Written by an Egyptian-American who is currently experiencing the fitna in Egypt with his family:
I thought I would give you an idea of how things are here in Egypt. As most of you know, I came here August 2nd for what was intended to be a vacation with my wife and kids who were already here a month prior. When I booked the tickets long before July 3rd I was looking forward to finally entering a new age of Egypt, one where we can truly have freedom of religion, where I would not have to worry about having a beard when I went through customs. One where progressive positive Islam would be made an example to the world joint with great countries such as Turkey we would be moving forward and finally take Egypt, the Arab world and Islam forward. Needless to say this is far from what is happening, and what we are seeing in Egypt today is worse than what it had been at the Mubarak era.Before I say anything else, I want to make one thing very clear. All those who think that Egypt's revolution is over are extremely wrong. If there is one thing that history teaches us is that the price of true freedom is very expensive, and no country or nation achieved it without a heavy price. The French revolution did not begin and end in 1789, the US did not win its freedom in weeks or months the Muslims went through years of torture and persecution before even moving to Madina let alone finally taking Mecca. The sad truth is, the revolution of January 25th 2011 was too easy. The state that Egypt was in was not resting solely on the shoulders of Hosni Mubarak but on a whole gang of his lackeys, not just in the military or even in places of power within Egypt but all around the world. What happened January 25th was simple, Mubarak's lackeys saw a losing battle, and instead of fighting a united Egypt and people they simply sold out Mubarak and stayed in power.
The evidence of this was made instantly clear, they tried for an election and did everything in their power to give power to Ahmad Shafiq, the vice president of Mubarak, imagine a revolution to get rid of a dictator only to elect his vice president right after. Upon failure of this they put a tremendous amount of pressure on the population to make Mohamed Morsy look incompetent. The Saudi government and Emirates Emirs, lackeys number one, petrified of a revolution at their own doors stopped providing Egypt with gas, oil and solar power so Egypt went dark. Kids studying for school did so under candlelight for days. The police force which were the ones responsible for the deaths of hundreds during the first revolution simply stopped doing their jobs. Furthermore they hired thugs to make the lives of people here horrible. This is a tactic commonly used in Egypt, they have access to thousands of thugs that they unleash at will at the locals and blame whomever they want for it.
Meanwhile all of Mubarak's first hand lackeys who were under trial were acquitted one by one they went free, the very people responsible for 60 years of corruption and filth are acquitted. When Morsy tried for new power to get rid of these judges the tv stations running the old regime's agenda brainwashed the people into thinking that Morsy was going to impose Shariah law and that he is vying for more power than Mubarak had. People took to the streets and forced him to step back. While in power he did not turn off these tv stations, he vowed for freedom of speech. For a full year these stations did nothing but blame everything that went wrong on Morsy. Streets are filthy they call it 'Morsy's garbage' Power goes off, they say Morsy cut our power. Anything goes wrong is blamed on Morsy.
What eventually happened was a people mislead by the old regime's propaganda under an incredible amount of pressure and stress took to the streets asking for the ousting of Morsy. Asking for the ousting of the first ever democratically elected president in Egypt's history to be removed, and when the military did their coup they rejoiced. The very next day all power was back, electric, gas, water and oil, ALL came back the next day, including 18 billion dollars from Saudi and UAE. The country is divided, between those who see what is happening; those who are completely blind and then there are those who see but feel that Morsy should have been able to fix it but failed. They think that 60 years of corruption and dependence on other states, states that supported the old regime will be fixed in a single year. I am ashamed to say that such division is even within my own family here, going as far as saying Morsy is a liar, he said he would fix it but didn't. Imagine, after a single year they say he should be removed because he lied about being able to fix it. That is how deep the brain washing is here.
Once Morsy was removed from power all Muslim brotherhood TV channels were taken off the air, so there goes freedom of speech. But nothing compares to what happened on August 14th. The day everyone showed their true colors. The military used LIVE ammunition on protesters demanding their president reinstated demanding that their revolution not be taken from their hands so quickly after it came. Reports of deaths differ with state reports saying over 600 dead while Muslim brotherhood reports over 2000. If you have been following you have seen the images. One of the martyrs was my brother in law's best friend his name was Ahmad Salah Medani. 24 years old he got married 2 months ago. May Allah have mercy on his soul. When they brought his body here in Alexandria for burial, the burial home refused to classify his death as murder instead they said they will write it off as suicide. The man had 3 bullets in his body and they wanted to classify it as suicide.
The family of course refused and instead there was a massive protest on Friday August 16th after Jummah prayer and his janaza. I attended the ceremony. It was the most surreal experience of my life; hundreds of thousands of people followed his body until the burial, screaming in rage crying in anguish, if any of you would have been there you would have surely shed more tears than you would have in your entire life. We walked for over 3 hours and the camaraderie under the sun was glorious. People buying water bottles and giving it to the crowd, people who step on your foot apologize excessively, people take water bottles and spray the crowd, shelter from the heat, while walking the streets whenever there are potholes or anything dangerous people stand and warn others of it. Yet when you watch state run TV they are saying the Muslim brotherhood are breaking the streets, the Muslim brotherhood are ruining the country. They said the Muslim brotherhood were burning the Library of Alexandria, yet the demonstration never crossed path with it.
They claim the Muslim brotherhood have guns and ammunition, yet when they were shot at on the 14th none of these so called weapons were used in self defense. They disallowed all filming in Rabia square, yet after it was cleared and the bodies lay on the ground they film themselves 'finding' bags of ammunition. And the Egyptian public eats it up like hot cakes, I am ashamed.
Salafi leadership showed its true cowardice colors; none of them say anything or go in support of Morsy, in defiance of Sisi the butcher or even in objection to the deaths of hundreds. Yet Salafis still took to the streets ashamed of their cowardice leaders
On Friday around 4 pm after the burial me and my family decided to go home and not continue with the protest. I will not lie, I was too afraid, where we were we saw tanks, trucks of army personnel with loaded weapons headed to certain key areas and military helicopters flying right above us, the crowd chanting and yelling 'Traitors' every time they approached. At the end of the line of demonstrators we can see the hired thugs begin to come out. I was there with my father in law hearing him screaming to catch up to his son to get away from these people carrying long sticks looking for strays from the demonstration to attack. All hired by the government.
We made it out ok and came back home. When we turned on the news we found out through Aljazeera NOT through state TV that military helicopters that were flying were shooting down on protesters in Cairo, in Alexandria soldiers shot and killed over 60 people in a mosque. While sitting safe in my in-laws' house after curfew I heard shouts outside I looked out and say people running heard women screaming and at least 5 loud gun shots. Where the military is claiming they are responding in self defense they are snipping people, shooting from helicopters and shooting at running civilians.
We are back to Marshal law where the military can pickup and detain anyone indefinitely without due process, gone is our very freedom. My other brother in law was riding a small bus, and it got held up by thugs yesterday. Carrying long knives and swords they asked if anyone riding the bus has a beard. Thankfully no one did, but if they had found one they would have pulled him out and attacked. These thugs are hired by the government, the very same government that half the people here are aligned with. The same government that the Saudi kings are giving money to and asking the world to stand behind.
This is not only a sad time for Egypt but for Muslims and the entire world.
I ask that you pray for all the martyrs. These brave men and women and believe me when I say there are PLENTY of women on the streets are fighting are in the TRUE struggle. They are stepping into harm's way for their right to practice their faith, for their right to freedom for the blood of our brothers that was shed and most of all for Allah. Every single soul that steps out in these demonstrations during these difficult times does not know if they will see their families again.
I urge that all governments around the world not recognize this interim government and put Sisi the butcher on trial for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands.
This is no longer about Mohamed Morsy.
I send this mail to you, but I urge that you send it to as many people as you can but make it anonymous. Spread the word.
We are all safe in our homes and will not step out. Do not worry, instead let the world see and know.