Ayoon wa Azan (Egypt: Disagreement over everything)

There was a time when Arabs used to go to Egypt in order to forget their worries and to have fun. At the present time, we are going to Egypt in order to try and entertain our friends there. No one is happy in Egypt. The president doesn’t like the press and the majority of the press doesn’t like the president. There is absolutely no amiability between the president and the opposition members. He wants to jail them and they want to topple him. I spent three days in Cairo. In order to show solidarity with my friends there, I ordered all the newspapers and I jotted down the headlines pertaining to the daily incidents and some selected problems. During the entire week, the Freedom and Justice newspaper alluded to the attacks carried by the opposition members against the headquarters of the MB party in Al-Muqatam. The opposition newspapers focused on the Islamists’ attack against the Media Production City and the torturing of the opposition members in a mosque. The pro-government parties said that the thugs “are burning Egypt with Molotov cocktails.” The opposition sides replied by saying that they are “bracing for the invasion of the parties.” When the Media Production City came under attack on the following days, the headlines read, “the mouth-gagging invasion” and “the Media Production City is besieged by the beards and the robes,” and “hundreds of Salafists imprisoned the Media Production city,” and “a day of terror in the Muslim Brothers’ slaughter house.” With the conclusion of the week, the pro-government media threatened the parties that planned and took part in the Al-Muqattam attack. There was also a description of how the thugs attacked Moustafa al-Khatib, a journalist at the Freedom and Justice newspaper. The opposition responded by carrying news on the torture practices of the Muslim Brothers against the people detained at the Belal Mosque also in Al-Muaqattam in addition to photos showing the traces of whipping on their backs and testimonies of some people who were tortured. Between the two parties, President Mohammad Morsi said: “I will cut off any finger that meddles in Egypt. I will not allow for any more blood spill.” The opposition said: Egypt responds to Morsi’s finger. We will not be threatened. The above debate was still ongoing when a judiciary resolution was issued that revoked the president’s appointment of an attorney general affiliated to the Muslim Brothers. The opposition headline read: The appointment of Talaat Abdallh is void; Abdel Majid Mahmoud is the legitimate attorney general. Another headline read: A new judiciary coup against the president and: “the Judges’ club. The implementation is a must.” The MB group’s newspapers replied: “Jurists: Abdel Majid will not return,” and “Ministry of Justice: the ruling is not final and we are considering the appeal.” This is indeed what the government did. There is a disagreement over everything. The president threatened the opposition members and the MBs filed a complaint against 169 opposition members. Some opposition figures were also summoned for investigation including Mohammad al-Baradei, Hamdin Sabahi, George Ishac, Abdel Galil Moustafa, Abdel Hali, Kandil and even Ahmad Shafik who is now living in the Gulf. The opposition responded by saying that the era of the threats is gone and Egypt doesn’t care about the president’s threats. I don’t know if there will be violent clashes in the street. I do know however that President Mohammad Morsi is not responsible for the economic and security problems as these problems have been there before he accessed power. However, he is responsible for the exacerbation of these problems since he came to power. He is also responsible for the Muslim Brothers’ group failure to come up with solutions to ease down the severity of the many crises. Some friends invited me for dinner in Misr al-Jadida. As I entered their house, I was surprised to see that they had no electricity. During thirty years of the Hosni Mubarak rule, I don’t remember I ever walked into a house in Egypt with no electricity. There are power cuts for different amount of times here and there. The power returned to my friend’s place so we ended up eating in a lit room. I however read that the crisis is ongoing and that it might increase in the summer in addition to the fuel and gas crises. Our friends in Egypt need someone to cheer them up after having cheered up the entire nation for decades. The only thing I could tell them was: Thank God you’re not in Syria. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.