Are Police Voting for Shafik?

Here are the links to all news items indicating that the police are implicated in voting for Shafik.

El Badil - Dead people among voters and conscripts voting in Mounofeya
 عيون مصر: أسماء متوفين بكشوف الناخبين.. وتصويت مجندين بالمنوفية وتوجيه ناخبين لاختيار شفيق | البديل

Tahrir News - 3 Police personnel found voting in Gharbeya
 ضبط 3 من عناصر الشرطة خلال قيامهم بالتصويت بإحدى اللجان الانتخابية بالغربية - التحرير

Al Yom 7  - Officer filing complaint saying 900 thousand police conscripts voted for Shafik
اليوم السابع | بلاغ يتهم ضباطاً باستخراج 900 ألف بطاقة لأفراد شرطة للتصويت لشفيق

ONA News Agency - Amr Moussa campaign asks for investigations over 900 thousand conscripts voting
 حملة موسى: تطالب بالتحقيق فى تصويت 900 ألف مجند بالجيزة في الجولة الأولى من انتخابات الرئاسة | 

Shorouk News - Baggato says CDs indicate that army and police conscripts are in the voter lists
صوت بلادي - بجاتو: تلقيت «سيديهات» تثبت وجود مجندين وضباط شرطة وجيش في قوائم الناخبين :: بوابة الشروق :: نسخة الموبايل ::

Ahmed Abdel Aleem - Facebook note with an account of fake voters added in so that elections are rigged.
كلام خطير جدا...

Update: Worker's Party website supports Ahmed Abdel Aleem's story:
شفيق نجح بملايين الأصوات الوهمية التى أضيفت لجداول الناخبين .. ونور عبد الصمد حذر من ذلك وقدم بلاغا للنائب العام  ونشرنا ذلك  فى 2 مايو الحالى

Combine all that with finding a name 50 times in the voting roster

Ahram Online -  A voter in one of the polling stations in the Nile Delta Gharbiya governorate found his name listed on the voting roster more than 50 times. Cases of voters' who were registered in multiple entries on voting lists were a recurrent phenomenon during past parliamentary elections.

And with possible fraud in the NY Consulate

Update
April 6 reports confirm that policemen not only have been directing voters to vote Shafik but also voting themselves:
Report 1: April 6 Youth movement
Report 2: April 6 Youth movement

Twitter User: @newegyptian
Colleague whose brother is in army said he'd been released to vote. When i asked for who she realized mistake & clammed up.

Update II
The Carter Center's Preliminary Statement states that:

"Witnesses reported that presiding judges received a supplementary voters’ list at the opening of the
polls. The PEC advised The Carter Center that these supplementary lists included the names of
security forces staff that were received after the voters’ lists had been prepared, and were sent to all
polling stations. As security forces employees, these persons were ineligible to vote, but had not been
removed from the voters’ list. Presiding judges were therefore instructed to exclude those on the
supplementary lists from their respective voters’ lists. The late dissemination of such supplementary
lists could cause suspicion. In the future, these lists and their content should be made clear to voters,
judges, and poll workers and the list produced well in advance of election day."

This raises questions as to whether the supplementary voters' list included all the policemen indeed, and whether this list was actually enforced. Considering previous evidence, it seems likely that the list may not have been comprehensive and may not have even been enforced.


Picked up by Arabic media now:
Al Watan- Carter report states that judges received supplementary lists of police voters and did not enforce them.
الوطن | تقرير «كارتر»: القضاة تسلموا قوائم إضافية «لناخبين من الشرطة» ولم يستبعدوها

How voter data should have been handled

How voter data seems to have been handled

Disclaimer: Processes are hypothetical and greatly simplified only to illustrate of the issue of police voting.


Update III:
Ministry of Defense refuses to give out conscripts National ID numbers due to concerns over national security: العليا للإنتخابات : وزارة الدفاع رفضت ارسال بيانات الرقم القومى للمجندين | الموجز

Update IV:
Good video summary of voter injection.

Update V:
Al Arabiya picks up on the voter injection

Update VI:
Hamdeen Sabbahi, Khaled Ali and Abol Fottouh Campaigns sum up fraud

For updates on relevant stories, also : Updates on #EgyPresElex: irregularities, #SabahiPresser « Into Oblivion

Voting Shafik Meant Choosing Morsi

If you’re one of those stubborn citizens of Egypt who voted for Ahmed Shafik, then congratulations, you’ve chosen Mohamed Morsi. Now that the run offs are between Shafik and Morsi, it becomes apparent that your anti-Islamist drive is leading to a near-certain victory for an Islamist. Here’s why.

The vote for Shafik is mostly a reaction to Islamists and partly support of felool. Shafik alienates Islamists, revolutionaries and those who are anti-military-anti-felool. Morsi on the other hand is a vote for Islamists, Ikhwan and some anti –military-anti-felool. In a run-off between Morsi and Shafik, revolutionaries will probably boycott; between a military felool and an Ikhwan Islamist, many will see no point in choosing. What’s more, those against the military might naively vote for Ikhwan thinking their rule better than a Mubarak-like dictatorship.

Had the run-off been Morsi and any other candidate, a great cross section would not have been alienated as such. If Morsi had faced Abol Fottouh, the Islamist vote would have been split. Also revolutionaries, liberals and all sorts were going to try and stop the Muslim Brotherhood’s power grab. If it had been Hamdeen Sabbahy, the Islamist vote wouldn’t have been split, but everyone else would have been on board to pre-empt the Ikhwan’s attempts at full dominance. Even with Moussa, some revolutionaries and anti-military voted might have voted for him as an alternative to authoritarian Ikhwanism.

Yet the vote for Shafik in a run off makes his chances weaker in the next round. Abol Fottouh’s supporters will be either vote for Morsi or boycott. Hamdeen’s supporters might not really support either candidate and a few of Moussa’s supporters will vote Shafik.

All this does not even take into account for how powerful the Muslim Brotherhood voting machine really is. With a low turnout due to disenchantment with the run-offs, the Brotherhood will mobilize most of its voting base without much opposition to drown their votes.

In the first free unfair elections, Egyptians did not try to choose what they want but what they thought was wise. Some voting for Aboul Fottouh thought Hamdeen had little chance, those voting for Hamdeen thought Khaled Ali had little chance, those voting for Moussa may have thought Hamdeen had little chance and those voting for Shafik wanted to avoid getting Morsi. Everyone catered to their own fake sense of wisdom and in the end, the compromises did not yield the intended results. If everyone had voted for their values rather than their calculations the results may have been entirely different. But these elections are not about choice, they are about fear and fear clouds our judgment and leads to such results.

The biggest losers I think are the Copts who might end up with the exact opposite of what they chose. But still under the new regime being formed, the only thing worse than being a Copt, is a being a revolutionary Copt. Because in any and all cases, with these options and any results, the two groups that will be targeted are Copts, as they have been under Mubarak and revolutionaries.

Egyptian voter, welcome to reality, you don’t choose through your vote, your vote chooses for you.

Fraud in Egypt's Consulate in NY

The video shows a reporter being assaulted while filming the elections in the NY consulate. The Consul General at the NY consulate, Youssef Zada (@ymzada on twitter) is seen to be wary of the journalist and approves the assault and the confiscation of the camera.

This is the consulate’s response after the video was out:

The interesting thing to note is that @ymzada blocked me on twitter when I criticized the fraud. I also criticized the assault which is technically thuggery, something practiced constantly by the Egyptian regime. If @ymzada had not been guilty, an explanation would have been sufficient, but as you can see from the response, it looks like a cover up.

It is important to note that Ahmed Shafik and Amr Moussa won the highest votes in NY.

But what does the video and response mean?

I would imagine that the real fraud happened in counting the votes. Fraud has been committed, I’m only speculating on how.  There are two people who are counting the votes not from the committee who are probably charged with discounting most votes that are not Ahmed Shafik and Amr Moussa. When someone was about to film them, Zada wanted to make sure that the involvement of these unauthorized employees is not uncovered.

The reason I am sure that fraud had been indeed been committed is because I have reports from several reliable sources that they have voted for Khaled Ali in NY yet his results came out zero. The morons doing the rigging did not even include one or two votes. It is important to note that the story of the two men being asked to leave happened after the video was out.

It seems that is when all the rigging will take place, during the count. In the Holland embassy, Shafik came out on top as well. In the Washington DC embassy, Abol Fottouh came out on top, one activist attested that the voting in the DC embassy had been transparent where citizens could monitor and help.

Update: CNN covered this incident and here is the link http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/24/us/new-york-egypt-consulate/index.html 


Update II: A video supporting the theory that there could be state sponsored fraud in favor of Shafik

Egypt’s Free Unfair Elections

I just voted in Egypt’s free unfair elections. Most people listen to it on television thinking that anchors are saying Egypt’s first free and fair elections. That is a mistake, it’s written Egypt’s first free unfair elections.

The odds were stacked against democracy from the start. Democracy has been mistaken for majority rule. It is apparently necessary to point out that they are different. Rule of the majority gives the majority the license to commit immoral acts that disrespect human rights and minority rights, but democracy does not. Real democracy should not allow the election of people who will transform rule into a dictatorship.

So back to elections. Everyone is picking someone for different reasons. This is what happens when people are deprived of choice all their lives. I’m not just talking about elections. I mean the entire culture of Egypt does not allow for more than one correct answer. School exams do not accept differing views over what is the correct answer just like Mubarak was always the right answer.

The logic behind every choice is surprisingly devoid of moral obligation. Some voting for Aboul Fettouh have expressed their interest in change, any change. Some voting for Moussa see him as experienced, although his experience is only in how to behave while in a corrupt regime and not be kicked out and sent to prison.

A Coptic woman today being interviewed by Egypt Independent said that Shafik wasn’t very good at speaking, held Mubarak as his role model, and probably won’t side with the revolution but at least he’s honest. How is that even a way to make a decision? The reality for that woman is that her fear of Islamists have driven her to a member of the former regime who was responsible for blowing up a church a little over a year ago. She also said that other candidates did not understand the economy, and when asked if Shafik did, she said no.

This is just an example and a good one at that. It’s someone who isn’t denying the facts but denying logic because fear has kicked in. There are others who will deny facts to appease their fear.  It is fear that controls these elections. This fear was propagated by all the parties involved whether they be Islamists or the military junta that has taken charge of this country.

Everyone has a different reason for voting who they vote for and it’s not an expression of their opinion. That is why these elections are unfair. People have been cornered directed by their fear not their freedom. We are not free enough to choose what we really want. With Islamists and the military controlling the political spectrum it is not foreseeable that we will be any time soon. Our fight is against those who nurture our fear.

That is why when people vote for anyone, asking them for explanation is pointless. Their fear will be manifested as twisted logic and sometimes even depraved. We are victims of mass terrorism, terrorism by religious leaders and terrorism by the state.

I know many people have not voted for those they want. I know many have voted out of fear, ignorance or pragmatism. I know many have compromised in the hopes of a bigger goal. I voted Khaled Ali. I voted selfishly before having to make all the moral compromises that I would have done anyway had he not been running. I know it’s not the wisest decision but in the ballot paper, there’s a column that says, column of expressing opinion. I’ve selfishly used that opportunity to express my opinion, not my wisdom, not my fears, not any of the pressures exerted on me. I’ve chosen the selfish route this time around instead of boycotting or ruining my ballot paper. This paper has more value to me than those who made it. My fight is to give it the real value it holds for me.

I voted in these unfair elections because the odds stacked against us may change if we fight this losing battle. There is so much we still need to learn. We need to learn how to win, we need to learn how to care, we need to learn how to rid ourselves of fear. We need to learn.

Fear, Ignorance and Apathy

Yesterday I was surrounded by Shafik supporters. Usually I debate until winning the conversation, but I didn’t do that yesterday, because winning the conversation is not winning their understanding. I remained silent and in my silence I contemplated a little more as I listened. I was saddened as I thought about it.

These were people determined to take away our dream of freedom because they were too afraid. They were people determined to put us down because of their own dreams of selfish existence. It is their fear that stands in the way of our dreams.

They were people who chose to ignore the facts because they were too emotionally invested in the status quo. I was saddened that it would be ignorance that kills our dreams not poverty. The cost of growing up is a skewed moral compass and much more so in a country like Egypt that provided us with a lifetime of slavery. My response to those arguing with me is that they were older and knew better and I didn’t know how they felt about me saying this while some of them knew full well how invested I was in finding out the truth about events around me while they were ill informed and almost apathetic.

Our dream will be killed by apathy and ignorance and I don’t have the answer of what it will take for people to start to care. We have worked hard just to take the keys of their chains back to them and they want to simply hand them over back to where we got them.

Fear, ignorance and apathy are the true enemy that the regime has nurtured and continues to in order to fight our dream. Our dream is their nightmare, it strips them of their mastery over us and it strips them of their power.

No Longer Afraid

A Question of Fashion

We try not to be controlled but it's not possible.

Our biggest problem is with cloth makers, they decide how they want us to look like. We grow up at a time when our fashion is mandated by what is present around us. We might choose to look a certain way but then they change things around. All of a sudden, it's not cool anymore to look the way you do. Even when you decide you don't care about their insipid fashion games, you can't maintain your look.  The kind of clothes that give you the look you want aren't for sale anyway. Time has a way of destroying your old clothes and changing your size. You may resist the change for a few years, but one day you wake up and find yourself looking like a completely different person and you can't do anything about it.

The Overcoat

You may hunt for what remains of your chosen fashion style, but all you will have is a cheap second rate alternative. You may look with contempt upon the next generation choosing those strange jeans or those ridiculous T-shirts, but they're as much a victim of circumstances as you are. You have  been driven down a path of conformity and there's nothing you can do to fight it. You have been driven into cheap alternatives for your chosen fashion style, and they have been driven to their own trendy fashion.

Weaving your own clothes is a good alternative.  I would rather choose an ugliness of my making than a beauty mandated by others. Of course, we aren't talking about any beauty here, they're just a set of choices that you never asked for in the first place. It feels that to be free one must be a designer of everything; clothes, furniture and ideas. There's no other way to live. But life isn't easy. Life doesn't want you to create your own path, but to implement a path which others, far more rich in resources, have chosen. Yes, you don't have time to design and implement your own version of life because others want you to implement theirs. Instead of designing your own look, you design it for others and skip all the furniture, ideas and what have you. There's a sort of specialization for each field and all you can really get is a choice about one aspect of your life. I don't mean you don't choose, I'm talking about creating choice not just choosing it.

Sometimes I wish I had more of a say about my life. I wish the car makers would ask me what I wanted in a car rather than just making cars and asking me to choose. I wish I had a say in what I looked like after wearing all their clothes.

One of the few options we have to taking control of our lives is to go for the individuals who support in decisions rather than make them for you. Tailors who ask you how you want to look like, carpenters who ask you how you want your furniture, builders who ask you how you want your house.

How do we get back to being so personal in a greedy world where, not only the producers just want to produce, but also consumers just want to consume? Greed is what hinders our quality of life. Why not just have a few things you've invested yourself in rather than a hundred things that you have just because you can?

I'm reminded of Gogol's story, The Overcoat. Akaky Akakievich invested everything in making a new overcoat  his. He designed it, he loved it and waited patiently for it to be done. It was a moving tale of investing yourself into something that reflects you. But the ending of that story is a very scary prospect. His coat was stolen from him in a moment of greed. In one moment, those who do not understand the value of investing yourself into something, in working hard for something, in loving something, in that moment an entire life was stolen, just like that.

Yes, it's greed that makes our lives less personal. Greed is what hinders our quality of life. But how do we make people love one another? How do we make people love themselves. How do we get people to choose how they dress?

Germany's Goethe Institute in Egypt Censors Articles Critical of Ruling Military Council

Goethe-Institut web journal in Cairo taken offline February amid suspicions that security and not quality was the deciding factor; Ahram Online investigates, looking at similar cases and German-Egyptian relations. Source: Ahram Online

A web journal run by the Goethe-Institut in Cairo was taken down late February. Before taking all the posts offline at least two articles related to Egypt’s military were censored for “security reasons” and all posts related to Egypt had been withheld from publishing.

Funded by Germany's Foreign Office, Goethe is a non-profit German cultural association that operates around the world to promote the study of the German language abroad and cultural exchange.

The web journal, Transit, was established a year ago with the theme “The Changing Arab World” and is published in three languages, English, German and Arabic, with contributing authors from 10 different countries.

Daniel Roters, a contributor to Transit, wrote an open letter to the editorial staff asking why the web journal’s posts were taken offline without the team being notified.

Christoph Sanders, another contributor, also wrote a letter asking for an explanation and addressed it to Dr Günther Hasenkamp, Goethe’s Middle East and North Africa cultural programme director.

Numerous other contributors have written letters to Hasenkamp and director Gabriele Becker, who were responsible for the decision.

The official message on the website stated that “Transit is receiving a new design, a new technical backbone and a new conception.”

Goethe’s director Becker told Ahram Online, “We want to sort the posts in a new way. Nobody finds their way through.”

Roters does not believe this explanation for the removal of the articles, stating in his letter that “it is not necessary at all because technically changes are always possible without hiding any posts.”

“Even if you take it offline, you should tell everybody who had contributed and give them the reasons. It is a very authoritarian way of censorship,” says Julia Tieke, a contributor to Transit, whose piece about a military officer was also not allowed to run.

Mariam Bakry, a digital marketing consultant agrees with Roters and told Ahram Online, “Technically, there’s no reason to delete older blog posts. Blogs become popular when a strong relationship is built between the blogger and the readers, and one doesn’t simply remove the old content. It harms this relationship, harms the blog’s ranking at search engines, and messes with all the link-backs that people used from said blog.”

Security concerns

In late January all contributions from or about Egypt were suspended from Transit. Becker denied that any articles were censored for reasons other than their quality, but emails obtained by Ahram Online show that Goethe refused the publication of at least two articles for security reasons.

The first article by Magdy Samaan entitled 'Who are the True 'Fulul 'of Post-Revolution Egypt?' argues that the military are the true remnants or fulul of the Mubarak regime.  

The article was approved by the editorial team and on 6 February Samaan received an email saying “it is now being read by our director, for final OK.” In an email dated 8 February, Samaan received the following response, “I am sorry to bring bad news, but for security reasons our director has decided not to publish your article just now.”

Another article by Julia Tieke, written in January, was not published. The article, 'Trust me, I'm an Officer' describes an encounter Tieke had with a military officer, who expressed his love for Germans on account of Hitler.

The response given to Tieke by email many weeks later admitted that there were internal issues with regard to the role of the web journal project as part of a foreign institution. “The director does not want the Egyptian employees of the institute to be exposed to any risk, in light of the NGO [non-governmental organisation] arrests in Cairo a few weeks ago.”

Becker admits that Goethe is concerned after German NGO Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) was raided as part of the Egyptian regime’s crackdown on NGOs.

“We know that we are also watched,” Becker told Ahram Online. Becker said that she knew because the German Embassy was “signalled” and that it was communicated to her earlier in January.

Becker is concerned not to further aggravate the regime. “We will continue to do our work but not provoke,” she said.

Pressure on Goethe

The issue is not specific to Transit web journal; there were also incidents relating to KAS, Tahrir Lounge and the German University in Cairo (GUC) which suggest that there may be more widespread pressure on German institutions in Egypt.

Early in January, Tweet Nadwa, a debate forum founded and organised by Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, was set to take place in Tahrir Lounge on 4 January but was cancelled at the last minute. Tahrir Lounge is a space that uses the Goethe premises but is administratively independent.

Two informed sources, speaking on condition of anonymity independently confirmed to Ahram Online that the German ambassador applied pressure on Tahrir Lounge to cancel Tweet Nadwa.  

Mona Shahein, Tahrir Lounge Project Manager, denied this to Ahram Online saying, “On that day we had a technical problem.”

KAS may have been targeted in the NGO raids because of their work in relation to security forces. It brought Herbert Ziehm to Egypt to advise activists and other civil society actors about dismantling Egyptian State Security.

Ziehm, who works for the federal commission that oversees old documents belonging to Stasi, East Germany’s now-dismantled secret police, travelled to Cairo twice: once after the storming of Egyptian State Security buildings in March 2011 and then in June.

Meanwhile, two students at the GUC were expelled, three banned from classes, and an assistant professor's constract terminated for their political activities. The confrontation with university management came after a demonstration to commemorate GUC student Karim Kouzam who was killed at the 1 February Port Said football tragedy, in which more than 70 people were killed.

Thousands of German University in Cairo (GUC) students demonstrated Wednesday against a decision to permanently expel the two students and ban three others from classes for their political activities. 

Hundreds of students – including a number from the Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA) University, the British University in Egypt (BUE), the American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Saint Fatima School – are currently staging a sit-in at the GUC campus to register their opposition to the move. 

Oliver Schlumberger, Middle East and Comparative Politics Professor at the University of Tübingen, suggested that these visits may have been enough to upset State Security and with the help of Mubarak-era international cooperation minister Fayza Abul-Naga they may have tried to enact revenge. If this is indeed the case, that this revenge may have extended to other German civil society institutions.

The other explanation for the removal of articles is that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is using its power to crackdown on civil society. The articles removed for security reasons both spoke about military officers.

“In one month I had three Nadwas cancelled each at different venues,” Alaa Abdel-Fattah told Ahram Online. “So, personally, I am convinced SCAF is behind the cancellations.”

German Interests in Egypt

“We don’t necessarily need to see huge dollar values moving back and forth between German companies and businesses controlled by the Egyptian military in order to believe that the interests of these German companies can dictate Berlin’s foreign policy,” says Shana Marshall, a PhD Candidate in International Relations and Comparative Politics at the University of Maryland. Marshall’s focus is the political economy of the Middle East and she has written recently about Egypt's military-industrial complex.

In 2010, bilateral trade between Egypt and Germany reached 3.9 billion euros making Germany Egypt’s third largest trading partner. There is also expansive collaboration between the two countries in the field of water management and renewable energy.

Germany and Egypt have a history of trade and dealings, some of which have sparked controversy such as the bribes received by General Abdel Hamid Wasfi, former director of a firm affiliated to the Arab Industrialisation Organisation (AIO) two years ago. In 2008, the contract to supply license plates to Egypt was controversially awarded to the German company Utsch without competitive bidding.

Many of Egypt's largest projects are handled by German companies.

"The German Company Fraport AG operates Egypt’s largest airport (Cairo Airport), which is also the hub for EgyptAir, where executive and upper-level management positions have been increasingly reserved for retiring military officials as a sort of unofficial pension programme, ” explains Marshall.

Ferrometalco, a German-owned subsidiary, has been awarded the order for complete erection works of the steel making plant of Abu Zaabal Steel Mill. SAFE ID Solutions was selected by the Egyptian government to supply the machine readable passport solution adopted by Egypt in 2007. Technology from German company Siemens is used to produce smart cards for a joint venture between the Egyptian military and Kuwait’s Kharafi Group called Maxalto.

“The current system of executive compensation in place in Europe, the US and elsewhere has produced business leaders focused almost solely on quarterly earnings reports and very short-term profits,” Marshall said. “If German companies like Siemens, Ferrometalco, Bassell, and Diamler-Benz can portray their short-term corporate interests as synonymous with the interests of German society as a whole, then they’re likely to get political support for the foreign policies that benefit them.”

The question remains whether these economic interests are important enough for German institutions to violate democratic principles.

A protest against taking Transit web journal offline is planned outside Goethe on Wednesday under the name #OccupyGICairo. Ebitihal Shedid, Transit’s editor-in-chief, has submitted her resignation.

According to Becker, Transit will be up again by April.

German press follow ups on the story:

http://www.zenithonline.de/deutsch/politik//artikel/dem-richtigen-druck-gewichen-002708/ 

http://www.taz.de/!89699/ 

RIP Pope Shenouda III

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria died on 17 March 2012. One thing is for sure, this is a sad day for Copts in Egypt and all around the world. Pope Shenouda was a popular figure even outside the Coptic circles for numerous reasons not least of which his witty sense of humor. On top of that, he was a great poet and a well-educated man.

I was prompted to write in response to the onslaught of attacks against the Pope. Numerous 'activists' commenting either on Twitter or on Facebook have been slandering the Pope based on his political stances. The main problem with comments condemning the Pope other than being insensitive, which they are, is that they reflect a great deal of ignorance. It is disappointing to see some people narrow minded enough to react to Pope Shenouda III only from a political perspective. It reflects a very shallow outlook on what his passing means.

It would be a mistake to think that Coptic criticisms of Pope Shenouda III meant resentment or dislike. Pope Shenouda was not a controversial figure among Copts, he was a revered and respected leader that garnered much love. In his role as the head of the church, there was great satisfaction and little desire to change him. The criticisms regarding some of his actions meant to bring his attention in order to correct his course rather than a complete rejection of his person and his ideas.

There are several surprising facets about attacks on the Pope on the day of his death. The complete disregard for what death means to Egyptians particularly for a revered figure in the Coptic community is one. The attackers have not taken emotions or grief into account and have only examined Pope Shenouda from a very narrow perspective. The entirety of his human life was examined from the perspective of the revolution.

In justifying their attacks, some have pointed out that other sinister figures like Tantawi and Mubarak have mass followings who will be upset. To bundle up Pope Shenouda with those names seems like a very inaccurate assessment void of analysis and full of emotion. He certainly collaborated with them and did not oppose them, but one overlooks that his role was not meant to be political and should never have been. Instead of criticizing his decision to play an active role in politics, activists are criticizing the political views themselves.

Unlike Mubarak and Tantawi, Pope Shenouda was never charged with running the country. Unlike Mubarak and Tantawi, the Pope did not have blood on his hands, did not order the killing of people, and did not directly block justice. His role was that of a spiritual leader and one must not ignore that main role and focus on a role he forced himself into needlessly. His main duties were to his Church and not to the entire country. He may have done well in one role and not so well in another. In his role as a church leader, Shenouda was loved and insightful. His interpretations and his ideas were full of moderation and preached love.

Pope Shenouda's political views left much to be desired and criticism was due but we should not leap from one extreme to another. One incidental aspect of a person is not enough to exalt or vilify a person, just like ignorant or shallow comments about the topic of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III will not exalt or vilify those who said them.

Update: I felt I must include this moving piece by Joe Fahim as an example of appreciating Pope Shenouda as a kind and gracious person.

The Hope of Being Understood

I'm not as thick skinned as I appear. I mock displays of sensitivity but not sensitivity itself. I hurt inside all the time and the rest of what I do is about hiding it. I think about what I must do to be perceived as normal.

Melancholic Javier Bardem

I hide everything because I never gained much by revealing anything. People tell you that talking about it can be beneficial but that hasn't been the case for me. It's beneficial for them so that they can counteract your sentiments that may be directed against them, not to empathize and understand. I've always been hurt when I reveal myself.

My hidden thoughts and pain simmering within me serve me well. Out in the open they're criticized and rebuked which causes me more pain. At least when they're inside there's hope that they would be understood if I just spoke up to the right person at the right time.

So I hide those feelings to seem strong. I'm not. I'm just resilient. I bend so as not to break and try to regain form. I'm insistent on my position but not unhinged. I insist on making people's lives better by keeping my irrational sensitivity aside.

I've tried to keep things inside in the past, but I wasn't always good at carrying out that decision. My feelings oozed out at times and burst at others. The results weren't pleasant. I got the worst of both worlds. I wasn't understood and I lost the hope of being understood. I've told myself to keep it all in no matter what and now I'm better at it. I'm better at putting on a show. It's always taken time to heal. I become the face that I pretend to be.

Displays of weakness are only appealing in a movie as the sad music plays in the background. It also helps when you're a charismatic actor who's loved even before you embody a role. When you see George Clooney or Brad Pitt crying, you don't feel sorry for them, you empathize because you know they are cool and will rebound. Because you value them, you also consider what they're feeling more seriously and less critically.

In real life it's pathetic. There's no close up, no camera zoom. Your weakness is an inconvenience in the real plot. In reality your face and each line that reflects your emotion isn't magnified. The light doesn't hit your face in a way that reflects your mood. There's no music to fill the silence surrounding your sobs and whimpers, in reality all you have are the people around trying to fill that empty silence with meaningless talk.

The Amreyya Copt Eviction

An account of what I understood has happened after a visit to the village of Sharbat, in the area of El Nahda in Amreyya, on the outskirts of Alexandria, where the decision to evict eight Coptic families after the burning of their homes and their stores stirred much controversy.

Photo from right to left: Abu Suleiman, Mohamed Galal (by Sarah Carr)

Prologue

On the way to Amreyya with my friends Sarah and Noov, we were stopped by a young police officer who searched the car incessantly for drugs. The young officer was typical. He was wearing a purple T-shirt , dark glasses and the gun in its holster were bulging out of his side. He asked me the usual questions as to what my work was and whether they were my friends and what we were doing. 

He then leaned to me and said almost in a whisper, “Do you have any illegal substances?”

He said it in a tone of such secrecy that he gave me the impression it wasn’t to arrest me. I carelessly answered, “No, I do not.”

He kept feeling up my pockets from the top of the clothes and not all of them at that. I was surprised that he hadn’t asked me to empty my pockets. He asked me again if I was sure, and I again said I was sure.  Before he moved on, he said with what sounded like disappointment, “So you don’t do illegal substances.”

He then went up to Sarah and said, “Where are you from? You’re not Egyptian.”

Sarah burst at him, “You’ve seen my ID card, is it not Egyptian?”

He said, “Where do you live?”

She said, “You have my ID, read it!”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a journalist,” she said with an impatient voice and an annoyed grin.

The officer was taken aback by her hostility and quickly said in a low and perplexed voice, “Let them go.”

The Village

The small village of Sharbat is a little before the end of the world. It’s so secluded that I could not help thinking it’s forgotten enough that anything can happen. This is a place so remote from whatever law we have left in this lawless country. It’s a land so forgotten that we become aware of its existence every so often when something horrible takes place, but normal atrocities go by unnoticed.

As soon as civilization ended, the flood of Al Noor’s party name and logo began. Beards were longer and women’s facial skin became rarer. Donkeys and carts shared the road with old cars, pick-ups and toktoks.

The eviction of eight Coptic families from the village of Sharbat started as most stories of this kind do, with a man and a woman. A Christian tailor named Mourad Samy Gerges was rumored to have been with a Muslim woman and took explicit images of her. By the looks of things, this woman was well known in the village but it also seems that no one had seen these videos.

Mourad was summoned by the police and kept overnight. The police found no evidence of the scandalous videos rumored to have been on his mobile. The account of what happened the next day is when the story becomes complicated.

Abskharon also known as Abu Suleiman is the most prominent Copt in the village. He has four sons and owns numerous shops in the village. He was asked what the villagers should do with Mourad. He absolved himself of responsibility towards the tailor. He was assured by an ex NDP local councilor by the name of Essam Mussolini that his property will be protected if he closes his shops. Abu Suleiman and his sons reluctantly closed his shops and they were attacked and looted.

The reason the shops were attacked is unclear. The villagers are said to have gathered around Mourad’s house even though he was in police custody. We know that Abou Suleiman’s youngest son Louis fired from his balcony in the air. There is some discrepancy as to why he fired.

Mourad’s house is a stone throw away from Abu Suleiman’s house. Some witnesses at the scene have claimed that Louis fired to disperse protesters gathered at Mourad’s house. But if the numbers are anywhere near as large as what witnesses we talked to claim, they would have flooded the area enough to spill over near Abu Suleiman’s house. According to Suleiman, the eldest sibling, Louis fired birdshot when people gathered round their house and threatened to do to their women as Mourad did to the woman in question.

Witnesses say that firing the shotgun from his balcony was what stirred the crowds. To confuse matters more, one of the mob, armed with an automatic machine gun unable to control the gun ended up injuring three of those surrounding Abu Suleiman’s house, one of them critically.

The mob attacked the houses of Abu Suleiman and his family, broke into the shops located at the lower level of the residence, looted the merchandise and set fire to their buildings. Mohamed Galal, one of the few brave moderate residents who stood up for Abu Suliman during the attacks on his houses and managed to get them to safety at his residence just outside the village where they are currently staying.

Many questions arise. Why was Abu Suleiman asked about Mourad’s fate? Why did people gather around Mourad’s house even though he was in custody? Why was Abu Suleiman and his sons asked to close their shops? Why were they not protected despite the promise from prominent figure Essam Mussolini? Why did the mob have automatic machine guns? Why would Louis fire had the mob not reached his house? Why were all Abu Suleiman’s properties and shops attacked at the same time? Why would the villagers threaten Abu Suleiman’s family despite not having anything to do with Mourad?

Mohamed Galal suspects that there is a sectarian element that was used. Abu Suleiman had bought a piece of land and started building a community center. He suspects the villagers fearing it would soon be a church were motivated to make these attacks on his family, but we can never know for certain.

Moussolini’s situation is precarious. Other than having a treacherous name, he involved Abu Suleiman’s family needlessly and insisted they shut down their shops.

The Salafi Sheikh Sherif El Hawary in charge of reconciliation admits the mob might have comprised thugs not motivated by any religious purpose who may have been hired. But who would hire these thugs and to what end? Who has the connections and the power to hire these thugs? By the testimony of his neighbors, everyone loved Abu Suleiman.

A local committee of seven, headed by Essam Mussolini and others said to represent the village deemed it unsafe for Abu Suleiman and his sons to stay in the village. Abu Suleiman and his family, already away from the city were asked not to return not because of Shari’a but for fear over their safety. The Salafi Sheikh Sherif El Hawary promised to protect Abu Suleiman using his Salafi men in the area, yet it feels that the Salafis are not what worry Abu Suleiman. Many people opposed solutions proposed by Salafis presented as Sharia’s verdict. Their property was to be auctioned off. Needless to say, Mourad’s family would be evicted. The Muslim woman would stay. Despite Muslim Brotherhood MPs attending some of the meetings, they were not part of the ‘reconciliatory hearings’ as per @ikhwanweb.

As local media began covering the events, there was more pressure against the expulsion of Copts. The Salafis charged with handling cases through ‘reconciliatory councils’ welcomed back the families and promised compensation for the damages.

The latest reconciliatory hearing was held on Thursday 16 February 2012, this time by the governor of Alexandria, numerous MPs and officials. The new reconciliatory committee reversed the decision regarding Abu Suleiman and the rest of his family. How and when they will return home will yet be decided. Compensations were not clear with the new committee.

Epilogue

It feels that the story is long enough without a prologue and epilogue, but I feel I must comment on the entire incident. The prologue is part of the story, and the title for this entire story is the absence of the law. Even when the legitimate bodies, the governor, the MPs and officials were visiting, they created  reconciliatory committee. It’s just like the officer who stopped us and searched us and asked about illegal substances in soft whisper.

This is not a sectarian issue, this is a state issue. The absence of the law or even a chance at getting any sort of justice is at the heart of the matter. There may have been sectarian sentiments, but this is a story of an event mostly motivated either by envy or greed.  Even if we were to consider whether this story is about honor, we discover that it wasn’t. This is a story of shame. These are people who react to shame not honor, they would not move an inch for a woman part stripped in Tahrir square and they are people not shamed by the coward of an army which did that. They are shamed when they realize they do not have control over their women.

These remote areas are completely controlled by Salafi sheikhs. On the other hand they are leveled out by those who can hire thugs.  The sheikh was not brought in to solve this issue exceptionally. The sheikh has a long list of ‘cases’ like a judge in a courtroom, trying to fix things for everyone based on his judgment and interpretation of religion. Some Copts come to him to solve their problems in this land of lawlessness and he may be as merciful or as brutal as he chooses to be, and the police will have no power over him in his jurisdiction.

We may never know what motivated such attacks or what the real dynamics were but such places fill me with hopelessness. On the phone with Adel Abskharon, another son of Abu Suleiman, he was told “congratulations” for being allowed to return to his home. His voice was filled with joy for having escaped a cruel injustice. He was happy for the chance to rebuild his burnt down home and restock his looted store. He felt grateful to be given a part of what is his and that injustice did not extend beyond this. It feels that we’re all starting to feel this way. Once upon a time not so long ago we were seeking justice, now we’re happy to evade injustice. We celebrate whenever injustices are partially reversed, with our hopes back to being grounded into expecting no justice at all.

More links saying more of the same: EIPR, Egypt Independent, Christian Science Monitor

Inside Story - A year on and still unresolved

On 25 January 2012, I was asked to comment on Egypt one year on. Other guests were Sharif Abdel Kouddous from Democracy Now and Nader Omran from the Muslim Brotherhood. Sharif did a great job expressing the state of affairs. Due to the presence of Nader, I had to highlight the true form the Freedom and Justice party had taken. 

The Mohamed Mahmoud Story II - The Port Said Aftermath

 

Footage by Mostafa Bahgat

This footage shows clearly police brutality in the events after the Port Said massacre in which the Ministry of Interior (MOI) was complicit. It refutes the usual claims by the Interior Minister that no shotguns were ever fired.  

The Egyptian Army’s Mutiny Against the People

An Egyptian wakes up almost one year after what he thought had been a finished revolution only to realize how abandoned and betrayed he is.  There has been much talk about what Egyptians have gained over the past 12 eventful months. Well, the one thing we truly gained over this year worth anything is knowledge.

Mohamed Mahmoud wall before protesters tore it down 

We wake up each day and look around us in the knowledge that there’s no one truly on our side. With few friends far and between, we have only ourselves to rely on. We now have the knowledge that we are betrayed by our police, our judiciary, our legislature, our media, our army, our ministries, our parties and even our religious institutions. It was the spark lit on 25 January and the wildfire that followed which awoke us to the daunting realisation of these long-buried facts.

Never has this systematic treason been put to as much use as it has since Egyptians took to the streets and tried to take back what is rightfully theirs. All institutions were utilised to subdue the will of the Egyptian people. The odds were stacked against us from the very start, more than we could have foreseen. The faces of our institutions have been laid bare and despite our expectations, these faces turned out to be uglier than we could have imagined.

Injustices have been endured by Egyptians in great part through religion but all the more now it has become apparent that the leaders have betrayed the cause of their followers.  al-Azhar does not hesitate to issue a ‘fatwa’ (Islamic ruling) if the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) so desires. The Coptic Pope does not think twice about singing the false praises of the ruling military junta, the murderers of his flock. The political parties which embrace Islam are ready to do their duty to manipulate the poor through religion and bribes, and defend the well-being and honour of the military, the rapists of our country.

One year on and we’re starting to comprehend what Robert Springborg  had said back on 2 February 2011 and Ellis Goldberg knew on 11 February before it had really begun. Springborg said, “The real opposition will initially be ignored, and then possibly rounded up,” and that is pretty much what has been happening.  “The game is, thus, more or less over.”

As if prophetic of the way we will be swindled, Goldberg said, “Instead of pursuing institutional change, leading military figures will likely try to satisfy the public with symbolic gestures.”

The mock Mubarak trials, the cosmetic change in government, the elections; all fulfill the prophesy.  Instead of moving towards democracy, we are experiencing “the culmination of the slow-motion coup and the return of the somewhat austere military authoritarianism of decades past”.

And what we have now is as Goldberg perfectly summed it up, “Mubarakism without Mubarak.”  Nobody wants freedom for this country; those who have power to fix it do not have the will and those who have the will do not have the power.

Egypt is not Tunisia, they once said. It’s true. If Egypt had been Tunisia we would have had more of a chance to of being liberated.  State media has propagated the claim that foreign elements are undermining democracy efforts and they are, by supporting the brutal SCAF. Egypt has borders with Israel and that’s why we cannot be free. Egypt‘s military is controlled by United States interests and that’s why we cannot be free.

Years of receiving billions of dollars in military bribes has created a monster of an army that is incapable of fighting anyone but its people. Years of corruption combined with these bribes have given a few men from the army control over 25% to 40% of Egypt’s economy. The army’s activities have shifted from defence-related investments to producing bottled water and pasta – well, at least they can’t run us over with those. We slave away for the murderers; their wealth grows as does the poverty of the people.

Our country is ruled by a military junta. On 25 January they will be celebrating but Egyptians should be mourning. Protesters and revolutionaries will be mourning; they will be mourning their dead.

The SCAF will celebrate a triumph over a very pure and compelling revolution. They will celebrate the release of officers who killed protesters. They will celebrate keeping their corrupt men in their positions. They will celebrate their ability to kill Egyptians almost every month last year without reproach or repercussions. They will celebrate the fact that they are above the law and not one army or police officer was tried properly for their crimes - perhaps this is to ensure that others continue the execution of brutal orders the next time they are given.

They will celebrate their control over the legislative, judiciary and executive bodies, and the press. They will celebrate the powers they will keep even after “handing over” power. They will celebrate taking every decision against the will of the people. They will celebrate the decisions they’ve taken to protect their interests at the expense of Egyptians. They will celebrate their power. They will celebrate their lies.

We will mourn our wounded and our dead whose blood screams from the ground. We will look back at the prospect of having taken down that venomous state television building known as Maspero. We will remember how we were tricked into thinking there was any honour in those dishonourable army men we foolishly trusted. We will mourn the institutions that we trusted and remember how they have sold us out.

The first anniversary of the revolution is not a day for Egyptians to celebrate but to mourn our dead. A day to remember our awakening and a day to remember what we fought for.  Perhaps it can also be a day to start fighting once again.

A year has passed and we now know of our enslavement. A year has passed but the streets are full of marches and screenings of army brutality.  But over that time I’ve seen many inspiring faces.  I’ve seen brave Egyptians calling in the darkest times against their oppressors. I’ve seen valiant protesters walking into danger unarmed. I’ve seen them camped out in the cold in Tahrir and marching in the heat.  I remember their faces and I know they have broken free and that for them there is no turning back. I cannot conceive of a way for these determined warriors to be subdued by an oppressive force that wishes them enslaved.

Source: The Chronikler