A Butcher By Name, This Muslim Surgeon Saves Lives Across Battle Lines

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — the city of learned philosophers and a once-great library, named after Alexander the Great— I head west toward Borg el-Arab to meet Dr. Mohammed Elgazzar, who could be considered a torch bearer for the legacy of Alexandrian medicine.

My car passes numerous pick-ups going in both directions, carrying bovine burdens.

Today is Eid al-Adha— the feast of the sacrifice— and these are the chosen beasts for ritual slaughter. Remembering the story of how God commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as a test of faith, Muslims slaughter an animal on Eid al-Adha, recalling Ibrahim’s sacrifice and the importance of submission to the will of God.

It is hard to count how many cows I see on my 45-minute drive, but I estimate around 60. My driver, Ahmed, tells me that a cow costs around 55 Egyptian pounds (around $3.25 USD) per kilogram.

I arrive in Borg al-Arab and join Elgazzar and his two sons there to sacrifice their family’s cow and have it butchered for fattah — a traditional dish of rice, pita, and beef. According to the Sunnah— the life and traditions of the prophet Muhammed— one-third of the animal goes to families who paid for it, another third goes to those less fortunate, and the final third to friends, extended family and neighbors. 

The Elgazzar cow, presently fighting the group of men seeking to subdue it before slaughter, cost around 26,235 EGP (about $1,583 USD), split between seven families. 

Elgazzar makes his way to the front of the pressing crowd with the head butcher and three  assistants. They stretch the cow’s neck out with a blindfold over its eyes and its appendages pulled aside by ropes. With a single move and an exclamation of “Allahu Akbar!” the butcher and Elgazzar make the deadly cut. 

Butchers prepare a cow for ritual sacrifice at The Republic Butcher and Grill in Eid al-Adha in Burj Al Arab, Egypt. Photo by Ken Chitwood.

The slice is silent, swift and the blood spills out quickly. It looks like a poorly made corn-syrup concoction from a 1950s American war movie. Unreal and yet, visceral. Elgazzar appears unaffected by the process. 

After a few minutes, the cow breathes its last and hangs from a chain, to be butchered over several hours.

Elgazzar comments on the anatomy of the beast with the precise eye of a doctor and gives suggestions to the butchers as they make their cuts.

Tiring of the butchering process, we both step outside for some fresh air. As the heat of the day intensifies, I ask Elgazzar about the ironic juxtaposition of wielding a knife to take a life, compared to his usual use of knives to save them. 

“These are completely different,” he says sternly, “But I would always prefer to save the life, always.”

Disciplined, dignified and driven by a resonant desire to save those on the brink of death, Elgazzar— whose surname ironically means “the butcher” in Arabic— first thought of medicine as a means to save his mother from a terminal illness. Not able to save his mother, he went on to save countless more lives as a renowned and award-winning war surgeon on both sides of conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.

Muslim Brotherhoodness: Understanding the rise of the MB & Islamism in Egypt & Beyond

In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood finds itself caught between ISIS on one side and the regime of Bashar al-Assad on the other. Receiving support from Europe it hopes to be part of a regime change and a moderating force in Islamist political restructuring following the end of the civil war. Meanwhile, in Egypt - the birthplace of the Brotherhood - the organization finds itself outlawed again and struggling to even claim a place under the current Abdel Fattah el-Sisi regime.

Whether as a majority in places like Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey or minority in countries such as Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine how does Islamism continue to survive, and thrive, in the wake of significant political currents throughout the Muslim world? How does its historical context inform its present manifestations? 

Last week I was able to present on the rise of Islamism through the lens of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ilk. In the presentation I covered the historical context within which Islamism first emerged at the turn of the 20th-century, charted the ideological contours of Islamism's founders (principally al-Banna, Mawdudi, & Sayyid Qutb), and discussed the present state of Islamism in light of recent political turnover as a result of the various uprisings of the Arab Spring from 2011-2012. 

The content comes directly from Peter Mandaville's tome Global Political Islam. However, I also added some of my own commentary, critique, and additional input taking into account recent developments over the last few years (most importantly, the Arab Spring). 

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This presentation, entitled, "Islamism on the Rise!" plays off of important and relevant headlines from Syria, Iraq, and Egypt and would be of interest to anyone wanting to understand Islamic political bodies and get a grasp of the historical context at play in current political discourse throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and indeed, throughout the Islamic world. 

You can follow along with the presentation HERE and listen below. 

I encourage you to consider the questions we discussed in class and perhaps comment below:

• What are the overarching similarities between the various ideologies, forms, and political programs of the actors we discussed? What are the key differences? 
• Does the Muslim Brotherhood, and its ilk, "speak for Islam?" Or even more specifically, does the MB speak for "Islamism?"
• In The Failure of Political Islam, Olivier Roy argues that far from being rooted in the Islamic scholarly tradition, political Islam is a reactionary movement whose ideological philosophy is rooted in Marxism, Third Worldism, & the broader revolutionary programs of the 50s, 60s and 70s. From what you heard, do you agree? Disagree? Why? 
• Discuss Islamism as a term following the events of The Arab Spring & the current crisis concerning Al-Dawla Al-Islamiyya (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS). Is Islamism still relevant? Have entered, as many have recently argued, a stage of post-Islamism adapting to broader calls for democracy, rights, and societal pluralism? How can Islamism survive and thrive in such a context?