Egyptian Revolution Remembers its Theoretician, Abdul-Wahab Al-Messiri

"Al-Messiri: the absent yet present one in the Egyptian revolution", under this title, a symposium was held at the Press Syndicate in Cairo two days ago to celebrate the third anniversary of the departure of the thinker and writer Dr. Abdul-Wahab Al-Messiri.

During the symposium, journalist Mohammed Abdul-Quddus stated the celebration this year is different from that of the anniversary of the departure of Al-Messiri in the previous years, where young people are the ones who are celebrating this year the anniversary of Al-Messiri, while "Kefaya" movement used to organize such celebrations before. He said that Dr. Al-Messiri had an active role in the Egyptian revolution despite that he died three years ago because he was one of the most important leaders of the "Kefaya" movement against Mubarak’s rule, and because he brought together academic science and political movement and activism in the street. Therefore, Al-Messiri had a great impact on many successive generations, including the generation of this Egyptian revolution.

Kerim Zaytoun and Anas Malik explained that an interactive online conference has been organized over four days to commemorate and celebrate the works and ideas of Al-Messiri, in which a number of the students of Dr. Al-Messiri participated, including Dr. Heba Raouf Ezzat and Dr. Mohammed Hisham and others.

Mazen Al-Najjar, added that Dr. Al-Messiri was perhaps the most important thinker over the past decade among the various thinkers and intellectuals in the Arab World. He said that the number of readers of Al-Messiri have doubled dozens of times during the last three years since the departure of Al-Messiri. Mazen Al-Najjar said that Al-Messiri did not present only ideas, but he fought on many fronts, and was walking at the forefront of the rows in the protest movements and with "Kefaya" despite his difficult health conditions.

Dr. Seif Abdel-Fattah spoke about the Al-Messiri as a great revolutionary thinker and theoretician, and he said that there is no current intellectual or politician who does not recognize the impact of Al-Messiri in his intellectual knowledge, be that person from the left or the right, as Al-Messiri represented the mainstream in Egypt.

 
Seif Abdel-Fattah said that he sees a significant link between the late Dr. Hamid Rabei and Dr. Al-Messiri. He said that both were models for the struggling academician and intellectuals – a rare formula to find these days. He said that these revolutions now seen in the Arab World cannot be successful without a revolution of thought and knowledge, and Al-Messiri gave momentum to these revolutions through his thoughts, especially the Egyptian one. Al-Messiri was carrying the concerns of this revolution, and applied his intellectual knowledge to serve that end, he said.

 
Dr. Essam El-Erian, FJP Vice-Chairman, described himself as a student at the school of Al-Messiri. El-Erian said that after a long absence in prison, he found his friends giving him Al-Messiri’s encyclopedia in eight volumes, which pleased him very much. El-Erian said that Al-Messiri’s approach in thinking and perception and his knowledge will remain among us and thus Al-Messiri remains.

From Kefaya movement, Mohammed Al-Ashkar spoke about Dr. Al-Messiri, saying that it goes without saying that Al-Messiri and his journey and his cultural struggle have been greatly covered so far. Still, he said that it is still necessary to talk about the resistance journey and the political struggle Al-Messiri.
Dr. Abdel Halim Qandil also spoke and said that talking using the language of the past about Abdel-Wahab Al-Messiri is not appropriate. He said that Al-Messiri is a rare example of matching between words and deeds – and this has a great value.

Ayman Abdel-Rahim, from the team of " Maarafah," said that the real victory for a thinker is not to keep his thoughts left cold and stagnant, but to turn this knowledge into real live humans who would carry this thought and live with it – because the abstract ideas do not live by themselves, and the thoughts of Al-Messiri have lived and will continue to live with us as long as these ideas became made of people in flesh and blood living and breathing these ideas. He said that Al-Messiri was interested mainly in the ideas of sociology of knowledge. He left a generation interested in the knowledge and living by his ideas.