[Dialogue] Saad Eddin Ibrahim

[John Montgomery]

Dear Friends,

 

Many of you will remember working in Egypt with Saad Eddin Ibrahim and his
wife Barbara especially around the HDP work in El Bayad. I think Saad served
on the board for a while.

 

Many of you know that I did my undergraduate work at DePauw University in
Greencastle, Indiana. During my sophomore year, there appeared this young,
fiery sociology professor who had just finished his Ph.D. from the
University of Oregon and had joined the faculty at this generally
conservative Methodist school. Some will remember that Dan Quayle was there
during those years as well, but apparently he spent most of his time on the
golf course - no criticism intended, John Cock! 

 

Saad rocked my life in many ways. Saad taught me about power/dependency
models and a couple of us did a major study using that model to examine
student political attitudes as they related to parent beliefs and how this
could be tracked against several critea measuring dependence. But what I
remember most was his genuine support of students. In my budding "folk
singer" days, I would regularly perform at the "Fluttering Duck" a real
coffee house, not one set up In a church basement. Saad always came to my
performances. His support extended to others as well.

 

After, I left DePauw and joined the order - Judy and I spent several years
in Majuro. During the year of the first set of consultations, someone
reported on Saad supporting the work in Egypt. Since I had left Deapuw, he
had married Barbara and the two of them returned to Cairo where he taught at
the American University there. He also started a democracy research think
tank. I said - Hey I know that guy!

 

Several years latter, I was watching Ted Koppel's Night Line and sure enough
there was Saad commenting on some issue in the Middle East. Hey, I know that
guy!

 

A few years later, after refusing to publically support Mubarak's movement
to declare his son a successor to the Presidency, in the middle of the
night, Saad and several members of his research group were arrested by the
secret police. He spent the next several months in prison which has forever
affected his health. Many of us worked with amnesty International and yes
even George Bush to get Saasd set free. Three years ago, several of us
traveled back to Greencastle to celebrate with he and Barbara. We recreated
the Duck and I dusted off my guitar. I sang several songs, but especially
chose the Alex Comfort song One Man's [sic] Hands.

 

One Man's Hands can't tear the prison down

Two Men's hands cant' tear a prison down

But if two and two and fifty make a million,

We'll see the day come round

We'll se the day come round.

 

Saad has been in the news a couple of times in the last week or so. There is
a link to his first article in the Washington Post at my blog site.

 

I have included today's Washington Post editorial - presently Saad can not
go back to Egypt, but he is a stubborn man - please pray for the Middle East
and my dear friend.

 

Grace and Peace,

 

John 

 

 

A 'Dissident President'?
If President Bush really feels solidarity with Egypt's Saad Eddin Ibrahim,
he ought to act on it.

Monday, September 3, 2007; A14

WHEN HE met Egypt's best known democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, at a
conference in Prague in June, President Bush told him that he, too, felt
like a dissident because of the State Department's tenacious resistance to
his "freedom agenda." But Mr. Bush is not a real dissident. Consider: While
Mr. Bush returned to the White House after the Prague meeting, Mr. Ibrahim
has not yet returned to his home in Cairo -- because he has been told that
if he does, he will be arrested.

In the view of Egypt
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Egypt?tid=informline> 's
autocratic president, Hosni
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Hosni+Mubarak?tid=informlin
e>  Mubarak, Mr. Ibrahim's meeting with Mr. Bush is among several offenses
that merit his renewed prosecution -- the 68-year-old professor already
spent the better part of three years in jail since 2000. Another was his
organization in Doha
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Doha?tid=informline> ,
Qatar <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Qatar?tid=informline>
, of a conference of Arab democracy advocates, including a dozen Egyptians,
a week before the Prague
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Prague?tid=informline>
meeting. Then there was the vote by the House
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+House+of+Representativ
es?tid=informline>  of Representatives to condition $200 million of the
military aid Egypt receives every year from the United States on human
rights reform and more aggressive policing of the border with the Hamas
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Hamas?tid=informline>
-controlled Gaza
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Gaza+Strip?tid=informline>
Strip. Since he supports such conditionality, Mr. Ibrahim has been blamed
for the congressional action. Finally, members of Mr. Mubarak's ruling party
have called for Mr. Ibrahim's prosecution because of an article he published
on the opposite page last month, in which he denounced a massive and
accelerating crackdown on opposition activists in Egypt.

At least nine members of Mr. Mubarak's party have filed lawsuits demanding
that Mr. Ibrahim's pro-democracy institute in Cairo
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Cairo?tid=informline> , the
Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, be closed down and its leader
tried for such "crimes" as slandering Egypt and insulting Islam. Already in
poor health, Mr. Ibrahim has been effectively forced into exile; a return to
prison would be a de facto death sentence.

It goes without saying that Mr. Bush has never suffered such hardships. But
what really disqualifies the president as a dissident of any stripe is that
his administration has abandoned its one-time support for Mr. Ibrahim and
his agenda. In his first term Mr. Bush helped win Mr. Ibrahim's freedom by
linking $200 million in U.S. aid to his case; in 2005 Condoleezza
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Condoleezza+Rice?tid=inform
line>  Rice freed another Egyptian democrat, Ayman Nour, by ostentatiously
canceling her first visit to Cairo as secretary of state. Now, the Bush
administration is opposing the congressional attempt to condition Egypt's
aid. And though Mr. Nour is back in prison and Mr. Ibrahim in exile, Ms.
Rice recently committed the United States to $13 billion in military aid to
Egypt over the next decade, with no strings attached.

More aid to Egypt could be in the U.S. interest. But before delivering the
next infusion of cash to Cairo's strongman, you'd think a "dissident
president" would, at least, demand that the real dissidents go free.

 

 

John C. Montgomery

monkeyltd at comcast.net

john.montgomery at acfb.org

678-468-4913 (personal)

 

Visit My Blog - Notes From the Balcony

www.monkeyltd.blogspot.com

 

 

 

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