No ifs and no buts, the brutal dictator of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, must go. And do so now, without the delay or prevarication of even one more minute.
And so must every other dictator in every other part of the Muslim world. I wish I had the courage to name them all.
But my message to all dictators and autocratic and absolute rulers in all parts of the Muslim world, echoing what Moses, God bless him, said to Pharaoh so long ago, is: “Let My People Go!”
Mr. Bashar Al-Assad: Pack up and leave – when you can and if you still can.
And do so before your own people, and many others infiltrating the ranks of your people from outside, and all the foreign hands behind all of them, fill you with lead and cut you to pieces in public the way they lynch-mobbed Col. Qaddafi of Libya.
Regardless of all the complications surrounding the Syrian situation today, here is something that must be said, and said as clearly and loudly as possible: Bashar Al-Assad, Be Gone!
He must pack up and leave from the backdoor – if that exit is still available to him.
HE MUST GO BECAUSE …
He must go because he is a dictator and a corrupt and cruel one at that – all dictators are.
He must go because significant and sizeable elements of his own people seem to want him to go.
He must go, because among those who seem to want Mr. Bashar Al-Assad to go are the Ikhwan of Syria – and also the Ikhwan of Egypt. And the Ikhwan, by and large, are good and honourable people.
And the Ikhwan, wherever they are, at least in the so-called Muslim world, mostly patriots, and they are not traitors in the employ of foreign paymasters.
And the Ikhwan are not full of self-hate against their own land and people; against their own culture and language; and against their own history and heritage.
Some may criticise the Ikhwan for their “over-religious” zeal and for their commitment to the sanctity of their Islamic past, but what perhaps no one can question is their untrammelled dedication to build a better future for their own nations, peoples and societies.
So, when the Ikhwan of Syria say, and when also the Ikhwan of Egypt say, Bashar must go, I echo their call and say: “Absolutely, Bashar must go!”
ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR WATSON!
But to me, the most “elementary thing” – as in Sherlock Holmes saying to his friend, colleague and historian, Dr. Watson: “Elementary, My Dear Watson!” – in this entire episode is this:
“Bashar is a dictator and dictators must go, no matter where they are and no matter who they are. And no matter what disguise they wear.
Dictators must go because their time has come and gone, even though no time was or is really their time, and even though no place was or is really their place.”
DICTATORS AND MUSLIM SILENCE
But then the problem is that the phenomenon of absolute and dictatorial rule in the so-called Muslim world is alive and well. And these dictators and absolute rulers in the Muslim world exist in all sizes, shapes, colours and costumes.
Some of these absolute rulers and dictators are kings and sultans; some of them are so-called sheikhs; and some others are something else. But no Muslim ever speaks about them, especially not the Good Muslims.
Not even the goodly Ikhwan spoke up about them, leave alone against them. But, poor Ikhwan, they had their reasons, and those reasons were not hard to understand.
The Ikhwan had their back to the wall: in most places to the walls of prison and torture chambers at the hands of one anti-people, anti-nation dictator or another, mostly on the payroll of foreign paymasters.
And when the Ikhwan ran from the reach of their own dictators from their natural habitat in a place like Egypt, they ended up in the arms of these other dictators of royal heredity who for their own mixed reasons gave them a manner of refuge and afforded them safe haven of sorts, so long as the Ikhwan shut up and behaved themselves.
So, what were the Ikhwan to do?
IKHWAN AND MUSLIM DICTATORS
As to why these hereditary dictators let the Ikhwan slip into their midst is a question we can debate till the last camel is finally tied. Maybe they were just being smart and saying to themselves: May be Co-Optation of your enemies is not such a bad idea after all?
So, they said to themselves, these kings, sheikhs, sultans and other Muslim dictators and absolute rulers, let us Co-Opt the Ikhwan and other Good Muslims. Give them what they need – security, a bit of money, and a very carefully limited and monitored platform on Islam, and that will keep them happy: at least for the time being.
That is one theory why silence reigns opaque and supreme among Good Muslims, including Ikhwan, when it comes to the hereditary dictators of the so-called Muslim world. Whoever kills the goose that lays golden eggs, right? And whoever bites the hand that feeds you?
DESPERATE TO DESTROY THE IKHWAN
But these kings, sheikhs, sultans and other Muslim dictators and absolute rulers are neither totally naïve nor totally intelligence-challenged. And they receive the best intelligence about all the goings-on around them, and they get the best all-round tutoring from their friends and mentors in Machiavellian morals and methods.
That is why some of the more desperate ones among them wagged their tails so viciously at the prospects of an Ikhwan victory in the recent Egyptian elections.
To what degree they financed and directed the Mubarak military dictatorship and the post-Mubarak Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Tantawi is anybody’s guess.
IKHWAN WIN EGYPT
But then history took its course. Elections came and went and the Ikhwan won. The Ikhwan swept the polls for both houses of Parliament in Egypt. Now, that is not how you were supposed to play the game if you were a Muslim.
The way it works is: People take part in elections; win majorities; form governments; and live happily ever after. But not if you are a Muslim – a real Muslim that is, like the Ikhwan for example.
The Election Protocol for the Ikhwan and other Good Muslims is: Be nice; enter elections, which, you are predestined to lose; you then take to the streets and spend your days protesting the results, while others, some of them in foreign pay, rule and plunder your country and send it to hell in a hand basket.
Those are the rules of the game of elections for Muslims – Good Muslims, including the Ikhwan.
The Ikhwan in Egypt bucked that trend. And they did so without much ceremony or fanfare.
After being locked out of Egyptian public life for over 60 years, and crammed in jails and tortured and hanged and killed, no sooner was the heel of the boot of oppression eased off their neck a bit, they waltzed into the public square and decisively swept every election that was in sight.
What were the poor frightened hereditary Muslim dictators to do?
FUNDS TO TARNISH IKHWAN IMAGE
In response, they set up mega-billion-dollar special funds for undoing the damage. And that was going to be done by tarnishing the good name of the Ikhwan and de-legitimising and, where possible, nullifying their electoral victories.
And that is precisely what the absolute Muslim dictators did.
So, their echo-chambers inside and outside Egypt started to say the most outlandish things about the Ikhwan and their election victories. The mega-billion dollars coming out of the pockets of the dictators, money that they took out of the pockets of their own people, were having an effect.
The maligning and badmouthing of the newly elected Egyptian Parliament continued till it was dissolved by the SCAF in cahoots with a Mubarak-era court. Heroic efforts on the part of the newly elected president, Dr. Morsi, to recall and revive the parliament proved futile. Five billion Egyptian pounds spent on parliamentary elections which the Ikhwan won so decisively went down the drain.
The mercenary media on the local front filled the airwaves and newspaper pages with sheer nonsense about the Ikhwan and their role in Egypt in general and their role in the recent elections in particular.
MORSI’S DELUSION OF IMMUNITY
In the meantime, Dr. Morsi seems to embrace a different kind of delusion. He seems to go about his daily business as if he is immune from all attacks from the bad people around him and he is impervious to all enemy conspiracies to destroy him and his presidency and also, if possible, to assassinate him.
He seems to think he is marching in the footsteps of the Sahaabah, and he is doing the right thing, and therefore he has to disregard all security imperatives and walk among the people and talk to them in the streets and mill and mix with them freely and without inhibitions or restraints.
MORSI, KATATNI REACH OUT TO DICTATORS
And then Dr. Morsi also seems to be embarked on a different kind of crusade: to save the dictators from extinction and soothe their fears. To accomplish this end, he receives and humours one set of them from one place and then goes and coddles another set of them in another place.
He probably said to them: Hey this is not the end of the world; we are all Muslims; we can all get along just fine; and we are not going to rock the boat. Not now anyway. Right now, there are so many other boats we have to worry about.
And no doubt the totally terrified and dumbfounded dictators said to him: You sure, we can really have a break? You are not going to destroy us using a magic wand like Moses used to destroy Pharaoh?
And Dr. Morsi said to them: You kidding me? We are believers and brothers – just keep them dollars coming. A wink and a nod!