Saad Eddin Ibrahim, professor in the Department of Sociology at the American University in Cairo and director and chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies

I am honored and humbled to be recognized by this distinguished gathering. I learned of being nominated to the New York Academy of Sciences Award when I was still in prison. At the time my fate was hanging in the balance. I had already been through an arduous interrogation, two trials by Egypt State Security Courts, which convicted me to seven years of hard labor in prison. Some 27 research associates at Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies (ICDS) were equally convicted to sentences ranging from 1 to 5 years of hard labor. However, learning about NYAS award lifted up my spirit. My hope for freedom was renewed. My faith that the best of the best of the worldwide community of scholars do not forget a comrade at risk strengthened my faith that the cause for which I was incarcerated will ultimately triumph.

I wish I were with you to deliver this message in person, but the academic year in The American University in Cairo has just began and I was eager to see my students after three years of being away from them. I want you to know that my family and colleagues at ICDS are deeply grateful for the honor you have bestowed on me. I trust that you will continue to support the cause not only of academic freedom but also that of democracy in our troubled part of the world, the Middle East. I firmly believe that by so doing you will be helping also the cause of peace, justice and development. With less than 10% of the world population, the Middle East has appropriated more than 35% of the world's armed conflicts since 1944. The U.S. alone has been tempted or compelled to use its own armed forces in our region ten times during that period. I am reminded of the proposition formulated by the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant some 200 years ago, that democratic societies do not go to war with one another. You are already a democracy, but we in the Middle East are not yet. So please help us to establish democracy in our region and please do so not with tanks and planes but with aid and trade. Use your liberty to help us establish our own. God bless you all!

Dr. Saad Eddin IBRAHIM