When critics in Egypt were criticizing film producers and directors for the low level of their films, their constant response was: The box office wants that!
In all societies, the masses are usually moved by opinion makers, honest and subversive, individuals or intelligence services, internal or external and through various media and communication.
The degree and depth of influence depends on the progress or backwardness of society. The greater backwardness of society is, the more dependence shall be on others to form opinion, and the greater need for someone to explain and analyze, so the society accepts and believes anything and be satisfied with those who tickle the feelings, make people laugh at them, and lie to them especially if the latter uses drama, excitement and exaggeration in his speech, recalling the names in his memory and prefers foreign ones, especially the dead, based on the ignorance and inability of the majority of his followers, or their unwillingness to verify his statements.
Mr. Abdullah Al-Nafisi says in a TV interview:
“Hidden Jews, led by Sabbatai Zevi contacted a group of Ottoman army officers, including “Mustafa Kemal (the interviewer intervened and asked: Ataturk?) Al-Nafisi replied with inappropriate arrogance: I don’t call him Ataturk and he went on as saying: Mustafa Kemal is one of the hidden Jews. It is said of the Dönmeh Jews who do not know their religion, and that Zevi called Mustafa Kemal and told him to make a coup against Sultan Abdul Hamid … etc.
Of course, most of this talk has nothing to do with the truth and Abdullah Al-Nafisi, or anyone else has no right to ridicule the title “Ataturk” and not recognize it. This is an abhorrent arrogance and an infringement on the right of the Turkish people to name their leaders whatever they want.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in 1881, and the coup against the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid took place in 1909, meaning that Atatürk was at the end of his twenties at the time, and a junior officer in the army, so how did the Jews of the Dönmeh choose him for this difficult task, leaving someone higher in rank, status and age? Why did they, who are a very small minority, seek to overthrow a great sultan in a vast Islamic empire?
The well-known fact is that the Front of Union and Progress, led by the three senior officers, Talaat Pasha, Anwar Pasha and Jamal Pasha, carried out the coup and deposed the Caliph of the Muslims, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, thus, the Dönmeh Jews, in particular, nor their leader and founder, Sabbatay Zevi, or Ataturk, had a role in deposing him. Where did Al-Nafisi get his claims from, knowing that Sabbatay Zevi was born in 1626, so did he come out of his grave 300 years after his death?
In the mid-fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was going through dangerous stages, and in that atmosphere Sabbatay decided to claim prophethood, and that he was the Messiah the Savior, and that was in 1648. Some of those close to him from the Jews of Izmir believed him and followed him, but he was arrested and threatened with death, so he converted to Islam, and called on his followers from among the Jews to embrace Islam, and they were later known as Sabbatites or Dönmeh.
The question: Did Sabbatay Zevi come back to life to contact a junior officer in the Turkish army and ask them to overthrow the Muslim Caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid?
These historical inaccuracies are intended to attract viewers and increase the channel’s income even if the matter causes confusion to the Arab mind which is already confused, and this is not the first time and will not be the last in recounting such inaccuracies.
I exerted every effort to persuade Al-Qabas to stop broadcasting this nonsense, but I did not find a response under the pretext “the audience wants that,” and that the viewership rate on the program is high. Here, I noticed how naive I was for a people who willingly gave tens of thousands of electoral votes to those who do not deserve, and a nation that tens of thousands of people crawled to meet those who gave up their earlier cries, forgot all their threats to the authority, and swallowed all their pledges. Most of these people may want someone to deceive them and therefore “This is not my business”.
The painful irony is that silence about this matter is painful, and writing about it is even more painful.
Note: The service of Mr. Hashem Hashem, Vice Chairman and CEO of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, will end today, after a career that has exceeded a quarter of a century.
I do not know Mr. Hashem personally but I have heard a lot about his gentleness and uprightness, and he is rightly considered an expert that should not be forgotten.
e-mail: [email protected]
By Ahmad alsarraf
