Days of pain

"What Naguib Mahfouz experienced after the assassination attempt was an epic of pain and resilience. I believe it is important for generations who did not live during his time and do not know much about him to know about it. The story is long and its details are painful, and I believe it is our right to tell it in full. Here, I will not talk to you about Naguib Mahfouz, the great writer, author, and novelist who won the Nobel Prize. Rather, I will talk to you about a completely different Naguib Mahfouz, that kind old man who suffered from us in his final years more than he deserved. The years between the assassination attempt and his death were years of great pain. The pain was not only physical, but also psychological and moral, which was the most difficult and cruel. I will not condemn anyone, and I will not accuse anyone of something they did not do. What happened to him was everyone's responsibility, starting with his being excommunicated and ending with us leaving him to die in pain. As for how this happened? This is a long story that I believe we must tell, not for Naguib Mahfouz, but for history, which will never forgive us, and will never forgive us for what we did to him." Mohamed El-Baz