The search For a leader whether #Mandela or King or Even Gandalf is still on in #Egypt

I am really sorry that I do not blog politics as before. I will not deny but sometimes now I feel tired , sad nearly depressed and sick to speak about what is happening in Egypt. It feels heave to write now about a scene that no sane person sees and feels that we are going to have soon a healthy civilian democratic state or we are even on the correct path in the transitional period. You can not stop the feeling that we are returning to 24 January 2011 and that day does not want to seem to end , it is endless and the 25 January had never happened.
Now when I look to what is happening , I see lots of anger , lots of disapproval on what is happening from the current government. That anger as well rejection are among the same youth class that led the original 28 January and it still has no leader to organize it in order to become a real force on the ground.
The media attacks those revolutionary youth day and night spreading lies about them and somehow it pays off as the people , older generations are dying to the return of the old days regardless of the corruption , poverty and decay of the Egyptian State in the past decades. The older generations are not looking for a leader but rather they are looking forward to the return of the Just dictator , the myth we have been living in Egypt for decades in order to justify police state.
The death of Mandela stroke a nerve , it is not about anti-apartheid  reconciliation hero rather it is about the realization that we need a true leading civilian figure to promote democracy in the lands of mighty pharaohs and kings.
Many people in Egypt thought that the man who can be their leader is Mohamed ElBaradei but now it is clear for many also that he abandoned the cause while he was much needed.
ElBaradei is going to teach at some Law school next Fall in the States. This news made many Egyptians feel lost after all the Egyptian Gandalf as one of my friends calls him has left us to Vienna and there is no hope for his return.
His silence on twitter for some time and his return only to mourn Nelson Mandela “not Ahmed Fouad Negm” made many people angry. His opponents of course used it as opportunity to prove how “Un-Egyptian” he was , of course those opponents used to attack Negm day and night too.
Today he tweeted about Hepatitis C treatment unfair price.A side note : HCV is a disaster in Egypt by all measures  
Personally I believe Mohamed ElBaradei was betrayed by the liberal political elite including his own political elite of his party , the Constitution. Only very few members are still keeping up the same principles this man believed in like for instance Khaled Dawood but the majority does not stop from shocking me more and more like FM Nabil Al Araby or minister Ahmed Borai. “The later wants General El Sisi to run for presidency”
ElBaradei has always maintained that he is not the awaited Messiah and he wants the people , the youth to act. It is true that people should not wait for the Messiah but history and reality say that every political or social or economic revolutionary movement seeking for change is led by someone who inspires people and so on.
As I said it before leaderless and unorganized revolutions and uprisings are cursed and we are witnessing that curse in front of our eyes.
The MB reached to a deal first since February 2011 with SCAF as well became Egypt’s most powerful groups despite their ideas because they were organized unlike the revolutionaries with their different political affiliations. The revolutionary political current in Egypt needs to have strong united organization to represent it in front of the society before any other other political force or institution in Egypt.
“Where is the alternative !?” is the same question I am confronted with when I tell the people that they do not have to choose between the military or the Islamists. They can not see the alternative as long as it is not united or organized or led by a figure that can inspire them and give them hope for real.
And yes we are looking for some Mandela or Martin Luther King JR or even Gandalf the grey to save us in the right moment before evil wins , after all the Youth of winter 2011 are just like the hobbits that saved their shire .. yet they are on the verge of losing it again.
I am sorry for being repetitive but I felt that I have to say this .

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A Stolen Revolution Indeed

The statements of John Kerry about how the Muslim Brotherhood stole the January revolution from the Tahrir kids echoed strongly back in Cairo. It is most powerful statement condemning and slamming the Muslim Brotherhood since the 25 January 2011 not even since 3 July 2013.

Now I have two remarks about that statement.

Well the first remark is that I am afraid that the Brotherhood was not the only thief in town that stole the revolution from those kids in Tahrir. In fact all the grown ups stole it along with the Muslim Brotherhood whether the army or the deep state or the pseudo political parties or media or Islamists or even global and regional powers. They are even fighting over the booty now.

Those kids in Tahrir square have spent the past three years between the morgue and funerals fighting the worst despair where as their revolution has been stolen over and over in front of their own eyes.

Those kids do not have anything to do except see their friends in coffins not to mention being demonized in the eyes of the public at the same time they are trying to fight fairly in a dirty war without any foreign aid or deep state aid. Those kids are the best personification of Don Quixote. 

They tried to enter the realm of dirty politics but failed thanks to the older generation that insists to play according to the Mubarak’s regime game rules. The revolution is simply stolen because the Mubarak’s regime has not fallen yet for real. The revolution is stolen because the grown ups whether MB or Military or other pseudo political powers got their own agendas different from the real agenda of 25 January revolution : Freedom , Social justice equality and Democracy as a base for a strong nation.

Now the second remark : Some say that this statement or this change in the American attitudetowards Egypt is because we are returning back to the Eastern block !! Yeah this is what is being marketed in the Egyptian media now.

“We made the United States kneel down” a famous tweep in Egyptian twitterville said today in pride without knowing or understanding that the Russian FM made it clear over dozen times whether during his visit in Cairo or even in his interviews in Moscow that Russia was not replacing anyone in Egypt aka the States.

They are also ignoring the interview of the head of GIS major Genera Tohamy with WP where he made it clear that the GIS/CIA were the best friends even now. In nutshell the world is not the world in 1956 as some people hope and think especially with that wave sweeping the country on how El Sisi is the incarnation of Nasser.

John Kerry is already from the camp in the Obama that supports dialogue with the new rulers of Cairo and he expressed many times before unlike the rest of the rest of the Obama administration as well Congress and Senates that got a conservative view about Cairo now.

I believe that Obama administration does not have any problem to deal with the military on the contrary it is the United States’ favorite type of rulers but there are two obstacles facing them : The official bureaucratic thing of that foreign assistance Coup act thing and the image of the Obama administration in the American and international of aiding that “military backed government” as it is being called in international wire services now while that government is suppressing freedoms after praising the 25 January revolution and what it brought from freedoms …etc. You can not hide human rights crimes easily nowadays like in Chile from 40 years ago.

Another factor also I believe is playing role here is lobby and I am not speaking about PR lobbying company in D.C  hired by the Egyptian government but you got the infamous AIPAC as well Israeli government support the interim government too because they believe that the security campaign in Sinai against militants is in the best interest of Israel. All this is not a big secret on the contrary.

It is not a secret either that some Israeli analysts and politicians believed that Morsi and the MB were better choice because they had control of Hamas but Hamas and MB do not have REAL Control on the Salafist Jihadist groups. “Of course the Salafist Jihadists groups in Sinai turned their cannons to Cairo instead Eilat lately”

Anyhow when I look to the whole Egyptian American relations to be honest , all what I find honestly three parties trying to get D.C in their side in some stupid competition.

Of course the army relations with the United States are well known as well old and complicated then you got the Islamists aka the MB and the few non-Islamist parties trying to gain the support of the States in order to reach to the ruling chair.

The fight is about which party got more cards to play with the States, so far the army control the game historically and strategically more than the MB or those pathetic parties.

Anyhow as someone once told me , we are still in the beginning in the film.  May be the kids of Tahrir will restore their revolution hopefully alone in the end.

By the way we did not Facetime anything as Facetime is not working in Egypt and again the revolution was much more than social media one. We are also not just kids fooling around, God knows how much we feel old nowadays.

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#Oct1973War : The lessons We Failed to learn after 40 years !!

Thousands headed to the streets allegedly to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 6 October War by the orders of the interim president , army , Muslim brotherhood , the Church , parties to the end of that to get the party on or accurately to get on with their own political agendas.

None of them tried to learn from the political lessons Egypt learned in a very expensive in 6 years of war.
I am afraid we are repeating the mistakes we have committed in 1967 and forgot all the reasons on why we made it in 1973.

Let’s start with the media , we got the same Ultra-hypocrite lying propaganda machine of 1967 working effectively in 1973 !! Joseph Goebbels would be impressed by the amount of propaganda this nation has produced whether in 1967 or in 2013 to be honest !!!

When I look to the headlines of the newspapers on October 7 , 1973 and the headlines of the early editions of the newspapers on June 6, 1967 I see that someone had learned a tough lesson. Do you know that people did not believe the Egyptian radio and TV news on October 6,1973 and had to hear the news from Israeli radio Arabic service as well Monte Carlo Arabic radio service !? Do you know that for 6 years Israel seized this to send its poison propaganda in its radio service !?

 Now moving to how people are insisting to involve the army in politics. Of course the army’s commandership denies that it is involving in politics despite they are involved in politics whether you deny or not.
I will not say anything in this point. In fact,I quote will Late Field  Marshal Abdel Ghanay El Gamasy , one of the military men in Egypt that earned the respect of his enemies before his supporters.

The military man has never been good for politics ever. We were defeated in 1967 because the army men were busy with the games of politics, and thus they could not find anything to present in the war field.

I will not say more in this particular point except that the

Making the army a state above the accountability in the state was the reason on why we were defeated in 1967. If there was a true accountability for the army and its commanders in 1956 or after Yemen war , if there was a true accountability and reports to the parliament we would have spared our country and the Arab world a defeat we suffer its complications up till now.

Of course needless to say that in 1967 there was no true democracy or parliamentary accountability but let's remember we had an opportunity to have democracy through the ill fated 1954 constitution. The army is now respecting special status in the constitution to the level that it can not be questioned about any thing.

The pro-army says that the army wanted to protect itself from presidents with bad political agendas but the question here what if we had incompetent army commanders with their own political agenda like for instance Abdel Hakim Amar. For God sake we are speaking about humans !!

Turning the president in to a holy idol that does not make a mistake , that can not be questioned or criticized is another reason on why we had a disaster in 1967. Do I need to talk on  how Nasser was turned in to a false God !? Do I need to speak on how in 2013 the media is turning general Abdel Fatah El Sisi in to another Nasser. No president had that status of an Egyptian idol pharaoh like Nasser and I am afraid El Sisi is doing it again. 

Ultra-Nationalism  made the Egyptians blind leading them to their defeat in 1967. With our arrogance the media and the regime made the Egyptians including army soldiers and officers that Egypt would erase Israel and kick the Americans' asses because we were smarter than anyone else. In 1973 the political and army commandership were realistic and dealt with the matter accordingly.

I write this and all what I think about the martyrs of the 1973 and before them the martyrs of 1967 as well feeling sad that after 40 years we have failed to learn our lessons. Our foolish arrogance and ignorance as well do not allow us to read from our past and to learn from our mistake. Our foolish arrogance and ignorance also do no not allow to learn from other countries’ experiences and history because you know we are the greatest and smartest !!

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How the #Oct73 war Anniversary is ruined for me in #2013 ?

Next Sunday Egypt will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1973 war aka Yom Kippur war , supposedly it should a day of remembrance for the heroic actions and sacrifices of those men who fought this important war.
Unfortunately despite it is a huge event , it is overshadowed by the on going war between the Muslim brotherhood from one side and the military from another side where the people are stuck between the two parties.
The Muslim brotherhood and its allies are heading to the street in order to end the military coup and bring back Morsi as well to restore the army’s dignity along legitimacy to the end of that talk.
The Pro-military supporters and parties as well groups are heading to the street allegedly to celebrate the days but actually they are going to the streets to stand against the Muslim brotherhood supporters who dared and start to enter Tahrir square. 
Bunch of NDPians groups and campaign urging El Sisi to run as a president already announced that they are going to the streets on that day in order to fight the Muslim brotherhood and to convince the general to run for the upcoming presidential elections.
The day is ruined !! I wish everybody stays at his home and uses God’s gift to the humans aka reason for once instead of that group thinking epidemic.
In a nutshell all those going to the street on Sunday care less for the anniversary of the war or the men who died , they do not even comprehend the lessons we should have learned from the war. All those going to the streets on Sunday only care for their the leaders’ political agendas on both sides.
Personally I have always loved the October 1973 anniversary more than any other national day. I always look back how my friends find it strange that I used to celebrate it by reading and watching all the material available about that war and how I used to have this ritual of listening Abdel Halim Hafez’s patriotic songs. Ironically some of those friends now are flying over the moon with the love of General El Sisi and the army now. For me this war was more than something military and geopolitics as well we are speaking about defiance , real defiance of those men who fought despite all the odds and challenges.
Sadly this year I am worried more about what will happen on that day and whether more Egyptians will be killed on the hands of other Egyptians in a useless fight over power.
Amazingly the October 1973 anniversary this year turned in to a gold an opportunity for hypocrites all over the country to do what they are good at and worship Abdel Fatah El Sisi who was only a teenager when the war broke. In fact I am expecting that some of those hypocrites to speak about the heroism actions of El Sisi in the war despite he joined the military academy in 1977.
Do not be surprised last anniversary in 2012 a magazine owned by the ministry of oil an ad congratulated President Morsi for the part he played in the war !!

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Regarding the NYTimes Map Dividing 5 Arab countries in to 14

NY Times published a op-ed about how 5 countries in the Arab world can be divided in to 14 countries by Robin Wright. The graphic representation of the op-ed as a map became a viral in the Arab social media especially in Egypt.

It spread like fire as if that map was a reality , not the visualization of some analyst’s views that may happen and may not. It spread like a fire as if that that was going to happen for real. As Big Pharaoh said on twitter this map in the New York Times would fuel debate and conspiracy theories in the region especially in Egypt for the upcoming 825 years.

This is not the first map of its kind where American Middle East analyst says something similar, if you remember some American Magazine published another similar map during the invasion of Iraq about possible divisions and unlike Wright’s map Egypt was among those unlucky countries that were going to spilt.

I know that what I am going to say now won’t appeal to many people now as fascism is the fashion nowadays along with waiting for the strong just dictator Messiah to bring order and stability to the country that suffers from foreign plots from here and there. We will not have those maps and those predictions if there are true democracy and equality that does not differentiate between any citizen in those countries.

All those countries mentioned in that map scaring the people in their dream do not and did not enjoy freedom or democracy or justice except may be for short times from long time ago.

“The Divide conquer” policy will not vanish by dictatorships in fact it becomes a true reality through dictatorships that spread hate and fear as well racism through religious nationalism , ideological nationalism and ethnic nationalism.

This map can turn in to a reality if the people in the Arab world do not wake up and admit that they got huge problems when it comes to religious sect and ethnic minorities. Of course I do know how many alarms the Arab world has to hear to wake up since the first spilt of Yemen and the first civil war in Lebanon in 1950s !!

Interestingly at least for me that Sudan is being neglected from Wright’s map when actually both Darfur and Kordofan have their own woes thanks to El Bashir regime considering the fact that like South Sudan they were independent from Khartoum and had their own rulers.

The Pro-Military supporters think that Egypt was saved from that theoretical map and won't be divided thanks to the 30 June and the army , well I have to say that it is more complicated than that.

When it comes to Egypt , unlike other countries in the region including those mentioned in the map I would like to hint out that for 3000 years our borders have not changed and we do not have this extreme mix of ethnic and religious minorities like in Syria or in Iraq “for example Shiite and Kurds” or  violent tribal nature thanks to Qaddafi in Libya as He used to favor tribes over others” or in Yemen where the South feels that is being discriminated by the North.

Still I can not ignore that we will be always live in fear as usual if we do not face our problems as we should. We should stop hiding our problems and claim that Egypt does not suffer from sectarian or ethnic problems that truly threat our national security and our future as a nation.

We got a Nubian problem that can be solved so easily if the Egyptian Nubians restore their land and compensated equally and fairly as well treated like other Egyptians.

We got a problem in Sinai that can be solved so easily if you start to develop this desert and change its demographics in the the right way at the same time , treat its locals the Bedouins as true Egyptian citizens not third class citizens you disrespect coz you know they are untrusted Bedouins !! 

We got a Hala’ib triangle problem that we think we are going to hide by banning all the maps showing it as disputed region in Egypt when the whole world shows it as a disputed region. Hell we do not even try to improve the horrible conditions there to make those people really feel that they are Egyptians.

Of course I do not need to speak about the Christians and how they suffer in Egypt and before anyone tells me that this is over and it was the Islamists problem , I hate to tell you that it is beyond the Islamists.

We should not rely on the intelligence and military intelligence when it comes to deal with the religious and ethnic minorities files. As a society we have even bigger and more important role. We should stop those stupid useless reconciliation media stunts.

With my all due respect not 100 revolutions or military intervention can save a nation from doom if its people do not recognize their problems and try to solve them for once and for all in the correct way.
Again “Divide conquer” does not happen in a healthy society but rather weak society and God knows how many weak societies we have from the ocean to the gulf.

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Regarding the Military’s loyalty Oath

I do not think that it is too late to discuss this matter that made controversy and headlines all over the world.
Interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree late last August to remove a very interesting part from the armed forces’ oath of loyalty.
That part concerning the allegiance to the President of republic does not exist anymore. That part was “to be loyal to the president of the republic.”
I was surprised when I had heard the news. Of course all the world consider that move was another example on how the Egyptian armed forces will not obey any civilian president enforcing the military state and political power in Egypt.
Still no one had paid attention to the  history of the armed forces’ oath of loyalty  before.
It turned out that the original military loyalty oath had not had this part before ousted Hosni Mubarak. Yes it turned out that Mubarak added this phrase to the loyalty oath. Some say that Mubarak added to the oath after getting rid from his rival defense minister Abu Ghazla.
As you may know Abdel Halim Abu Ghazla was popular not only among the army but also by the public and Mubarak got rid of him in a big for fear that he would lead a coup against him. “Of course some say that Program T was behind his dismissal”
The oath continued after the 25 January 2011 revolution and of course Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi would not think to change it.
Well ironically the army turned against Mubarak and Morsi whom the officers swore loyalty to it !!
Now the current oath is as follows :
“I swear to God to be a loyal soldier to the Republic of Egypt...protecting its security and peace...protecting and defending it on land, at sea or in air, inside and outside the republic...obeying military orders, implementing my leaders’ orders, protecting my weapon which i will not leave until death...God is witness to what I say.” 
Well I know that the Commander of Chief of the armed forces is the President thus the army should be loyal to him or “her… yes I am dreaming but it will not hurt ;)” according to military judiciary law of 1966.
The Pro-military supporters Of course say that it was a great decision because it liberated the army from loyalty to one person that is the president whom can be good or bad , fair or dictator to become fully loyal to the nation.
On the other hand I would say Pro-democracy and revolutionaries are concerned from that change saying that it would enforce the state within the state notion.
Personally I believe that the oath does not matter as much because we got already a constitution that gave the army privileges more than any constitution in the history of Egypt. I do not think that the new amendments those articles about the army will be touched.
Nevertheless we have to think about the timing of the decision , why would an interim president or rather the army take it now ?? 
In the end that oath can be changed by the next president. Again Mubarak who added the president’s loyalty words ; was sold by the army during the January revolution.
People should realize that the constitution is the real deal here and it defines everything in the state including the relation between the president and the army. Of course SCAF got the upper hand in this relation thanks to Constitution 2012 especially if our next president will be a civilian.
Again the constitution is the thing that we should pay attention to now.
By the way I wish someone begins to discuss without fear the Civil-military relations especially in democratic transitions times in a simple way to the public in Egypt with all the challenges we got now. We need someone to discuss in Arabic too before English as it turned we got many articles and too many speakers about that topic in English but not in Arabic.

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#9/11 : What We Fail To learn as usual from history

Today is the anniversary of the 9/11 attack that changed the World upside down. Of course I can not get over this anniversary when we are having the infamous “War against in terrorism” in Egypt. Unfortunately we refuse to learn from other people’s experiences nor to learn from history .. even our own history.

These points below I believe we should know in Egypt especially now , they are lessons learned in a hard way from 9/11 and what followed it.

• Force will not beat terrorism and the evidence is in front of us , almost after 12 years of the 9/11 attacks and before it the World Trade center attack , the terrorists are not defeated !! In fact why we take an example from the U.S when we have our own experience with the bitter terrorism in the 1990s which I still remember very well. Using force and police state techniques did not stop radical thinking and terrorists.
• Terrorism based on ideology can not be defeated only by force but I will dare to say that you need counter ideologies more than force to fight the radicalism in ideologies that lead to terrorism.
• Fighting terrorism for real should start by admitting the root problems causing it from social, economic , cultural and above all political problems and try to solve it in order to prevent any radicalism in the future.
• Discrimination against others will not stop terrorism , in fact it may breed a new class of radicals who may resort to terrorism to make that society that rejected them suffer.
• History proved that “War of terrorism” was used by the Bush administration for certain political, economic and military gains that used fighting terrorism for a cover and the Iraq invasion is a good example.
• Shutting down media and forcing journalists to shut up in these times of so-called War of terrorism mean that there is something wrong and you do not want the public to know it.
• Do turn monster while fighting monsters. There are human rights according to religion and laws that should not be broken under any circumstances.
• McCarthyism always fails in the end

BY the way this year marks the 40th anniversary of Chile’s infamous coup supported by the CIA. I look to what happened in Chile and I know that there are many lessons should be learnt :

• The West has no problem with military tyrannies as long they serve their political and economic interests.
• Justice will prevail in the end in a way or another.
• Killing and torturing thousands can not be justified under any circumstances.

I am creating fighting terrible fall flu so I am not in mood for long posts to explain each point.

In the end I will quote what Ben Franklin once said :

Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

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My two Cents on The Military intervention in #Syria and Its impact on #Egypt

So it seems that there will be a foreign military intervention in Syria so soon , may be with in days or even days.
I believe that a direct foreign military intervention in Syria is the last thing Egypt really needs now. Oh yes the direct foreign military intervention in Syria will make the public demand a military rule willingly to protect Egypt from the foreign conspiracy going after the strong Arab armies in the region. “Yes there is a deliberate misleading info in the media that the Syrian Arab army is extremely strong army and that it is the second strongest Arab army in the region after Egypt”
Thanks to the Egyptian media people began to support Al Assad and his regime as well his army against the Islamists above them the Muslim brotherhood and Al Qaeda. There is a deliberate misinformation when it comes to what is said and how it is said about Syria in the Egyptian mainstream media.
The Nasserites already support El Assad despite their idol Nasser used to curse his father and Baathist altogether. Of course these are the Neo-Nasserites.
The Egyptian people believe that Egypt will be the next after Syria and Iraq. Simply Now Egypt has got the true remaining army in the Arab world thus it will be the target after Syria and Iraq. General El Sisi seems to be the upcoming president of Egypt  with no competition what so ever now as a military man can protect the country in that critical time in the eyes of many Egyptians especially with the fiascoes of the first elected civilian president aka Morsi.
With the rising nationalism in Egypt and how the majority of people believe conspiracy theories now just like their belief in God , I fear that the military intervention will make them believe that the whole world especially the West is truly plotting against Egypt
The latest conspiracy theory supported by the state “through its official newspaper Al Ahram” now is how the West or the US was planning to divide Egypt starting with the independence of Upper Egypt through the Muslim brotherhood. The military action and what will follow in Syria will support this theory.
Anyhow what alarms me not only the rise of Nationalism/military rule in Egypt but the fact that Egypt is facing a challenge in Sinai called Jihadists and we may find ourselves in front of another wave of Jihadists who fought in Syria and want to return back will find no welcome from the regime or the public.
Informed sources once told that the army had to move against Morsi and Muslim brotherhood when he stood in June 2013 and declared that Jihad was OK in Syria. It was and is still a national security nightmare for Egypt because Jihadists are more radical and dangerous than the Muslim brotherhood.
This scenario of course depends mainly on the possibility that the military intervention succeeds in bringing not only Al Assad’s regime down but also the Jihadists. "So far all sources speak about short strikes to cripple Al Assad only"
 It will be like Afghanistan déjà vu once again. It will be like living a mix of the 1960s and 1990s at the same time !!
As I said above those Jihadists will not be received as heroes from the public or the army and now the Islamists or Jihadists can not stomach the army after happened in June 30th thus I fear the army will not face Jihadists only in Sinai but rather will face them from the West , from Libya. It is worth to mention that mainly Jihadists that fought in Libya went to Syria to fight there including Al Qaeda militants.
Anyhow I wonder many times why God made Egypt in the middle of the Middle East. It is as if fate and all forces of nature are just against having a true democratic transition in Egypt like any other country. Internal factors are not only against having a true democratic transition but also external factors.
I am sorry if I am seemed to be selfish and speaking about my country now.

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Regarding the Myth of Bad Egyptian liberals

I am really tired today. From two days I went to bed after knowing that 38 detainees “From Muslim brotherhood supporters” arrested last Friday were killed in prison transportation vehicle in vague circumstances “Contradicting ministry of interior’s reports” then today I woke up to know that 24 Conscripts were executed in cold blood by unknown militants in Al Arish “No group claimed responsibility and personally I think it has to do with the crackdown currently taking place against Jihadist groups in North Sinai”.

My Facebook’s timeline has become an obituary page for photos of deceased friends of friends whom the later swear that they are not terrorists. At the same time my timeline has become a nationalist political tabloid page full of rumors on how Obama’s brother is a member in the MB , how ElBaradei is secret MB leader and Germany is controlled by the Muslim brotherhood. This is besides the hate and ignorance that make me wants to smash the laptop. I am sorry for this introduction but this will make you know how I feel now.

I am so fed up with that Bad Egyptian liberals who turned against democracy and are in alliance with the military to the end of that talk. It has become the fashion actually to speak about the Egyptian liberals as the worst enemies of democracy who crazy for power. I can not lie that we got politicians who are ready to sell their souls to the devil in order to get to the chair but from I saw and see the term liberal  is not the right to describe them

Well I got news for you : There are not real liberal politicians in Egypt who really understand the true meaning of liberalism except few. Yes there are not real liberal politicians in Egyptians except very few politicians like Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei.

The majority of Non Islamists as well non leftist politicians in Egypt are actually nationalists , some of them are secular but the vast majority are nationalists. Let’s see the easiest example : Tamaroud

Rebellion campaign aka Tamaroud is actually the child of the Hamdeen Sabbahi , the Nasserite Nationalist campaign and this is the top of the ice berg. It is the golden era of the Nasserites in Egypt !!

There are no true liberal parties in Egypt. I do not speak about here about Neo-liberal economic policies , hell the Muslim brotherhood had a neo-liberal economic agenda, I am speaking about politics.

I am so fed up reading news reports and articles from around the globe cursing the bad liberals of Egypt while ignoring the radical nationalist wave that hit the country as well its politicians and activists.

May be the world as well Egyptians will probably know how to solve their crisis when they start to name things by their true names.

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The Speech and the New 48 hours deadline

Ok these are my remarks about general El Sisi speech in the graduation of the Navy and air defense academies in Alexandria on Wednesday. I could not post it yesterday because I was extremely tired for real.
First here is the speech translated in to English 
Now I do not believe that the army or the police needs a mandate to do its job in fighting terrorism and violence. I do not believe either the justifications that he needed that this mandate in the populist way because there is no parliament to ask for such mandate from !!!! 
Already that term “War on terrorism” is open and vague as well dangerous when it comes to human rights abuses. Just apply the law and do your job accordingly.Taxes are already paid to the government so the army and police to do their work.
I believe that El Sisi is trying to push harder in the negotiations with the MB as according to all leaks it reached to the dead end as the MB is insisting on having Morsi as a president once again !! You must know if the MB leading figures step back on this particular demand they could be killed by younger supporters.
It is a deadend indeed especially you got highly polarized two teams , one religiously radical and the other nationalistically radical and here I am not referring to the army, but rather the public that backs up the army.
Both teams are armed, and both believe that they are right and ready to die for it. No one wants to give concessions. 
Some say that this speech or to be accurate that call to the public to mandate the army to fight terrorism was a message to the world that he does not care for pressure and he will bring down the Muslim brotherhood.
Well I am afraid what the world got two different messages as far I could tell from following foreign politicians’ reactions and reading international coverage. Of course Egyptians now believe that all the newspapers and channels in the world are on the payroll of the Muslim brotherhood.
First message that the world got from the speech that what happened is a coup and that the army runs the show in Cairo. Ironically it is the message that the army and Egyptians were working so hard in the past weeks to deny. The absence of both Adly Mansour , the interim president and his vice president “ElBaradei” as well PM El Beblawi enforced the message that General Sisi and the army are running the show.
Ironically VP Mohamed ElBaradei and FM Nabil Fahmy are trying hard to prove that it is not a coup through their talks to World leaders and then this speech came in this way to make their work even harder.
OF course the National Defense council led by interim president Adly Mansour had a meeting and issued its orders to fight terrorism on Thursday in accordance with the law and human rights.
The second message the world got from the speech  is there will be a war on terrorism in Egypt and that war actually is to get rid from the Islamists or rather Morsi’s supporters. The War on terrorism got a very bad reputation thanks to G.W Bush and what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan as well. It has become a synonym to human rights abuse thanks to Bush administration worldwide.
Some people now believe that the Egyptian army is going to destroy both Rabaa and Nahda sits in and peaceful protesters are going to be killed and imprisoned. Of course the MB did not waste any time and spread this from their side. Again they are masters in playing the victim role. “ Without admitting that they are part of the problem and according to eye witnesses there are some armed protesters in both sits in”
The army knew that the world got this message and thus the army spokesperson issued a statement later today insisting that this speech was not a threat to use power against a certain group but rather an invitation for all Egyptians to fight terrorism.
By the way many people in Egypt including myself believe that Rabaa sit in will end in a disaster even without this speech and that call.It is just a tragedy
Another remark unfortunately also the look of General El Sisi itself with the big black eye glasses and uniform gave the world the image of a coup leader not an army commander who wants his country to have democracy. This remark was raised in different news websites  and tweets from around the globe. These small things make huge difference when you want to deliver a message internationally if this speech’s target audience was the world indeed.
We are no longer living in a small country and we can not care less about the world especially while having extreme bad economy in a country that needs foreign investments and tourism once again. I think PM Beblawi made this clear in his TV interview last week.
There were many religious references in the speech and the word “God” was used several times. Of course El Sisi is trying as best it can to show that He is not a secular anti-Islamic army commander as the Muslim brotherhood is trying to portray him whether directly or indirectly.
This can be noticed in the photos spreading like fire for El Sisi while praying as well for the Egyptian army officers and soldiers praying and reading Quran in military bases and checkpoints in the social media.
Tonight Reuters claimed that the army has given the MB a 48 hours deadline to accept a reconciliation.The admin of SCAF official FB page “yes he is back” says that the 48 hours will finish tomorrow.
There are talks as I hinted above and they are not good well.
After few hours millions of Egyptians will go to the streets. Hopefully it will end well.

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My Two Cents about #Femen and Their #Jihad !!

This twitter message summarizes what I want to say about Femen and their Topless Jihad.

#Femen #muslimahpride #toplessjihadday "I do not need patriarchal states or eurocentric feminists to dictate to me!" twitter.com/sofiaahmed1/st…
— Sofia Ahmed (@sofiaahmed1) April 4, 2013

By the way Aliaa El Mahdy is the not the biggest symbol of freedom for the Arab women and she does not represent me. 

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How has the #MB become the biggest challenge to #Jan25 Revolution ?

I wanted to write this post from a long time but as usual I was lazy enough to do it but my dear friend Bassem Sabry’s latest column in Al Monitor made me to write it. 

 4/20/2012 protest One hand to build the nation

I began to believe that the Muslim brotherhood has become the biggest challenge to the 25 January Revolution and its biggest liability ever. I am afraid that the famous group that nobody can deny its participation in the revolution is hurting and even jeopardizing it in the worst ways ever especially with their policies and plans the whole idea of 25 January revolution.
Of course here when I am speaking about the Muslim brotherhood as in Presidency , Freedom and Justice party and the  Muslim brotherhood.
The intelligentsia in Egypt know that the Muslim brotherhood took over the rule breaking all the promises they gave to the fellow revolutionaries whom for years stood to defend the group against Mubarak regime. The intelligentsia also know very well how the MB and their policies are completely opposite to what the 25 January revolution called for from principles “Bread, Freedom , human dignity and social justice”.
The Muslim brotherhood’s neoliberal policies will not reach to social justice nor it will provide bread. We have seen what happened so far to human dignity and Freedom especially with the continuing violation of human rights cases from torture and that hate towards media in Egypt nowadays.
When Mohamed Morsi was elected a president he chose several Pro-revolutionary faces like Ayman El Sayad , Sakina Fouad and Samir Marcus as advisory and aides yet he did not listen to them at all. I do not need to bet that if he just listened to them things will be different. Of course  I do not need to say that he is listening to the MB guidance office.
The MB says that the political opposition forces "mainly from revolutionary faces like ElBaradei and Sabbahi" are working to make Morsi fail where actually the MB is doing the job perfectly. Morsi and MB are the ones who digging their failure grave by pursuing the same dark path of dictatorship in order to fulfill Hassan El Banna's big vision of MB Caliphate. 
Still I fear that the average Egyptians do not look to the MB as a danger on the revolution but rather a product of the revolution. I fear that the average Egyptians will hate the revolution day after day with the failures the President and MB are causing in the country. I fear that the average Egyptians who were happy to oust Mubarak and took the streets will see the MB’s control as a direct result of the revolution.
Of course people do not want to admit that they chose and brought the MB willingly through democratic processes aka elections. People elected the Muslim brotherhood and refused to try other alternative because “ They knew MB and the MB is good as they are Islamists”
I fear that people will miss the Mubarak days even if they were not from the privilege class that enjoyed these days yet they are missing that feeling of state control and security.
From two weeks ago “Ana Asf Ya Rayas” { I am sorry Mr. President} Pro Mubarak page reached to nearly 900,000 likes since its launch from two years ago. The Pro Mubarak/Shafik/Omar Sulieman supporters and apologists are having their dreams come true using all their talent to spread lies on how Mubarak’s era was much better than the MB’s rule and how the revolution is bad.I see daily posts in my Facebook timelines from friends sharing on how things were better in time of Mubarak at least when it comes to security and some how “economy” was allegedly much better.
I fear that people are having short memory because things were not that better in time of Mubarak , it was on the verge of explosion sooner or later. We had fuel and water shortage from time to time. All research centers all over the globe were predicting unrests after Mubarak whether caused because of his regime’s economic policies or because the fight over power between the military and Gamal Mubarak as well Islamists and Gamal Mubarak. Many people believe that Mubarak and his regime were right to violate human right
Unfortunately the MB’s failures in Egypt are not affecting the revolution in Egypt but also in the Arab world as well. Recently more people in Egypt began to see the revolution in Syria as another foreign attempt to bring it down using the Islamists and the MB who are destroying Syria in the same way they have done it in Egypt. I am not speaking about uneducated Egyptians but rather educated Egyptians.
The MB and their allies in Gaza from Hamas are hurting the Palestinian cause for the first time in Egypt. The Anti-Palestinian sentiment is finding a place in Egypt for the first time since 1948. Average people wonder why President Morsi care for Gaza than Port Said. Average people also fear that Hamas may have a hand in killing our soldiers and began to think that the president is not telling the truth. I do not need to speak on how that “Palestinians are coming, Palestinians are coming” media machine is working like hell. Yes they are differentiating between Hamas and Palestine but in real world people do not differentiate.  
In the end the MB has become a burden on the revolution and we have to admit it not only in Egypt but in the Arab world.

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