12-year-old Egyptian boy Ali Ahmed shocks interviewer with eloquent, concise explanation of his country’s crisis
YouTubeAli Ahmed explains exactly why he wanted to get rid of Morsi.
Egypt’s second-wave revolution has never had quite as eloquent an
explanation as it gets from the lips of a 12-year-old boy on the streets
of Cairo.
Ali Ahmed was interviewed by the Egyptian newspaper Al Wady at a protest in October 2012. This was after former President Mohammed Morsi had consolidated much of his power as president, but before the controversial (and, in retrospect, regime-ending) constitution had passed.
“I’m here today to help prevent Egypt from becoming a commodity owned by one person,” Ahmed says in a YouTube translation. “And to protest the confiscation of the constitution by one single party.”
The video was uploaded to YouTube in late March — with the somewhat joking title “Egypt : The Next President” — gaining widespread viewership this past week after being shared on Reddit and Facebook.
“We didn’t get rid of a military regime to replace it with a fascist theocracy!” Ahmed exclaims at one point. The interviewer then responds by saying “Fascist Theocracy? I don’t even know what that means …”
Ahmed explains: “Fascist Theocracy is when you manipulate religion and enforce extremist regulation in the name of religion, even though religion doesn’t command that.”
Ahmed then goes on to explain the specifics of his complaints, saying the current constitution masks how anti-woman it is by carving out broad exceptions for shariah law. (Ahmed says he’s read the whole draft constitution on the Internet.)
After the video went viral, many commenters pointed out that Ahmed was likely coached in his views and his answers, something that’s difficult to determine from the short YouTube video, which is filled with jump cuts and edits. The reporter asks Ahmed where he gets his views from and the boy says that he is simply well read.
“I listen to people a lot, and I use my own brain,” Ahmed explains. “Plus I read newspapers, watch TV and search in the Internet.”
Then, illuminating the anti-Morsi view in the country, Ahmed foreshadows the former president’s ouster.
“Where is the constitution that represents us?” he says. “All of [the political process] is void, because the parliament in the first place is void.”
Since the removal of Morsi last month, the divide between Islamists and secularists is growing deeper and increasingly violent. Hours before the new cabinet was sworn in, seven people died and hundreds were injured at pro-Morsi rallies. Last week, at least 50 Morsi supporters were killed fighting with the army. Arrests of Brotherhood leaders and other Islamists, and the freezing of funds, have only inflamed Morsi’s supporters further.
Outside the cabinet on Wednesday, about 300 of Morsi’s backers scuffled with security forces, Hany Girgis, head of Cairo’s Qasr El-Nil police station, said by phone. No casualties were immediately reported.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Morsi supporters arrested by Egyptian authorities reported that they were beaten, subjected to electric shocks and hit with rifle butts.
“At this time of extreme polarization and division, it is more important than ever that the office of the Public Prosecutor demonstrates that it’s truly independent and not politicized,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director, Middle East and North Africa program, said on Amnesty’s website .
With files from Bloomberg
Ali Ahmed was interviewed by the Egyptian newspaper Al Wady at a protest in October 2012. This was after former President Mohammed Morsi had consolidated much of his power as president, but before the controversial (and, in retrospect, regime-ending) constitution had passed.
“I’m here today to help prevent Egypt from becoming a commodity owned by one person,” Ahmed says in a YouTube translation. “And to protest the confiscation of the constitution by one single party.”
The video was uploaded to YouTube in late March — with the somewhat joking title “Egypt : The Next President” — gaining widespread viewership this past week after being shared on Reddit and Facebook.
“We didn’t get rid of a military regime to replace it with a fascist theocracy!” Ahmed exclaims at one point. The interviewer then responds by saying “Fascist Theocracy? I don’t even know what that means …”
Ahmed explains: “Fascist Theocracy is when you manipulate religion and enforce extremist regulation in the name of religion, even though religion doesn’t command that.”
Ahmed then goes on to explain the specifics of his complaints, saying the current constitution masks how anti-woman it is by carving out broad exceptions for shariah law. (Ahmed says he’s read the whole draft constitution on the Internet.)
After the video went viral, many commenters pointed out that Ahmed was likely coached in his views and his answers, something that’s difficult to determine from the short YouTube video, which is filled with jump cuts and edits. The reporter asks Ahmed where he gets his views from and the boy says that he is simply well read.
“I listen to people a lot, and I use my own brain,” Ahmed explains. “Plus I read newspapers, watch TV and search in the Internet.”
Then, illuminating the anti-Morsi view in the country, Ahmed foreshadows the former president’s ouster.
“Where is the constitution that represents us?” he says. “All of [the political process] is void, because the parliament in the first place is void.”
Since the removal of Morsi last month, the divide between Islamists and secularists is growing deeper and increasingly violent. Hours before the new cabinet was sworn in, seven people died and hundreds were injured at pro-Morsi rallies. Last week, at least 50 Morsi supporters were killed fighting with the army. Arrests of Brotherhood leaders and other Islamists, and the freezing of funds, have only inflamed Morsi’s supporters further.
Outside the cabinet on Wednesday, about 300 of Morsi’s backers scuffled with security forces, Hany Girgis, head of Cairo’s Qasr El-Nil police station, said by phone. No casualties were immediately reported.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Morsi supporters arrested by Egyptian authorities reported that they were beaten, subjected to electric shocks and hit with rifle butts.
“At this time of extreme polarization and division, it is more important than ever that the office of the Public Prosecutor demonstrates that it’s truly independent and not politicized,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director, Middle East and North Africa program, said on Amnesty’s website .
With files from Bloomberg
Labels: Conflict, Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood
posted by Pieface | 12:35 PM
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