For roughly the past 20 years I have been involved in and writing about the issues of neoliberalism, corporate power, and the political ramifications of economic policies throughout the Muslim world. For the past 3 years I have been focused almost exclusively on Egypt; because of the country’s central importance to the corporate imperial project in the region, and because of the existence in Egypt of revolutionary currents with the potential to confront this project.
This work has put me in conflict with Islamist groups and leaders from Egypt and elsewhere, it has made me a target for attacks by the Egyptian state media, as well as in the international press, and of course, the intelligence services of not only Egypt, but the Gulf countries and others. I have been personally maligned and slandered, and my family and I have endured harassment, isolation and ostracization. Al-Hamdulillah, awareness has increased in Egypt about these issues, and I feel depressingly certain that the coming days and years will provide somber evidence for all that I have written in the last 3 years.
The IMF appears set to approve the $12 billion loan to Egypt on the 11th of November, coinciding with the planned protests promoted by the Ghalabah Movement. Quite frankly, if this loan proceeds, the situation in Egypt is going to be irreversible. And if 11/11 does not see any effective, disruptive action taken against multinational corporations and foreign investments, and instead, the “revolutionary” factions opt to revive the same strategies of the past; I do not see any prospects for progress in Egypt.
Thus, unless there emerges a significant strategic advancement on 11/11, I do not intend to continue to focus on Egypt in my writing; as I feel that I have very little left to usefully contribute.
May Allah bless you all, and facilitate your struggle for liberation.