Ex-president Sadat R.I.P last accomplishment before being assassinated in the middle of his own people while celebrating his best accomplishment the 6th October victory! I re-iterate Camp David was his last accomplishment that completely liberated Sinai and as well Gaza being recognised as an occupied territory more over couple of days ago it was the memorial of Palestine occupation!
Today is the day where we can finally see some justice in Egypt. Today is the day Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to death. What bothers me, is I saw a lot of people on social media condemning this sentence. Saying democracy and the revolution was all for nothing, and that this sentence is in fact the beginning of dark days for Egypt. I am actually quite offended when I hear statements like these. I can tolerate different opinions but to a point. I find myself de-friending people when it comes to this topic. I wish to take this opportunity to explain why. First, I would like to remind everyone of what exactly Morsi is behind bars for. He is charged with inciting violence. When is this ever an acceptable action? Especially come from the person who is supposedly leading the country? He is also charged with incitement for murder. Let's not forget that he is the one who is related to all those criminal charges for acts of terrorism. Above and beyond what he is charged for, have any of the ignorant people stopped to think about a critical aspect of his ouster?
It is assumed in any country that all people subject to one law and they all have the same duty . Moreover, all citizens are supposed to be equal before the law, but the status in Egypt is completely different and opposite to this. There are several states withing the Egyptian state including state of judges, state of Finance Ministry employees , the state of the economic institutions, organizations workers , the State of Telecom Egypt workers, and state of employees in banks. Each of these states have its own laws that are totally unrelated to the Egyptian state law or constitution. They all don't subject to the same system for salaries but each of these ministries and agencies has a different system of salaries and incentives and its method of appointment.
What Was said by the Minister of Justice that Dustman’s son cannot be a judge is exactly true. We know this, but still refuse the statement. Furthermore, we know that all sovereign jobs require certain conditions and are prohibited for certain people like Copts.The Minister of Justice statement only revealed some facts that we all know but reuse to acknowledge in public. We insist on deceiving ourselves.
There is no equality between the people in Egypt, but the constitution states exactly the opposite. Here, a judge may work according to his desires and not according to constitution and law. He or she may classify the people according to their families and not according to their work. It’s forbidden for the lower classes to reach the upper ones and dustman's son can’t look forward to being judges. In our countries, failure is guaranteed for most people, but success is not for all.
I wrote this article, believing that there is no Egyptian Church in the international tourist city "Venice", as there is no Coptic community in this city. So I thought His Eminence Abba Kyrillos, Bishop of Milan, will never establish a Church in that tourist city. However, I found out that I have made a fatal mistake, since I was surprised this morning to hear what His Eminence said about establishing a new church on the name of St. Mark. He also said that the license of the new church took 9 years!
Officially on the 8th of May 1945 or seventy years ago the World War II ended leaving behind bitter memories, millions of deaths and many cities and countries demolished! Adolph Hitler bombarded England to the point London was burnt, France one of the first countries falling victims of the Nazi occupation not to forget Greece, Switzerland and most of Europe who was not allied like Italy had to be occupied even who thought that was safe and ally like the Russians were surprised to be subjects of occupation, and who knows if that war had continued he, Hitler might had occupied Italy too! This is human nature, when you have powers and people supporting you either out of love and because they are convinced of your principals and gaols, or equally because they are scared from you!
The truth of the matter is, terrorists are winning. This may be a bold statement, but I want to focus on the three main points that will hopefully serve as a wake up call to maybe perhaps change our current state of living. It is no surprise hearing a bout a bomb going off, a police officer being killed, new martyrs joining Jesus in heaven. What is surprising is our reaction. We hear about Sisi talking about the fight against these actions. We ourselves have millions of pictures or mourning and devastation and emotional breakdowns. Every time a tragedy happens, we find our selves reacting in the same way. And you know what? This is exactly the reaction the terrorists are living for, expecting. What person would kill 21 innocent victims, and then be sad when they see the families of loved ones crying, and the funerals, and memorials being held? None. People who kill, kill for the thrill of watching the world's reaction.
I lived in Switzerland that’s according to the UN has the happiest people all over the world, and also lived in Egypt that came in the 155 place at the same list. I have to think and compare between the two countries. Switzerland is a well-developed country where Egypt is still struggling to fight retardation and illiteracy. I wondered as I saw the Egyptian people respecting the law in Switzerland and system even better than the Europeans. There, the streets are clean and appealing unlike the dirty ones here. Furthermore, the people u
In the early twentieth century, the great liberal man Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayed, run for the parliamentary elections. However he didn't need so much effort to win the elections; his enemies decided to defame him claiming he is a democratic man who left Islam and embraced the Western democracy that promotes freedoms and pornography. The ignorant people asked Lutfi al-Sayed: Are you democratic? Of course, I am, said he. This simple answer was more than enough to burn his electoral platform and cause him great loss. This story happened in Egypt several times as the ignorant people are being manipulated to achieve certain goals.
There were several disasters and calamities experienced in Egypt this month. First, 500 tons of phosphate sank in the Nile a week ago, which occupied the Egyptian public opinion amid floundering statements by officials and experts who tried to reassure the citizens about the polluted water. Experts assured that the phosphate contains a number of Heavy metals such as uranium and cadmium, which cause adverse effects on human beings in case of melting in the water. However, some Ministers claimed it’s hard to dissolve in the water since it’s a metal, which is totally wrong. It's a scientifically known fact that phosphate is a salt of phosphoric acid.
After the end of the unwarranted visit of Pope Tawadros to the Netherlands with a delegation of several bishops and priests, he is going to travel to Austria for treatment. Then, he will fly to Italy to hold a conference with bishops and priests of Europe in the most expensive city in Europe, Venice. Here, I wonder why this tourist city was chosen to hold such conference? Do the bishops and priests need such tourism and entertainment with the very limited resources of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The conference could have been held in one monastery of the Coptic church in Europe in order to save a lot of money.
To be an Egyptian journalist on World Press Freedom Day (3 May), one must have a healthy sense of ironic juxtaposition. In Egypt, as most journalists and readers know, the words freedom and journalism, particularly under the harsh light of the Al-Sisi regime, in the same sentence elicit a loud and bitter laugh. Freedom of speech has never, in many years in this profession covering Egypt, been a mainstay. But in the past 20 months, while Al-Sisi ruled initially De jure and now De Facto, holding a pen has become associated only with fear and oppression-especially if you write in the political/economic realm. Indeed, as respected Egyptian journalist Yosri Fouda said, last week: “The current scene in Egypt is among the worst in journalism history.” I disagree – in 25 years of practicing, reading, watching and listening to Egyptian media this is, without equivocation, the darkest hour for Egyptian media. But the regime neglects an important detail, just as it plies the journalistic drink with fear it greatly fears the very pen it attacks.
Any one who looks at the political parties today will feel without a doubt that It is impossible to have a sound political life in this situation. We all recently read about what happened with the Alwafd Party and how a group of people inside the party itself wanted to isolate the president of the party for the sake of a reform. It has not only been the Alwafd party suffering from this hassal, but all political parties in Egypt are suffering from different diseases. I wonder how the political parties will enter the next parliament election while most of them suffer from internal conflicts.
I met with many atheists in the United States of America, and was surprised to find the words "In God We Trust" on its banknotes, which was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. I’ve always wondered which God they mean or accept if many of them don’t really believe in God. Finally, I found it responds to mercy and tolerance rather than any other God or religion. In the Middle East, we have so many religious people that the Egyptian people for example are generally called “religious people”; however, we are losing many beautiful human values and morals including mercy and tolerance, and left those morals and values for the atheists to adopt and apply since they have mercy by nature and apply them away from written commandments.
It is amazing to know that Egypt has received support by many states and tribes in its war against terrorism. Yes, tribes are acting more like states with many soldiers and heavy weapons. The state of Tarabin is one of the tribes that offered to help our military and police in the evacuation of terrorists from the villages of Mahdia and Agraa that are considered strongholds of terrorists in Sinai. More than 300 soldiers moved with their heavy gear to liberate those villages and they succeeded. I really don’t know what they did to the terrorists or how they punished them.
After the revolution of January 25, Egyptian media has turned into a great circus that full of ignorant and disloyal clowns. Soon, another kind of clowns that is full of narcissism and inferiority appeared. This naive kind of clowns believed they are able to mobilize the Egyptian people by flattering them. They think they lead and even manipulate the Egyptian people. During the state of chaos after the revolution of January 25, such clowns appeared to deliver certain messages to the people. Soon, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi appeared to change such policy and fix the situation.
I always wondered what is the meaning of freedom? Does it mean to do whatever you want without harming other people? I repeated this question with the great dispute in our society concerning the veil and sexual harassment. Recently, some people called to take off the veil by many women in a big demonstration in Tahrir Square. I believe that our real problem doesn’t have much to do with covering the heads, but rather those many covers inside our heads. Many men don’t wear the veil, but they have many covers over their brains that distort their thinking.
The Egyptian Flag returned in the grounds of Sinai on 25th April that it becomes since then the National Day of Sinai! Our Army force that crossed Suez Canal and destabilized Enemy on 6th of October 1973 within less than 6 hours Sinai was covered with Army forces and Egyptian blood covered its grounds with the enemy within and was the glorious victory that re-iterated the fact that the Israeli Army is the never defeated Army! The never defeated Army was defeated within just 6 hours and the distress call issued to its allies in the States that rushed to save them! No doubts Sadat was the leader that ordered the attack nevertheless accusations on his issue with his commanding general Shazli which is not my point in this article but historically I had to recall him he participated in that war and only ungrateful people will deny his finger prints!
Bombs going off. People dying everyday. New protests. Old reasons. Widespread violence and bloodshed, and tragedy, is now an everyday scenario we face in Egypt. It seems like not a second goes by without some new tragic event. The reason I am speaking about this new way of life is because I feel as though violence, if not prevented or stopped, will sooner rather than later become a part of the Egyptian culture.
I wrote this article after the court issued its ruling concerning the Presidential palace incidents, which turned it into a torture chambers for enemies of the Muslim Brotherhood, I mean the peaceful demonstrators. The event was planned by the deputy of the president, Ahmed Mekky. I don’t comment on the rule. Indeed, the judge knows and sees more than we do. However, the judge pleased supporters of the ousted president by giving Mohamed Morsy this fake rule of innocence concerning killing the demonstrators. Yet, some of them are sad as they couldn’t mourn the beheaded of their hero who could have been sentenced to death penalty.
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Archdeacon Habib Girgis is a well known name in the Coptic Orthodox Church for his great influence and he led educational renaissance in the Coptic Orthodox Church and worked hard for the ministry.