As I was driving my car along the famed Corniche of the historic city of Alexandria to join the march calling for Mubarak to step down last week, I kept looking—or gazing if you like— at the nearly empty streets except from now and then scattered armed vehicles and tanks squatted beneath the silent buildings on the side of the road and it seemed as if I was driving across a deserted city and not the never go to sleep 5 millions dwellers-city I used to know.
Even when I was engulfed by the enthusiastic thousands in the demonstrations I kept staring at the faces all around me asking myself are those the same apathetic masses of people I almost gave up on years ago.
I looked around me trying to find a clue to who’s leading those people but I couldn’t. I tried to recognize any members of the Muslim Brotherhood group and I even tried to differentiate the Muslim from the Christian but I couldn’t as well. In a rare and brilliant historic moment it seemed that this wonderful congregation of people could only be recognized as Egyptians. Citizenry, a value that has long been subdued and underrated is finally awakening in the heart of millions of Egyptians.
After decades of silence and submission, the people in the street are shouting for Mubarak to get out not only of the country but also out of their life. After decades of inertia and stagnation, the people in Egypt have revolted against a corrupt regime and self-serving policy.
This uprising in Egypt has exposed the fallacy of a lot of arguments and political convictions and at the same time revealed new surprising findings.
Revelations of the revolution
There were considerable assurances that the Egyptians were not the revolting type and that politics was definitely not their favorite dish, there were beliefs that the Egyptian society was on the brink of a blood bath after a long history of sectarian violence between the Muslim majority and the Christian minority in the country and there were assumptions that the Muslim Brotherhood group enjoyed huge influence and support amongst Egyptians but this uprising proved all those assumptions wrong.
For decades, the regime in Egypt has been keen on securing its iron grip on the country by means of deception. In doing so the regime has always resorted to creating a wicked and misleading scenario that was often utilized for domestic and international consumption. The wicked scenario targeted the westerners and also the Egyptians’ worst fears, the Mubarak regime simply convinced the west that if democracy and specifically free elections were to be allowed in Egypt, the Muslim Brothers-Al Ikhwan—would instantly jump to power in a similar way to what Hamas did in Gaza. This scary analogy and being deliberately oversimplified and misleading meant one thing to the US and EU diplomats and that is more probable threats and even more bombs on Israel.
On the domestic front, the Mubarak regime has abhorrently inflamed the sectarian tensions between some Copts—Egyptian orthodox Christians—and Muslims and even tried to politically exploit this sensitive issue to freak out the Christian minority and to guarantee their loyalty and support to the regime.
New insights into the latest bombing attacks on the Alexandria church which took place on New Year’s Eve and killed 23 and wounded more than 90 innocent people are suggesting that the police apparatus of Mubarak had been covertly involved in the orchestrating of this hideous terrorist attack that, at the time, smelled like another Mossad operation carried out to serve Israeli interests, which in a way it did.
False flag operation
Egypt’s general prosecutor on Monday, 7 February, opened probe into former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly’s reported role in the New Year’s Eve bombing of al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria based on Leaked information from UK embassy in Cairo & Al Arabyia news channel [1] that suggested the deadly operation was a false flag [2] intended to escalate the international fears of the activity of some Islamist group—Jundullah—which was blamed for the attack and supposedly related to Hamas in Gaza. Eventually this whole web of lies and spilled blood would be sold to the world as the doing of another al Qaeda’s affiliate located in the Egyptian-Israeli borderline; the thing that would have tightened the Israeli blockade on Gaza, justified the absurd American war on Bin Laden- style terrorism and certainly enhanced the credibility and reputation of Mubarak as strong ally to the United States and loyal friend to Tel Aviv.
No one could have imagined that this corrupt regime could go this far and steep this low as to kill its own people. The brutal and merciless police regime that has murdered hundreds of young men in the uprising and sent armies of thugs to intimidate the Egyptian citizens and protesters and to create a sense of chaos and instability is the very same regime that has been backed by American and European governments throughout decades to keep the so called stability of the region or in other words keeping the western borders of the Zionist regime of Israel safe and quiet.
The Mubarak regime has been corrupt in regards to his domestic and foreign policy which are hardly representative or reflective of the people’s demands and aspirations.
All the international parties who supported this regime knowing how corrupt it was are to be blamed for decades of political deception in the Middle East.
Truth has been obliterated in the Middle East political arena as corrupt policies were being implemented by corrupt regimes. Middle Easterns are not the pathetic terrorists the main stream media prefer to portray; they are people with rich and ancient culture who are only trying to struggle out of the dark ages of authoritarianism and dictatorship. The real terrorists are the dictators who create make-believe terrorism to subjugate the people everywhere.
It is not fair to carry on under this global conspiracy of political deception; it’s not fair to recognize the Muslim and Arabic world as some large training camp for terrorists. It’s deeply troubling and rather humiliating to assess the friendship to the west of any Middle Eastern country by the capability of its repressive regime to prove cooperative in the so called counter-terrorism. After all, that’s what any police regime could do best or pretend for that matter. It is their area of expertise and the Egyptian church blast is one disgraceful example.
It’s absolutely not fair to lend all western unconditional support to Israel or the only real democracy in the Middle East as she likes everybody to infinitely believe so and at the same time stand aside and show the greatest standards of restraint when the neighboring countries to Israel are struggling to grasp their freedom and democracy back.
With the growing tide of democratization of the Middle East and with the return of politics to the street where Israel is most unpopular I wonder what other slogans Israel could use to sustain the western support and sympathy. Even more, what will be the Israeli reaction and the expected shift in strategy now that she has been closely watching its closest allies from the Arab leaders thrown out of Egypt in one of the most dramatic political scenes the Middle East has yet come to witness.
Footnotes:
1. Egyptian government bombed church to blame Muslims: Report
2. Former Interior Minister Habib El Adly Accused of Being Involved in Alex Qiddisin’s Church Bombings
Dr Ashraf Ezzat is a medical doctor by profession. In his spare time he writes about ancient Egyptian history, Ancient Near Eastern history, comparative religion and politics, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is founder and a board member of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina friends society. For more articles by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat visit his website: ashraf62.wordpress.com.
