Presidential Elections

الوسوم

Al Sisi, candidates, Christians, circus, euphoria, excitement, fourth generation war, Hamdeen Sabahy, jokes, Morsi, security, songs, Voting

Tomorrow is the first of two days set for voting in our upcoming Presidential elections. The two people running this year are, the famous General Al Sisi, and the third runner up in the previous Presidential elections, Mr. Hamdeen Sabahi. Each of the candidates has had enough opportunities to show their strong points and to try to persuade the voting public to choose them. Yesterday and today are the two days of complete silence from both parties, to give the public enough quiet time to finally make up their minds.
I shall not talk about the pros and cons of each candidate, but will talk about what I see is happening in Egypt now. We are at the zenith of the war waged against us. The fourth generation war. The war where brother is set against brother. The war where Egyptians are recruited to kill Egyptians. The war where the Egyptian media through some who have been either persuaded or bought, work on planting the seeds of doubt and contention among the public.
Despite the fact that there are attempts at making trouble between Christians and Moslems through some very naive posters that were plastered on the cathedral’s walls, and although there are very strong attempts at splintering the vote, at persuading, especially the youth, to abstain; although there are huge amounts of money exchanging hands to ensure the success of these plans, yet, strangely enough, the general feeling in town, and seemingly all over the country, is one of euphoria. It has been a very long time since the Egyptian public has felt happy. These days people on the street are grinning from ear to ear. Music is blaring everywhere, especially the new, fast-beat song called, appropriately, “Good Omen”! The current running joke is that all women must start a crash diet to lose enough weight to enable them keep up with this much faster beat than that of the previous song “Teslam el Ayady” which meant “bless the hands” (of the army). Another joke is that queues for women will be divided into two, those over 35 dancing to Teslam el Ayady, and those under, dancing to Boshret Kheir (Good Omen). With a P.S. At the end that they should not forget to vote too!!
This feeling of happiness, of optimism, has nothing to do with the actual state of the country. Things could not have been worse, economically and even security wise. The continuous threat by the MB and actual assassination of police and army personnel, as well as the random threats of bombs and a few that actually go off, make for a rather insecure feeling, a threat to life and limb. The economy is at a very low ebb and unemployment is on the rise. The whole aspect is bleak. And yet, individuals that make up the whole, are inexplicably cheerful. The only explanation lies in the soaring hope aroused in the people by Al Sisi. The more the man talks, the more popular he becomes. A highly intelligent man, he is strongly tuned to the mood of the people. Very empathetic, cleverly demonstrative, he gives the people what they need. He gives, in turn, reassurance, protection, strength, tenderness, piety, common sense and pride. He strives, through his own behavior to set a precedent of good manners, integrity and respect. So many elements that have been missing in our public figures for so long. Also the last year of the MB rule was one where we hit rock bottom where all the above were concerned. Not only were flagrant lies the norm, but the very essence of integrity was inconceivable. Principles were a thing of the past and good behavior was laughed at. These were very dark days indeed, they left their imprint on the Egyptian psyche and caused a great deal of depression, both individual and collective. The very fact that we are now rid of these people from the government of Egypt, despite the fact that they still exist in the form of terrorists, this fact has lightened people’s depression. More importantly, that the people are about to go, vote in, the man whom they deemed saved them from the dark ages, is infusing excitement and happiness all over.
If these elections are anything like the referendum on the constitution which took place mid January, then I expect to find a circus. I am assigned to the same school where I cast my ballot last time. It is in a rather poor area but full of people and those adorable little Tok-Tok three-wheeled cars used in lieu of public transportation. So I expect again a cacophony of sound, a rainbow of colors and a roller coaster of movement and traffic. I shall try to go early to finish early so as not to have to stand in a queue in the sun and the heat.
Tomorrow we will probably be inundated by people holding up their fingers which have been immersed into the phosphoric indelible ink, denoting having cast your ballot, now a sign of proud patriotism. Then starting the day after, if voting is not prolonged one more day, the excitement of the exit polls, the counting, and finally, though not officially, an assessment of who won and by how large a margin. We shall not get the official results in till, I think June 5, giving enough time for any complaints to be investigated and reviewed. But a few hours after the end of voting we would be able yo have a pretty good idea how things went.
I am looking forward to casting my ballot tomorrow, and hope that my candidate wins.
25 May 2014

The Salafi Preacher

الوسوم

apartment building, children, Christian Orthodox Pope, Christians, Egypt, Facebook, hate, national upbringing, Salafi

There are many people who post on Facebook such opinions as would raise the hackles of the majority of their readers, but none so like those who choose to antagonize one particular faction of society. A couple of days ago I read a post by someone who was quite tactless in his description of the Christian Orthodox Pope. Not only was he very ill-informed, his style was such, that it raised a sense of anger and disgust, not only among Christians, but more so among Muslims.
As a Christian I am used to such opinions and such tactless people. It is not something new. Quite a few years ago, when we were still living in town in an apartment building, there was a minute mosque – what is called a “zawya” – across the road from our apartment building, with a huge microphone directed at us. Every Friday, noon prayers would blare at the building. Not only would the Preacher, the Sheikh, hook it up to the radio, he would also turn it to the loudest volume possible. Then would come the time of the sermon. Never have I heard a more hate-filled sermon in my life. Every week was the same. “Oh God, orphan their children, kill off their offspring, widow their spouses”. Curses were heaped upon all those who were not of “the true faith of Islam”. Sometimes he would specify those as the Jews, others as the Nazarenes (from Nazareth – denoting Christians). So I learned at an early age that being wished ill and being cursed by some supposed men of a God was the norm and nothing to get riled about. So now I take it in my stride. The post on Facebook was not the first, and will not be the last. But what did give me pause and did cause me a great deal of concern was a video clip of a supposed Sheikh, a Salafi, preaching to schoolboys not more than ten years old.
His face was never shown on the film, and although the clip was identified as being filmed in Syria, the accent of the preacher is Egyptian, and he talks about part of the school curriculum called “National Upbringing”, which is definitely something that we have here in Egypt.
What scared me about this clip is the continuous harping and repetition of a doctrine of such hatred as to make my hair stand on end. Not only is he telling those impressionable young boys that what they are being taught about nationalism is all wrong, and that it is against Islam, but he took it further and specifically described Christians as infidels and that the only right thing to do with infidels is to kill them. He did speak about Bashar Assad and about the Syrians, but his main emphasis was on the school curriculum that should not be believed, the feeling of nationalism that is practically a sin, as only Islam is the right path to take. The link to that clip is http://www.coptstoday.com/Copts-News/Detail.php?Id=66151 .
It is the existence of such preachers, and their devastating effect on the young minds they are preaching to, that has me really worried. I understand that such preachers are found a great deal in Upper Egypt, where poverty and ignorance prevail. There they find fertile ground for their doctrine of hate. It is there that the worst atrocities against Christians have taken place.
If Egypt is to be saved from the fate that is bring planned for it, then every man, woman and youth must take up arms in eradicating such teachings. If we wait for the government to do something about it, we will lose our lovely country to the advocators of hate and violence. We have to get together with like-minded people, with like-minded NGO’s, and start identifying these Salafi Preachers, then ensuring that they are contained, and can no longer influence the youth, the future of this country. Like our late sarcastic poet Galal Amer said: “Try to douse the fire of ignorance before turning on the light of knowledge; this is the disease and the cure.”
Egypt has to be cleaned up of such people full of hatred and misconceptions before we could start building on the positive and the good.
God bless and protect my beautiful Egypt.

The Nature of The Muslim Brotherhood (MB)

الوسوم

Christians, Dogs, hierarchy, human rights, Islam, martyrdom, Recruits, terrorist cult, the Brotherhood, Women

I hope they continue down the same path till the whole world sees them for what they are: a terrorist cult.
A secret society that thrived on operating in tHe dark, underground. It has its own key words, signals, culture. Built on the same lines of the Freemasons, the Brotherhood has all the Masonic traits and some of it rituals.
Recruitment to the Brotherhood starts at a very early ages usually early teens is the preferred age for new recruits. Boys at that age are rebelling against parental authority and are looking for like minded other boys to form a pack. Where there is no Freemasons or Brotherhood, boys of that age join a gang. Basically they are all the same, except in the case of the Freemasons and the Brotherhood there is a whole organization behind the facade. A very well organized entity with a very regimented hierarchy. In the case of the Brotherhood the recruit does not have an idea what he is getting into. All he sees is his peers, usually of the same age, having a lot of fun together, under the umbrella of a man of God. So who could doubt that they are on the right path. Especially as this very man of God is the one teaching them all aspects of religion. If they notice some slight discrepancies between what they are being taught within the Brotherhood and what they usually hear in the mosque or are taught to them by their parents, they prefer the version by their mentor from the Brotherhood because it usually feeds their natural aggressiveness and sanctifies it.
It is a very gradual process, but over time these discrepancies become more and more, and this is the beginning of the path away from Islam proper. From then on it is the version of the Brotherhood’s Islam which they believe in. In that version, love, tolerance, kindness and good have no place as absolutes. Everything is conditioned. You love only people of the same trend, others are much less and do not deserve your love. Tolerance is only for your kind, no one else deserves that as they are not Muslims as per the Brotherhood’s teachings, they are infidels and therefore should not even be tolerated. Only Brothers deserve kindness and good means only one thing. You do good only to your brothers, but doing good is also in harming others. In their warped view harming your ‘enemy’ is considered as doing good for your ‘true’ faith as per the Brotherhood.
Once they reach this stage of indoctrination they totally believe that good is what is to the advantage of the Brotherhood, even if this means lying for the advantage of the Brotherhood is good. Beating someone who is against the Brotherhood is good and will be rewarded by God. God will bless you with a reward of heaven if you die for the Brotherhood’s cause, especially if you can take with you as many people who are not your Brothers. This way you have reached the coveted level of martyrdom which means you go straight to heaven.
They are now totally brainwashed into believing that lying, stealing, cheating, wounding and killing are all justified if it is for the advantage of the Brotherhood, and all this is done with God’s blessing. Parallel to this trend is a natural inflation of the ego. So a tendency to superior behavior and a barely hidden arrogance in treatment of everybody else is the result. All non Brotherhood members are inferior and therefore do not count. A side effect of this arrogance is their very strong feeling of entitlement. This entitlement includes every desire they have. They are therefore entitled to the best food, all the money they can cheat you out of, all the sex they can get with as many women as they lust for.
In the world of the Brotherhood women have one role. A sexual vessel for the pleasure of the Brother, and a means for procreation. Women are considered only in this light, and that is the reason why they should be covered to ensure that they do not tempt any of the Brothers. Their voices are also tempting, so they should not be heard. Their place is in the home. Despite this, women are ruthlessly used for other purposes. Just lately they were the ones used, along with the children – both being expendable – as human shields, first in demonstrations where they were placed in the outer parameters, and the in the Rabaa sit-in where they were place on the front lines. The women themselves are brought up to agree to their inferiority and therefore consider it natural for them to be dispensable. Things were taken an even step further during the Rabaa sit-in, where women were given a chance of reaching the aspired for martyrdom level by undergoing sexual jihad. This means that women were brought in to have sexual intercourse with the ‘fighting’ Brothers who are at the sit-in. These women were who have been brainwashed into thinking that they are doing God’s work. Prostitution was given a holy whitewash. But worse still, very young girls, some in their early teens were used. It was rumored that a 14 year-old died while practicing sexual jihad, and of course, to them she had gone straight to heaven, as she has reached martyrdom.
Christians are considered even lower than women, for they are infidels and do not deserve to live. They might just come up to the same level as the dogs they now douse with gasoline and set on fire as a “live” bomb. This is their latest game. Animal rights organizations are doing their best to try to rescue as many of these unfortunate animals as they could.
To any normal Muslim this is the ultimate insult to his sense of sanctity of religion. Normal Muslims see all this as totally barbaric behavior. Nothing in the Islamic religion has anything to do with what the Brotherhood are teaching their people or to what they are practicing. This cult has managed to smirch the pure religion of Islam with their behavior which, to those who are not familiar with this religion appears to be a very bloody, violent religion. Hence the phrase Islamic Terrorists. Anyone familiar with the religion of Islam as practiced by the centrist Egyptians would be appalled by this phrase. But when these people call out the name of Allah while perpetrating the most atrocious acts of violence and cruelty, then who could blame the uninitiated for believing the worst. They are Islam’s worst enemies, for it will not be easy to eradicate this association from the mind of the rest of the world.
The current behavior of the members of the Brotherhood is very much in line with this kind of brainwashing. One of the most important aspects of this training is complete and absolute blind, unquestioning obedience. This, added to the brainwashing shown above, makes them the perfect army of suicidal soldiers and potential martyrs with the added icing of heavenly rewards.
It is therefore quite baffling for normal, non Brotherhood brainwashed Egyptians to hear voices from abroad demanding that the Brotherhood be included in the roadmap for the future, that they become part of those setting up the Constitution which will rule the lives of all Egyptians for the foreseeable future. To us it is like including the most staunch Nazis in building the penal code of modern Germany; like including the IRA in running Britain, or Al Qaeda participate in the American Administration. Can it get more ridiculous? Can anything more preposterous be expected? How could supposedly well educated and well informed people even think that? And adding insult to injury, they site human rights for their demands. Where are the human rights of normal Egyptians to live normal, safe, prosperous and happy lives? Why is it only the human rights of those sick terrorists that have to be preserved? One of the most baffling aspects of this whole situation is the attitude of the west where the Brotherhood is concerned.