5:00 p.m., Cairo time (6).. Sadat to Nabawi Ismail: Have You Ever Seen a Farce Greater Than This?
Saturday 20/December/2025 - 05:57 PM
When Sadat Said to Nabawi Ismail: “Have You Ever Seen a Farce Greater Than This?”
In the final years of President Sadat’s rule—specifically in 1979—some of those identified with the Left had become sharply involved in opposition activities against the president, forming alliances with currents of political Islam, as all had come to occupy the camp of opposition to the ruling system, especially after the president’s visit to the Israeli Knesset.
At that time, a major campaign of criticism began, led by prominent leftist figures across various fields. This coincided with a plot by the Jihad Group, led by Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj, to assassinate Sadat. The plan began with an alliance with the Karam Zahdi wing of al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya, which later became known for adopting the pistol as its emblem—unlike the other group that had previously joined the Muslim Brotherhood and adopted the Qur’an and the crossed swords as its symbol.
The famous meeting between Kamal al-Sananiri and Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh—one of the most prominent leaders of al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya at the time—opened the door wide for a large number of the group’s leaders to join the Brotherhood. Among them were Mohi al-Din Ahmed Issa, Aboul Ela Madi, Essam El-Erian, and others.
Thus began the activities of three fronts—the Jihad Group with its new alliance, segments of the Left in all its currents, and the Muslim Brotherhood—each planning, in its own way, for the assassination of Sadat. The Left adopted a strategy of moral assassination, while the alliance of the Jihad Group and al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya pursued a plan to physically kill Sadat during the famous military parade in October 1981. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood closely monitored the scene, waiting to seize power in the event of a constitutional vacuum, or at the very least to reap the greatest possible benefit from the consequences of the event.
The entire scene was not beyond President Sadat’s awareness or scrutiny. He met with his interior minister, Nabawi Ismail, and, in his well-known sarcastic manner, uttered his famous phrase—one that continues to echo to this day:
“The boys of al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya have ended up agreeing with the communist boys… Have you ever seen a farce greater than this!”
Sadat understood that, in principle, the two currents should have different objectives, divergent strategies, and contradictory ideas, even if the enemy appeared to be the same. Hence his astonishment at witnessing this bizarre mixture, united by nothing but blind hostility to the regime.
Sadat was ultimately assassinated at the hands of the alliance between the Jihad Group and al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya, while some leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood—who had read the scene early—fled abroad. Among them were Mustafa Mashhour and Mahdi Akef. There, they began establishing the Brotherhood’s international organization, which would later, in 2011, in coordination with global powers and Western and American intelligence agencies, oversee the largest strategic deception in the history of the Arab nation—what came to be called the “Arab Spring.” This event destroyed more than five Arab states, displaced millions of Arab citizens—most of them women and children—and devastated major economies, including those of Egypt and Libya.
Strangely enough, what occurred amid that so-called “spring” was the very same pattern that had unfolded prior to Sadat’s assassination: some of those identified with the Left joined forces with the Brotherhood in a suspicious alliance whose sole aim was to bring down the Egyptian state, unaware of who would reap the fruits of that collapse, steer the course of events, and then deliver the ship of the nation to the shore he desired—not the shore desired by the people who had risen up alongside them and followed their lead.
That scene unfolded in several countries, particularly in Egypt against the Mubarak regime. It ultimately resulted in that alliance propelling Mohamed Morsi al-Ayyat—one of the Brotherhood’s leaders and the official responsible for its political file—to the Ittihadiya Palace, despite the Brotherhood’s most solemn oaths to their allies that they would not nominate a president.
All of this took place through a group of “lemon squeezers,” representing a wide spectrum of tendencies—from the far Left to the far Right—who gathered at the famous Fairmont Hotel and pushed Morsi al-Ayyat, along with the Brotherhood’s international organization, into power in Egypt. They did so heedless of the differences in objectives, strategies, and ideas, driven solely by the force of blind opposition to the regime. They were like someone who gouges out his own eye with his fingers, only to wail four months after Morsi assumed office—especially following what was termed the supplementary, or shackling, constitutional declaration.
institutions and parties, without awareness of history and in a foolish repetition of the very same experiments, driven by blind hatred of the regime.
Today, I recall the scene of the Fairmont Hotel alliance and where it led the country and its people, as though it were unfolding before my eyes once again—reenacted by some youths and lackeys who failed to learn the lesson. And with it, I recall the words of the great, late President Sadat, describing this absurd spectacle:
“Have you ever seen a farce greater than this?”
