Two Views of Egypt

Mahmoud Mohamed Boray in Qena wrote the following:

Was it a Coup or a Revolution?  It’s not really hard to answer the question. If you want to know just open the dictionary to find the definition of the coup; you will find (a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially : the violent overthrow alteration of an existing government by a small group). This is exactly what happened in Egypt when the army overthrew the first democratically elected president in the history of all Egypt. In the first of the essay I will try to give a small hint of the most populated electorate in Egypt that voted for Morsi during the presidential elections in 2012.

In the first round Morsi was defeated in the battle of ballots for example in (Cairo, Alexandria and Mounfia) but most of the upper citizens voted for Morsi (except Luxor, which depends on tourism).

What I’m trying to say is that a lot of people are against Morsi in Cairo, but many more are supporting him in the south (where the media is absent). Watch the videos of the upper Egypt massive marches in Qena, Aswan, and Menia.

You can find more cities and many marches from all upper cities and in Cairo, Alexandria almost all parts of Egypt, but those who protest against Morsi can be found in certain areas.

We all know that democracy is the rule of Majority and we can know who is the majority by elections not but mobilizing people in the street.

Why it is not a revolution?

Because it’s the first revolution that the army, police , the ex-members of Mubarak’s party and the thugs participated in and for the first time they were in Tahrir Square as revolutionaries.

El Baradi himself said that once on CNN “we made an ally with the ex members of Egypt Mubarak members to get ride of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Well people said there was no democracy during Morsi’s era and that’s why there were 30 million in Tahrir Square!

First, there weren’t 30 million. That is a lie made by the military council to cover the coup with the people’s will of 30th of June.  According to some calculations Tahrir Square is smaller than Macca the biggest square in the world. People that were in Tahrir couldn’t be a million according to the calculations of engineering.

Second , during Morsi erano channel that was against him was shut by the Islamic government.

Some went beyond Criticism like Basem Yousef in his show (El Barnameg). He called Morsi  the weak sheep, the idiot and sometimes the devil. After all Basem and many more like him were working freely under Morsi regime. Under Morsi regime (for the first time in the history of Egypt the constitution was written by members who were elected by the parliamentary members who were elected by thepeople of Egypt and 66 % of the Egyptian people voted for the constitution (around 20 Million). Under Morsi regime there was a demonstration almost every day and there were so many demonstrations near the presidential palace in Cairo.  Some protesters tried to burn the palace and the guards returned to use water and tear gasses to stop them from breaking in the palace.

In this video you will see the protesters trying to burn and break in the palace during the year of Morsi there were 600 marches and strikes against him yet the country kept going with building new factories and saving some jobs for youth.

Now in Egypt  there is not an elected president or parliament.

There is nothing called freedom of speech as they shut down 10 channels and 8 Journals.

During the Military rule there were 18000 detained with no crime (merely because they protested against the coup). There is nothing called an elected committee for the constitution. All its members were appointed by the army to mend the constitution or to write a new one. They appointed generals as ministers and governors (militarize Egypt) as people call it.

During the Military rule, 5000 were killed by the army , police and thugs.

In resolution of Rabaa Adawiya in Egypt as the army used the bullets to end a peaceful sit-in and they used snipers to kill the peaceful protesters, they burned the people who were there.

The same scene was repeated on Friday in Ramses Square, Mostafa Mahmoud Square, and every single square in all the governorates of  Egypt. In my city people were killed and many were injured by the police and the army.

If Morsi was a dictator, I have no idea what to call the current regime.

The Muslim brotherhood made mistakes, but in politics everyone makes mistakes and sometimes big ones, but what happened in Egypt was a conspiracy made by the army and Mubarak’s men (beginning with the blackout, lacking of petroleum products and gases ). These were all made by the army to mobilize people against the democratically elected system at the End and I’m sure of what will happen next.

REVOLUTION CONTINUES

revolution at night - Tahrir Square circa 2011

revolution at night – Tahrir Square circa 2011

Crystals Gray’s View:

Egypt is on my mind. It is a horrible situation, but it is also very complicated and if one just follows the mass media it is easy to think it is simple. Of course, the violent over-reaction of the military (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, special forces, militarized police) is wrong.

I feel the resignation of ElBaradei (Nobel Peace prize UN arms control inspector who stood up to the US over Iraq), who was Vice President of the new government is appropriate. But some Egyptian revolutionaries do not.

Why? The Brotherhood is:

1) not democratic, as their actions since they came to power prove;

2) the Brotherhood is not nonviolent. While hundreds of Brotherhood protesters have been gunned down, dozens of police have been killed as well. Brotherhood protesters have also attacked Coptic churches (30 or more), Coptic businesses, and even the Library in Alexandria.

In the election that brought Morsi to power, the revolutionaries got more votes (in the primary), but they were divided among  3 candidates. Since then, the Brotherhood has lost support, so while they have a strong organization they are now clearly in the minority.

Most Egyptians fear the Brotherhood more than the military. The bulk of the soldiers are two-year conscripts, which is why the first stage of the Revolution was a success… there were not enough elite “political” troops to overcome the protests….although several thousand people were killed. But, hardly any (if any, I cannot confirm any military, police, or thug deaths in the first stage of the revolution).

Compare that to the current situation, which clearly includes armed Brotherhood militants as well as sectarian attacks on Coptic and secular institutions. If the Brotherhood came to full power, Christians and Shia and other non-extreme Sunni would be directly persecuted. All women would lose most of their rights. Homosexuality and all other secular perversions, such as alcohol, would end and tourism would be drastically cut back.

Reprehensible as the military actions are, it is understandable that most of the revolutionaries (the majority of Egyptians these days) are supporting the military at this point, even though parts of that same military have killed several thousand revolutionaries. The other option is worse.