Mohamed Ali .. A popular Egyptian hero made by the camera phone

Doaa Abdel Latif-Cairo

Inside a quiet office and a rocking backdrop between the wall and the sea of ​​Barcelona, ​​a 40-year-old man sits in front of his mobile phone camera to tell the facts of the financial corruption of his president and army chiefs.

As a close contractor who has worked with the armed forces for more than fifteen years, Mohammed Ali, who is presenting himself as a revealer of the secrets of the financial corruption of the current regime, continues to oppress these forces and seize all his cash, forcing him to leave the country.

The seven videos so far have been popular among social media pioneers. The number of followers of Mohamed Ali's personal page, before it was hacked by the authority, has jumped from about 2,000 to 160,000.

He has been tagging #Mohamed_Ali, #Mohamed_Ali_fudhahm and #Support_Mohamed_Ali, on Twitter for more than five days, and his videos generate millions of views.

As a result of all the videos being permanently deleted by the so-called "hackers" from the PA, he created a new Facebook page called "The Secrets of Muhammad Ali," which reached more than 200,000 followers in just two days.

A popular hero
Muhammad's followers treat him as a popular hero in a historic battle, and call the man - who gives them information they may already know - titles such as "The Real Pride of the Arabs" and "Mohamed Ali Hardcore Modern State", similar to the nickname of Mohamed Ali Pasha and the early governor of Egypt. The nineteenth century, nicknamed the founder of the modern state.

Also pioneers of social networking sites Mohammed Ali character Ali Zibaq, a popular hero in the reign of the Mamluk state, where he was a thief but steal from the men of unjust power and redistribute what he steals to the poor people.

The young Ahmed Wahid says that Mohamed Ali has a high sense of humor, and his sincerity appears in front of the camera.

He commented on Facebook "has the elements of the hero currently and the basics of the story and enjoyment and the ability to tell, I love him and I can (wait) his videos."

Political earthquake
For more than six years since the military coup against civilian president Mohamed Morsi, the opposition in its various currents has not succeeded in creating the momentum created by the contractor Mohamed Ali.

Mustafa Khodari, head of the Egyptian Center for Media and Public Opinion Studies, explained the public's preoccupation with Mohammed Ali's videos, which he described as an outlet for his compressed state under the weight of corruption, economic failure and the regime's security grip.

He added to Al Jazeera Net that the professionalism of the video maker in the broadcast of the suspense necessary to continue the debate for as long as possible, led to more popular preoccupation with videos.

The videos also cover - for the first time since June 3, 2013 - General Sisi's wife intervenes in the case of corruption by her husband, but show her as a maker of the event, which raises the tone of Sisi's subordination to his wife, which detracts from the general's manhood and drops his prestige in the Egyptian custom, as described Vegetative.

Dissident from the system
He explained a fourth reason for the popularity of the videos and the ratification of their contents, which is the existence of evidence to support the author's novel such as the names of corruption partners, numbers, dates and detailed events that have created an epic mental image in the recipient's conscience of the rampant corruption situation within the corridors of government.

The fifth reason, from the viewpoint of the researcher in the field of public opinion, is a break in the system of beneficiaries of the system, Mohamed Ali dissident from the regime of Sisi, and always find the dissident ears listen to society.

But why did the videos create a state of popular momentum that the opposition media failed to make? Khodari replied that the opposition was providing a boring traditional media.

"Mohamed Ali, a businessman, was able to rent a world-class studio and professional team and broadcast his videos wearing the most expensive brands, but that, if done, would not bring about 1% of what a realistic broadcast combination touched the hearts of Egyptians."

Not politicized
Journalist Nael El-Toukhi expressed his fascination with the contractor Mohamed Ali, commenting on his Facebook page: "Spontaneous, honest and keep you following him, there is not a single false moment in all his videos until now."

Toukhi felt that part of Muhammad Ali's popularity came from not belonging to any political current.

For his part, Abu Bakr Khallaf, coordinator of the Arab Observatory for Media Freedom, said that there are several reasons that led to the great impact of Mohammed Ali's videos, not including the information about the corruption of the army.

He explained to Al Jazeera Net that the impact of the videos lies in the exit from Sisi camp and those close to his regime, and the fact that what Mohammed Ali is a personal experience, which gives him more credibility, especially the incident of the grave of the mother of Sisi and talk about the speed of establishing projects without serious study.

Ali also uses the language of popular dialogue and prides himself on receiving a middle school education and being a middle class, he said, adding that his exit to talk via social media and not any opposition channel away from the charge of funding from certain parties or fabricating a crisis to blackmail the regime.

The coordinator of the Observatory of Media Freedom pointed out that the Egyptian contractor proved the false claims of Sisi to live austerity and asceticism and that his refrigerator is free of water and others, which was promoted by the media of the regime for years.

A popular hero
For her part, the Egyptian novelist liked the goals of the contractor Suef Mohammed Ali popular hero in heritage, "popular hero comes from the ranks of the people, his speech is the speech of the people, and his image and accessories are for the people (mobile and cigarettes, for example)."

She added that "the popular hero shared the popular concept seizes opportunities and does not mind in a white lie sometimes," explaining that his speech in which humility, pride, threat and humor.

The folk hero is not a pure human being, nor a guardian or infallible, on the contrary, he has errors, according to Suef, but his sins lie in keeping up with corruption until - to eat living - sins accepted by the folklore, especially if the hero wakes up and exposes himself to risks he could have avoided if he continued in the old course .

"His revolution on the regime starts from a personal dimension of personal grievance, which widens to unite with public grievance and merges with it. Perhaps the beginning of the departure from the old track was that he showed a sense of public grievance and produced a work of art on forcible immigrants."