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| “الأسد ما بياكلش أولاده” |
It’s open season in Egypt so if you look anything like an Islamist you better get off the streets and quick. For the first time in a long time the war in Syria is not the first headline on the news (or the second). We’ve been glued to our TV sets watching the chaos unfold as things go from bad to worse, with Aljazeera covering every possible and impossible angle there is. Of course, besides its habit of war mongering and throwing oil onto the flames, Aljazeera has the knack of being everywhere at any time and always hearing and reporting it first (false or true). Anyway, I don’t know what the ending will be like for this mess but whatever it is, it’s not coming soon. Every worst case scenario has happened. The attempts of the international community to twist the army’s arm is pretty much making everything worse. Alsisi has showed us time and again that he is not someone who gets told what to do, especially by civilians, and that he does what he says he will do no matter what the consequences. For him, its personal. He will kill every protester and MB (or anyone that looks remotely like one) that has the guts to get in his way, and no one can stop him.
The videos of unarmed civilians getting shot in the head/neck/back/abdomen are sickening. That one video of the kid standing in front of the tanks with his hands up in the air in surrender getting several bullets to his abdomen and legs is grotesque. Now images of dead and dying people are normal and not even labeled as ‘graphic content’ anymore. The number of deaths are nothing more than a number.
But what bothers me the most is the footage of civilians standing in rank with the army and police, with their own guns and clubs, shooting at the protesters. Actually killing people. You look at them and their looks of concentration as they point and shoot, like they’re hunting birds and the more that go down the higher the score. Like it’s open season. An army out of control is one thing. A criminal out of control and something entirely different. These people are in a situation where they are free to do what they want, and instead of getting in trouble or arrested, the law is actually on their side. And it’s not like they’re breaking and wrecking property or stealing; they are actually KILLING people.
A long time ago I read Lord ofThe Flies by William Golding. An excellent book with a very real and dangerous interpretation of life and morals and the human conscience. For those who don’t know or haven’t read it, it’s about a group of kids whose plane crashes on an island and the only adult, the pilot, dies early on. So the boys are stranded and of course start getting into fights and have to look for food and stuff. I don’t remember the details, but eventually they form into 2 teams: the good boys and the bad boys. The fights get more serious, and at one point one of the boys dies. Then another one. Then, the issue of death is not as horrifying as it is anymore, and now the boys have weapons to hunt and kill the other boys. The point of the story is that when you put a person in a situation where they have no guiding or guarding entity, like an adult for children, they tend to fall back into their natural instincts, which are either good or bad. So the boys went from regular school boys to murderers in a matter of days, which is very similar to what’s happening in Egypt now. These people who under the usual circumstances wouldn’t dare attempt what they’re doing now, now have the power and blessing to practice what their criminal instincts tell them to do. The problem with this is that you can’t stop them. It just gets worse and worse. You arm someone and give them power to do what they want, and taking back those arms and power is not as easy as you think. Pretty much the same thing that happened with the Janjaweed in Darfur.
So while no one ever did like or have compassion for the Ekhwan in Egypt, God be with them at this time where they are a free and easy target for the likes of these monsters.
Currently, there are Egyptian websites listing businesses owned by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Sometimes falsely. These businesses are looted, attacked and burned on a regular basis. Like I said, sometimes the owners are not even affiliated with the MB but apparently people are taking the chance to settle scores or "deal" with the competition.