Maligned ministers, damsels in distress and religious and racial tensions hit the headlines this week, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed What is happening to traditionally warm Sudanese- Egyptian relations? Obviously there is much bitterness, especially on the part of the Sudanese who have come to the belated realisation that Egyptians are, according to many Sudanese, racist bigots. The treatment of Sudanese in Egypt has not endeared the country to the Sudanese masses. Matters came to a head this week with the savage assault by Sudanese fans on the hapless Egyptian Ahli football team who were in Omdurman to play an ostensibly routine African Champions League game with the Sudanese team Al-Hilal. The attack was launched soon after the Egyptian team had boarded the coach transferring them to the stadium where the game was to take place. During the first leg in Cairo a fracas broke out between the players of the two teams. In Sudan, it was the Sudanese hosts who took matters into their own hands as a sort of mob justice was implemented. The Sudanese papers urged calm, a call that went unheeded. Ahli players were clearly shaken and they lost 3-0, the worst defeat for Ahli in the pan-African competition in 30 years. Ahli filed an official complaint with the Confederation of African Football. The viciousness of the Sudanese public aggression demonstrated the strength of angry feelings against Egyptians. It was a sad reflection of the sorry state of relations between the people of the Nile Valley. The sad event hit the headlines of both Sudanese and Egyptian papers. The official daily Al-Ahram ran a front page story. The paper paid tribute, though, to the "athletic and fast-footed" Sudanese players and concluded that the Sudanese win was "well-deserved". Pundits were more prolific about confessional strife than they were about racial tensions. Salaheddin Hafez writing in Al-Ahram about Washington's intention to direct a significant sum of its official assistance to the Coptic Christian community of Egypt, warned that such a policy amounted to direct interference in Egyptian domestic affairs. "Our role is to warn about using foreign money in kindling sectarian-religious strife in Egypt," Hafez stressed. He put down American aid as part of a grand design of dubious motives. "It is part of the [American] constructive chaos theory," Hafez warned. "Up till now America has not really understood the psychology of the Egyptian people, which is inconspicuous but simultaneously incensed -- enigmatic and yet insubordinate at the same time. [America] wants to employ the [Egyptian people's] abilities to advance American interests at the expense of Egypt's own national security and cohesiveness as a nation. The United States wants the Egyptians to be peaceful with Israel, to assist in American-Israeli designs to force the Palestinian people to be amenable and docile," he complained. "The United States also wants Egypt to help it in its war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, support it in the war on international terrorism, coordinate on the security level against what it calls Islamist extremism, and last but not least enlist Egypt as an ally in its face-off with Iran." Hafez did not mince his words. "While America wants Egypt to embark on such difficult tasks, it uses all instruments at its disposal, money and agents, in spreading the seeds of sectarian strife in Egyptian society." He also had a ready explanation at hand. "America seeks to apply its theory of constructive chaos which aims at destroying one of the oldest and most cohesive human communities in history." He warned that American machinations were destined to come to naught. On a very different note, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni was interviewed in the mouthpiece of the liberal-leaning Wafd Party. "Personal attacks on me amount to enraged envy of my success," Hosni told the daily opposition Al-Wafd. He disassociated himself from any close affiliation with Western powers. "My loyalty to the West is a false accusation propagated by my detractors." "Ayman Abdel-Moneim [former assistant to the minister of culture] was an efficient person... but I didn't invite him closer to me for personal reasons," the minister protested. Abdel-Moneim was charged last week with receiving a bribe from a contractor worth millions. Writing in the daily opposition Al-Ahrar Mohamed El-Sharqawi was highly critical of Hosni's long stay at the helm of cultural affairs in the country. "He is certainly a lucky man," El-Sharqawi said tongue-in-cheek. Al-Ahrar also ran a feature about the increasing expenditure of families they have to endure these days in preparation for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and back-to-school preparations. "Low-income families are going through hard times as they already face difficulties because of skyrocketing commodity prices, let alone school and Ramadan expenditures." Magdi Helmi harshly criticised Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in Al-Wafd for saying that every Egyptian family has three cars. "Provocative statements made by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif confirm that he is not in touch with real life in Egypt." Helmi's tone was cheeky to say the least. "I would like to inform the prime minister that I have a five-member family, have been working in journalism for more than 20 years, and suffered a lot to get a flat and I'm currently suffering just to buy a car." Al-Wafd also ran a feature about Egyptians who escape to Israel: "Why do Egyptian youth escape to Israel?" the paper wondered. "They work in the Israeli army and marry [Israelis]," the paper disclosed. It questioned why there are 3,700 young Egyptians serving in the enemy army." The paper further disclosed a bombshell. "There are 10,000 young people married to Israeli women." And, it noted that there are "28,000 Egyptians working in Israel." Karam Gabr wrote in the daily Rose El-Youssef in defence of the Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli who is currently under fire by opposition and independent newspapers awash with stories about police officers torturing suspects. "Defaming the minister of interior, his ministry and his officers will weaken the security apparatus and make security personnel too scared and unable to maintain security in the street and among people." In sharp contrast, Magdi Mehanna wrote in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom on the interior minister's latest statements: "I cannot but be surprised at the statements issued by Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli in which he called on police officers to treat citizens in a humane manner and to uphold human rights." Al-Masry Al-Yom ran a feature entitled "The Egyptian recipe for making torture officers". "An officer is taught martial arts in the Police Academy, then is trained on how to apply torture skills at police stations." The paper quoted experts who stressed that human rights courses which police officers take have not changed their aggressive attitude towards people, taking evidence in the continuity of torture in police stations around the country. Mohamed Mustafa Sherdi wrote in Al-Wafd about the sexual harassment suffered by the Lebanese singer and actress Marwa during a concert in a Mediterranean coastal resort last week. A group of young men made it to the stage, trying to molest Marwa who managed to escape to a nearby cottage. She was visibly shaken and under great duress. "We definitely condemn what the audience did, but I also strongly reject the provocative acts of the singer [Marwa]. I condemn this strange trend mushrooming among female singers who wear revealing clothes... her performance was replete with overt sexual innuendo." Sign again of changing times. The performer was accused of seducing her male audience and thereby inviting trouble. In other words she was fair game. This is tantamount to apologists for rape.
