Sa‘d al-Din Ibrahim
| Role box |
| - Egyptian Human Rights and democratization activist. - Professor of Sociology at the American University of Cairo - Founder and chairman of the Cairo-based Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies |
| Education, Career and Personal Background |
|
Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm has been a highly controversial figure in Egypt for many years because of his strong stance on civil society, democracy and minority rights. His close, although ambiguous, ties to both the Egyptian regime and influential Western researchers and policy-makers have made him a highly debated figure. He caught the attention of the world, when he was imprisoned by the Egyptian authorities from 2000-2003 on accusations of spreading information harmful to Egypt and misusing foreign funding. He was later acquitted of all charges. (See more under: Political / Religious Involvement).
Ibrāhīm was born in Mansūrah, Egypt in 1938. He graduated with honors from Cairo University in 1960 and achieved a PhD in sociology from the University of Washington in 1968.1 In 1977, he was one of the first researchers to apply a sociological approach to Islamist activism. Along with a research team he did extensive research among militant Islamists in Egyptian prisons, the findings of which where later published in an article in 1980 called 'Anatomy of Egypt's Islamic groups: Methodological Note and Preliminary findings.'2 Ibrāhīm functions as a professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He has also taught at Cairo University (Egypt), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Indiana-Purdue (U.S.A.) De Paw University (Indiana, U.S.A.), University of California at Los Angeles (U.S.A.) and the University of Washington (U.S.A.)3 He is a frequent lecturer and participant in various conferences all over the world. Through numerous studies, books, reports, articles published in the Arab and Western press, as well as lectures given all over the world, Ibrāhīm has established himself as a fierce promoter of human rights, civil society and democracy. He has repeatedly criticized the Egyptian regime. This has made him popular in wide circles in the West and he has received many prizes for his fight for human rights and democratization.4 In 1988, he established the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies (ICDS) in Cairo as an independent research institution. In the center's website it promotes itself with these words: "ICDS has its own research, advocacy, and development programs, but it also conducts commissioned research, provides consultation and training services to governmental and non-governmental organizations on issues of public policy. The Center carries out supportive activities related to its objectives, including organizing seminars, conferences and the publication and dissemination of information."5 The center's work focuses on three main issues; civil society and democratization; sects, ethnic and minority groups; and gender and human development.6 Prior to Ibrāhīm's arrest in 2000, the center also conducted supervision over elections in Egypt. It publishes a monthly magazine in English and Arabic called 'Civil Society.' From June 2000, the center was closed while Ibrāhīm was imprisoned. He reopened the center immediately after his release in June 2003. Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm holds dual Egyptian-American citizenship. He is married to Barbara Ibrāhīm, who is director of the regional office of the Population Council in Cairo. The couple has two children. Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm commonly spells his name Saad Eddin Ibrahim. |
Memberships |
|
- Secretary General of the Egyptian Independent Commission for Electoral Review (ICER)
- President of Cairo's Union Social Professions - Trustee of the Arab Thought Forum (Amman, Jordan) - Member of the Club of Rome (Paris) - Chairman of the Board of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for development Studies - Founder and Core Member of the Initiative for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East - Member of the World Bank's Advisory Council for Environmentally Sustainable Development (Washington DC) - Member of the Board of Minority Rights Group International (London) - Middle East International Forum (Terra media) - Transparency International's Council on Governance - International Bureau for Children Rights Board of Directors - Chairman of the Board of Egyptian Enlightenment Association - The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS, U.K.) - Associate editor of International Sociology (the journal of the International Sociological Association) - President of the Egyptian Sociologists Association Formerly - Director of the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Cairo - Founder and Secretary-General of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (Cairo) - Founder and Secretary-General of the Arab Council of Childhood and Development - Board member and Head of Arab Affairs of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategies Studies7 |
| Political/Religious Involvement |
|
In 2000, Ibrāhīm attracted international attention when he was arrested by Egyptian security along with 27 others from the Ibn Khaldoun Center on June 30 and imprisoned for 45 days, the longest legal time anybody can be held in Egypt without formal charges. During this period, new claims were made against him.8 A lecture given in the American University of Cairo titled "How I Spent My Summer" on September 139, might have spurred the government to file formal charges and Ibrāhīm was, subsequently, charged with "receiving foreign funds without government permission, tarnishing Egypt's image abroad and embezzling grant money from the European Commission."10 He was convicted by a state security court in May 21, 2001 and given a 7-year prison sentence. The sentence was overturned by the Court of Cassation, the highest court in Egypt, on February 6, 2002 on the grounds that the verdict was not supported by evidence, the law had been erroneously applied and that the defendants' rights were not sufficiently observed.
A second trial was convened and the original conviction was upheld on July 29, 2002.11 The trial was monitored closely by international observers, who maintained that the verdict was handed down before the defense could finish their case and was too fast to allow the time to properly critique the thousands of pages of evidence that were presented.12 On March 18, 2003, Ibrāhīm and the other 27 defendants were again acquitted of all charges by the Court of Cassation in a final case. The Ibn Khaldoun Center reopened on June 30, the same year. Reactions to the trial: The European Commission, who's funding Ibrāhīm was accused of having embezzled, denounced that any misuse had occurred and in a speech on September 5, 2002 member of the European Commission, Christoffer Patten, stated that "even if the charges were credible, and we do not find them so, these sentences are completely disproportionate."13 The U.S. Department of State released a statement saying that they were "deeply disappointed" by the sentence and that they would "continue to follow Dr. Ibrāhīm's case closely and press our concerns with the Egyptian authorities."14 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said after the first sentence that they believed that "the charges against Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim were politically motivated. This trial falls in the context of a number of blows intended to muzzle civil society in Egypt,"15 Amnesty International also claimed that the "charge of unauthorized funding has been selectively used against Ibrāhīm."16 Many observers contend that Ibrāhīm was the victim of a finely orchestrated attack from the government. Prior to his arrest, he had been subject to at smear campaign by government affiliated media in Egypt. According to American observers "[d]uring the early weeks of Dr. Ibrāhīm's detention and confinement many newspapers, apparently under government influence, published articles containing speculation, rumors, and inaccurate accounts of his behavior and actions. Several reported identical factual errors, suggesting orchestration."17 An article from Middle East Report suggests that by targeting Ibrāhīm the Egyptian regime wanted to send a strong message to both internal and external forces, that democratic participation will only be tolerated within strict limits and even a very well-connected player as Ibrāhīm should not feel secure if he crosses the regime's "red lines."18 However, the article also stresses that Ibrāhīm had for years been viewed with skepticism by his fellow civil society activists for his close, although ambiguous, ties to the Mubārak family. Many accounts of the trial have pointed to Ibrāhīm's insinuation that Egypt was turning into a "hereditary-republic"19 (Arabic: jumlukīyah), implying that Husnī Mubārak is nurturing his son to take over the presidency after him, as one such red line. Another issue may have been the Ibn Khaldoun Center's plans to monitor the fall 2000 parliamentary elections as it had done in 1995, when they reported on numerous irregularities and rigged voting.20 Ibrāhīm himself, in a statement issued on July 27, 2000, states three "unspoken" reasons for his arrest: the Ibn Khaldoun Center's monitoring of elections, giving attention to the suppression of the rights of Copts and the participation of women in public life.21 In 2004 Ibrāhīm said that he would run for president against incumbent Husnī Mubārak if the constitution was changed to allow for direct multi-candidate elections. He stated that he did not expect to win, but wanted to show his countrymen that nothing should be a political taboo.22 The constitution was later amended to allow multiple candidates, but excluded people with dual citizenship from running which applies to Ibrāhīm. In January 2005, the Egyptian liberal politician, Ayman Nūr was arrested in a similar case, which also attracted significant international attention. Many observers commented on the similarities between the two cases and their implications in Egyptian politics, notably that they were both convicted by the same judge who is seen by some opposition groups as carrying out the regime's dirty work.23 Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm contended that they were both accused of "equally false, almost identical trumped-up charges."24 It is also important to mention Ibrāhīm's extensive writing on the peace process in Palestine/Israel and Lebanon, on American policies in the region, notably the Iraq war, and on democratization in the Middle East at large. |
| Involvement in Arab-West/Intercultural/Interfaith Relations |
| View on Islamists: In a study about Islamist groups dating from 1980, Ibrāhīm includes the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood into a category of Islamic, militant organizations whose ideologies share three specific components; the desire for total change; change of the individual and society and the use of violence if necessary. However, in later writings he sees the Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations as potential legitimate, democratic players, and indeed as examples to be studied on this issue: -Since social actors are neither born "extremists" or "moderates", it is reasonable to search and test hypotheses bearing on conditions - structural, situational, or international - of processes which lead to either. It may very well turn that research on the issue at hand could be framed on rules and conditions of inclusion and exclusion vis-à-vis the societal and global mainstream[…]"25 This view contradicts the official policy of both the Egyptian state, which regularly comes down on members of the illegal Muslim Brotherhood, and those of many Western governments, who tend to see any Islamist tendencies as undesirable. Ibrāhīm responds to the Western concerns in this way: -These groups, parties and movements are not inimical to democracy. They have accepted electoral systems and practiced electoral politics, probably too well for Washington's taste. Whether we like it or not, these are the facts. The rest of the Western world must come to grips with the new reality, even if the U.S. president and his secretary of state continue to reject the new offspring of their own policies."26 In another article, he elaborates that the current fear of Islamism only serves the dictatorial rulers in many Middle Eastern countries: -The state breeds fear of Islamism. The important thing is democracy. Call it Islamist, liberal, leftist the emphasis should be on democracy, meaning the government is elected and removed by the people. Turkey is an example. Isn't that what people are afraid of? Look at the governments in Morocco, Bahrain and Kuwait. These are regimes in which Islamists ran for office, gained some seats sometimes a majority but they never reneged. Give me one example where Islamists who came to power through peaceful means reneged [on democracy]. Where has that happened? Nowhere. The Islamist scare is propagated and marketed by autocratic regimes to intimidate the middle class and the West, to ward off any serious democratic reforms."27 View on Copts: -But nothing is as symbolic as the persistence of the Hamayonic Decree, which requires no less than a presidential permit for the building, renovation -- or even the minor repair -- of churches. Of course, no such restrictions exist on the building of mosques. This decree, the remnants of an Ottoman law and the most oppressive of any discriminatory law, is expressly intended to restrict the ability of Copts to practice their faith. It is a monument to the Copts' lowly status in Egyptian society."31 Ibrāhīm's stance has often been criticized in the Egyptian media, on grounds that the focus on Copts as a minority in itself instigates sectarian violence.32 An article from al-Shacab newspaper from 199733 quotes the leftist, Coptic writer, Abū Sayf Yūsuf for saying that the term "minority" is itself a Western term which does not apply to the Copts of Egypt. The article goes on to imply that Ibrāhīm is a tool for Zionism and imperialism, stating that "dividing the [Arab] people is the only guarantee to Israel's existence and performance." It also quotes a Coptic archpriest during the national struggle against the British colonization for allegedly saying "if the English want to stay to protect the Copts, then let Copts die and let Muslims live freely."34 Similar nationalist views have been propagated by other leading Coptic voices.35 It has also been claimed that with his stance, Ibrāhīm was "defaming national unity"36 and being "part of the information war waged against Egypt."37 These accusations were a prelude to his arrest in 2000. They were made years before his arrest by the security forces and were already then linked to doubts about his use of scientific methods and dubious references to the nature of his funding.38 |
|
|
|
Additional Information on Other Issues
|
| Nothing to report. |
| Ane Skov Birk, April 2007 |
| Footnotes: |
| 1 http://www.unesco.org/most/ibrahim.htm 2 "Anatomy of Egypt's Islamic Groups: Methodological Note and Preliminary findings", International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12:4, (1980), pp. 423-53. 3 http://www.unesco.org/most/ibrahim.htm 4 RNSAW, 1999, 51, art 8 and http://www.unesco.org/most/ibrahim.htm, 5 http://www.eicds.org/english/introduction/about.htm 6 Ibid. 7 For this section, see: http://www.unesco.org/most/ibrahim.htm 8 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php? 9 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10148&page=8 10 http://www.merip.org/mero/mero081502.html 11 http://www.merip.org/mero/mero081502.html 12 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10148&page=18 13 http://www.eicds.org/english/publications/books/prosecutionbook/seven.htm 14 http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/12248.htm 15 http://hrw.org/english/docs/2001/05/21/egypt108.htm 16http://groups.google.com.eg/group/misc.activism.progressive/browse_thread/thread/f29eb74418c21744/84c8ea9ee6886bf8%2384c8ea9ee6886bf8 17 http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10148&page=7 18 http://www.merip.org/mero/mero081502.html 19 http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/9028 20 http://www.merip.org/mero/mero081502.html 21http://groups.google.com.eg/group/soc.culture.egyptian/browse_thread/thread/17fc8d0737344e7d/5accb491c413074f%235accb491c413074f 22 http://arabist.net/archives/2004/11/22/saad-eddin-ibrahim-wants-to-contest-presidency/ 23 http://www.freeaymannour.org/ 24 Ibid. 25 http://www.eicds.org/english/publications/saadarticles/2004/whatdoweknow.htm 26 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082200978.html 27 http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2290 28 http://www.eicds.org/english/publications/saadarticles/2005/christians.htm 29 See: RNSAW, 1998, 17, art 5. 30 AWR, 2000, 8, art 14. 31 http://www.eicds.org/english/publications/saadarticles/2005/christians.htm 32 RNSAW, 1998, 27, art 17 and 1997, 29, art. 3. 33 RNSAW, 1997, 29, art. 3. 34 RNSAW, 1997, 29, art. 3. 35 AWR, 2001, 25, art. 3. 36 AWR, 2000, 12, art. 8. 37 RNSAW, 1998, 21, art. 12. 38Ibid. |
| References |
| Biographical material: |
| - RNSAW/AWR - http://www.eicds.org/ (Website of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies) - http://www.unesco.org/most/ibrahim.htm - http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10148&page=6 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Eddin_Ibrahim - http://arabist.net/archives/2004/11/22/saad-eddin-ibrahim-wants-to-contest-presidency/ - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7190043/site/newsweek/page/2/ - http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2290 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082200978.html - http://www.project-syndicate.org/contributor/717 About his trial: |
| Further readings: |
| About Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/middle_east/egypt/ibrahim/hrd_ibrahim.htm By Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm: - Sociology of the Arab-Israel Conflict -Kissinger and the Middle East Conflict - American Presidential Elections and the Middle East - Arabism in Egypt - Population and Urbanization in Morocco - Bridging the Gap: Intellectuals and Decision Makers in the Arab World - The New Arab Social Order - Egypt in Quarter of a Century - Bedouins of Saudi Arabia - Society and State in the Arab World - Vindication of Sadat in the Arab World - The Great Arab Sedition in the Gulf - Family, Gender and Population in the Middle east - Egypt, Islam and Democracy: Critical Essays |
| Contact information: |
| Sacd al-Dīn Ibrāhīm can be contacted through the Ibn Khaloun Center: Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim P.O. Box 13, Mokattam Cairo, Egypt Tel: (202) 506 1617 / 506 0662 Fax: (202) 506 1030 E-mail: [email protected] Or through the American University in Cairo: [email protected] |
| Comments |
| Usual English spelling of his name: Saad Eddin Ibrahim. |
| Position towards dialogue |
| Open and active. |
| Ane Skov Birk, April 2007. |
Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.