Ahmed Mansour, an experienced reporter at the Al Jazeera Arabic channel, had been arrested at an airport in Berlin on Saturday. The excuse to arrest him was based on the fact that he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Egypt. It seems like Germany perceived it was legal to arrest Mansour without any hesitance, based on a sentencing imposed by a court under the control of the military junta, based on false and fabricated allegations. It was rather meaningful for Germany to welcome coup initiator, General al-Sisi with red carpets, while detaining a journalist, who was a victim of the coup. Though Mansour was released yesterday, the incident had already been recorded in Germany's report card.
On the other hand, General al-Sisi had even postponed the announcement of the execution sentence handed down for democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi, so as not to put him in a difficult situation during his stay in Germany. The General returned from Germany with his hands full, rather happy, satisfied and honored. Morsi received another death penalty afterwards. I wonder if all of these were relevant to the tenders distributed by General Sisi –as a means to bribe the Western companies? While the West alarms the world when death penalties imposed in Muslim countries –in other situations- it welcomes Sisi with ceremonies. They have yet to give him a “Nobel Peace Prize.” It is not just illicit money that is laundered; coup initiators also clean their records in return for a high price. Didn't many dictators in Africa guarantee their bloody rule by making their mines, oil, and other resources available to Western companies?
They seem to be totally fine in being involved in a “cheek by jowl” relationship with junta leaders who massacre thousands of people, imprison tens of thousands of civilians and a democratically elected president. The hypocrisy of the West, which regulates the world through words, but sees no harm in skipping its principles –when it comes to their interests-, does not surprise anyone anymore. It is like that today; was it any different yesterday?
Ahmet Rıza Bey, one of the master minds of the Committee of Union and Progress, -who was also the first speaker of the Parliament of the Second Constitutional Monarchy Period, published his book –in French- entitled “The moral bankruptcy of the West against Eastern politics” in 1922, Paris. He was critiquing the West by using Western sources and brought strong criticism. For him, the Europeans who had control over Europe during the Crusades –despite all their barbarism- were more moral compared to the ones who control Europe now. At least the Crusaders fought for making the “Cross” win victory over the “Crescent” and at least exhibited their hostility. However, Europe today was a stealthy enemy concealed under the image of a friend, but was actually selfish. Rather than the dark stones within the rice, it was necessary to be afraid of the white stones that are difficult to differentiate.
Ahmet Rıza's book was a reference guide of revolutionist Muslims during the French invasion of Algeria in the 1920s. Late Malik Ibn Nabi, who was a great Algerian intellectual and a figure for struggle, especially noted that this book had a rather strong influence on his generation. It was an exceptional book which Nabi and thousands of other North African youths owed their intellectual transformation to. Sadık ez-Zemerli and Muhammed Burgiba translated the book to Arabic in 1922. We, on the other hand, only got the chance to read the book in Turkish in 1982, 60 years after the Arabs. Anyways… 90 years have passed after Ahmet Rıza Bey's book, but not much has changed on the Western front.
