English trans of original.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The One Citizen – by Maikel Nabil
At a press conference last week, SCAF's Mukhtar Al-Mullah issued a number of statements that revealed the hidden intentions of the military to kill the nascent democracy in Egypt. When towards the end of the conference he was asked about me, he refrained from answering. And when asked about Alaa Abdel-Fattah, he tried to justify the detainment of Alaa, and then concluded by a very telling sentence, "Maikel Nabil and Alaa Abdel Fattah are Egyptian citizens, and we are very keen to protect all Egyptians, but we're talking here about one citizen out of 85 million". Al-Mullah did not say who that "One Citizen" was, Alaa or myself but what difference would that make?
The Military in their stupidity think that One Citizen is without value and easily marginalized. Their minds do not comprehend the fact that One Citizen put an end to Mubarak's regime, one citizen: Khaled Said1.
The first thing that came to my mind when I read Al-Mullah's words was a quote by John Stuart Mill: " If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind". This is precisely the difference between fascism and freedom. Fascists claim that there's no harm in sacrificing One Citizen for the good of the community, and it was under this banner that people in Germany, in the Soviet Union, in fascist Italy, Nasserist Egypt, Baathist Syria and Maoist China, in Cuba and Milosevic's Serbia, lost their freedom to tyrants who massacred whole communities while claiming each time that it's just One Citizen, sacrificed for the community.
In my lectures on liberalism I always said that if the individual was at odds with society, as liberals we should take the side of the individual against society. Protecting the individual (the One Citizen) means protecting the values of individualism and individual liberties. Those who claim they can build a society made up of oppressed members are deceiving themselves, for if the individual is the building block of society, how do you construct a building out of stones that are crushed and broken?
http://en.nomiltrials.com/2011/12/one-citizen-by-maikel-nabil.html
Background on Maikel Nabil:
Maikel Nabil Sanad[1] (also transcribed as Michael ;[2] Egyptian Arabic: مايكل نبيل سند, IPA: [ˈmɑjkel næˈbiːl ˈsænæd]; born in 1985 in Asyut), a political activist and blogger. In April 2009 he founded the No to Compulsory Military Service movement. He declared his conscientious objection, demanding to be exempted from military service. Instead, he was arrested on 12 November 2010 by military police but was released two days later, and finally exempted from service on medical grounds. Sanad participated actively in the Egyptian revolution, highlighting the fact that Egypt has effectively been ruled by the military for six decades. He was arrested on 4 February by military police and tortured, but released 27 hours later. He was arrested in his home in the Ain Shams neighbourhood in Cairo at about 10 PM on 28 March 2011 by military police. He was only able to call his brother the next day to inform him of his arrest.[3] Sanad was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on charges of "insulting the military" in his post "The Army and The People Were Never One Hand" on maikelnabil.com[4] by the 10th of Ramadan military court in Nasr City near Cairo on 10 April. Before this, he was imprisoned in a special punishment cell at El Marg prison, which did not allow him any sunlight. In addition, his cell mates threatened him. Sanad demanded a doctor, as he suffers from unstable blood pressure and needs regular medication and medical attention.[5] Maikel Nabil has been on hunger strike since August 23, 2011.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maikel_Nabil
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