Joshua Mataire

When Che Guevara was captured in his hiding place, after being betrayed by a shepherd, one of the soldiers asked him surprisingly: How can you betray a man who has spent his whole life defending you, you and your rights? The shepherd replied calmly: His fight against the enemy frightened my sheep! Many years ago, in Egypt, the Grand Commander Mohamed Karim had led the resistance against Napoleon's total military campaign. When he was captured, the court sentenced him to death. But Napoleon called him and told him: I regret having to kill a man who bravely defended his country. I don't want history to remember me as a hero assassin. I will forgive you if you pay 10,000 gold coins for the losses suffered by my army. Mohamed Karim laughs and replies: I don't have that much money, but the merchants owe me more than 100,000 gold coins. Napoleon gave him a break. Karim went to the market, chained up and surrounded by soldiers guarding him, hoping that those he had sacrificed himself for would help him. But no merchants responded. On the contrary, they accused him of being the cause of the destruction of Alexandria and their crisis. He went back to Napoleon, morally broken. Napoleon then said to him: - I will not kill you because you fought against us, but because you sacrificed your life for a cowardly people, who prefer trade to freedom. Mohamed Rashid Rida summarized this way: "He who fights for an ignorant people is like one who immolates himself by fire to light the way for the blind."