The first time I visited Egypt was 51 years ago, when it was still enjoying what was left of its beautiful past, which the coup d’etat organizers of 1952 tried to distort. I was fascinated by all the manifestations of culture, art and creativity, when it was the scene of Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Umm Kulthum, Ihsan Abdul Qaddous, Asya, Marie Queny, Takla-founder of al-Ahram newspaper Taha Hussein, Salah Jahin, Muhammad Abdel Wahab, Kamal El Shennawi, Naguib Mahfouz, Mahmoud Ayman El Alem, Sayed Makkawi, brothers Ameen and Louis Awadh, Abedelrahman Badawi and dozens of others.

All of them were of a generation, heritage and production before the policy of nationalization and the confiscation of the wealth of businessmen and the wealthy of the ‘old era’, and before the transfer of ownership of press shops and newspapers to the State, and the imposition of receivership and the destruction of souls and subsequent waste of money. The monarchy era with all disadvantages was more merciful and most productive in thought and original art.

Then came the second important visit preceded by dozens of other traditional visits during the Muslim Brotherhood rule to Egypt, and I was the eyewitness to how quickly Egypt deteriorated under their stupid rule, and how they ‘sucked’ the remaining blood from the face of Egypt, and how the hijab covered not only the heads of almost all women but also affected their thoughts and also minds of men, thus creativity or what remained of it disappeared.

Creativity is replaced by fatwas issued by those who trade in religion to distract the people after a group of backward, ignorant and pro-government hardliners managed to fully control all joints of the State despite the fact that they did not belong to any aspect of the age.

The situation of Egypt in those days was sad and miserable, and the hope that the stupidity of the Brotherhood and the emptiness of their thinking will reveal them in the end and show the truth of their intentions, and that they have no thought, philosophy or approach and everyone will turn against them in the end, and this is what happened.

Then came the third important and final visit a few days ago, which was preceded by other regular visits. During this visit, I saw how the recovery of Egypt has begun and how the clean blood flows in the veins and to the old face, and how large groups of people have discovered the devastating danger represented by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Almost everyone is grateful for the achievements of the new era, which, if limited to the exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood will be a great and sufficient achievement.

We thank brother and friend Antoine Hamshawi, who brought us back to Egypt and love Egypt by inviting me to spend the best time with him and with his family in the first and second Blue Nile, and thanks to him we will soon have visits to Egypt and to those we love in Egypt.

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By Ahmad alsarraf