In 2011, Foreign Policy ranked Egyptian novelist Alaa Al-Aswani as one of the 100 most influential intellectuals in the world. The choice came against the backdrop of his novels and political activism, where he helped establish the "Kifaya" movement opposed to corruption and the regime of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The magazine praised Aswani's articles that inspired Egyptian revolutionaries in Tahrir Square, and was chosen by the Times in the same year as one of the top 50 novelists in the world whose work has been translated into English over the past 50 years.
Al-Aswani published his famous novel "Amara Yacoubian", which he considered as a witness to Egypt's modern history and included deep social and political criticism, and the novel "Automobile Club", which dealt with the era of the 1940s, noting the issues of dignity, freedom and justice in Egyptian society.
Egyptian liberalism
But a recent article by Danish Farouqi, a visiting scholar at the Rutgers University Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, in Foreign Policy itself, has been criticized by the Egyptian novelist as an example of the contradictions of contemporary Egyptian liberalism.
In his article, Farouki praises the support of the symbols of the January 25 revolution for the recent wave of protests against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the enthusiasm of the businessman Mohamed Ali, whose criticism ignited the fuse that sparked this new wave of revolutionary unrest, referring to Aswani who staged a sit-in in Tahrir Square on January 25. January 2011, considering the recent protests against Sisi as a historic moment.
Aswani recently wrote an editorial for the German version of Deutsche Welle explaining to protesters how they can avoid mistakes made during the previous intifada, encouraging the new movement to commit to its struggle to achieve its goals, elect a clear leadership, and reject compromise.
Deep contradictions
But Farouki believes that the call-up of revolutionary rhetoric by Aswani sheds light on his political contradictions, and paradoxes of what he called "Egyptian secular liberals" who bravely fought for democracy and the rule of liberal law in Egypt, but abandoned their commitments in the period leading up to the events of July 3. When the coup overthrew the democratically elected president, Dr. Mohamed Morsi.
Most expressed enthusiasm for the military coup that aborted Egypt's brief democratic experiment, while many supported the August 2013 massacre in which about 1,000 protesters were killed during their peaceful sit-in in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, according to Foreign Policy.
Aswani was not an exception to these contradictions, Farouqi said.While he was reconciled with the Muslim Brotherhood's participation in the democratic process in 2011, and sympathetic to them in the Mubarak era despite his ideological difference with their agenda, with the advancement of the revolution, these feelings have diminished, and his attitudes become increasingly antagonistic towards the Brotherhood .
Aswani appeared to have lost confidence in the democratic process, according to Farouki. He enthusiastically offered his support for the removal of Morsi by force through the military coup, considering the rise of Sisi a bargain to maintain the goals of the 2011 revolution. "For Aswani, the fourth massacre was an inevitable corrective step," Farouki said. .
Confused situations
According to the article, Aswani's courageous and admirable criticism of Sisi over the past few days cannot be separated from his obsession with the supposed threat of the Muslim Brotherhood to Egyptian society, which prompted him to support the July 2013 coup and the rise of Sisi in the first place.
The writer criticized Aswani's reaction to the death of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in his prison.While he admitted the regime's responsibility for medical negligence towards Morsi in his prison, he continued to repeat the same tone about the Brotherhood as a traitorous terrorist group, as if he held it responsible for the death of the late president.
In his latest article, El Aswany explains why he supported the latest round of protests in particular, because Sisi's policies failed to provide basic economic security for Egyptians' daily lives, citing the extreme poverty that has befallen the “stable” citizen as the greatest victim of Sisi's rule, regardless of the aspirations of freedom and democracy .
Liberal Self Review
But the writer adds that this position does not exceed the fact that Aswani was supporting Sisi in 2013, not only a desire for economic stability, but also to maintain the goals of the January revolution. Aswani's position does not provide any real revision of the self.
In addition to a group of experts in Middle Eastern studies, political science, philosophy, Islamic studies and law, Danish Farouki observed what they considered "the failure of Egyptian liberalism in a holistic way" in the book "Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism: The Non-Liberal Intelligence and the Future of Egyptian Democracy" and discussed the behavior of a broad current of Egyptian liberals who have adopted "non-liberal" positions.
The multidisciplinary book deals with issues such as secularism, feminism, and human rights.It discusses the state of Egyptian liberalism in its relationship with the state and its failure to develop the local community, as well as the contradiction of liberals in supporting the tyranny they opposed during the Mubarak era and later supported it despite their adoption of liberal philosophy at the same time.