Chicago Tribune: Ahmed Rehab Honors Cherif Bassiouni

On September 26th the Chicago Tribune reports: 

"Bassiouni also stood up against discrimination against Muslims on American soil.

Rehab was a 21-year-old software engineering student at DePaul when he knocked on Bassiouni's office door 20 years ago to introduce himself. He credits Bassiouni for charting his new career course and inspiring him to start Chicago's chapter of CAIR, a leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.

"He inspired me to enter this field with his example of fighting for justice and human rights, which civil rights is only a part of," Rehab said.

Rehab said one of the few times he got angry with Bassiouni was during the Egyptian revolution of 2011, when Rehab and his peers were convinced that the uprising would oust President Hosni Mubarak and usher in a less corrupt regime. Bassiouni did not share their optimism and, in the end, his prediction was correct.

"He supported the fight for freedom, but he predicted where it would go under the current conditions of military rule," Rehab said. "What we could see on the streets was energy, positive aspirations of the people. We thought, 'You live in an old world of defeatism.' In our private conversations, we said the old fox got it right again."

Read the complete article online here