User:Eassa

Welcome

Thank you for your interest. My name is Hussam El-Dean Eassa (حسام الدين عيسى). I live in southern New Hampshire in the USA.

A short Bio

I was born on 27 April, 1953 in Cairo, Egypt. My parents and I lived in several places in Europe mainly London, UK for a couple of years starting in 1959. In 1966 we moved to the US and decided to stay. I have maintained ties with relatives in Egypt and visit there frequently. I went to Monroe High School in Rochester NY and studied Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. I obtained my Ph.D. in 1983 and started a career with General Electric in Waukesha WI.

My career took me from the Midwest to the East Coast where I have had several interesting jobs as an Engineering Manager. In the unlikely event that you want more details on my professional career go to my Linked-In profile.

Wikipedia Involvement

I am a regular reader of Wikipedia. My contributions are minor limited to small corrections and additions to existing articles. I feel that Wikipedia is a tremendous addition to the human experience but it has a way to go to reach its full potential.

Issues with Wikipedia

Although Wikipedia in general tries to be neutral on issues, it falls short of that cause in some instances. I notice this especially where Egyptian current events are involved. An example: The 1952 action by the Egyptian Military is referred-to as a revolution while the action of the Military on the second of July, 2013 is referred-to as a Coup d'état. This in spite of the fact that in both cases, the Military removed a hugely unpopular regime. In fact, Muhammad Naguib the leader of the 1952 action refers to what the "Free Officers" did at the time as a Coup d'état even within their ranks in his book "I was President of Egypt". In fact it can be argued that in 1952, the army moved and were subsequently supported by the masses while in 2013, it was the other way around with millions demanding President Mohamed Morsi's removal causing the Military to respond.

The whole tone of the treatment of the events post the second of July 2013 tends to have negative undertones although this has been improving somewhat of late.

Latest Thoughts

I watched with interest the attempts of a new user who appears to be a Muslim Brotherhood partisan to add a tirade against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his government in the Tiran Island page and his ensuing WP:EW with the Wikipedia editors relating to the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir Island to Saudi Arabia. This person's approach to debate is the classical victim/threat approach generally used by the MB throughout social media and their press as well as their leadership. This explains the difficulty that they have in coming to terms with the upheaval in 2013 against their group in Egypt ending in the removal of their President from power and the subsequent outlawing of their group.

In response to very reasonable and polite requests by the editors to maintain a neutral tone and to cite references, he stated that he "knows the facts" and that Wikipedia is in some sort of conspiracy to hide the truth. He/she does not see that his emotion-charged, non fact-based attitude may pass on Facebook but will not be acceptable in any rational, fact-based forum such as Wikipedia. Their attitude can be summarized as "We are right and if you disagree with us then you are persecuting us or a lying traitor or both". All of this makes their inclusion into secular society problematic, to say the least. Perhaps those who are not familiar with the MB now have a small glimpse as to why they have become so hated in Egypt.

'Till the next time.