999 ‘Our People Don’t Like Food, They Like Beans’

Excerpts from Alexandra Sandel’s staggering interview with Osama Saraya, editor of the government’s flagship daily Al-Ahram:

I can say one morning: ‘If you find white people walking in the street, they are spies for Israel and are Americans…’ and the people will go after them capture them, throw them in prison and kill them. […]

The political system is a hundred times more civilized than the street. The street is much more radical than the political system. So don’t believe the words of those idiots… they are idiots… those who say that we are interacting with the West this way, the pressure, that we’re afraid [of the West]… Why should I be afraid of the West? The West doesn’t feed me. I have food here. If I close off Egypt, there’s a lot of food. We don’t have a food problem… Our people don’t like food, they like beans. […]

Don’t believe those who sit in cafés and forums and work with the West. Don’t believe that they know Egypt. They don’t know anything. Hosni Mubarak knows Egypt better than them. He has the army, he has a very strong army, he has a security apparatus that manages the whole of Egypt, he has the ministry of education and health and all of this is his… So why would he be afraid of the West? The West is afraid of Hosni Mubarak. I’m serious, I’m being frank. The West is afraid of Hosni Mubarak. Why? Because Hosni Mubarak is useful to the West.

More startling revelations, including that Ibrahim Eissa is now with the Muslim Brotherhood, can be found in the full interview.

With friends like that, the government does not need enemies.

2 Comments »

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  1. Ha!
    This is hilarious..What an ass!!

    Comment by alif — November 17, 2008 #

  2. He does sound like a completely ridiculous idiot, but I couldn’t help giggling at the distinction between “beans” and “food.” Reminded me of that joke about the Masri and the Saudi where the Saudi asks the Masri what he eats for breakfast – “foul” and then lunch, and dinner, again, “foul – and then asks “what separates you from the animals, then?” and the Masri replies “the Red Sea!”

    Comment by SP — November 18, 2008 #

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