6 years ago and before the Egyptian presidential elections in 2005, I wrote an essay entitled "the Copts between the National Party and the Muslim Brotherhood" where I mentioned dozens of sectarian incidents against the Copts since the revolution of 1952 and throughout the rule of Mubarak. After this article and others, I suffered a lot as I said the Copts are suffering under Mubarak’s regime and there is no much difference between MB and Mubarak.
I remembered this while I was watching the incidents in Abbassya hearing about the precious Egyptian blood that was shed, and Salafis or soldiers were killed. I also remembered the massacre of Maspero. I wondered if this is the punishment of God.
You may remember that demolishing the churches of Atfieh and Merinap, as well as burning the church of Embaba were committed by Salafis incited by their leaders, and supervised by Military. People were killed and there was no trial for anyone, but God was watching and intervened in the proper time, as the late Pope Shenouda used to say.
Someone may ask: which side should we support: Salafis, Muslim Brotherhood, or the military?
Shall we support the military to avoid the extremists being in power, though we know that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces is responsible for our sufferings, or shall we support the Islamists who are ruining the Parliament and trying very hard to convert all Egypt to Islam, and declared they don’t like Christians and hate them?
Shall we support Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis against the military, despite their responsibility for our massacres like the saints’ church and Maspero along with many other massacres?
I know that it’s a very difficult choice which my dear friend Magdy Khalil likened it to choosing between cancer and AIDS. Unfortunately, both are deadly and painful.
We’re really confused: should we sympathize with people who were killed in the streets of Abbassya of hired gangs who were used previously in Maspero, Port said and Mohammed Mahmoud incidents where my brother Sheik Emad Effat was killed and many other Egyptians? Or shall we sympathize with those who cooperated with these murderers and cooked a constitution for Egypt based on a sectarian referendum. They made the elections to give the parliament for the Islamists who thanked the Supreme council of Armed Forces during the opening session of the Parliament for protecting the revolution!
Those who were killed in Abbassya were deceived more than once: First, when they said YES for the constitutional declaration in order to say YES to Islam and Sharia (as they were told!) They were also deceived by Sheik Abu Ismail who lied about the citizenship of his mother. They were deceived many other times, for instance: Maspero, Mohammed Mahmoud, Port said, etc.
So I sympathize with the young people of MB and Salafis. I say that only their leaders should be judged: Abu Ismail, Borhamy, Badie, Abdul Maksoud, Abul Ashbal, Katatny, Erian, Mursy, Beltagy, Tantawy, Anan, al-Roany, Badien, Hassan, al-Zoghby, Abu Yehia, al-Bukhary, al-Beshry, Awa, Subhy Saleh, Khalid Abdalla, al-Shahat and many others who are responsible for the killing in Egypt, and nothing has changed, save the Egyptian blood has become cheaper than the time of Mubarak, however 18 months have passed after the revolution.
The solution for the problems of Egypt is to take effective decisions and maybe hard ones against those people. Those are the gang that kidnapped the dreams of the Egyptians and converted our Revolution to a farce in which we overthrew a military dictatorship to bring a religious one!
I pray to God that Egyptians come together again, away from any religious or military leaders. Let the young people of Salafis, MB, Copts and liberals come together to restore our revolution and unite again. Let the leaders of hatred and division go away. I’m ready to be the first who leave the platform for the sake of Egypt. But, I call all Egyptians to wake up before it’s too late. I tell them: If you are willing to avoid the cancer, don’t pick up the AIDS!
