• 08:05
  • Friday ,13 January 2017
العربية

You are a “Threat!”

Magdy Malak

Article Of The Day

20:01

Saturday ,14 January 2017

You are a “Threat!”

Nowadays it seems like everyone is getting to the list of “terrorists” or “conspirers” or “a general threat” The most recent is Abu Trekka. Whether the convictions are true or not, is not my point. If it is true, wow, that’s terrible. If not true, well, it’s equally is terrible from the Government.

 

More and more we are hearing messages from the Government condemning people for doing these “unacceptable” acts against the country. I don’t mean to say it’s not serious if Abu Trekka was actually funding the Muslim Brotherhood or not. If he was actually doing that, then shame on him, and what a disgrace!
 
 
However, if this is merely a fabricated incident where the Government is looking for any reason to add yet another person to their never-ending list, what a shame on Sisi. I think the country is in danger of getting worse if the Administration continues like this. I’m not talking about funding terrorists. I’m talking about sharing our opinions, our speech, our thoughts. It seems like more and more people are being filtered so that the media only portrays certain stories that are approved from Government, otherwise it’s censored out. More and more, people are being added to “watch for” lists because they speak their mind, or are thought to be conspiring against the Government.
 
I think that  a huge step to moving this country forward, is to being allowing the freedom of speech, the freedom of opinion, and even more importantly, the freedom to act in a way, that as long as you are not hurting anyone, should be a right.
 
 
We are already facing an overwhelmingly large amount of issues, like inflation on medications and food, unemployment, and terrorism. Why can’t we have the right to speak out without being targeted and labeled as a “threat”? I think this is a major issue that is going to become only more apparent as time goes on. Unfortunately it may not be in Sisi’s hands to change years of oppression, but we surely need to start moving in a positive direction, not the opposite.
 
 
We are faced with many looming obstacles plaguing Egypt. Instead of protesting and saying “erhal” or “get out” we need to think about creating sustainable, logical solutions to moving the country forward. I don’t think censoring the population and accusing people of unfounded threats is a way to being this journey. We are in a very fragile situation, and honestly, at this point it could go either way.