I want to introduce you all to a remarkable young man. Maikel Nabil Sanad is a twenty-six year-old Egyptian who was released from prison yesterday after enduring a hunger strike and nearly a year in Cairo's El Marg Prison. You probably haven't heard of him, right?
Mr. Sanad never really got the opportunity to join his peers in the protests at Tahrir Square. In 2009, he spoke out against conscription into the all-powerful (and corrupt) Egyptian army. In 2010, he ignored his draft notice and was subsequently detained and released. Then, last February, Mr. Sanad was arrested again en route to Tahrir Square. After a sequence of further arrests and beatings, he began writing anti-military statements on his Facebook page and other blogs, claiming that the army did not share the democratic values of the protest movement and that it cared nothing for the rights of citizens but rather only for preserving and inflating its power. He went on to say that the revolution "so far managed to get rid of the dictator but not of the dictatorship," a criticism that has been expressed frequently by many who fear the interim military council will never step down from power as promised in June.
Mr. Sanad was then arrested again on March 28, 2011, initially sentenced by a military tribunal to three years that was then shortened to two for the 'crime' of criticizing the Egyptian army.
As Michael Wahid Hanna, a lawyer and fellow at the Century Foundation, writes in today's New York Times: "[Mr. Sanad's case] illuminates a broader challenge facing Egyptian society itself, if it hopes that democracy and pluralism will replace the Mubarak government."
The reason Mr. Sanad's case hasn't received the same amount of attention as other Egyptian dissidents who have been unjustly imprisoned is because, as Mr. Hanna points out, 1) Mr. Sanad is a Coptic Christian, a member of a religious community traditionally aligned with the former Mubarak regime; 2) Mr. Sanad is an avowed atheist and pacifist; and 3) he is a passionate supporter of Israel in a region that for the most part would probably rather that Israel didn't exist at all.
His criticism of the military is merely icing on the cake. Coptic Christians are a minority in this increasingly Islamist country. Last October, the military unleashed the full might of its power on a Coptic demonstration that resulted in the deaths of 27 people. It would seem that there's a strong community in Egypt--even among the protesters--who don't necessarily believe in freedom or justice for all...and I'm not just talking about the military.
Mr. Sanad eloquently argues his points in an essay he wrote last year while in prison that was smuggled out and published online in December. Entitled "One Citizen," Mr. Sanad writes that in a truly democratic society, if there's even one citizen with a view that runs counter to the majority, society has an obligation to allow that citizen his/her freedom to express their opinion. I've included the full text of that essay below.
Mr. Sanad's words pertain not only to Egypt as it grapples with its ongoing democratic transition, but to all citizens and all nations of the world.
The One Citizen
by Maikel Nabil Sanad
Thanks to Nariman Youssef for the translation.
At a press
conference last week, SCAF’s Mukhtar Al-Mullah issued a number of statements
that revealed the hidden intentions of the military to kill the nascent democracy
in Egypt. When towards the end of the conference he was asked about me, he
refrained from answering. And when asked about Alaa Abdel-Fattah, he tried to
justify the detainment of Alaa, and then concluded by a very telling sentence, “Maikel
Nabil and Alaa Abdel Fattah are Egyptian citizens, and we are very keen to
protect all Egyptians, but we’re talking here about one citizen
out of 85 million”. Al-Mullah did not say who that “One
Citizen” was, Alaa or myself but what difference would that make?
-
The Military in their stupidity think that One Citizen is without value
and easily marginalized… Their minds do not comprehend the fact that One
Citizen put an end to Mubarak’s regime, one citizen: Khaled Said.
-
The first thing that came to my mind when I read Al-Mullah’s words was a
quote by John Stuart Mill: “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion,
and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind”… This is precisely the difference
between fascism and freedom. Fascists claim that there’s no harm in sacrificing
One Citizen for the good of the community, and it was under this banner that
people in Germany, in the Soviet Union, in fascist Italy, Nasserist Egypt,
Baathist Syria and Maoist China, in Cuba and Milosevic’s Serbia, lost their
freedom to tyrants who massacred whole communities while claiming each time
that it’s just One Citizen, sacrificed for the community.
In my lectures on liberalism I always said “that if the
individual was at odds with society, as liberals we should take the side of the
individual against society.” Protecting the individual (the One
Citizen) means protecting the values of individualism and individual liberties.
Those who claim they can build a society made up of oppressed members are
deceiving themselves, for if the individual is the building block of society,
how do you construct a building out of stones that are crushed and broken?!
–
Neo-fascists forget that all great deeds in history were done by “One
Citizen”. It was One Citizen named Galileo who maintained that the
earth was round, while all the inhabitants of the planet denied it. One Citizen
named “Muhammad” who brought Islam to humanity; the message was
not revealed to 85 million people, but to One Citizen… Throughout history,
human creativity has always been individual creativity: Plato, Aristotle,
Newton, Nietzsche, Darwin, Edison – great deeds were always carried out by
individuals who stood out, even while the rest of society did not go far beyond
their natural instincts… The sacrifice of one individual for the good of the
community is the argument put forward by tyrants to enable them to persecute
thinkers, philosophers, scientists and all others who offered their services
and their creativity to humanity.
-
I am not addressing myself to the military, for they are advancing
toward their end like the enchanted, ignoring all indications of their fate. I
am addressing myself to society, a society that was taught to accept the
violation of One Citizen’s rights for the greater good of the community, as if
the power that oppresses one will be able to later respect the rights of the
community. This society that has accepted the displacement of the Nubian
community in the name of national interest, that has accepted the expulsion of
Egyptian Jews, the confiscation of their property, the revoking of their
nationality, in the name of the interests of the majority. The same society
that has sequestered homosexual rights, that has limited the individual
freedoms of individuals under the guise of maintaining the family system and
the interests of the greater society. It is time for the 85 Million to
understand that their freedom is tied to the freedom of that One Citizen, that
all freedom is lost once they allow the wolf to choose the first victim from
amongst the herd, that they cannot regain the freedom of society unless every
One Citizen is free.
Immediate
freedom for Alaa Abdel-Fattah, for myself, for Ayman Mansour, for Amr
Al-Beheiry, for each and every One Citizen in Egypt. Not because that would be
the moral thing to do, but because you will never be free as long as the “One
Citizen” remains captive.
Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg general prison – prison
hospital
2011/12/15
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