Home › 21. Reply to last week’s editorial

21. Reply to last week’s editorial

Sat, 2008-07-26 06:58 — admin

Publishers

Year: 
2001
Week: 
17
Article number: 
21
Article pages: 
P.1
Date of source: 
April 29, 2001
Author: 
Yusuf Sidhum
Article summary: 

At the time of the visit of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to Egypt, Saad Eddin wrote a declaration on the Coptic issue. He wrote that Copts are historically the origin of Egypt and one of its two major socio-demographic components. However, they have occasionally been subjected to ugly discrimination, in blatant violation of Egypt’s constitution and tradition of religious tolerance. He added that Egyptians are extremely sensitive to the appearance of foreign intervention in their affairs, especially as regards sectarian issues.

Article full text: 

I received the following reply from Mr. Abdel Latif Al-Manawi, the presenter of the "Third Opinion" TV program I had referred to in last week’s editorial. I am publishing extracts from it, without comment, confirming the right of expression for the different viewpoints.



"I read with a great deal of interest your last article in Watani (Issue 10) on the ’Third Opinion’ program that I am honored to present and design. Firstly, I would like to thank you for your interest in the program, but I have a number of comments to make briefly.



You said that the third opinion is "the drummer to whose beat the debate is run’. And that "in any democratic procedure there were two points of view." However, I think that democracy implies a multiplicity of opinions rather than two or three. By the third opinion, I meant the result of the interaction between two different opinions. I think you have noticed that the world is moving towards a third path. Dichotomies that we saw in the past like capitalism/socialism, democracy/dictatorship, do not exist any more.



When the program’s guests handled the subject of expatriate Copts, they were keen to differentiate between the minority who use the issue in a harmful way to achieve certain interests, and the majority who are a real asset to Egypt. You might have noticed the criticism of the terms ’Copt’ or ’Muslim’ when referring to expatriates, who should all be called ’Egyptian expatriates’ instead.



The way you described my interruptions of the guests as ’provocative’, is unacceptable. I respect all the guests, but managing the dialogue needs a certain degree of control. Otherwise, the main theme of the episode is lost.



Finally, I think that [such a program, which] dares to discuss such sensitive topics, is a new and important contribution by the Egyptian media to be admired and encouraged. I think all of us should push forward in this positive direction, which could never be viewed under any circumstances as ran of falsifying facts to delude the public.

Fulltext type: 
0
Quality: 
The article contains no obvious errors...
Classification: 
Opinion
Share this