Thursday, April 06, 2006

Corruption in Egypt



In my previous 2 posts, I covered two forms of societal ills in Egypt: oppression of women and lack of compassion for orphans. In this post I will talk about another sick social phenomenon in Egypt: Corruption.

Everyday, Egyptians newspapers break stories about the corruption of government officials. The latest scandals included Ibrahim Nafea, the former editor in chief of the government newspaper, Al Ahram, and Ibrahim Soliman, the minister of housing. These 2 officials used their positions to obtain bribes and illegal commissions. We can not also ignore Gamal Mubarak, the son of President Mubarak, who became a billionaire after using his status to collect endless cash. Zahy Hawas, the president of Egyptian antiquities department is another corrupt governmental official who is paid millions of dollars by international TV stations to allow them cover the latest discoveries of Egyptian mummies.

If you also try to get anything done with a government employee such as getting your driver license or house/car leases, you really have to bribe him/her. Corruption is a widespread social phenomenon that makes this country an unbearable place to live. Perhaps we did not receive a single vote in our attempt to host the Soccer World Cup due to corruption.

How can we explain a society that kills its conscience? How can we explain its primitive moral development? How can we explain that people do not even question themselves and their corruption? Again, Muhammad is the culprit here. He is a role model for Muslim people in Egypt right? Check out how Qu’ran and oral traditions prove that this man was a thug and a gang leader who urged his followers to be corrupt and to steal and rob others:

Qur’an 8:1 “They ask you about the benefits of capturing the spoils of war. Tell them: ‘The benefits belong to Allah and to His Messenger.’”

Ishaq:327 “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”

Tabari VII:65 “Allah’s Messenger came back to Medina, bringing with him the booty which had been taken from the polytheists.... There were forty-four captives in the Messenger of Allah’s possession. There was a similar number of dead.”

Bukhari:V5B59N512 “The captives of Khaybar were divided among the Muslims. Then the Messenger began taking the homes and property that were closest to him.”


Ishaq:511 “So Muhammad began seizing their herds and their property bit by bit. He conquered home by home. The Messenger took some of its people captive, including Safiyah and her two cousins. The Prophet chose Safiyah for himself.”

Ishaq:515 “Allah’s Apostle besieged the final [Jewish] community of Khaybar until they could hold out no longer. Finally, when they were certain that they would perish, they asked Muhammad to banish them and spare their lives, which he did. The Prophet took possession of all their property.”

Qur’an 48:19 “He rewarded them with abundant spoils that they will capture. Allah has promised you much booty that you shall take, and He has made this easy for you.”

Qur’an 9:103 “Take alms out of their property in order to cleanse and purify them, and invoke Allah for them; surely this is a relief for them.”

Shall I say more? Now you know why people do not care about their anti-social behavior in Egypt. I want to thank Craig Winn for his unbelievable research.

37 Comments:

Blogger xavier said...

Egypter:
Nope no comparasion because the trauma of the 3 centuries of persecution by the Roman empire definitely marked us. As I wrote at my blog, the perscution experience made Christian skpeticl of the goodness of secular power.
Anyhow I'll point out that corruption affects Latin Americ too. What aggravates it is the culture of impunity. Corruption isn't a Mideastern vice but a human one.

xavier

5:57 PM  
Blogger maged salamah said...

Egypeter,
I am totally convinced that Muhammad was the devil's arm in earth i there is such thing as the devil.

7:31 PM  
Blogger maged salamah said...

Xavier,
I agree, but its influence is more toxic when it is sanctioned by a religion since people see religions as the absolute truth!

7:32 PM  
Blogger xavier said...

Maged:
You're not the first to wonder if the angel that Mohammed met was Satan and to speculate that Islam has a santanic influence. I'm not sure what to think but given Mohammed pathological hatred of the Incarnation, the crucifixition and the Ressurection, I wonder if there isn't a diabolical element.

Egypter:
In Canada.

9:05 PM  
Blogger maged salamah said...

Egypeter,
I guess that is the negative effect of circumcision on her! Poor Sara

7:41 AM  
Blogger xavier said...

Maged:
Now, now. Sara's problem is that she comes froma religious tradition that demands total obedience. Whatever doubts or concerns she has they're from jinns and must be supressed. Islam simply doesn't have an apologetics tradition that doesn't rely on the gun, the sword, the bomb and threats. Without those, Islamic apologetics comes across as both shallow and incoherent. Hence the prohibition for Jews and Christians to study the Koran and the refusal to encourage its translation to other languages

xavier
xavier

9:01 AM  
Blogger maged salamah said...

Xavier,
Qur'an belongs to the toilet and to those who need to get sexual excitement through stories.

4:37 PM  
Blogger xavier said...

Maged:
I've never accepted the Koran's inerrancy and Mohammed is no prophet. So it,s up to the Moslems to show otherwise. They're lack of success simply underscore's its falsity. It's like the Da Vinci code or the Last supper novel.

3:24 PM  
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5:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To the writer, whoever you are.. your words has showed me that you're not a Muslim, and if you are; you don't know what is Islam and how it teaches people to live in a respectful way, and respects others beliefs. All i want to tell you that all the evidence you mentioned in the article are false evidence and it's clear that you don't understand it at all, and please try to be more open minded and give yourself a chance to read and study Islam more and I'm sure that you'll change your mind...

6:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

and keep up the good work in mentioning the corruption in Egypt and how it's being ruled by a bunch of thieves :D

6:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

to the writer,
who ever u r.....how could u insalt islam and prophit mohamed....u couldnt just bring things that clearly u dunno anything about and try to relate it to a very different issue !!!
religions are w very sensetive matter...its not from ur rights to write so...or for anyone else...its not about islam only its about every religion came from god...read more about islam and understand every word god sent to prophit mohamed befor saying BLA BLA BLAA..we respect other religions....and u should respect ours!!!!!

5:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are retarted!! Any one who believes in religions is retarted anyway!!

4:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ok simply a thing written like this shows how low a person can be, ya 7aram enta fady awy... keep writing ur own shit it wont make a difference dude. islam will just keep growing forever:)

1:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is a pretty pathetic attempt at some publicity dude, your veiws are baseless, and the meanings of these ayat and ahadeeth have been lost and "corrupted" in your translation of them.. in actual fact contradicting your own views on this matter... egypt is very corrupt, and this piece epitomises that corruption. wether u are a believer or a atheist, i believe that when hitting on such a sensitive subject, bias and the obvious twisting of the subject matter is a crime in itself...

9:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No God but Allah

4:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your explanation of ayats of Quran includes many fallacies and wrongs.please ask Moslem scholars about the true explanation before you jumb to cncolusions.Islam fights corruption and the thief must have his hand cut but Egypt does not apply the sentences (penalties) of Islam

5:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

man ur the one to talk ,muslims respect other people and fight corruption,its teachigs are of god and will send muslims to heven plus christians and other nonislamic religions and people that have no religion drink like hell,and gambel all their money

12:58 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you're really sick in your mind by blaming islam. I'm sorry..but I don't drink a priest's piss.

1:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Qu'est ce qu'il veut dire par l'Egypte n'est pas un pays Arabe? on qualifie d'arabe un pays où l'on parle cette langue si t'es pas foutu de comprendre ça c'est qu'il y a un problème.Pas sûr que tu sois Egyptien.
Evite de parler de chose que tu ne maitrises pas et concentre toi sur le reste tu parles de corruption en Egypte, bien, très bien contente toi d'en parler parce que pour le reste t'es pas doué

10:55 AM  
Blogger Jack Frost said...

I was in Egypt last week (Oct 2009) on vacation and yes corruption is everywhere. We experienced first hand a police boat doing a shakedown on the boat we were on (on the Nile of course). They threatened the boats driver and demanded gas for their boat they then went to another boat full of toursit and we saw some tourist taking money out of their wallets. You can buy your way into any of the off limit sites by paying off people with a handshake with 10 Egyptian pounds, You see money being flashed and given to the cops at all the check points go throough. The people in charge are milking the normal Egyptian people for everything they can. Another thing to keep in mind is there are two prices, one for Egyptians and one for the non Muslim foreigners. They will try to rip you off every chance they can. Can you imagine if we in western countries would raise the price for Muslims!?!? There would be a huge outcry and protest. In Egypt, it's normal and accepted way off life, since we can afford to be ripped off. All in all Egypt has a very long way to go. Trash everywhere, corruption, lack of basic freedoms, dictatorship, etc do make living there tough. With all that said, the normal Egyptians are very very friendly.

5:38 AM  
Blogger 7arts said...

Corruption is there in the spinal chord of this society and it will never leave because the society itself is corrupted regardless of the religion. Although the press here try to conceal any scandal burst about a priest harasses christian women, boys or having sex with whomever,yet it comes out to the light, also many shaikhs try to make money by misinterpreting the meaning of quran to serve someone's need.Be Objective, understand the meaning and situations of the verses before you talk. Me myself is an orphan and I see discrimination, I have many good christian friends and actually I never stopped one single moment to think about is he christian or not. There is a great difference between Muslims and Islam. Muslims of nowadays could be corrupted yes, but not because they followed Mohammad, on contrary, they are so because they abandoned the path. God bless U bro.

3:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

maged:
Your use of language and the way its obvious you just want to diss islam decreases your credibility honestly. Im not even a religious person, and i do think that there are ALOT of things that muslims beleive in which i dont, i have a mind of my own. Yes, religion may have a part in causing egypt/arabs to be distracted from developing, but it is not THE reason. And if islam does slow people down from developing, then all/most religions do, not just islam. Honestly i think the biggest reason for egyptians' behavior is lack of education.

3:15 PM  
Blogger Aya said...

Sir,

Egypt is full of corruption yes!
but it is not a result of the teachings of islam and prophet Muhamed, on the contrary, it is a consequence on going away from those teachings!
The more we stay away from islam and its teachings, we stay away from morals and thus corruption prevails...

there is a "Hadith/saying by the prophet" that say he was sent to deliver Ethics and morals!!

please :) before translating any verse in quraan dig deeper into its meaning and read REAL books in explaining quraan..

i advice you if you want to learn more about islam read a book called :"Islam in focus" its author is called Hammudah Abd El Ati

7:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just feel sorry for the blogger, I hope u get peace in the end

11:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks **Aya** for the clarification

7:05 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I am really sorry for u ..
I mean the blogger
u know why
coz u think that u r a person who is fighting corruption and aiming for the truth that u think u won't find it in religion
COngratulations u r the successful output of "religion eradication" conspiracy,

I am so happy that I crossed ur blog.

coz because of people like u
i am grateful to god that he made me muslim and gave me the light to see.
I really pity u ..
u know why
I pity u for the time u waste to create such a blog to fight something that isnt only bigger than u
but
bigger than the entire humanity
hey maged if that is really ur name

go get a life
and by the way blogger

Egypt is ARAB..
BY TERRITORY,
BY HISTORY,
BY LANGUAGE
BY PEOPLE
and for you to die of teasing
BY RELIGION

I am serious..
go get a life.
how old r u ..?
5..?!

coz if u have that much time to waste i can reccomend an activity
there is a great childrens book
under the name
"KESAS l ANBYA2"
maybe it would do u good in understanding who is the prophet
i chose a children's book coz i wanted something that communicate with ur mentality
if u dont fully understand my msg
let ur mom explain
have a great day in Cairo
the CApital of EGypt
the soul of the Arab world
:-))))))))))))))))))..!!

4:06 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

4:07 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

4:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh god, another ignorant who thinks he knows everything ... When I read this, I only see blind hatred and biased writings, which I can't even dignify as opinions due to their shallowness, lack of logical rigor and scientific accuracy ... Seriously dude, get a life ...

6:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I guess you don't know anything about Islamic culture. When Christians were living like animals in Europe the Muslims were having a rebirth in art, science, and poetry. Without Islam we would not have had the translation of Greek works that have led to Democracy. Before Islam, Christians gave women no rights, ever read St. Paul's letters? Islam allowed women to divorce, own property, long before Europeans.

10:07 AM  
Anonymous omar said...

alright
at the end the egyptian government resuted in the corruption which is happening. But don't look at the government's people religion as it is the idea that made them do so. If u want to know many many great examples read about the life of mohamed see what he did in his life.
At the end all I want to say that religion is not responsible for people's mistake THEY DECIDE WHAT TO DO BY THEMSELVES NOT BY WHAT THEIR RELIGION BELIEFS SAY. SO MY DEAR BLOGGERS I DID WANT TO SAY SOMETHING WHICH IS THAT IF EGYPTIAN PEAOPLE REALY WANTED TO MAKE A CHANGE IN THEIR COUNTRY THEY HAVE TO TAKE THE FEAR FACTOR OUT OF THEIR HEART AND THE DESIRE OF WEALTH FROM THEIR BRAIN

6:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ima start off sayin that im not religious....but open minded..enough an cerious..(like some)..i dont belive in God or Satan or angels or deamons..ect...itz crazy..but fasinating to see everyone arguing over religion...an seeing different views of different cultures n religions..that seem to me kinda have tha same consepts...but also verious ways to get to god whithin itz own religion..but to me..(i think)..no one can grasp an understand it to tha T without askin a single qustion....but what i do know is that FEAR can make anyone do somethin u want.... (True story)so if someone from a religous group..comes up to me an asks me if i belive in god...an i say no...then automaticly in there head my soul will go to hell an burn for all eturnity...in my head..im thinkin to myself...well i really dont want to burn forever...so now my brain would be prosesing what they told me an instill fear of burning in hell for ever....scary to some....well what if i told u...(if i waz standing next to u)....that i had a gun in my pants an if u didnt gimmi ur money that i waz goin to some how hurt ur family...would u be scared...an or would u belive me...a good tatic thatz used in todayz world...(police..for sure governments across tha world..U n Me)...guilty...i do remember saying as a kid "if u dont gimmi that toy ill punch u in ur face"...90% of tha time it worked...try that shit in todayz world...good luck....ive said to much.. but very interested in wat ppl say good..bad...wat ev...but tha religion ive looked into an stiil dont get is christianity...how can adam be made from dust an eve from adams rib....i know man will n never be god....but tha things that man create..an think up...can match or come close to gods power..

1:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

so pathetic how people turn things around. got nothing better to do, so start entertaining their brains with stupid pathetic ideas. religions should be respected and u are showing no respect in ure pathetic blog. u have no shame and no respect- u didnt even put up pbuh after the holy prophet muhammad pbuh name

2:56 PM  

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