It seems like every time I read the news I see news about an extremist being killed by the military. I want to focus today on the amazing job our military is doing on exterminating the extremists and nobody is giving them their proper credit. The military are on a very important mission. They have been working for only God knows how long in that desert to fight for our country. And it seems as though nobody is really paying attention to their work, except for a few articles here and there.
Regardless of what was the resolution of the judge, we have an important question to ask. Is Mubarak innocent? I believe that he is not and not because he really ordered to kill the demonstrators but because he was leading a corrupted regime for 30 years.
We recently heard the news that Mubarak was acquitted of his charges. What I am wondering, however, is the reaction of the Egyptian people. Nobody can deny that Mubarak lead a terrible leadership through his dictatorship. However, as a see him now all I can picture is an old grandpa, needing rest and somebody to make him tea in front of the TV.
We hear bad news everyday. A tragedy, something violent, or some sad news. I would like to talk about whether or not the events that are happening in Egypt are being exaggerated by the media. Yes, nobody can deny that tragic events happen every day, but I feel as though the media is only focusing on the negatives happening rather than having a well-rounded news portrayal. In my experience, with witnessing how the media plays into an issue, or an event, at most times I believe the media can often make a situation worse.
There is too much sadness, too much tragedy, too much violence, and too much heartache in Egypt right now. I feel like every opinionated article I’ve written recently has been in regards to the most recent tragedy, or killing, or threats, or even destruction. Let’s talk about some positives! So, since 1934 it has been pretty much impossible to construct a new church in Egypt. However, as of recently, there was a new draft law in consideration for being passed, which would allow more ease for constructing churches. Apparently, representatives from three different denominations drafted this law, and felt passionately about this.
I think we can all agree that times right now are ridiculous. We are hearing about bombs going off, LITERALLY every day. We hear about protests, we hear about abductions, we hear about violence and killing and chaos. It leaves me with the question, which I yell quite loudly, EGYPT, WHAT IS GOING ON? What happened to the common decency of people these days? Since when is it ok to hurt the people around you? Since when is it ok to attempt murder? Since when is violence the answer? I honestly could keep asking one hundred million questions, but the more I think about what is going on in Egypt right now, the more crazy I become.
I look at recent news and see headlines such as, “73 referred to trial for burning church” or, “56 judges suspended from court” or even, “No agreements reached in Egypt.” All I see is Egyptian Authorities judging the guilty, but what I don’t seem to catch are actual decisions being made. How long will it take for these 73 church-burners to actually go to jail? Will these 56 judges eventually be allowed to practice their profession again?
The last attack on the Egyptian Soldiers in Sinai aiming to destroy not the Egyptian Army but Egypt itself, it is the time to say to the terrorists that all Egyptian is Egypt’s Army. It is the time to put all our conflict a side and focus only on one thing which is fighting the terrorism. The terrorism attack that happened in sinai showed without any doubt that the terrorists get some help from foreign elements, the way they did it seems very professional in doing terrorism attack.
Here’s the problem in Egypt now: the electricity cut? Protest!!!!! You don’t like your schedule in the university and want an excuse to delay your studies? To Tahrir!!!! You think your wife cooked you bad meat? Gather the protestors and paint the signs!!! It doesn’t work like this. We can’t protest without trying to fix the problem with a mutual discussion first. What if the Government is trying their best to deal with the energy crisis in Egypt now? What if the teachers are coming to University and teaching as they’ve been taught? What if your wife just needs a recipe to follow to make the meat taste good?
I’ve been reading alot of articles, and I mean alot, condemning the Government's’ action towards protestors. Amnesty International, especially, among others are throwing Sisi completely under the bus and saying that Egypt has to change and is falling back into old patterns, and should allow democracy as in all other countries in the West. Sisi made a speech, and they were disappointed. Sisi arrested protestors, and they were disappointed.
Before, during, and after Sisi’s visit to New York, all media outlets were talking about nothing except this visit. I can understand supporting your president but I can’t understand the media being crazy about everything related to this one visit.
Can you believe that there are still protests going on against Sisi? Can you imagine waking up every morning thinking, “Today is the day I will go to protest.”? Well, for some people, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, this is what they think every day since Sisi was elected President of Egypt.The problem with Egypt is that the citizens are too passionate about their religion, too involved in their politics, too busy criticizing the negatives and ignoring the positives. In a democracy, when there is an election that ends unfavourably for you, you say, “Oh well.” And wait until the next election and perhaps your party will have better luck.
Ah the "West." The Western point of view on anything is as follows: if you are going to say something which offends someone, it is politically incorrect, and therefore should not be said. For the longest time, the negative stigma associated with condemning radical extremists was palpable. If you said anything against someone's religion, it was seen as this politically incorrect, discriminatory, offensive act. Everyone is entitled to his or her belief, and we should give them their freedom to express themselves. Believe in Allah? Sure. Vegetarian? Your choice. Chain smoker? If you want. It's like everyone walking on eggshells. "Don't say something that might offend someone" During the tragedy of 9/11 nobody even dared to speak negatively against Muslims. This unfortunate day was a terrorist attack. Who are the terrorists? Just extremists, not Muslim, not Christian, not Buddhist, just extremists. It seems that we have allowed so much wrong to happen in the world, that we are scrambling to fix ourselves before more tragedy happens. John Kerry was recently speaking with Sisi in order to build this strong coalition against ISIS, and to absolutely destroy this Islamic State.
Do you think that the worst thing that can happen to us is death? Look at Egypt and all the destroyed families and churches. Muslims pushing Christians out of their homes, kidnapping people asking for unimaginable ransoms, abducting children and forcing them into an arranged marriage. When you think about all of this, do you wonder if that’s the worst that can happen?
How can there be that many extremists? Furthermore, according to the “moderate” Muslims, how can there be that many people misunderstanding the Quran? I honestly think it is the other way around. I believe that the fundamentalists in Islam are understanding their teachings correctly, and the Allah they believe in is teaching them to kill all the unbelievers. The Muslims who are condemning the these acts of terror, I believe, are not understanding their teachings correctly.
America wants Egypt to fail by any means. There were two actions America did which clarify my point exactly. The first is when the speaker of Foreign Affairs claimed that Egypt and the Emirates participated in strikes against Libya. The second is when Human Rights Watch intentionally put wrong information related to what happened in “Rab’a”.
As I was saying last week, Sisi has the monumental task of building Egypt up without any solid ground, without any frame, without the knowledge of concrete. There is nobody to guide him in the right direction. On the contrary all he has are people opposing him, people causing destruction, nature causing strain. Any smart person who wants to build a house, or build a country, would realize that he doesn’t know the steps involved, and have to hire professionals. Of course, these professionals need to be sincere and honest, and not corrupt. That is a whole different story.
Nobody can deny that Egypt has seen disaster after disaster since 2011. Yes, the environment under the Mubarak regime was oppressive, and people were stripped of their basic civil liberties. But even so, there was no societal instability. The Muslim Brotherhood was banished, the streets were safe, the economy was going. Ever since the 2011 revolution, Egypt has been lost, struggling to find it’s way back to peace. Just like any other tragedy that strikes, Egypt was left devastated without a leader, without a stable frame, and without direction. What was left for Egypt so? We were left with anger, aggression, religious fanatics, and violence.
Countries across the world are watching as each of the Arab countries try their shot with “democracy.” We have been in a revolution since 2011, and, in my opinion, we are not progressing at all. Yes, I understand changing a whole country takes time, years, years and years. In the past 3 years however, we are in the exact same state, if not worse, than where we started.
The foreign spokesman for the United States claimed that Egypt used American military aid to suppress the demonstrators. Once again, the United States wants portray the same tone it had used for Iraq, Syria and Libya. The United States wants to destroy the Egyptian army, or at least that’s what it seems like. In my opinion, America is acting in such a way that makes me feel as though they doesn’t want any strong army presence in the Middle East.
Everyday the situation becomes clear that the plan is to evacuate the Middle East from Christians. in 2003 and also after eleventh of September 2001, the ex-president George Bush delcared war against Iraq and said that this war will be the key to democracy in the Middle East. And at this time, I wrote many articles against the war in Iraq, where I witnessed many writers supporting this war.
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Ahram Online visits the Hanging Church, one of Egypt’s oldest churches, after 16 years of restoration.