Words, words, words!

In the movie “My Fair Lady”, Elisa Doolittle (the flower girl) says to Professor Henry Higgins (her aristocratic linguist teacher) “Words, Words Words……and goes on to say to him “Show Me”. In the same vein I tell Dr. Mohammed Morsi; the newly elected President of Egypt, it remains to be seen that your deeds will match your recent words uttered during your acceptance speech.

During the primaries Dr. Morsi showed rigidity of thought stemming from religious ideology and made some promises that frankly scared me. After he was sworn as President of Egypt he veered to the center and made encouraging promises and invited Egyptians of various genders, beliefs and talents to contribute equally to Egypt and that he is the President of all Egyptians who should be treated equally under the law. Of course, this is music to my ears. After all, “home is the place that when you go to, they welcome you in.”

I am an Egyptian Copt. I love my Country dearly; it is the place where I was born and where I was raised. At the same time,, I am devout to my religious beliefs and regularly go to my Church and pray. I do not see a conflict between these two loves.

I understand that you obtained your PhD in physics from San Diego, that you taught physics in an American University for two years and that two of your children are American citizens. In other words, you experienced firsthand what freedom of expression does to promote innovation. Yes, Albert Einstein said that “science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind”. He did that to emphasize that morality is essential to innovation and that the latter cannot be stifled by religion. Every human being has an intrinsic human worth that is equal to that of others, and justice promotes equality among various humans.

Therefore every human being must have the same value regardless of gender, origin or beliefs. In other words, listening to your talks before the primary elections made me very concerned while watching you speak after the Presidential election gave me hope that Egypt’s future can be much brighter than its past. The question remains: Which of these two Morsis will show up in the future? Upon writing of the American constitution, Jefferson saw how much harm can be caused sticking to religious dogmas in civil affairs, and that pretending to know the “Will of God” harmed humanity.

He said in his first inaugural address: "Let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions”. It is no wonder that Human Beings are among the handful of species, (there are hundreds of millions of known species), who are capable of hurting others belonging to the same species. In this regard we are in the distinguished company of wolves, fighting cocks and rare fish.

Dr. Morsi: I am optimistic that you will be able to steer Egypt out of her self-inflected misery. It is a great honor to be the first democratically elected President of Egypt. I ask you: will you live up to your recent promises in righting the direction of the Egyptian ship after a long time of sailing in the wrong direction or you will take your orders from others? Thereby, Egypt’s deterioration will accelerate further? Specifically will all citizens be treated equally under law, or will Egyptians be categorized according to their gender, religion or beliefs. Will Egypt observe the internationally agreed upon human rights? I have been Chairman and Professor of Cardiology since 1974, and I considered ONLY (and no other factors) the merits, truthfulness and hard work of various individuals and theit suitability to perform the job at hand.

I will conclude by quoting Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar, when he said “there is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries”. I sincerely hope that you will be able to lead Egypt to a much needed fortune.

Lotfy Basta MD, FRCP, FRCPE, FACP, FACC, FCCP, FAHA