Suleiman the Terrible

The man whom the Pharaoh designated as his Vizir to the delight of many in the West became NOT the "transitional" shepherd they hoped for, but the very embodiment of what is old and wrong about the Middle East.

The indignant Vizir wielded his cane at the crowd and demanded subservience to the rule of their all-knowing Master. He told them that they are incapable of deciding for themselves what the Court can decide for them; that they are unworthy of freedom because they are too uncultured to know what to do with it. As he began to receive a standing ovation from anti-Arab bigots the world over, he warned the 'impertinent' crowd in the town square that disobedience of the Pharaoh "will not be tolerated".

What a shameful display!

Suleiman the Terrible embodies the story of an old elite in the Arab World that suffers from a serious deficit of self-respect. They carry around a complex of inferiority that they contracted from a bygone era. An era of colonial conquest that told them of the helpless inferiority of their minds and the uncivilized ways of their kind. They came to believe that, in the Arab World, to rule is to to dominate their fellow man like a Master would his mule. They went on to oppress their fellow citizens and deny them their essential dignity. They denied them both liberty and opportunity for fear that the 'uncivilized' mind may grow to challenge their authority.

The clock has now run out on this self-hating tyrannical class. After half a century of abject failure, gross injustice, and lost opportunity, the time is up for the likes of Omar Suleiman and Hosni Mubarak.