Egypt Elections

Last Sunday November 20, 2005, CNN Presents broadcast a report by Jonathan Mann (or does he spell his last name with one n?). The program was titled "Egypt, A Test Case for Democracy." It was not a bad program, and I liked it. I especially was impressed by the four women featured in the program, a University mathematics Professor, Dr. Seif al-Dwalah, Mrs. Ghada Shahbandar and a young woman from the AUC. It made me proud to belong to the same nation these women come from. The funniest (nothing was funny at all) moment came, when Mr. Mann went to a bookstore and asked if they sell Sayyed Qutb books. The store employee came back with a book, and Mr. Mann said something like "and his books are sold openly". The book shown was a book about Sayyed Qutb and not by him.

PS: When the late Qutb's name is mentioned, no one remembers his literary criticism work. He was the first to write a review of the then young novelist Naguib Mahfouz.