Run Sisi Run

Many people think the idea of Abdelfattah El Sisi running for president is a great idea, and that it might bring the stability and security that Egypt needs right now. Among the supporters of Sisi running for president is Omer Musa, who used to work for Mubarak's government, and many other Mubarak cronies. Why do they support Sisi's canadcy? Because they are used to the system of corruption from Mubarak's era and they hope that it might come back if Sisi becomes the president.  

I think that having another military man running the country is a huge step back. Not only would Sisi follow in the footsteps of Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak, his retaliation will go a lot farther than detaining activists, or locking up the Muslim Brotherhood. He will have nothing to stop him from keeping the whole country in a state of submission.

Despite the the history of military violence against the protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood right after removing first Mubarak and Morsi, I have been hearing many talk on Egyptian and international media about the possibility of Sisi running as a presidential candidate in 2014. Not only has his candidacy been occupying people's minds, it is also a hot topic among activists who have experienced the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces “SCAF” in 2011 to 2012, which resulted many deaths and detentions for activists.

The idea of Sisi running is unpopular among activists because it means that all their hard work, and the people who died since the initial revolution, will have been for nothing. Everyone understands that if Sisi runs he will become the president no matter who is running against him. Sisi’s winning will mean one thing; that he will have absolute power. Really think about it. The military already has control over the economy and the weapons.

After removing Morsi, the military provided Egypt with better security than they had experienced since Mubarak, or during Morsi's one year presidency. Sisi captured most if not all Muslim Brotherhood heads, after giving them a chance to show their true skin by inciting violence and protesting endlessly until Egyptians were sick and tired of the Muslim Brotherhood and their sore loser strategies.

On the other hand, I don’t think that the military was behind the lake of the security during Morsi's presidency. But they witnessed it and didn’t do anything to stop it. Which makes it obvious that the military's strategy for allowing the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood was to let them fail, and turn the public opinion against them. I’m not saying that the Muslim Brotherhood would have succeeded if there were security in place, but it would have made it harder to get rid of them.

The reason why I think that Muslim Brotherhood would have failed anyway is that they had no vision. All that Morsi and the supreme leader of Muslim Brotherhood wanted was to have greater control of Egypt, and to install Muslim Brotherhood members in the government to replace the representatives of the Mubarak regime. They had complete disregard to the people needs.  

Not only did the Muslim Brotherhood have no vision to rule the country, but they allowed the fact that they were the winners of two elections consecutively to cloud their judgment, so they turned a blind eye to the people who elected them in the first place.

I’m glad they are gone, and no longer ruling Egypt. And I’m specifically happy that what they did during the time of Morsi may have ruined their chances of ever being elected again.

However now Egypt has to face the harsh reality that there's nobody worth voting for when it comes to President. Egyptians are longing for someone like Nasser to come and rule the country, and rally people around him. Unfortunately we don’t have such a person.

On Monday Sisi met with a group of representatives from Congress, and I have to wonder why. I do think Sisi might be smarter than the average military leader, but I still think it will be the worst thing for him and the country if he runs for president.

Calls to Commemorate Mohamed Mahmoud

Two years ago in Cairo, in November of 2011, I participated in a huge march from the Haram, in the Giza area, which is a suburb of Cairo, all the way to Tahrir Square: probably about nine miles. Here, ten months earlier, the revolution had emerged to remove Hosni Mubarak from power.

I was filming and photographing the crowd as it grew larger and larger, every block we walked, every neighbourhood we crossed. There are no words that could express my feelings on that day. Egyptians mobilizing and organizing to call on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to stop the violence, and  make the demands of the revolution come to life.

Many of the protesters knew that the SCAF could attack them. The previous month the SCAF had carried out an attack on peaceful protesters in front of the Egyptian State TV building. The attack resulted in the deaths of several protesters and wounding of many others. But that didn’t stop the protesters from participating this day.

Happily no violence took place.  However the following day in the late afternoon the state police attacked a group of Occupy Tahrir protesters, who were determined to stay till their demands were met. Most of those were wounded people from the revolution, and families of people who lost their loved ones during the revolution and other clashes that followed.

The state police attacked the peaceful protesters who were camping in Tahrir, and killed five people within half an hour. The attack was not anticipated by the protesters. In no time, the word got out through social media and cell phones about what was happening in Tahrir. The activists responded right away to defend the Occupy Tahrir people. After a few hours they managed to force the state police to retreat to their headquarters a few blocks away.

What stood out in my memory is that the protesters asked for help from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, and both groups declined to lend a hand, probably out of fear of losing in the upcoming parliamentary election.

These attacks sparked the week-long Mohamed Mahmoud clashes. I’m proud that i was there to document what happened. Here is some of the video that I shot during the clashes.

Mohamed Mahmoud clashes in NOV 2011 from Khaled Sayed on Vimeo.

Civil War Propaganda in the Making

I woke up today to terrible news. Forty people were killed by the military in front of the Republican Guard headquarters. 

However other news by the BBC included different details. They say the military attacked the unarmed protesters in the mosque at 4 AM today while they were praying. That seems odd to me, because by 3 AM the prayer is over and people are no longer in the mosque.

On the other hand, Al Jazeera had footage of people showing the camera empty bullet shells. Others showed unfired unused bullets. This is supposed to be evidence that unarmed people at prayer were attacked. But the bullets are easy to debunk; the empty shells fall off next to the shooter. If you are  in a protest where the police or the army is shooting at you, any empty bullet shells were probably fired by people standing next to you, not people firing at you. And they don’t fire unused bullets either; those have to come from somewhere else.

Another eyewitness who was awakened by the gunfire said that the whole thing took place in front of the Republican Guard headquarters on the street. the Muslim Brotherhood were trying to infiltrate the Republican Guard headquarters, and the military had to use force to get them out of there. So reports that it happened inside a mosque are very unlikely.

One of the famous people in the Muslim Brotherhood, a middle-aged woman named Oun Lymen, showed up on BBC Arabic to tell her side of the story. According to her she was raped for three hours by the military.

The news was bad to begin with. And it is being badly reported.

Retaliation by the Muslim Brotherhood Turns Bloody

While the whole world is worried about whether what is going on in Egypt is a coup or not coup, the Muslim brotherhood is vowing to bring Morsi back to power over the dead bodies of the Egyptian people.

July 5 was a bloody day in many cities in Egypt, but in Cairo it was just crazy. The Muslim Brotherhood and other Morsi supporters went to have their Friday prayer in the Nasser city mosque. After the long prayer, they marched to the Republican Guard headquarters, where they believed the military were holding Morsi, to free Morsi and install him in power again.

When they got there, the military was on high alert and ready to protect the building. The Morsi supporters turned to attack mode. That's when the military started shooting over their heads to scare them, and disperse the crowd. However the angry mob didn’t seem to be fazed by the military action, and they didn’t leave. So the military shot tear gas to scare them away.

The Islamists keep spreading rumors that the military killed three islamists during these clashes. With the chaos of conflicting reports, these rumors have even made it to the headlines on the BBC. But we have not seen the dead people up to now.

However this wasn’t the only rally in Cairo. Anti Morsi demonstrators also gathered in Tahrir square to show support for the military, and to show that they are content with the decision to get rid of Morsi. This gathering in Tahrir was attacked by a Muslim Brotherhood rally, resulting in more than 30 confirmed dead and over a thousand injured so far.

What I don’t get are all the rumors from all the external mainstream media about how the Egyptian army is creating a danger zone. The international press seem to be trying to make it sound like the military is the attacker, even though the Muslim Brotherhood is obviously the aggressor here.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a sore loser.They point to the election as proof of their legitimacy, but they overlook the fact that the legitimacy of any elected representative of the people comes from the people. When the people elect a person, that doesn't mean it is a lifetime vote. In a true democracy, it doesn't even mean that the person can stay in that position till the end of the term, if public opinion turns a different way.

Egypt may not have a formal recall process for elected officials yet, but thanks to the intervention of the military, the people can still make their voices heard when those who are in power are not meeting the needs of the country.

The people elected Morsi, yes, after waiting through a year of no political progress and in a total leadership vacuum. But the people who elected him can say we don’t want you anymore. Just because the cook delivered a bad meal, that doesn't mean we have to eat it too.

The Egyptian military understood that, and stood by the Egyptian people against an elected president who failed to gain the support of the people.

Morsi Reads from Mubarak's Script

Two years after the initial revolution, Morsi warns of risks from unrest, just like Mubarak did in January 2011. Trying to gain the people's support, Morsi's three-hour speech did nothing but anger people.

During the start of the revolution, before he left office, Mubarak gave a speech that tried to play on people's feeling and get them on his side. It only took him ten minutes to do that, and he divided the the Egyptian people, getting a large number of Egyptians wanting him to stay in office.

It took Morsi three hours to do the same thing; now many people on the streets of Cairo are wishing Mubarak would come back.

From standing in the middle of Tahrir square with thousands of protesters on June 26, during Morsi's speech, I am feeling the frustration and anger of the Egyptian people. After a long speech, Morsi only proved that he is is removed from the reality on the street, and completely unaware of how people suffer or feel. Unfortunately, Morsi speech didn’t not offer any concessions or suggestions of improvements. All his speech did was try to gain police and army supports in upcoming days, as the country braces for the June 30 Rebel protests.

Morsi threatened the opposition and media many times during his long speech. Morsi also accused several judges – by name – of corruption. He asked pointed questions about how Mubarak-era figures had been acquitted by Egypt's court system. Morsi spoke about pseudo-achievements that did not happen during his term. He was delusional to the point of  accusing the people themselves of being responsible for all of Egypt's issues and crises, and blaming them for all the recent political problems.

Morsi failed to take any responsibility for the country's deep political polarization and failed economy. Instead he  blamed all former presidents for all economic and political issues that Egypt faces today.

It's awkward and telling that Morsi of used many of  the same words and phrases that the ousted president ,Hosni Mubarak, often used. Morsi appeared to be speaking about another Egypt, one that does not exist in the real word.

The Egyptian military has moved forces near Egypt's major cities, openly threatening to intervene if Morsi's supporters and opponents cannot find a compromise and avoid bloodshed. The stage is set, as the military seems to be siding with the people against the Islamists who support the Morsi regime.

I do feel like the upcoming days won’t pass by without significant clashes between the Muslim Brotherhood and the rest of the Egyptian people.