptians and speaking on their behalf in front of US department of State secretary John Kerry
Third of all I would like you to spread this word of Mrs. Gameela Ismail, the member of Constitution Party all over the social media because this letter is actually represents what millions of Egyptians when it comes to Egyptian American relations.
Here is what Gameela told John Kerry from two weeks ago in Cairo.
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Mr Secretary of State,
After consideration, I have decided to accept the invitation, which I received in a personal capacity, to attend this meeting today. I do not represent the Constitution Party here because it has a chairman who should have been invited properly, something that had not happened. My address is aimed at your accompanying delegation of future makers. Part of it is for you.
Mr Kerry, you are here today with a large team of people who, according to reports, will be in charge of foreign policy in the future. I mean the future which we are paying a heavy price for today. This is why part of my speech is addressed to you, Mr Kerry, while the larger part is for your team.
You are presently in Egypt at a very complicated juncture, one in which we are living pain, hope, dreams, nightmares, revolution and tyranny all at the same time. Let me sum up to you what I would like you to see with us.
Egypt does not need new aid. Egypt needs to build a new relation on new foundations, not those laid since Nixon’s visit in 1974.
Our country is not a guinea pig. You supported a semi-military regime in the past. Now you are supporting a semi-theocratic regime so that each would play the role required of it. You supported Mubarak to the last breath. You stood in the way of a people’s dream to come out of the labyrinth of dictatorship. You can deal with our revolution as an “uprising” as you describe it in your statements. For us it is a “revolution” which is still in progress. Honourable people have paid the ultimate price to build a country in which we feel freedom, justice and dignity. We did not have a revolution to repaint the presidential palace or for the protocol official at your embassy to update his Egypt needs to build a new relation on new foundations, not those laid since Nixon’s visit in 1974.contacts book. Had Lincoln, whom your country celebrates, stopped at purchasing new clothes for the slaves and retained slavery America would not be proud today of its freedom or saying that its democracy makes it strong.
Mr Kerry, we, too, want to be a strong country. We have the foundations of our civilisation and organic strength that would help us realise these dreams. We are not in the middle of an “uprising”. We are in a continuing revolution to build a new relationship between the ruler and the people. It seems that your administration wants to tailor a democracy for us that is too small to fit our dreams. You appear to be looking at us as if we only deserve that democracy. You used to describe Mubarak and his regime as democratic, legitimate and democratically-elected. You are still describing the current regime with the same terms even though it is killing peaceful protesters, kidnapping and torturing young activists. This alone should put the regime’s legitimacy on the line if not demolish it completely.
This is a revolution that will teach the whole world as your President Obama once said. We want to teach the world. We want to be a model to follow. And we will be different from what you see in your Cairo embassy’s reports stating that we only deserve this little bit of democracy and that this little bit is enough, and that the current regime is democratically-elected, that you can do business with it and that the opposition in Egypt is difficult, addicted to opposition for the sake of opposition and that you cannot reach an understanding with it. But we believe that he whom you will meet tomorrow is the head of a regime which is killing us in the streets and squares.
You are free to describe our revolution as an “uprising” or think that you can deal with the revolution in Egypt as you did with the revolutions of Eastern Europe by sponsoring them. But we see our revolution differently. We, too, are free to describe what you are doing as supporting a regime which represses, persecutes, tortures, detains and even tortures protesters and that you have made alliances with forces that have vested interests in aborting this revolution. You are contributing to building the Egyptian version of Iran’s velayet-e faqih, and you probably could not care less if we were to become another Iran.
But this is our destiny and our children’s future. We do not want them to live in a country ruled by religious or military fascism. As I said before, you see us as a guinea pig. But this is our country, the land of our dreams, being wasted by those who wake us up every day to the nightmares of our children being run over by armoured vehicles and suffocated by the tear gas you send to your friends in Cairo.
You think as a superpower you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and a democractically-elected president out of a tyrannical pharaoh because he serves the role required of him. But, Mr Secretary, we no longer go to fancy-dress parties. We see it as a repressive regime, which you only support because it serves your interests. We reject that for a future in which we attain happiness. This is our message to you and to these future makers.
Finally, we would like to ask you to do “nothing” for us. We ask you to stop doing anything in our country and to stop supporting tyranny and fascism. Please let us continue our revolution and realise our dreams, which will not stop at your modest vision of us and of our future.
Gameela Ismail










21 comments:

  1. Well done, Mrs Jameela Ismail! As a well wisher of the Egyptian people, I must say they didn't deserve to be ruled by theocratic tyrants. But, unfortunately, their revolution was highjacked by religious bigots, who are trampling young Egyptian activists under armoured vehicles & suffocating them with tear gas given by America, as you rightly remarked. Continue your revolution to its logical end, for the sake of your coming generations.
    Muhammadyar Qaisrani, Pakistan

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    1. I must say they didn't deserve to be ruled by theocratic tyrants.

      Really? Are you unaware of the various public opinion polls that show more than three quarters of Egyptians actually do want strict enforcement of Sharia Law? Are you unaware of the fact that over three quarters of Egyptians voted for Islamist parties to run their country? Are you suggesting that people who have been saying for decades they want theocracy and who when given a chance, voted for theocracy, deserve something other than theocracy?

      Muhammadyar Qaisrani, Pakistan

      And what, I wonder, do Pakistanis "deserve"? Another scumbag country that the US insists on treating as an ally. Maybe you nasty people from nasty countries should create your own damn nasty alliances and the US can tell you all to go to hell? I'm totally down with that. How about you?

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    2. you did not answer his point. We did vote for these poeple. Hopefully we will get the chance to reverse that. But , untill then we deserve what we got. By the way there is no indication about his nasty country, may he is an Arab or Pakistani.

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  2. The insistence of the United States to oppose people in favor of rulers, in order to keep their interests first and foremost the security of Israel, will not stop the peoples struggle and the fight against oppression injustice and tyranny. At the end, America will derive other more hatred of unfair policies and will pay the price of thousands of people killed and injured by the internationally proscribed weapons used to suppress the peoples of the oppression, injustice and corruption. Don't make little of the Egyptian people you have witnessed the secret of their power on your regular attack since year 56. I would like to assure US with their allies at home and abroad, that the Egyptian Revolution will succeed and will defeat the enemies of the Egyptian people.

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    1. "The insistence of the United States to oppose people in favor of rulers, in order to keep their interests first and foremost the security of Israel..."

      It's America's fault that Egyptians freely elected the Muslim Brotherhood and their salafist fellow travelers!? :D

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  3. In all fairness, did the US create the corrupt Egyptian society, the environmental pollution of water, air and soil, religious discrimination, inferior educational system, overpopulation, inflation, unemployment, police brutality, filthy streets, poor transportation system, shitty railroads, lack of drinking water, electricity, gasoline, cooking gas, inferior bread quality, sexual harassment, poor roads and infrastructures, traffic jams, bloated inefficient bureaucracy, class distinctions....and the list goes on.
    Face it, this is an Egyptian problem created by Egyptians and can only be resolved by Egyptians, so stop blaming the world for your problems and get on with it!
    The Canadian.

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    1. Totally agree with you.

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    2. Mubarak remained president for so long despite his unpopularity in part because he was supported by foreign powers.

      D.

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  4. I live in the United States. I taught in Alexandria, Egypt. I love your country. My desire is that if our country wishes to send aid to your country, there be attached to the monies, a human rights agenda, including respect for women. My heart is saddened with all the abuse that is endured. I will write letters to my government, including Secretary of State Mr Kerry.

    For now, your country is held in my heart and prayers.

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    1. My desire is that the US stop all forms of support for Egyptians, and do a 180 degree turn and begin treating Egyptians as the enemies they are. Even this woman the post is about, who is put forward as a model example of liberal Egyptian revolutionaries, is not a person I would see my American government support. If this is the best Egypt has to offer then Egypt is headed for disaster and the US would be well served to get as far away from it as possible.

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  5. The USA doesn't elect your government for you, you do, the Egyptian people.

    The Egyptian people, in what seem to be fair and democratic elections, elected Mursi. The USA doesn't have anything to do with it. It has to talk to the elected president.




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  6. This speech made me think about the wall art in Luxor I saw today..http://egyptunveiled.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/egyptian-wall-art/

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  7. Very good and indeed Gameela does not hold any punches.

    If Egyptians are to be free then the only path is democracy and secularism and that the sacred is separate from the profane (politics) which means that women and men are equal and Muslims and non Muslims are equal and there must be a real and independent justice system and no one is beyond the law and that there will be NO rule for religion in politics

    There is too much religion in Egypt which is not good and I wish that some of those what I call Shioukh el-fada'yat that get their money from the Wahhabis get real jobs instead of spreading hate, stupidity and ignorance and on top of the list would be el-Shiekh el-Heweni and Wagdi Ghoneim

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  8. You supported Mubarak to the last breath. You stood in the way of a people’s dream to come out of the labyrinth of dictatorship.

    That's a mis-statement of fact. Flat out. Obama threw Mubarak under the bus, and it's stunning to see that Egyptian revolutionaries don't see the truth of that.

    It seems that your administration wants to tailor a democracy for us that is too small to fit our dreams. You appear to be looking at us as if we only deserve that democracy.

    Egyptians only "deserve" what they are willing and able to create for themselves. Nobody imposed anything on Egyptians, this time. Egyptians chose for themselves and are currently experiencing what they deserve. They should enjoy the fruits of their labor instead of continuing to blame outsiders for their own epic fail as a people.

    You used to describe Mubarak and his regime as democratic, legitimate and democratically-elected. You are still describing the current regime with the same terms even though it is killing peaceful protesters, kidnapping and torturing young activists. This alone should put the regime’s legitimacy on the line if not demolish it completely.

    The regime is legitimate. It's not democratic, though. Too bad, so sad. I'm with her in suggesting that the US is morally on the wrong side of American values in being supportive of such a scumbag organization as the Muslim Brotherhood, but it's not really America's fault that the Muslim Brotherhood is running Egypt, is it? I don't know what she expects from the US, nor do I much care, but what I expect from the US is to end the alliance with Egypt, along with all the various types of support that the US has been providing to Egypt. Time for Egyptians to go it alone. We Americans didn't create the mess and it's not up to us to try to clean it up. Our best move right now is to begin protecting ourselves from our Egyptian enemies, who seek to do us harm. Enemies such as Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood behind him.

    This is a revolution that will teach the whole world as your President Obama once said. We want to teach the world. We want to be a model to follow.

    Yeah, good luck with that. Just leave us out of it.

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  9. I had to laugh when the poster above stated that "It's not really America's fault that the Muslim Brotherhood is running Egypt, is it?" Who exactly, do you think Obama is representing?

    Surely not the American people, unless you call chasing down American citizens with DRONES as being "represented".

    The Muslim Brotherhood is alive and well in the United States and running things here too....you did see Obama BOW to the Saudi King, right??

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    1. So you pretty much believe that Egyptians are children and the US is the big bad babysitter, then?

      To hell with that. Egyptians are charting their own course and if they end up on the rocks, too bad for them. We best steer clear and look after our own interests. Which don't include Egyptians, anymore.

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  10. thank you for informing us all about some of the opinions and thoughts of the egyptian people that do not make it in the american press. There is much to learn and think about.

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  11. Gamila said what had to be shared since a long time. Egyptians are dying every day for their dream of democracy. Diplomacy should not prevail on the right of our people in Egypt.

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  12. No part is innocent. Obviously the US won't support any country if it does not have interests there. So, don't try to act out as generous guys... Egyptians can only blame themselves and when people are not educated enough they can always be manipulated. Only the opposition parties can change the course of history in those countries, I think.

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