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.

No End to Islamist Violence in Sight

Even though the Muslim Brotherhood leaders are losing ground and Egyptian public support, they are still insisting on unrealistic demands. While they have no upper hands, the Muslim Brotherhood are demanding to sack military leaders, reinstate the deposed president Morsi, and restore the constitution Morsi pushed through.

While the Muslim Brotherhood trying to send a message to the world that they won’t accept what they call a military coup that ousted Morsi, they are paying a high price in human lives that they lose every time they take their show of support for Morsi to the street.

Eager to take over Egypt's political scene after the toppling of Mubarak in the January 25 popular uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood did everything they could to lead the country. Their political party, Freedom and Justice, was a brand new front for the Muslim Brotherhood that won the majority in the parliament in 2012, followed by electing a Muslim Brotherhood president who has been unknown to most Egyptians until right before the election.

With all these successes under their belt, the Muslim brotherhood didn’t care about the Egyptian people's security, economy, or the demands they made during the 2011 revolution. Morsi was only interested in what the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, advised him to do every step of the way during his short-lived one year presidency.

Although Morsi was very popular among his party and group members, he wasn’t very popular on the street. People mocked Morsi and made fun of his many gaffes on Egyptian TV and during his trips to other country.

The Muslim Brotherhood is continuing to defy the military. However the crackdown is targeting the top heads of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and prominent members. One of the latest arrests was the Senior Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Essam el-Erian. He was arrested in a Cairo suburb in late October. Today thousands of Morsi supporters demonstrated nationwide on Friday against the military-backed government ahead of his planned trial on Nov. 4.

Mohamed Morsi, who was removed from the presidency by the military amid nationwide protests against him is still in custody and accused of many crimes, such as inciting violence and of failing to protect protesters who were killed outside the presidential palace in El-Etahadya.

The Muslim Brotherhood rallies people to go out and protest and sacrifice themselves for the selfish goals of increasing the group's own political power, and restoring their control over Egypt again. However I think Egyptian people are becoming smarter every day, and with no end to Islamist violence in sight, Egyptians are getting more familiar with Muslim brotherhood rhetoric, and their truly violent nature.

Egypt's Curfew is Coming to an End...or is it?

Living abroad, outside of Egypt, sometimes can be great, and sometimes frustrating as hell, because you have no choice but to look at the whole picture from the outside. But living in the USA is different because the mainstream media here don't cover Egypt unless there are clashes with casualties.

I left Egypt in early July to return to the U.S. right after the ousting of Morsi. The Egyptian people weren't sure what would come next, and they are still not sure now.

Retaliation from the Morsi supporters has been dragging on for almost two months, although they seem to protest every Friday with shrinking numbers every time.

I have been getting my information about how things are in Cairo, and Egypt overall, from friends, family, and many activists I made contact with while I was there. They inform me that life in Cairo isn't as fun anymore. Everyone is living on edge. Factories instead are doing two or one shift only instead of three, and most of the time they are closing early. People are going home before the afternoon due to the curfew, which is being enforced by the military in response to violent protests by Morsi's remaining supporters.

Fights erupt  between supporters and opponents of Morsi daily, and the Army and police have to come and stop clashes before they go too far. Assassination attempts are happening as well. The latest one was a failed attempt to kill the Minister of the Interior. A car bomb went off in Cairo's eastern district, near Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim's convoy.

My friend Mo'nes, who lives in Cairo, told me that Egyptians are overwhelmingly respecting the military curfew. For their own safety they are following the military guidelines, such as a recent recommendation for people to stay home for Friday prayers.  However the media is not getting much attention from the people anymore, after they started attacking the way the military is handling the situation.

I'm not surprised that the Egyptian people are showing support, and listening to the Egyptian military. Egyptians think of their military as heros for winning the 1973 war against Israel, and they trust them more than they really should. I always say never trust someone with a gun.

I believe that the military's popularity never faded, even when the military took actions that opposed the will of the general public, such as attacking and killing peaceful protesters in Maspero in October 2011, during the Mohamed Mahmoud street clashes November, and at the Council of Ministers street December 2011. The military trials are back on; something which many human rights NGOs are against. However an Egyptian military court handed down heavy prison sentences to supporters of ousted president Morsi. The court sentenced eleven men to twenty five years in prison. Forty five Muslim Brotherhood defendants were given five-year sentences. Despite all this the military’s popularity in Egypt never faded.

So consider what is happening in Egypt, from attempted assassinations, weekly Muslim Brotherhood protests, clashes between anti and pro Morsi demonstrators, and active terrorist group working hard to destroy the current interim government.

Given all that, I believe that the military will have many reasons to extend the curfew and emergency law that becomes active again last month. And the Military is in a good position right now since they are getting the Egyptian supports behind them.

Are we seeing the last of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Another Friday protest from the Muslim Brotherhood supporters against the Egyptian military. However their call to protest attracted a low turnout. The protest was another attempt from the Muslim Brotherhood to rally in Cairo and other cities in Egypt to show their discontent with what they call the illegal removal of an elected democratic president, Morsi. The low turnout in Cairo, and the non-existent rallies around Egypt, show the unpopularity of the Muslim Brotherhood at the moment.

The military has had the upper hand so far. They have put Cairo under curfe,w and barbed wire is surrounding several squares in Cairo after the bloody clashes that left over 1,000 people dead.

The Muslim Brotherhood are losing ground in all over Egypt, and after the military detained many of their leaders over the past week, they appear scattered and less organized.

The issue I have now is that we are going backward. Many Egyptians were killed, and many people were arrested arbitrarily. It is not the right way to seek justice, or to move forward toward democracy. The Egyptian revolutionaries in Egypt fought for freedom and the end of emergency law in 2011. However, after the Muslm Brotherhood protests turned violent, the military chose to restore emergency law for the protection of the people. I have a feeling they could have done it without bringing back emergency law, but this is the way they decided to handle it.

The former President Hosni Mubarak, meanwhile, was let go from prison on Thursday and taken to a military hospital in Cairo. Mubarak was ousted during Egypt's 2011 revolution, and his release has angered Egyptians from all walks of life, and has sparked concern that the Egyptian military authorities are reinstating the old regime, which is highly unlikely. Mubarak will still appear before court to face trial for different charges related to the January 25, 2011 revolution.

However I think that if Morsi were still in power today Mubarak would have gotten out of prison anyway. Mubarak wasn’t released because of the failure of Morsi. It is a failure of the judguary system we have in Egypt. The whole Mubarak trial was filled with mistakes, in addition to a corrupt judiciary system that was installed long before Mubarak or Morsi took office.

After the arrest of many of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders over this past few weeks, is the Muslim Brotherhood weakened, or is the worst yet to come?

The Muslim Brotherhood Shows Their True Colors

As we are watching the news and the images coming out of Egypt, and the death toll, you can see the contrast between the protests that ended Morsi’s regime and what has been going on since then.

The Muslim Brotherhood are adamant about fighting the will of the people. If they actually cared about legitimacy, they would have accepted the people’s decision to remove Morsi from office. On June 30th over 33 million of people walked out to participate peacefully in a rally asking Morsi to resign. That is more than the total number of people who voted for Morsi, and far more than have participated in protests calling for his return to office.

I understand that the Muslim Brotherhood won all elections that followed the toppling of Mubarak, and Morsi governed the country for a year. But we cannot ignore the fact that Morsi’s regime ended because of mammoth rallies and overwhelming popular opinion denouncing his rule as incompetent and partisan.

Now we are seeing Morsi supporters being used as pawns in a pointless fight. I do respect their right to protest, but you have to pick your battles. It is obvious that the Muslim Brotherhood has lost the people’s trust and sympathy.

We are left now with a group who prey on the Egyptian people’s love of their religion, and their lack of awareness about the political issues. They carelessly put these faithful followers in harm’s way, and encourage them to engage in illegal acts, such as burning churches, attacking the armed forces, and defying the military. The direct result of this behavior is that Egypt is now under emergency law again, despite the all the hard work Egyptian activists did to get it overturned in 2012.

I don’t endorse violence against civilians who are protesting for a cause they believe in. But when the Muslim Brotherhood members protest with guns and torches, I need my local authorities to take action to protect the rest of the people. Because now we are not talking about a peaceful protest or sit-in, we are talking about a terrorist organization taking to the street with assault weapons to harm civilians and challenge the authorities.

The violence we are witnessing these days from the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t even unusual for them. They seem to welcome the bloodshed to prove their legitimacy and their appeal. The Muslim Brotherhood lost a great deal of public support after their recent sit-in, and they are now facing police and military on the streets of Cairo. Their supporters are shrinking to a few thousand, and many of the people fighting in the streets on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood aren’t even Egyptians, but have come from other countries to fight for their faith.

The Muslim Brotherhood chants about peace during their protests, however their protests have been anything but peaceful. Protesters used women and children as shields, and some had machine guns. Snipers maimed security forces from the tops of buildings. More than a dozen churches were attacked and burned on a single day by Morsi supporters.

It seems like the Muslim Brotherhood has declared war against Egypt, and is using terrorist tactics to foil the country’s aim of forming a secular democratic civil state. They have been seen burning churches, schools, and museums, randomly firing on and killing civilians sitting in their homes, burning public and private property, and targeting government buildings and police stations. These are all are clear forms of  terrorism.

What we have in Egypt right now isn’t a civil war; it is is civil unrest. In a civil war you generally see a divided military, but that hasn’t happened here. On the contrary, the unified military is very popular in Egypt right now, and the police as well. We have even seen regular civilians forming vigilante groups to defend their neighborhoods against attacks from the Muslim Brotherhood rallies.

The Muslim Brotherhood failed to impose a Taliban-like state in Egypt. The vast majority of Egyptians are more moderate muslims, and are opposed to such an idea. The misconception here that all Egyptians are in the streets protesting. The truth is the people protesting on the streets of Egypt are only the Muslim Brotherhood followers and supporters, and their popularity is getting weaker by the day.

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.

The Argument Over Morsi's Legitimacy as President

It has been over two weeks since the Egyptian military ousted former president Morsi. However his supporters still claim that Morsi has to come back and stay for three more years. The pro-Morsi people are still clinging to the notion of Morsi's legitimacy as the elected president of Egypt. But I think they are misunderstanding the term legitimacy.

Lets explore this legitimacy they are holding on to. Morsi won the election, and let's leave all the bickering aside about whether that election was manipulated, and grant for the moment that he did win. He received over 13 millions votes last year out of 50 million registered voters in the final round of the election, against Ahmed Shafiq, a representative of the party of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

At the time of the election, the constitution of the country was not finalized, and the terms of the election stated that the winner was to be an interim president for one year, until a constitution was finalized and a new election could be held. But that all changed when Morsi issued a last-minute decree, forcing the constitution to be altered giving him, among other powers, a four-year term.

A year later, the Egyptian people didn’t see any positive changes. In addition, their needs seemed to be ignored by Mr. Morsi and his Freedom and Justice Party. All Morsi was interested in over the last year was getting his friends from the Muslim Brotherhood placed into positions as ministers and heads of government, whether they were qualified or not.

Political activists took notice of the bad job Morsi was doing, and they started thinking of ways to show what the Egyptian people felt about Morsi’s performance over the one year he had been in office. They created the Rebel campaign, which invited people to have a second chance to vote in a way, now that they knew whom they were dealing with. People were asked to sign a petition to remove Morsi from office. And over 22 millions people signed the petition in less than two months. Then they took to the street on June 30, which was the deadline the campaign had established to collect as many signatures as they could. People were asked to come out and participate in a peaceful protest at Tahrir Square and the Etihadya presidential palace in Heliopolis to let Morsi know how they felt.

And the people responded. They signed the paper, and they showed up on June 30 in the mIllions all around the country.  In all, 33 million people took to the streets, and chanted a slogan showing their deep disappointment in Morsi and his administration. They also called for his resignation.

Of course people in power tend to act the same, so like his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, Morsi chose to ignore the whole thing. It wasn't even covered on the official media initially. But the Egyptian people didn’t back down easily. For three days they took to the street, peacefully asking Morsi to leave.

The Egyptian military was watching closely as the situation escalated. When they saw how massive the protest had become, they asked the Morsi administration to issue some response to the protests that were taking place everywhere in Egypt. They gave Morsi 48 hours to address the Egyptian people. When Morsi finally addressed the crowds for an hour, he offered no concession. Morsi said that he would hold on to his legitimacy, and he wouldn’t be leaving before the end of his four-year term.

But Morsi was never elected to serve a four-year term. He used his position to force that into the constitution. So everything else about Morsi and his behavior as president aside, I think that the pro-Morsi people are mistaken about the question of Morsi's legitimacy after the end of his one-year interim term.

Effective Mainstream Media

While I was going through customs to return to the USA, the customs officer asked me if I participated in any of the rallies on June 30:

Me: Yes, of course. It was beautiful, and I took tons of photos.

Customs Officer: There's a lot of talk about hating Obama and the USA over there now.

Me: Many people disagree with some of the US policies in the middle east, and its hypocrisy when it comes to democracy. It wasn’t a coup by the way

Customs Officer: (raising his eyebrows) What was it then?  

Me: It was the people rejecting a failed president. They called on their military to remove him, since Morsi wasn’t doing a good job.

Customs Officer: (in a sarcastic tone) Well I guess you know more than CNN, since you were there.

Me: Yes, I was there. What happened on June 30 was a peaceful demonstration.

Customs Officer: Well if it was so peaceful, and it wasn't a coup, what do you call what happened between the people and the army a few days ago?

Me: That was between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. They attacked the army, and the army defended itself. When was the last time an angry mob directly attacked the police in the USA without the police responding?

For the record, what happened on July 8 was that a bunch of Morsi supporters, upset over the removal of Morsi on June 30, attacked the military guard outside the presidential palace in the early hours of the morning. The military tried to disperse the crowd with announcements, tear gas, and finally a few warning shots. But the crowd didn't back down. Then some people in the crowd pulled out weapons and fired directly on the army. So of course the army fired back. As a result, there were casualties and injuries to both the Muslim Brotherhood protesters and the military.

It's impressive how the mainstream media can make up a story, and convince so many people to believe it.

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.

The Nightmare is Over

Standing in the middle of the crowd outside the El Eitihadya presidential palace for hours, listening to the chanting of people calling for Morsi to leave, filled me with hope and pride.

At a coffee shop, finally sitting down to eat something after a long day at the protest, I look up as El Sisi, head of the armed forces in Egypt, appears on TV. His voice is heard from parked cars and shops close by.

During the speech, the loud and bustling streets got so quiet so fast. This is what everyone in Egypt was waiting for; a speech from Sisi to tell us what is going to happen. Egyptians are deeply invested in the hope that the military will do the right thing, and stand by the peaceful anti-Morsi protesters.

The people listen carefully, and hang on every word. After the crowd understands that the Military has actually forced Morsi out of office, the streets roar, and screams of celebration everywhere break the silence.

What I felt, and what the people felt at that moment, is hard to put into words. Pride, happiness, and a sense of achievement. The peaceful protest really worked. You can get what you want without bloodshed.

Egyptians have been in a nightmare called the Muslim Brotherhood since the end of the initial revolution on January 25, 2011. Morsi's religious party swarmed into power, and they felt very comfortable very fast. Right away they started to change Egypt to what they called "Islamist Egypt."

Now that Morsi is under house arrest, Egyptians have said loud and clear that they don’t want an Islamist state, and do not trust a Muslim Brotherhood government. The Egyptian people not only removed two presidents in two years, but Egypt has become the first country to overthrow an Islamist state; a new notch on the Egyptian belt.

What really bothers me is that most of the headlines around the world read as if Egypt is having a military coup. We called on our Egyptian military to end Morsi's regime, and to help prevent the threat of civil war. We all know that our military isn't perfect, but they answered the call of millions of Egyptians, and we are grateful.

I'm proud of the actions of our military and police in the past few days, and very glad that our Muslim Brotherhood nightmare is over.

Hasta La vista Morsi

Conversations with the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan)

I have been in Cairo since February, 2013, and now it is May; I have met with many people of all kinds of social status, education, background, and political party affiliation. But I have been most interested in talking to is someone who is a Muslim Brotherhood active member, to hear their perspective. It has been difficult finding a Muslim Brotherhood member in Cairo who was willing to talk on the record.

Yesterday I got my wish. Not only did I talk to one person, I talked to several Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters, and they were very willing to talk to me about their opinions of Morsi.

But the conversations mostly went in the same direction, and ended up with no variety of results at all. They all loved Morsi, and said any criticism of him was the fault of the media, or foreign influences. But other than their support for his faith, they couldn't point to specifics to show good things he has actually done.

As an example, I will go through part of one conversation I had with a Muslim Brotherhood member. Since all of the conversations went almost exactly the same way, I’m just going to call this person MB.

Me: How do you like Morsi's presidency so far?

Muslim Brotherhood Member (MB): I like it a lot. He is an amazing man. He will set Egypt in the right direction politically, economically, and internationally.

Me: Well that sounds great, however I have been living in Egypt for few months, and I've never heard anything but criticism against Morsi and his administration. How do you feel about that?

MB: The media are the ones to blame. They are attacking him all the time, and they don’t focus on his achievements. You have a democratically elected president for the first time, and the media people are insulting him, making fun of him, and fighting him every step of the way.

Me: Wait, I never mentioned the media. I’m telling you everybody I sit with says they don’t feel or see that Morsi has been doing anything good to help Egypt recover.

MB: It is because people watch the TV to much, and believe what the TV is telling them. The media are making fun of Morsi non-stop, and they highlight his mistakes more than his achievements.

Me: But what about inflation, the lack of the security, and the lack of the job opportunities for young and poor people?

MB: There are many people who want Morsi to fail. Israel, the USA, and such.

Of course that didn’t answer my question.

The interviews all went on that way, covering a wide range of topics. The answers I got were all defensive about the reasons for Morsi's failures, but vague about any actual accomplishments.

Morsi seems most interested in installing his Muslim Brotherhood members in any high position, like the prime minister and many other ministerial positions in the country, with total disregard to their qualifications

The majority of the people I've spoken with don’t feel that the country is going in the right direction to move beyond the hard times they live in right now. These are real issues, and they don’t feel that Morsi has the answers for any of these issues.

People don’t have to watch TV, or listen to foreign sources, to know that they don’t have jobs or money to spend to get their next meal.