Said Freiha, God rest his soul, was a chronic member of the opposition. Dar al-Sayyad used to oppose each Lebanese president and whenever a president was toppled, or when his term ended, a few days or weeks later, the newspaper al-Anwar would publish a political cartoon in which the traditional Lebanese figure “Abu Khalil” would place a wreath of flowers on the former presidency. I recalled Said Freiha while I was following the revolution in Egypt, and the end of the Hosni Mubarak regime. I supported the decision of millions of Egyptians, without my being an opponent of Mubarak, because the decision was up to the people alone, and not to the president, or me. All I want to see today is for the new presidential term to be for all Egyptians, just as the young people in Tahrir Square wanted; I do not want to see a “setback,” or see things move backward. I say this while recalling that in the old days things were better. Said Freiha was a pan-Arabist, since he was Orthodox; he supported Jamal Abdel-Nasser, but his decency prevented him from abandoning Mustafa and Ali Amin. After Mustafa Amin was imprisoned in Egypt on charges of espionage, which I believe were false, the head of Dar al-Sayyad gave Ali Amin, who was in Lebanon, the opportunity to write when the case of his twin brother erupted. Ali Amin would write a column entitled “An Idea” on the back page of al-Anwar, despite the close ties with the Egypt of Jamal Abdel-Nasser (Freiha's relationship with the Amin brothers later deteriorated). Where are the journalists of today in Lebanon, and how do they compare to Said Freiha, God rest his soul, and Ghassan Tueni, may God grant him a long life? Where are the journalists of today in Egypt, and how do they compare to Mustafa and Ali Amin, God rest their soul, and Mohammad Hassanein Haykal, may God grant him a long life? When I met Mustafa Amin for the first time, it was at the Dorchester Hotel in London, to agree with him on writing the “An Idea” column for Ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, of which I was the editor-in-chief at the time. I was surprised by his good heart; he told me that Abdel-Nasser, who imprisoned him, was a world leader with tremendous charisma, and that Anwar Sadat, who released him, was a late-comer to the leadership, “and wouldn't even make a good mayor.” When we spoke about Mohammed Hassanein Haykal, he said nothing other than that their dispute was personal, and political. Egypt was always the Arab country closest to my heart, and I also had another reason to visit the country – the opportunity to see Mustafa Amin and talk to him. During Ramadan, he would receive thousands of letters about his charity program “Lailat al-Qadr.” I would see these letters carried in by the sack-full to Dar al-Akhbar, where there was a whole team of secretaries to answer them. I believe that no other journalist received this amount of letters, whether before or after Mustafa Amin. Due to my age, Egypt has been my country for longer than it has to three-quarters of the Egyptian people. I categorically reject to be accused in Egypt. It is a personal issue. I visited Egypt for the first time with my parents, before I was even an adolescent, and it was love at first sight, a love that has never disappeared. After I learned how to read, I would sit in my grandfather's office, where the largest number of books was from Egypt, about Egypt or by Egyptians. When I was about nine or ten, I remember reading issues of the magazine al-Muqtataf (do any readers know how to get a hold of a complete set of issues now?). I still remember an article about Orca, the killer whale, and how I had to resort to a dictionary to discover the meaning of some of the words in the piece. I read the column “Geniuses” by Mahmoud Abbas al-Aqqad each time, and remember asking my grandfather about how a particular word was supposed to be spelled in Arabic. I read all of the Hilal novels, the Hilal's regular books and the magazine Hilal, with an article, “Mohammed Ali and Ibrahim Pasha: two suns in a single sky.” As for the book “Sick Layla in Baghdad,” by Dr. Zaki Mubarak, I remember the phrase that began one of the chapters: “I am in the nation of Damascus. Whose nation is it? I do not want to expose myself after God protected my secret.” The expression that I remembered from the age of 11 returned to me when Damascus became the nation of the one I loved. However, this was when I was a teenager, and the statute of limitations has now passed, so the child's mother can no longer take me to court. Many other things have fallen by the wayside, but I will speak of them another day. As for today, I go back to Egypt and Said Freiha and his dispute with the Lebanese president. I hope that Egypt sees a democratic form of government, which its people deserve. I confess that I am being a bit selfish, since I have always been of the opinion that Egypt is the leader of the Arab world, and that we will also become democratic if it does, and fail to if it fails. We can only hope for the best, and that we find it along with the young people of Egypt. [email protected]
