Things are hot and it is not about weather but about the new governor. When the new governors list was announced last week in Egypt some governorates objected some of the names in the list due to their past affiliation with the NDP and state security.
Among these names was the governor of Qena police general Emad Mikhail who used to be a general in the ministry of interior . It started simply with a sit in in front of the governorate HQ , normal Muslims and Christians refusing the new governor because he is accused of participating in the shooting of protesters during the revolution in Giza . Already one should wonder why someone like that is appointed as a governor and not being investigated for his role in the revolution !!? Again we would not have all this if there is better political decision making process.
Everything was fine and civil , people had demands and the government should have listened to them but suddenly with no introduction we found the radical Salafists jumping to the scene , in fact occupying the scene forcing the rest of the people whether Christians or Muslims to leave it. They reject the new governor because he is Christian , they do not want him because of that only as far as I see !!
The scene became ugly when we find the people in Qena cutting the railways and highways and isolating the governorate from the rest of the country. Not than LE 1 million are lost on daily basis because of this sit in !! In the past 48 hours I have read angry and dangerous threats allegedly from starting from cutting water and electricity to the red sea factories to having some Islamic state in the city !!!! Things even went frenzy when someone raised the flag of Saudi Arabia in yesterday’s protest , of course this flag was referring to Saudi Arabia or Saudi sponsorship but referring to the religious identity of Islam.
Needless to say Saudi Arabia and its ambassador are accused of trying to create sectarian division now because of this !! The new Saudi ambassador has hard job without doubt in Egypt post revolution.
Of course some activists from Qena are disturbed by this and try to convince us that it is not a sectarian thing as even Christians refuse the appointed governor. I believe them but unfortunately the videos coming from Qena shows another thing. This is just a clip from series of video clips showing something terribly bad there.
To be honest I wonder why those people did not do such thing on January 28th in solidarity with their brothers in Cairo , Alexandria and Suez !!?
Now without any doubt here is another episode from the counter revolution soap opera and I am not being sarcastic in any way. Bloggers and activists from Qena are speaking meeting between former state security officers and some Salafists who used to work with the SS last Thursday , they also reported some ugly NDP faces were seen in the Salafist protests like Abdel Raheem El-Gol and Abdel Fatah Omar. I believe them.
It is a new set up for the army now , I was calling the army to interfere and end this circus on twitter as it ended the strikes in Tahrir square “tough on Tahrir but soft on Qena” yet thankfully people reminded me with the nature of Upper Egypt. We are speaking about Qena , the deep down of Upper Egypt and if the army interferes like What happened in Tahrir square April 8th , we can have a civil war there technically considering the facts that everybody is armed there and tribal values are over everything else. This is an original set up because now you are sending message to the rest of Egyptians and also to the world that democracy will bring out the bogyman : THE ISLAMISTS !!
It is a set up for the army , it is a set up for the government , it is set up for the new presidential candidates who seem to be afraid to go to Qena. For the record the previous governor of Qena was Christian and Christians hated him more than Muslims because they believed he favored Muslims over them for fear he would be accused of taking their side because of his religion. He was also police general , most of the governors in Upper Egypt come from the police in the previous era due to the special nature of area there. You got fully armed society , you got powerful and armed families that are more powerful than the state itself , you also have the 1990s terrorism years thus the regime believed Police generals will be better in dealing with these governorates.
By the way some people believe that it is a set up by the army itself to make us accept any governors the Salafists want !! There is no doubt that there is a huge trust issue between people especially young people and the army.
Knowing the nature of Upper Egypt , I would say that the governor position there is not like in Delta or the rest of Egypt , the families and tribes play important role here in shaping the policies of the governorate. This is why I insist that the army push on the families to end this circus in a reasonable way , people say that the families’ powers are outside the city but all those protesting follow the orders of their families by the end of the day.The families of Qena are silent because according to those from Upper Egypt they do not consider the Salafists as danger yet.
It is no wonder that the PM sent the minister of interior along with a delegation to speak with the Salafists. Mansour El-Eissawy is already from Qena and he went there with delegation from the revolution activists like Mustafa Al Nagar but unfortunately the negotiations have failed. Now people are speaking of sending Sheikh Mohamed Hassan there and actually I am not comfortable with that role giving to him.
Of course the people should choose their governors freely in democratic elections and hopefully this will be put in our priorities after having a new parliament and constitution.Qena just like the rest of Upper Egypt governorates suffer from a lot of problem especially poverty , I hope that the civil society pay attention to Upper Egypt now because there is no excuse after the fall of the Mubarak regime.
Among these names was the governor of Qena police general Emad Mikhail who used to be a general in the ministry of interior . It started simply with a sit in in front of the governorate HQ , normal Muslims and Christians refusing the new governor because he is accused of participating in the shooting of protesters during the revolution in Giza . Already one should wonder why someone like that is appointed as a governor and not being investigated for his role in the revolution !!? Again we would not have all this if there is better political decision making process.
Everything was fine and civil , people had demands and the government should have listened to them but suddenly with no introduction we found the radical Salafists jumping to the scene , in fact occupying the scene forcing the rest of the people whether Christians or Muslims to leave it. They reject the new governor because he is Christian , they do not want him because of that only as far as I see !!
The scene became ugly when we find the people in Qena cutting the railways and highways and isolating the governorate from the rest of the country. Not than LE 1 million are lost on daily basis because of this sit in !! In the past 48 hours I have read angry and dangerous threats allegedly from starting from cutting water and electricity to the red sea factories to having some Islamic state in the city !!!! Things even went frenzy when someone raised the flag of Saudi Arabia in yesterday’s protest , of course this flag was referring to Saudi Arabia or Saudi sponsorship but referring to the religious identity of Islam.
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| Saudi flag or rather the banner of Islam |
Of course some activists from Qena are disturbed by this and try to convince us that it is not a sectarian thing as even Christians refuse the appointed governor. I believe them but unfortunately the videos coming from Qena shows another thing. This is just a clip from series of video clips showing something terribly bad there.
To be honest I wonder why those people did not do such thing on January 28th in solidarity with their brothers in Cairo , Alexandria and Suez !!?
Now without any doubt here is another episode from the counter revolution soap opera and I am not being sarcastic in any way. Bloggers and activists from Qena are speaking meeting between former state security officers and some Salafists who used to work with the SS last Thursday , they also reported some ugly NDP faces were seen in the Salafist protests like Abdel Raheem El-Gol and Abdel Fatah Omar. I believe them.
It is a new set up for the army now , I was calling the army to interfere and end this circus on twitter as it ended the strikes in Tahrir square “tough on Tahrir but soft on Qena” yet thankfully people reminded me with the nature of Upper Egypt. We are speaking about Qena , the deep down of Upper Egypt and if the army interferes like What happened in Tahrir square April 8th , we can have a civil war there technically considering the facts that everybody is armed there and tribal values are over everything else. This is an original set up because now you are sending message to the rest of Egyptians and also to the world that democracy will bring out the bogyman : THE ISLAMISTS !!
It is a set up for the army , it is a set up for the government , it is set up for the new presidential candidates who seem to be afraid to go to Qena. For the record the previous governor of Qena was Christian and Christians hated him more than Muslims because they believed he favored Muslims over them for fear he would be accused of taking their side because of his religion. He was also police general , most of the governors in Upper Egypt come from the police in the previous era due to the special nature of area there. You got fully armed society , you got powerful and armed families that are more powerful than the state itself , you also have the 1990s terrorism years thus the regime believed Police generals will be better in dealing with these governorates.
By the way some people believe that it is a set up by the army itself to make us accept any governors the Salafists want !! There is no doubt that there is a huge trust issue between people especially young people and the army.
Knowing the nature of Upper Egypt , I would say that the governor position there is not like in Delta or the rest of Egypt , the families and tribes play important role here in shaping the policies of the governorate. This is why I insist that the army push on the families to end this circus in a reasonable way , people say that the families’ powers are outside the city but all those protesting follow the orders of their families by the end of the day.The families of Qena are silent because according to those from Upper Egypt they do not consider the Salafists as danger yet.
It is no wonder that the PM sent the minister of interior along with a delegation to speak with the Salafists. Mansour El-Eissawy is already from Qena and he went there with delegation from the revolution activists like Mustafa Al Nagar but unfortunately the negotiations have failed. Now people are speaking of sending Sheikh Mohamed Hassan there and actually I am not comfortable with that role giving to him.
Of course the people should choose their governors freely in democratic elections and hopefully this will be put in our priorities after having a new parliament and constitution.Qena just like the rest of Upper Egypt governorates suffer from a lot of problem especially poverty , I hope that the civil society pay attention to Upper Egypt now because there is no excuse after the fall of the Mubarak regime.