Corruption in Iraq and Corruption in Egypt

When will reform begin in Iraq… and when will the real confrontation with corruption begin in Egypt?

In response to the anti-corruption campaign in Iraq and what has been leaked in some news reports about it…

We hope that it is not a campaign of political score-settling between parties, or settling accounts between followers of the (Sunni) and (Shia) sects, and that it is not a cover for returning to an era of authoritarianism, dictatorship, and one-man rule similar to the era of Saddam Hussein.

We hope instead that it is a genuine reform movement and an awakening to fight corruption and hold corrupt individuals accountable politically, economically, and socially, and to hold accountable those responsible for the ongoing strife that Iraq and its people are experiencing between Sunnis, Shiites, and armed militias of both sides.

So that the national state based on citizenship and true civil governance, free from religious, ethnic, and sectarian discrimination, may return.

Best wishes to the new Iraqi government in its campaign against corruption and the corrupt. As I said, we hope it is not a campaign of political revenge in favor of one group or sect over others. We also hope it extends to reuniting Iraq under one state, meaning that the north of Iraq and the Kurds would be subject to a single Iraqi state politically, economically, and socially.

And as the saying goes… corruption and the funds seized by Iraqi security forces do not represent even a small fraction of the corruption of Egyptian regimes from Mubarak until today. Nor do they equal the wealth looted by just one of the major corrupt figures in Egypt during the Mubarak or Sisi eras. Ask (Alaa Mubarak), or (Al-Arjani and those behind Al-Arjani), and those responsible for drug and arms trafficking into Egypt, and those who sold Egypt’s economy to military generals and protected them by exempting them from paying customs or taxes on the economic activities through which they controlled the country, and by preventing them from being questioned or held accountable even before parliament.

Have you ever heard of a request for inquiry or an interrogation about the army’s control over Egypt’s economy and commercial and investment activities?

And ask who gave the land of the New Administrative Capital for free to a certain company, then borrowed heavily from everywhere inside and outside the country to build it at the expense of the present and future of the people and future generations, and then rented its government buildings back to the government for 10 billion Egyptian pounds annually!

The land is your land, and you borrowed money from everywhere, and you are the one who will repay it. Then a broker comes to rent your own house to you, the house built on your land and with money you will repay, so that you can live in it!

This is in addition to the corruption of selling Egypt and its fixed assets piece by piece to the “Gulf foreigners” in order to repay debts!!!

Honestly, is there greater corruption or failure than this?

Oh man, you who talk about Iraq—you don’t even know what corruption is, my dear. The corruption we have, people elsewhere would rinse their mouths with it before eating… don’t be upset. At least if you start real reform from today, you still have underground wealth (oil and gas) under your feet that you can start with easily and without debts.

But here, the “pashas and elites” have driven the country into debt and sold its resources 200 years into the future, and they are still looking for new loans and more coasts and factories to sell…

May God protect Egypt and Iraq.

And may the Lord of the worlds take revenge on corruption, the corrupt, the destroyers, the thieves and plunderers.