CAIRO: A prospective Iranianproduced documentary on the assassination of the late President Anwar Sadat, has kicked off a range of volatile of reactions inside Egypt.Among other issues, the documentary apparently glorifies Khaled El-Islamboli, Sadat’s assassin. While some Egyptians are ready to incriminate the Iranian government, others cautioned against linking the government to the documentary, especially since such a link could put a strain on the tentatively recovering relations between the two countries.
A week ago an Iranian Islamist group announced, in a statement sent to Agence- France-Presse, that it was working on a documentary film featuring the 1981 assassination of Sadat, to be titled “34 Bullets for the Pharaoh.
The group, which calls itself “The Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs, seems set to undermine recent, and widely publicized, efforts by the Iranian government to reinforce relations with Egypt.
In a show of good faith, the Iranian government had recently announced that it would rename a street previously named in honor of Islamboli, executed for his assassination of the late President. Still, it remains unclear whether the Iranian government is funding the aforementioned extremist group or even formally recognizes it.
The documentary, if published on CD-ROMs as the group has promised, is certain to ignite anger, both among members of the Egyptian government as well as the average Egyptian, and may potentially have a negative impact on relations between the two nations.
Iran has often rallied the sympathy of many Arabs, especially Egyptians, as a result of being subject to repressive economic sanctions and export controls by the United States for more than a decade. Many Egyptians consider the nation prey to U.S. hegemony and biased foreign policy.
However, defaming a widely respected figure like Sadat may be crossing the line. Sadat is generally a highly-respected figure among Egyptians. During his presidency, Egypt attacked Israeli forces occupying Sinai in October 1973 and reclaimed much ground before the United States intervened . The victory led to the Camp David truce with Israel, a move that gained Sadat and his Israeli counterpart Menachem Begin a Nobel Peace Prize. Sadat soared in popularity as Egyptians enjoyed relished their success.
According to the statement faxed to a news agency, “The documentary will feature raw images of the assassination of Sadat and the trial of the martyr Khaled El-Islamboli and his companions. While the film’s essential message is apparently a glorification of a murder, political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fatah, of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, thinks the Egyptian government has to maintain calm in handling the incident.
“Featuring a film about Sadat, even if it is meant to defame the leader is not a political move on behalf of Iran, especially since there is no indication that the government is involved in its production, says Abdel-Fatah. “The film should be handled as artwork, even if it is created by an extremist group.
According to Abdel-Fatah, it should be seen and criticized as art, without letting it hinder relations between Egypt and Iran. “A film is responded to with another film or even a court case against its makers. The normalization between the two countries should not be dependent on it.
Nevertheless, Abdel-Fatah argues that government-controlled matters like the Khaled El-Islamboli street name should be a major concern. “The film is a different case. It is enough that it is done by a non-governmental militant group; this should be sufficient to disparage its quality and the intentions of those behind it.
There is an influential reformist trend inside the Iranian government interested in establishing ties with Egypt, which is a strong U.S. ally in the Middle East, says Abdel-Fatah. “It is in their benefit to retrieve strategic stability with Egypt, in an attempt to improve relations with the United States . they are fighting for that, the analyst adds.
Iran cut all its diplomatic ties with Egypt in 1979 (the same year Iran became an Islamic republic), after Sadat made peace with Israel, allowing working and diplomatic relations between the two former rivals.
Mixed messages are flying on the international scene, however. On one hand, peace talks are currently taking place between Cairo and Tehran. On the other, present Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -following in the footsteps of his spiritual mentor Ayatollah Khomeini – has openly vowed to wipe Israel off the map and threatened that “any leaders in the Islamic umma (community) that deal with Iran’s archenemy Israel or contemplate “the surrender of the Muslim world will certainly face “the wrath of their own people.
Egypt has strong ambassadorial ties with Israel. In addition to business relations, Egypt and Israel regularly exchange agricultural experts. Recently, Egypt launched an economic trade agreement with Israel, the QIZ, which allows Egypt to export products to the United States duty-free if the products contain a given percentage of input from Israel.
Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric is dramatically different from that of former leader Mohammad Khatami who first called for a dialogue between Egypt and Iran as part of a greater initiative to improve Iranian foreign relations and recover its ties with neighboring Middle East countries.
Contrary to his predecessor, Ahmadinejad has been reluctant to maintain relations with the United States and according to BBC News the hardliner is “backed by powerful conservatives who use their network of mosques to mobilize support for him.
It is worth noting that the fundamentalist group in question surfaced in press reports prior to their Sadat-documentary incident. In 2004 the group offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who killed Salman Rushdie, controversial Indianborn British writer of The Satanic Verses. The anonymous group sent their offer to a Tehran daily.
In a striking display of art appreciation, the same group (linking itself to an anonymous ‘World Islamic Movement’) claimed ownership of a stone sculpture (currently set in Tehran) commemorating the “martyrs who bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.
Diaa Rashwan, with at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and possibly Egypt’s foremost expert on Islamic and militant groups, said that the Islamic group could be a hoax.
“There is a possibility that there is a third entity that is attempting to jeopardize Egypt and Iran’s anticipated relations by publicizing this alleged documentary to ruin the two countries’ efforts towards reconciliation, he says.
According to Rashwan it is unusual for an Iranian Islamic group to even use the words “world or “global in its name especially since most of the Iranian groups are Shi’a and those who describe themselves as “global are always Sunni.
“I also highly doubt that the Iranian government is involved with this so-called Islamic group, bearing in mind that Iran is keen on regaining its relations with Egypt. It is Egypt who is disinclined to take this step unless some particulars [such as changing the Khaled El-Islamboli street name] are set in motion, says Rashwan.
The notion of a documentary celebrating the assassination of a renowned Egyptian leader has already provoked reactions on the street.
Magdy Mohammad,a driver, says that the judgment of the Iranian group on an Egyptian leader is insignificant. “We do not care what they think. El-Islamboli is a criminal and Sadat never deserved a brutal death. Mohammad however refuses to blame the Iranian government. Gamal Ali, who owns an ironing shop shares his view, saying that Iran should not be indicted. “The country has many thoughts and trends. This extreme group does not represent the view of the whole nation.
“We all know that Sadat was a man of peace and a good Islamic figure, says Yahya Mohammad, a supermarket owner. “The Egyptian government should respond in an official statement, but in a friendly manner. Then again, those few who show hatred to Egypt could be motivated by
others, maybe Jews.
Mahmoud Mohammad, a shop worker, insists that Iran should apologize “even if as a government it is not responsible for the film. As pious Muslims they should ban such a movie.
The past few decades have been a period of isolation for Iran since relations with the United States and Arab countries became strained in the late 1970s. In 1980 Iran started a war with neighboring Iraq, which later led to a military engagement between U.S. and Iranian forces. In 1981 a group of Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran for more than two months. The country has also been suspected of fueling Islamic militancy in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East.
