In Cairo Recently, I Was First Unable To Read The Street Signs

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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For 16 days recently in Cairo, I was unable to read the street signs. I mean the signs of where the Egyptian revolution was heading were confusing. But one thing I was rather sure of: the Revolution which toppled Mubarak on February 11 was succeeded by Revolution II which was pitting the demonstrators of Tahrir against the SCAF (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) of Abbasia - also in Cairo.

Revolution I demonstrated in Tahrir; Revolution II demonstrated in Abbasia. Rev. I called on the SCAF to step in the void left by 60 years of dictatorship; Rev. II was asking the SCAF to let go with governing Egypt through a supine Egyptian civil government. While three Prime Ministers (Shafik, then Sharaf, and now Ganzouri) succeeded one another, the SCAF kept on sending mixed signals as to the length of its tenure as the supreme executive and legislature of the land.

From Tahrir, the demonstrators marched on the symbols of Egyptian institutional continuity: the Parliament, and the seat of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Nervous about menacing statements by a member of the SCAF regarding the future power of the civilians over the military, they ignited Rev. II to disastrous consequences. Clashes took place; the two sides, civilian and military cum security forces engaged in stone throwing and Molotov cocktail hurling.  Causalities resulted on both sides.

While the SCAF tried to calm the situation down, promising handing over of power to a civilian President and government on July 1, 2012, Rev. II was suddenly infiltrated by children of the street who had neither knowledge of nor loyalty to institutional Egypt. In most cases, the street urchins were no older than 15 years of age.

They torched L'INSTITUT which housed Egypt's history and which was established by great French scholars who accompanied Napoleon I when he invaded Egypt in 1798 to cut off Britain's imperial lines to India. More than 200,000 books and rare manuscripts were in grave danger of being forever obliterated by fire, and the world, especially UNESCO, rushed in to reconstruct that historic trove. I saw people weeping in anguish for what happened, and the headlines in the Egyptian press screamed in anguish: "Egypt's Heart is Burning!!"

Prime Minister Ganzouri, a great economist, called on the country to help stamp out the chaos. And the SCAF hurriedly put together a Consultative Council made of 30 civilians to help it, together with the Cabinet, run the country whose January 25 Revolution was supposed to be the model for the Arab Spring. And with a tough-minded new Interior Minister, the call went out that peaceful demonstrations and hooliganism do not mix. Thus the see-saw between peaceful demonstrations and forceful suppression went into high gear.

In spite of all of this uncertainty, and in fact in the midst of, fair and orderly elections for the lower house of Parliament were held. Sixty-seven percent of participation by men and women was recorded. The Islamists who were harvesting close to 50% of the contested seats rushed to assure the Copts, women and the tourists that Egypt shall not be a theocracy, like Iran. The principles of Al-Azhar declared on August 17 to the effect that Islam does not call for a State based on religion were stressed. The elections for the upper house of Parliament, the Shura, were to be held in early Spring and a constituent assembly of 100 was to be established with a membership of 100 to draft the new constitution to be submitted to a national referendum. Subsequently, a President is later to be elected. The Muslim Brotherhood, through its newly-established political party (Freedom and Justice) declared that it shall accept the people's choice for President, even a Copt or a woman.

So by the end of my 16-day stay, I found myself hopeful that Revolution II would not be able to destroy Revolution I. The problem of Revolution II is that its goals remain unclear except for its call for the SCAF to depart immediately. Trying to find some answers while in Cairo from December 6 to December 21, I was advised by my friend Aly to accompany him to Kasr El-Aini Hospital. There the victims of those clashes before the Cabinet's seat lay while being treated by under equipped doctors and nurses. I stopped by 2 beds, on each of which lay a young man in his early 20s. Each one of them had the same name; Nabil. One was a Muslim, the other was a Copt. They had been shot by security forces with live ammunition. I asked each of them: "Why were you demonstrating?" The answer was the same: "I want to claim Egypt back!!" 

Suddenly, the Cairo street signs began to be clearer.

Egypt's Revolutionary Nuances

News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
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• In Egypt, you can vote while at the same time be protesting against something.
• You can be against the SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces), but you can also be for the Armed Forces, the symbol of Egyptian nationalism.
• You can be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but you, being a young person, may be against the leadership of the Brotherhood.
• You can demonstrate in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the Egyptian Revolution, and scream against military rule, even if temporary.  But you may be for the continuation of military rule, with a subservient civilian government.  If so, you don't go to Tahrir, but to another Square, Abbassiya Square, near the Headquarters of major branches of the Armed Forces.
• You may be a resident of Cairo.  But your roots are in the countryside, either in the North (the Delta) or in the South (the Al-Saeed).  So when you wish to catch your breath, you may take a  bus ride to your village where is relatively more peace and quiet.
• You may have been a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) now dissolved.  But the recent judicial rulings allows you to fully participate in Egypt's political life.
• You may have served in a high capacity under Mubarak's rule, now ended since February 11.  But you may still be called upon to serve the New Egypt.
• You may be shouting in Tahrir a slogan using the examples of revolts in other Arab countries.  In Syria, there is a very bloody crackdown by the military of Bashar El-Assad against demonstrators all over Syria.  But in Libya, a similar confrontation between Gaddafi's military and the Libyan revolutionaries ended up by killing Gaddafi.  So one of the slogans in Tahrir carry an ominous warning to the SCAF: "If you want to turn this into a Syria, we shall turn it into a Libya."
• You may be a graduate of Al-Azhar University, an Islamic Scholar with the distinctive turban of Al-Azhar, which was worn by my late father.  Yet you support the party called "The Free Egyptians" (Al-Missriyoon Al-Ahrar), established by a prominent Copt, Naguib Saweeris.
• You may be a committed Azhari (graduate of Al-Azhar) - committed to Sunni Islam (though there is no basic difference between Sunni and Shii).  Yet you are also committed to the principles declared by Al-Azhar on August 17, one of which states that: "In Islam, there is no recognition of a State based on religion."  That historic document was co-drafted by top Coptic clergy, symbolizing Coptic/Muslim unity, the true fabric of Egypt for more than a thousand years.
• You may be Pope Shenouda, the revered Patriarch of Alexandria, and one of the great scholars in the history of modern Egypt.  He is from upper Egypt (southern Egypt - Al-Saeed).  Yet he is capable of great wit in his discourse with the public.  I attended one of his memorable sessions at the Egyptian Consulate-General in New York City.  Some of his congregants laughingly asked him to tell them one of his favorite self-deprecating jokes.  His response: "God created the upper Egyptians (the people from Al-Saeed of whom he is one) for comic relief!!"
• And if you can read Arabic, you will probably not miss a hilarious cartoon in the Egyptian press, mocking what is perceived to be SCAF's desire to stay beyond July 2012 governing Egypt.  In the cartoon, you see two chairs: In one, there is a bottle of sticky liquid (crazy glue) with the name "Mubarak" as a brand name on the bottle.  On the other chair, sits a military officer of high rank with an indication that that (crazy glue) was applied to that seat before he sat down.  The officer seems to be either unable or unwilling to leave his seat of power.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS