Wael Abdel Fatah
Tahrir Newspaper
Columnist Wael Abdel Fatah starts the article with the topic of yesterday’s bombing: “We were startled by the sound of the explosion. It was near us, at the heart of the city. The explosions have passed their normal borders and have reached everywhere. The sound echoed in all corners of Cairo. It was minutes after rash comments from the Minister of Interior,” Abdel Fatah writes.
He explains that the Brotherhood then issued a provocative statement with a “fake apology” for crimes that the Brotherhood deemed as “mistakes”, adding: “The Muslim Brotherhood believes that its desire to return to power is a form of revolution and disrupting the road to democracy is part of a revolutionary act.”
Abdel Fatah describes the third anniversary of the 25 January Revolution as chaotic, trapping the Egyptian people between: “terrorists punishing us for refusing their rule and security forces unable to protect us, and they both seek to oppress us in their war against each other.”
Egyptian political life has become home to mass hysteria, which acts as a fake substitute for real life. Abdel Fatah explains that instead of real actions, the country is filled to the brim with macho slogans and showmanship; meanwhile, people are martyred, whether by security forces or regular citizens.
“Only the mad think that they can eliminate the enemy with one blow and immediately reach a noble, fascist peaceful existence. It’s the sort of fascism that boasts no achievements or inspiring battles or political programmes. It’s an imagined fascism that comes from a virtual world that looks like the Islamists’ world, which fell at the moment reality prevailed,” Abdel Fatah writes.
After the fall of Mubarak, the scene has been dominated by many factions, each living in the world of fascist fantasy. They all fight over power without any political projects or a wish to create a new, functional system.
“It is madness to create an authoritative power on a massively vacant state and society. It will only lead us to the same endless maze: an authority that arms itself with its security apparatus with frightened crowds while the Brotherhood heads the lines of those demanding democracy,” Abdel Fatah writes.
Meanwhile, all factions are inviting people to celebrate the anniversary of 25 January, even those who once saw it as a setback. “Police announce that they will protect the celebrations, while revolutionaries announce it’s a new revolution and the Brotherhood deems it the end of the coup,” Abdel Fatah writes. “The nostalgia for 25 January is similar to the need to omit it; just a killer desire.”
Abdel Fatah concludes his article by saying that no one is capable of moving beyond 25 January, returning to the time before it, or even deleting it from their memory. “[25 January] will remain with its victories, disappointments, despair and hope present in the future,” he writes. He explains that even if politically, we move away from the revolution, another one will be waiting for us, culturally. “It will be revolution on identity, a struggle for life and happiness, not transforming society to battalions waiting for their leader.”
