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Monday, June 1, 2009

Four Presidents and Four messages


In March 1909 former President Theodore Roosevelt visited Egypt for the second time where he stood on the newly opened Cairo University hall podium and attacked us as Muslims and Egyptians. Strangely despite the insult we received from the guest ,he was given a doctorate , may be Lotfy El-Siyad did not know in advance what our distinguish guest was going to say !!
Roosevelt attacked Islam and attacked us because of the assassination of Boutros Ghali and strangely the republican president spoke about the sectarian division where as there was no sectarian division then , Ghali despite being a Christian was hated by the Christians as well as the rest of the Egyptians for his support to the British occupation , he was even killed by an Egyptian nationalist ¨Late Ibrahim El-Wardany" because he was considered as a traitor and he was a traitor with my all respect to all those who think otherwise, a man who heads unjust trial like Donshawy ,gives Sudan to the British, issuing the publication ban laws and proposes the idea of extending the privilege of Suez canal is not a patriotic man by any means.
But for Teddy he was a Christian killed by a Muslim,sorry by a Mohamedan !! Oh yes
Teddy did not come to send a message of Peace to the Mohamedan world but to give them a lesson in tolerance and to support the British occupation !! We should obey the British. Of course the British were very happy to find an American support to their ugly occupation in Egypt for sure. Despite he was a former president ,he was considered the highest American official to visit Egypt then. Because of that speech ,the visit was dropped from our national memory ,of course he was a former President so nobody cared regardless of how important he was in the American history.

In 2009 President Barack Obama is going to visit Egypt for the first time where he will stand on the 100 years old Cairo University hall podium and is going to address the Muslim world , not only the Egyptians nor the Arab world but the whole Muslim world.
The speech is expected to be a message of respect to mend the American-Muslim relations , a message of Peace and indirectly apology for what Bush administration had done against the Muslim world.
Obama is expected to be not arrogant taking in consideration there is an American occupation for both Iraq and Afghanistan.
On 13th of February 1945 Franklin Roosevelt ,the 5th cousin of Teddy made his second to Egypt , his second and last visit to Egypt,a historical visit that sent many messages. Most historians considered the start of the Saudi-American relations , it was not a significance meeting with Farouk compared to King Abdel Aziz Al Soud. Roosevelt wanted to start acting as the new young sheriff in town that wants to lead the world after WWII and second this new sheriff knew how important the Middle East was in the world map and its politics , he wanted to be there from the early beginning, third the United States knew the importance of Egypt and newly found then Saudi Arabia whether politically or economically or religiously.It was an economic short meeting as both men were speaking about economic affairs about cotton exports and tourists !! "Interesting reference to the land of Israel !!"
I think Roosevelt knew the importance of Egypt but he did no forget that the 25 years old king then setting in front of him was supporting the Nazis !!

On 4th of June 2009 President Barack Obama will visit Egypt for the first time for a short time too, he will meet President Mubarak in Cairo , but before that he will meet King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia , son of king Abdel Aziz in Riyadh.The meetings in Saudi Arab and in Egypt are to amend and to open new pages with both regime in Cairo and Riyadh.The Amreicans still know the importance of both countries.Palestine for sure will be there and Obama knows exactly that the 81 years old president of a dictatorship state was and has been supporting the United States .
In June 1974 President Nixon received a popular reception I doubt any foreign President would have something like this. The Egyptian people had enough from the Eastern Communist Camp and welcomed having normal relations with the Americans despite the American-Israeli relations. We were celebrating our victory in 1973 and we were feeling powerful. Nixon's administration won another battle in its war against the Eastern Camp, Egypt ; the heart ,mind and even soul of the Arab world would be in their side now.
President Sadat on the cove of the time for the second timeNixon wanted to open a new page in our Egyptian/Arab - American relations and he made it. It was a strange thing that this unpopular republican President was the real initiator of the Egyptian/Americans relations and he was the one that opened that door which Obama will pass through to Cairo."Seriously according to those who lived the event , it was a NDP or socialist union pre-organized reception , it was a real reception !!"
In June 2009 President Obama is going to visit Cairo and Giza quickly for 16 hours only , he will not have any public receptions in convertible cars "already Mubarak has not done convertible car thing nor the train for decades for fear his life" ,in fact there are huge security measurements in Cairo and Giza currently to secure before the visit by weeks, the Cairo University's exams are postponed.
Obama wants to open a new page not only in our Egyptian-American relations but our Islamic-American relations after 8 years of not so good relations between the Bush administration and our Islamic World. It is not a cold war anymore but it is Bush's war on terrorism.
Of course there were other American presidents that came to Egypt over and over still I believe those 4 Presidents or rather 3 if we considered Teddy as former President ; were more special some how considering the international political scene and the messages they wanted to send. By all means all those visits and all those messages sent from Egypt proved the fact that this country is very important regardless of its condition.
The message of Obama among all those messages is the most important yet I wonder if it will be strong as expected and more important it will be recieved as it is wished.

6 comments:

  1. is there a new case in egypt? a four year old girl, that would be #78? "at four-year girl from the province of Kafr el-Sheikh"

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  2. Initially, I thank you for introducing me to that story of the " Rude Teddy" :). I was really taken aback by it. It triggered in me many reflections related to my own Egyptian history and that gloomy era of our history during the British Occupation.

    And yes!. We are important by all standards. We should be a superpower, quite literally!. But we are not governed by a smart establishment ,ughh long story!.

    Basically, don't put much hope on Obama's mission. It is "smoke and mirrors".

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  3. Do you have any sources for the Teddy Roosevelt speech? I have read dozens of books on Egyptian history and I have never heard of this speech that you are referring to. Do you have a link?

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  4. Anonymous posed a good question so I did a little research and I suggest everyone follow this link to a NY times report on the speech. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980CE6D91E30E333A2575AC2A9659C946196D6CF




    I think it was a very reasonable speech and does not deserve the "spin" placed upon it by Zeinobia. He also made some interesting remarks at a 1910 conference in London.

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  5. Regarding my previous post it appears that the last part of the link did not fit in the comment frame. The rest of the link after 9659C is 946196D6CF. I hope you can read it.

    Since we are speaking about Presidential speeches you might like to look at this one which has been suggested for President Obama instead of what he will probably say.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/the_speech_obama_should_give_i.html

    I don't agree with all of it but it deserves consideration.

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  6. @anonymous , yes 4 years old Hend , I posted the news

    @The Enticed , Teddy story was a surprise to me ,I did not know about it before except when I was reading the history of CU months earlier. Obama won't change things for real but at least he is showing some respect unlike Bush.

    @Anonymous#2 Most historians do not mention it I believe because they considered it offensive , Miscribe found a link in the NY Times archives

    @Misrscribe , it is not only me my dear many historians find it offensive despite that after reading it I may not find very offensive but What you consider Reasonable now in 2009 was not reasonable back then in 1909 , you are speaking about a country during a very ugly occupation. in 1908 Mustafa Kamal passed away and I am sure that there were tensions in the country then
    You are reading the NY Times archive during the British Occupation. 1919 revolution was considered a mob action , Ismailiya uprising in 1952 was a mob action !!
    Boutros Ghali was a traitor by all account and what he had done in Donshawy makes him deserves this death with my all respect.

    Regarding Obama , believe it or not as much as I care about the speech I care about the actions he will take afterward to prove his intentions.

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