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Witchcraft, Politics, and Power: a Comparative Analysis of Hosni Mubarak As a Modern Day Macbeth*

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Witchcraft, Politics, and Power: a Comparative Analysis of Hosni Mubarak As a Modern Day Macbeth* |한국중동학회논총|제36권 제2호 [2015. 10]: 133~155 Witchcraft, Politics, and Power: A Comparative Analysis of Hosni Mubarak as a Modern Day Macbeth* | Mohamed Elaskary**| 모하메드 엘아스카리 마법, 정치, 정권 : 현대의 맥베스와 같은 호스니 무바라크의 비교 분석 최근 수 십년을 뒤돌아볼 때, 주류 아프리카 문화에서 맥베스와 같은 사람을 찾는 것은 어렵지 않다. 이 글은 최근 이집트에서 생긴 사건들에 의해 동기를 부여받았는데, 이 사건들은 마법과 영의 세계, 그리고 그들의 정치와 권력에서의 역할의 맥락 속에 있다. 이러한 시도에서, 이 글은 이집트 통치자였던 호스니 무바라크와 비교되는 맥베스를 주연으로 하는 셰익스피어 비극과 유사하다. 주 목표는 맥베스와 무바라크의 가족들 사이를 비교하는 것이다. 이와 관련하여 두 가족 사이에는 근본적인 공통점이 있다: 그들의 왕좌 세습과 그들의 몰락, 그리고 비극적인 결말이 그것이다. 나는 무바라크가 포스트모던 시기의 새로운 역사의 관점에서 현대 비극의 영웅으로서 보여질 수 있다고 주장한다. 맥베스와 무바라크 두 사람 모두 권력과 야망, 사기 그리고 살인과 같은 선행한 비극을 가져온다. 그들은 권력을 얻고 유지하고자 하는 시도에 의한 몰락을 경험한다. 이와 유사하게, 몇 세대 동안 모든 나라에 마녀들과 마법을 믿는 사람들이 * This paper is supported by the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund for 2015/2016. ** Assistant Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, E-mail: [email protected] 134 |한국중동학회논총| 제36권 제2호 [2015. 10] 존재해왔다. 셰익스피어의 영역에 있는 사람들도 다르지 않다. 그는 그의 시대에 있었던 대중적인 전통들을 끌어와 그의 목적을 위해 활용했다. 맥베스에서, 그는 마녀와 마법에 관한 대중적인 믿음을 사용했다. 이 글은 맥베스와 이집트 전 대통령인 호스니 무바라크 둘 다 권력을 획득하고 유지하기 위해 요구되는 모든 일을 기꺼이 했다고 주장한다. 그 두 사람은 권력에 목말랐던 것이다. 두 리더 모두 그들의 커리어를 영웅으로서 시작했지만 나중에는 그들의 야망이 그들의 판단을 흐리게 만들었다. [주제어: 아랍의 봄, 독재, 정령, 쿠프르, 맥베스, 무바라크, 마법] I. Introduction Civil war, political repression would assuredly create threats and stress that can exacerbate witchcraft allegations (Schnoebelen 2009, 3). Perlmutter (2013, 74) says: “Conversely, political leaders, including Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, have employed magical beliefs to advance their political agendas.” He adds: Belief in witchcraft, sorcery, magic, ghosts, and demons is widespread and pervasive throughout the Muslim world (Perlmutter 2013, 74). Perlmutter claims that some Muslim leaders allude to possessing supernatural powers in order to self-aggrandize. He gives an example of the then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who told followers in 2005 that he “was surrounded by a halo of light during a speech to the U.N General Assembly, in which the foreign leaders in the hall were transfixed, unable to blink for half hours”.(2013, 77) Perlmutter (2013, 78), quoting The Guardian, (London, Jan.27, 2010); and ABC News, Jan.29, 2010 says: “Whether to appease a superstitious people or out of sincerely-held belief, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari sacrifices a black goat nearly every day to ward off the evil eye and provide protection from black magic. A superstitious population presents numerous opportunities to | Mohamed Elaskary| Witchcraft, Politics, and Power | 135 communicate fear, apprehension, or awe and to exert influence. II. Foreshadowing Witchcraft Past and present, peoples through the world believed in and practiced witchcraft, with dissimilar degrees of course. Elizabethans had strong beliefs in witchcraft and the world of magicians and it is no secret that Queen Elizabeth I used to consult a conjurer. Similarly, there is an overwhelming belief in witchcraft in the majority of African societies. Such beliefs are not only held by adherents of the indigenous religions but also by many Muslims and Christians, illiterates and highly educated persons alike (Umar 1999, 170). African communities hold human agents accountable for almost all human problems, both communal and private (Westerlund 1989, 22). In African communities, it is believed that the witches attack more progressive and established persons in society. In the past, elderly women with ugly wrinkled skin were more likely to be accused of witchcraft, the kind of imagery then we get from Macbeth. Geschiere (1997, 69) says in some communities in Africa, illness, misfortune, and sin are interpreted in terms of witchcraft. Umar (1999, 171) argues that a witch is a person who kills and eats the human soul, spirit or flesh spiritually, causing the victim to die physically while Ashforth (1998, 64) says that witchcraft beliefs vary among cultures, but provides his observation that witchcraft is harmful actions carried out by persons presumed to have access to supernatural powers. Perlmutter (2013, 75) states that in Egypt, Khalil Fadel, a prominent Egyptian psychiatrist, claimed that many Egyptians, including the highly-educated, were spending large amounts of money on sorcery and superstition and warned that growing superstition among Egyptians was threatening the country’s national security, 136 |한국중동학회논총| 제36권 제2호 [2015. 10] dependent as it was on the mental health of the nation. In spite of the fact witchcraft (actually anything related to the world of magic and magicians) is not allowed in Islam, the practice of what can be termed Islamic magic is prevalent in many parts of the Muslim world. This has been manifested in the theological concept of jinn, as inhabiting the entire sphere of the Muslim occult (Perlmutter 2013: 74). Even if Hosni Mubarak consulted fortune-tellers, this is considered a devilish act which is not permitted in Islam because it involves seeking the help of the devils (shayaateen). This is something that is haram, because it involves seeking the help of the devils, and because it stirs up enmity between the people, and spreads fear and mistrust among them, so it comes under the verse in which Allah says “And verily, there were men amongst mankind who took shelter with the males among the jinn, but they (jinn) increased them (mankind) in sin and transgression” [al-Jinn 72: 6]. It is not permissible to seek the help of the jinn in order to find out what has been done and how it should be treated, because seeking the help of the jinn is shirk, an act of polytheism. Allah says: And on the Day when He will gather them (all) together (and say): ‘O you assembly of jinn! Many did you mislead of men, ‘and their Awliyaa’ (friends and helpers) amongst men will say: ‘Or Lord! We benefited one from the other, but now we have reached our appointed term which You did appoint for us. He will say: ‘The Fire be your dwelling place, you will dwell therein forever, except as Allah may will. Certainly your Lord is All wise, All Knowing”. [al-An‘aam 6:128] | Mohamed Elaskary| Witchcraft, Politics, and Power | 137 The Muslim must, above all else, arm himself with strong faith and righteous deeds, for this is the best provision he may have and the best means of foiling the schemes of the devils among mankind and the jinn. Sihr (witchcraft or magic) involving the use of jinn is not permissible in Islam. It is forbidden to go to soothsayers and ask for their help/advice. III. The Macbeths and the Mubaraks In the introduction of the Collins Classics 2010 edition of Macbeth, we read: Some aspects of the Macbeth story have been horribly familiar in the course of the history of our own century. Several modern dictators have begun as brave soldiers and ended as crazy destroyers, so that the line between legitimate warfare and powers-hungry violence has become very blurred indeed. Psychologists have shown us that, behind seemingly straightforward human motives, good or bad, there are often extremely complicated emotions and intentions… [That is why this play] still exerts a great fascination on audiences and readers all over the world. (Macbeth, p. 1) This is typical of the play we discuss in this paper, Macbeth. The similarities between the Macbeths and the Mubaraks are striking. Macbeth and Mubarak were two military leaders whose ambition and strong beliefs in witchcraft led them to their downfall. Soon after coming back from the battle against the rebellious Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth meets The Three Witches who tell him that he will be a king. In a similar vein, in a military tour in Sudan in 1959, Mubarak meets a fortune-teller who tells him that he will the President of Egypt. Like Macbeth, Mubarak came to have 138 |한국중동학회논총| 제36권 제2호 [2015. 10] solid belief in and affiliation with the world of witchcraft. If Macbeth went for a second time to consult the witches about his future, Mubarak is said to have done the same. In 1982, Boutros Boutros-Ghali (the then Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs) brought a French fortune-teller to Mubarak, who was on an official visit to France at that time, and she told him that he will assassinated in the same year he would elect his deputy; that is why Mubarak has never appointed one and he even rejected a request by his advisers to appoint his son Gamal as his deputy.1 After the January 2011 Egyptian revolution (known as Arab Spring), Mubarak asked for a fortune-teller to be brought to him when he was in hospital and in fact Sheikha Om Majed (an Egyptian Bedouin fortune-teller) visited the ousted president in the hospital and gave him counsel on 26/04/2011 assuring him that he will be back to power.2 Thus, prophecy and magic played an essential role in the downfall of both Macbeth and Mubarak. When it comes to Lady Macbeth and Suzane Mubarak, it is clear that they played a significant role in the ruin of their husbands. Though Macbeth hesitated to kill the king (because he is his guest, kinsman and king), it is Lady Macbeth who pushed her husband to proceed with their mutual plan to get rid of the king. Similarly, Suzane Mubarak is said to have had a considerable influence on Mubarak by encouraging him to work very hard to secure a place for their elder son, Gamal, as an heir to his father to the throne of Egypt, i.e.
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