Adel Hussein (1932–2001) was an Egyptian journalist and oppositional political activist, who moved from

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Islamism Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...

Life

The youngest brother of

Ahmed Hussein Ahmed Moustafa Hussein ( ar, أحمد مصطفى حسين; born 25 May 1983) is an Egyptian former swimmer who specialized in backstroke events. He is a two-time Olympian, and a three-time All-American swimmer for the Arizona State Sun Devils a ...

, founder of the

Young Egypt Party The Young Egypt Party ( ar, حزب مصر الفتاة ') is an Egyptian political party. History and profile The party was established on 12 October 1989. It was legalized in 1990. The Party platform calls for: * Establishing a parliamentary ...

, Hussein became an anti-British activist early and was imprisoned for communist student activism from 1953 to 1956. Graduating in science from

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

in 1957, he was imprisoned again from 1959 to 1964.Amira Howeidy
Driven by hope: Adel Hussein (1932-2001)
, ''

Al-Ahram Weekly ''Al-Ahram Weekly'' is an English-language weekly broadsheet printed by the Al-Ahram Publishing House in Cairo, Egypt. History and profile ''Al Ahram Weekly'' was established in 1991 by the ''Al-Ahram'' newspaper, which also runs a French-langu ...

'', No.526, 22–28 March 2001 On release from jail, Hussein became a journalist, joining the newspaper ''

Akhbar el-Yom ''Akhbar el-Yom'' ( ar, أخبار اليوم, ) is an Arabic language weekly newspaper published in Egypt. History and profile ''Akhbar el-Yom'' was founded by the Amin brothers, Mustafa Amin and Ali Amin, on 6 November 1944. The paper is rele ...

''. Forced into an administrative job for his opposition to President El-Sadat in 1973, he embarked upon a period of scholarly research which resulted in three books: ''The Egyptian Economy'', ''Towards a New Arab Thought'' (1981), and ''Normalisation'' (1984). Joining the Socialist Labour Party in 1984, he drove the party towards a hybrid of Marxist

anti-imperialism Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...

and Islamist emphasis on

Shari'a Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

. He edited the party newspaper, '' Al-Shaab'' from 1985 to 1993, allowing the leaders of the banned

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

to write for it. At the party congress in May 1993, Adel Hussein was elected the Labour Party's General Secretary, and gave up the editorship of ''Al-Sha'ab'' to his nephew Magdi Hussein. On 24 December 1994, Hussein was arrested in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

on his return from a trip to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and held in solitary confinement in

Tora Prison Tora Prison ( arz, سجن طره '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex ar ...

. One week after his arrest, a reason was provided: '' al Jama'a al-Islamiya'' leaflets with his handwriting on had apparently been found under his plane seat. After continuing protest at his imprisonment, he was released on 18 January 1995.

Works

* 'Islam and Marxism: The absurd polarisation of contemporary Egyptian politics', ''Review of Middle East Studies'', Issue 2, 1976 * ''Al-Iqtisad al-Misri min al-Istiqlal lil-Taba'iyya'' he Egyptian Economy: from independence to dependency, 1974-1979 2 vols., Cairo: Dar al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabiya, 1982. (In

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

) * ''Towards a New Arab Thought: Nasserism, development and democracy''. Cairo: Al-Mustaqbal al-'Arabī, 1985. (In

) * ''Normalisation: the Zionist plan for economic hegemony'', Institute of Palestinian Studies, 1984. (In

) * 'La normalisation économique entre l'Égypte et Israêl', ''Revue d'études palestiniennes'', Spring 1985, No. 15, pp. 69–92 * 'Bias in Western Schools of Social Thought: Our Heritage as the Starting Point for Development', in

References

1932 births 2001 deaths Egyptian journalists Egyptian activists 20th-century journalists {{Egypt-bio-stub