"…If you do that, it is corruption on your part…" (Quran 2:282)

Was published in Arabic in February 22, 2016

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

Introduction about partial and total corruption:

1- 2:282 is the longest verse in the Quran, and it tackles rules of debts and its witnesses. The phrase in the title here occurs toward the end of this verse: "…If you do that, it is corruption on your part…" (2:282). Scribes and witnesses of debts are supposed to be neutral and are never to be harmed or coerced; otherwise, this is corruption in social, moralistic, religious and cultural values as well as State structure in any given country. 2:282 shows us a case of partial corruption if a scribe or a witness gets harmed. What about total corruption of injustice prevalent and dominant within the vast majority of a nation? What about a small minority who hold in its grip all control, power, authority, and wealth by making the vast majority weak and impoverished within a given nation and land? This total corruption is what we see now in Egypt after about 64 years of military rule.

2- We explain here features of this total corruption that occurs daily in public in Egypt:

Firstly: things upside down in ruling bodies and systems in Egypt:

1- The military: its duty and function is to protect Egypt, by placing itself on its borders and strategic points as entailed by the demographic and geographic nature of Egypt as well as by strategic security measures; i.e., military camps are to be distributed along Egyptian borders with Israel and Gaza Strip, with Sudan, and with Libya. As for strategic points, we have them on marine areas of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and protecting other points like the High Dam, borders of regions like Upper Egypt (Nile valley) and Lower Egypt (Nile Delta), and air bases to protect all Egyptian cites. All weapons and arms of the Egyptian military are bought with Egyptians' money; they are to be used to deter enemies so as to prevent enemies from attacking Egypt.

Yet, the status quo since the 1952 coup is that the Egyptian military is ruling Egypt and pointing its weapons and arms at Egyptians if they dare to revolt. Hence, defeats have occurred to the military; it never controls Sinai dully, and the same goes for Shalateen and Halayeb cities at the borders with Sudan, and Ethiopia has dared to threaten Egypt with its Nile project! Saddam in Iraq and Gadhafi in Libya used to threaten the Egyptian military. It is as if the Egyptian military never achieved victory unless over the Egyptians in Cairo squares! Military men are now present in squares of Cairo and most major cities to deter Egyptians from any revolt or revolution! Bloodshed of 2011 was not enough to satiate military generals! Those generals believe that they are masters of Egypt and the rest of Egyptians are their slaves!

2- The police: formerly, the motto written in all police stations gates was "the police forces are in service of the nation"; yet, torture was committed routinely to extract confessions from people, be them innocent or criminals. Another political mission has been added to the police forces: to be on top of any military battalion used to terrorize the people and to chase members of the cultural elite, any politicians, and any political activists. These special police forces have been years ago christened in Egypt as "Anti-Riot Central Security Guards", consisting mostly of impoverished, illiterate rural youths                            recruited into the military service. These Anti-Riot Central Security Guards along with State Security Apparatus have their own officers and military juntas, whose sole mission is to terrorize Egyptians with all possible means available: torture tools, specialized police bureaus, and secret, hidden prisons unknown to the public. The original primary duty of the police is to protect the citizens, not to humiliate, oppress, suppress, torture, and terrorize citizens! Those policemen believe that they are masters of Egypt and the rest of Egyptians are their slaves!

3- Judges in Egyptian courts: they are supposed to be guardians of justice, not to be sources and guardians of injustice. Within less than five years, they have shamelessly disgraced Egypt and justice; hundreds of people have been speedily and summarily sentenced to the capital punishment; another disgrace has been sentencing some youths and children to imprisonment terms when accused of joining marches, chanting slogans, or carrying banners. Meanwhile, judges of Egypt set free, as not guilty, most thieves who smuggled billions of money out of Egypt, money stolen from Egyptians and their toil. To aggravate matters, judges set free, as not guilty, several military men who killed Egyptians in the street. The corruption of judges goes on due to the fact that most judges have been formerly police officers, specializing in injustice and torture. They were moved from torture cells to judges' seat! This is collaboration NOT in charity and piety, but in evil evildoing and aggression! Those corrupt judges believe that they are masters of Egypt and the rest of Egyptians are their slaves!

4- These upside down conditions have entailed a quasi-religious justification done - with great success so far - by Al-Azhar clergymen and sheikhs. Laws never applied by Azharite men entail them to sow and explain facts and tenets of Islam. This ignored mission is of paramount importance now with terrorism escalating everywhere while ascribing itself to Islam, as by ISIS terrorists and the MB terrorists. Terror must be combated and undermined intellectually by showing true Islam as per the Quran alone. Yet, the military rule in Egypt has to keep and maintain the thriving of religious fanaticism and bigotry as well as religious terrorism to frighten Egyptians with them and to justify its existence by presenting a raison d'être. Military rule perpetuate itself using the pretext of protecting Egyptians against terror. That is why Azharite sheikhs and clergymen serve two purposes for the military men; 1) offering quasi-religious justification for military rule, and 2) sponsoring and protecting the terrorist culture of Wahabism/Salafism/Sunnite creeds to produce more generations of terrorists to aid in justifying military rule and oppression. Hence, any reformers who refute Azharite stances vis-à-vis any issues are imprisoned. This is collaboration among Azharite men, military men, policemen, and judges, NOT in charity and piety, but in evil evildoing and aggression! Victims galore are chiefly the members of the cultural elite, political activists, and enlightened politicians, let alone the weak impecunious powerless hapless citizens!

Secondly: Upside down conditions within the social values system:

1- Education: it is primarily aimed to build the mental framework of a human being. Imagine two kids born in the same time: one in amazon woods in Brazil and one in a civilized west settings. Both kids are naturally born within the same making of human beings, but education makes the former primitive land the latter civilized and erudite. In Egypt, however, things are worst and more complicated; illiterate Egyptians are millions among citizens; even among those who graduated from schools. University graduates are ignoramuses with phobia of reading books and of culture in general; this applies mostly to Azharites, as the pose a more dangerous threat to the security of Egypt in comparison to illiterate people. The reason: the corrupt religious education curricula in Azharite schools and universities are based on rote learning and memorizing of backward, regressive notions of the Sunnite creed. Such notions are propagated in all mosques and media in Egypt. Such notions are deemed to be absolute facts! If such notions are questioned or refuted, the questioner or refuter is deemed to deserve to be killed! Such ignorance and backwardness are dangerous time bombs threatening to destroy Egypt. The military rule spends billions annually on Azharite education, resulting in ISIS-like fanatic extremist youths. If such a youth had remained illiterate, this would have been better for Egypt!

2- Reversal of values:

Cheating in exams is a common order of daily educational life in Egypt; it is of paramount importance to make students pass exams by cheating, not to care at all if society would have engineers and medical doctors who do not deserve to enter into this or that profession with no qualification or merit, resulting in more deaths due to medical errors and collapse of buildings, corruption episodes, and lack of conscience in dealings with people. People care only to brag of students graduating at any cost from prestigious faculties, even if they do not deserve it!

Bribery is a common daily practice among governmental employees shamelessly committed in public, and matters are complicated further by the military central State with its never-ending network of complicated laws. Employees in public bureaus make use of such red tape complications to demand bribes openly and shamelessly from citizens!

Mediators are everywhere to intercede on behalf of everybody who is willing to pay enough to get any advantage he or she does not merit! No one is heeding this Quranic verse: "Whoever intercedes for a good cause has a share in it, and whoever intercedes for an evil cause shares in its burdens. God keeps watch over everything." (4:85). Since the rule of Sadat, private universities with exorbitant fees opened for the offspring of the wealthy, filthily rich elite, though they need no employment with the existence of millions of ill-gotten sums of money in their families! Yet, such offspring need employment to kill time and tedium! They use mediators and intercessors among the highly-connected people to be appointed in banks, Ministry of Exterior (i.e. Foreign Office), police stations, Stock Market, etc. Let alone those who bequeath their professions to their offspring; policemen hire their sons as policemen, medical doctors employ their sons to be doctors, etc. as if this is a requisite right undisputed at all, and when questioned, one is accused of being the enemy of the State! Meanwhile, thousands of unemployed youths among the common and poor people suffer humiliation and impecunious state driving them to frustrations and crimes and terrorism. No one is bridging this gap at all!

Honor as a value has undergone radical change within 60 years; it is confined to the hymen or indeed all vaginas of women! Men brag of their amorous conquests (adultery and fornication deemed grave sins in the Quran) and enjoy impunity and lack of social shame; yet, women who commit the same sin are scandalized and branded and lose their reputation forever! There is no room for values related to true honor: courage, mercy, altruism, veracity, generosity, justice, charity, pardon, forgiveness, etc. No one sides with the wronged and the wounded when they are suffering injustice! If we side with the weak by calling for reform, we are accused of being foreigners' agents who are traitors apply West hidden agendas against Egypt! Yet, military men in the ruling elite humiliate Egyptians and go unpunished! If one dares to question and to rebel against such conditions, one is accused of being an enemy of Egypt who receives remunerations and financial rewards from West powers!

Lastly:

1- Doing one's duty might make one be deemed as a criminal who deserve severe punishment; if one calls for religious reform, one is accused of contempt of religion! At the same time, if one dares to question or criticize the military, the police, the judges, and Al-Azhar institution, one will certainly get incarcerated. If one dares to follow or organize a peaceful march or demonstration, one is either get cold-bloodedly killed or imprisoned, accused of disturbing peace! Torture is NOT deemed a crime; it is a profession done devotedly with passion! Torture tools are bought with money of the Egyptian people to torture Egyptian people. Instead of building more houses for the same of inhabitants of Cairene necropolises and inhabitants of the slum areas around Cairo, the regime builds more prisons to incarcerate citizens, as if this is the means to provide housing to the homeless!

2- The solution to end this total corruption is to force the military men to step down from rule and to return to its original mission and duty of protecting Egypt. This was once said by the former Egyptian President Muhammad Naguib in 1954.

Please remember this vital piece of advice!