Egypt riots 2013

The current events are flowing non stop from Egypt, that it is easy to forget what happened just a couple of days ago. Before the army overtaking the country from its elected officials the news talked about a festive-like protest in Tahrir square, the same place that was the anti Mubarack protest in the end of 2011.

Tahrir is also synonymous with the abuse of woman, especially foreign reporters. The fist case was of Lara Logan who has been not only sexually assaulted in the square during the joy that overtook the country when Mubarack was removed, but she was also beating and physically attacked.

Natasha Smith was yet another journalist that was sexually attacked in the square as well as the (now famous) Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda el Mahdi. Add to this the constant stream of reports by locals of the continues harassment by the army and the police (toward females) and you get one place you should not visit in Cairo – if you are a Western female.

Now the current story is of a Dutch young woman who was brutally assaulted in the square a couple of days ago, rushed to the hospital and later sent back to her country. The fact that there rapes do not stop is an indication that there is something deep within the current Egyptian society that is wrong, but the current trend makes it even worst – the “easy trigger” when it comes to foreigners, and while females are abused and attacked males are simply stabbed and killed.

As was the unfortunate case of Andrew Pochter from Maryland, who spent time in Egypt teaching children English, he was stabbed in Alexandria while watching a demonstration, he was not part of it, and he probably took a place of a spectator – mainly because he was an outsider. Someone grabbed the chance to stab and kill him, for the obvious reason of him not being Egyptian.

There are many signs that show the turning of the Egyptian society into a radical and non tolerant one, the extreme cases of the rapes and murders should be noted by those who thing of paying the country a visit.

Oh, sure you can.

For lack of time, this post is presented in a form of “bunch of questions” that very naturally rise from the events of the past 48 hours, all are probably good titles for further posts on the subject of democracy, free speech, the unbelievable defeat the current American administration in its Mid-East foreign policy, and on top of everything is the Muslim brotherhood’s future.

Here are the questions – or simply things to consider about talking on the subject of Egypt –

When an army removes an elected prime minister/president can it ever be called a service to democracy? (lets answer this one with a clear “no!”, it has nothing to do with democracy or any kind of liberal thinking, it is a pure violent action that is contrary to any democratic idea).

Free speech – did the protest in the last couple of days bring about the removal of the Egyptian officials, was that a pure form of free speech that overtook the whole country?. Of course it was free speech and it was exercised to perfection, however one must wonder how this lighting fast mini revolution came to be, how could it be that it took under 100 hours to remove a party that won an election just a year ago by an overwhelming majority of the population.

The American failure – President Obama has another fantastic disaster under his belt now, his lack of intervention on Syria, his paralyzation in dealing with the “Arab spring” when it happened are now ballooning into a huge problem. The never ending mistakes with almost all the middle east countries has led to a rapid decline in the how the U.S. is perceived today. Even the loudest warnings from Washington are ignored by the people of the Middle East.

The people of Egypt did not revolt against the Muslim brotherhood because it was bad at politics, but because it failed the most basic elements of any administration – it did not get the population enough food, enough work, enough safety.

The Muslim brotherhood – after decades of waiting, not always quietly, for power, the brotherhood now lost it in a few hours, publicly humiliated and stripped of power it is indeed a surprise that this thing happened without much blood filling the streets of Egypt, however the backlash might still arrive, what is worst is that the followers of the party have a genuine claim, they were removed by force by the army.

From Tahrir Square to Alexandria Murder – Egypt Is Radical

Can You Get More Confused About Egypt?