Subscribe Today
Request a Clip
Following is an interview with renowned Egyptian urologist and Egyptologist Wassim Al-Sissy, which aired on Al-Faraeen TV on July 8, 2010:
Interviewer: In what ways did the July 1952 Revolution influence the Egyptian character?
Wassim Al-Sissy: It erased the Egyptian character, which had been known for its tolerance, love, freedom, and so on. The revolution created a nation of slaves. This people has been ruled by an iron fist. A dictatorship cannot give rise to a good nation.
Interviewer: Are the effects of the revolution still evident today?
Wassim Al-Sissy: To a certain extent. We can say that we have one aspect of democracy – freedom of speech. In the days of Abd Al-Nasser, I could not say what I am saying now. I would have disappeared. But now I can talk. However, a democracy that lacks the ability to generate change is a lame democracy with clipped wings.
[...]
Interviewer: You are trying to establish a political party called "Mother Egypt."
Wassim Al-Sissy: I tried, but was rejected. Unfortunately. I was rejected because it was at the time of the "honeymoon" between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood, in 2005.
This party was to be established on the basis of liberalism, freedom, secularism, and the separation of religion and state. I have the utmost respect for religion, but it shouldn't be incorporated into every matter, large or small. This is shameful. Take, for example, the organ transplant law... Jordan, a country as tiny as this, has been performing heart transplants for 30 years, whereas here, we have not had a single heart transplant to this day, because of the incorporation of religion in these matters.
[...]
Francis Bacon, one of the greatest thinkers, was asked how Europe, which was very backward at the time, could progress. He said that there were three conditions. First, it must have a history. People said to him: But Europe has no history. He said they should borrow Greco-Romen history, which, incidentally, is based on Egyptian history. A nation without a history cannot prosper. Take Shakespeare, for example. Twelve of his 37 works are taken from Greco-Roman history.
[Bacon] said that the second condition was an industrial revolution. In our day and age, we should talk about an electronic revolution. The third condition, Bacon said, was the separation of religion and state. And that is what happened.
They burned Giordano Bruno at the stake. Copernicus was sentenced to death, but God took mercy upon him, and he died before his execution. Galileo said: "I'm a complete ass," in order to save his skin.
What can we learn today from three conditions? What, don't we have a history?! Although we have the most magnificent history, we despise it, and say that [the Pharaohs] were tyrants and infidels, and so on. It should be noted, however, that the research shows that there is not a single word in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam that did not appear earlier in the faith of the ancient Egyptians.
[...]