Chronicles of A Revolutionary Egyptian Expatriate (1)

1 January 2011

I wake up a bit late. I was celebrating new year's with some friends at my house and night before and I went to bed quite late. First thing I do while still in bed is check Facebook from my iPhone. I see scattered comments and news on a church explosion in Alexandria! I read a bit and then I feel I need to see more. So I get up. My friend is still lying on the sofa bed outside and I tell her what happened. We turn on the TV and there's nothing on Egyptian stations. We keep looking while reading things from Facebook and various websites. It gets frustrating and I turn to Al Jazeera. Both Al Jazeera news and Al Jazeera Mubasher have the incident on. They showed scenes from the street where the church is and interviewed several people. They keep playing the same footage all day, as if reiterating the incident over and over again.

I feel utter shock and deep fear. I start following the news on twitter and reading everything I can. I look at the photos of the scene and some of the victims. Who could this? Who could mercilessly kill so many human beings for any reason whatsoever? Who has the indecency to do this on one of their holy nights as they pray? I could not comprehend it and the questions kept running in my head.
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I started to fear deeply for Egypt. Now Pandora's box has been opened. The christians are so angry, and they have the right to be. The Muslim government adds insult to injury by deciding to ignore the whole thing from its TV broadcasts, as if this will convince people nothing happened. Egyptian state TV keeps airing movies and songs as if this was a minor car accident on some road. The fire of sectarian strife has been kindled and nothing will be able to extinguish it.

Throughout the following two weeks, my thoughts continue. I see Mariam Fekry's profile on Facebook and read the words on her wall, and it makes me cry. I keep wondering who would do that and why. I watch her dad crying in a TV interview feeling utterly lonely and lost after the most precious people in his life were killed. My heart aches and I keep wondering why this happened.

One thing comes to my mind very strongly. The christians feel that the government let them down and failed to protect them. However, I feel like telling them Muslims get the same treatment. Yes, the incident was big. Yes, it was ignored in the media. Yes, the response from the government was kind of lame. But wasn't it also like that when people drowned in Al-Salam ferry? Wasn't it also like that when tons of people died in major train crashes every year? Wasn't it also like that when people burned inside the Beni Souef theatre? Apathy and absolute corruption do not differentiate their victims based on religion. The government simply does not care for ALL Egyptians. So why would we divide ourselves against them? Why would we turn to fighting each other instead?

I feel that a black hole has began and it can suck everything nice and good this country had. I imagine a country full of strife, hatred, corruption, and voilence, and it makes me feel so scared.
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To be continued...