Egypt : A falling nation which is making more prisons than hospitals

by Abbas Adil

By Syed Ilyas Basha

EGYPT, once a Centre of learning through ages; a Leader in the Arab world; actively involved in establishing the most formidable Non-aligned movement during the cold-war period and winner of 1973 war on Israel, is facing the most despicable phase of its history TODAY. The present-day military ruler President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seems to be busy these days in picking and targeting all long established institutions and ancient monuments in the country one after the other. Having served as General in the Egyptian military and as a Defense Minister, he usurped power after military coup in July, 2013 (appears to be in connivance with Jew friends) from erstwhile first ever elected President Dr.Mohammed Morsi. A veteran activist and engineering professor, Morsi rose through the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, served as an independent in the movements parliamentary bloc from 2000 to 2005. He had managed to form the coalition government amidst a 40+ political parties, after winning elections with a wafer thin majority in 2012 in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising against Mubarak. Criticized for a weak administration, inept handling of issues in the surrounding legacy of short tenure he failed to do much in the short period. These obstacles would have likely plagued any other leader in his place. Exactly after a month of his government celebrated one year in office, Dr.Morsi (a Scholarly personality in Islamic faith as well as worldly affairs, but not shrewd as a politician) was overthrown in a bloody military coup, and jailed along with thousands of his party men. Dr.Morsi was tortured, starved even for medicines and finally fell to his death during trial while in the courtroom. The present day world champions of so-called democratic values, liberty and human rights quietly collaborated with the dictator and have been witnessing all these all through. The present-day Sisi regime is a bastion of backwardness, having one of the worst human rights records on earth and is rapidly pulling Egypt deeper into a political and economic abyss.  Every totalitarian lunge backwards, every killing, every execution, every act of torture, every indefinite detention without trial and every voice viciously censored is done so with the full and unwavering support of the democratic West.  Ever since General Sisi usurped the power, no oppressive, subjugating, harsh and regressive practice has been left un-applied to crush the opponents in each and every field in the society. In process every sector in the social set-up and economy is destroyed.

MORE PRISONS BEING BUILT IN EGYPT TODAY THAN HOSPITALS: There has been a systematic and organized process of the militarization of the administration through placing generals as heads of governorates throughout Egypt, as Heads of companies, to ensure that Parliament was a rubber stamp and the media and even religious institutions and religious figures expressed only what the regime wanted them to say, Azzam, leader of FJP told TRT World in an interview.  The main political party in Egypt, the Freedom & Justice Party (FJP), who won the largest number of seats in the parliamentary elections of 2012, has been proscribed. The speaker for the parliament, who was in place in 2012, as well as other elected MPs, have been imprisoned or are in exile like Mr.Zawba. He lives in Turkey as an Egyptian expat, running a TV show on Mukemmeliyen TV. Any independent voices, no matter their political affiliation, are stamped out.  There is no political avenue open for either freedom of expression or freedom of assembly, the two components of any open political system in Egypt today, says Azzam, speaking in exile from London.  Even political parties long associated with Egypts previous military regimes, have been silenced. The Wafd Party, founded in 1919, was instrumental in the Egyptian revolution against the British occupation, and dominated the countrys political landscape until the 1952 military coup. Since then, it has been in opposition. Egyptian journalists hold signs outside the Egyptian Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo, Egypt April 28, 2016, during a protest against the interior minister following the arrest of colleagues for covering anti-government demonstrations. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters Archive). In its campaign to reshape and modernize Cairo, the regime is building fly-overs, bridges and high-ways through the sites full of graves, mausoleums of prominent historical personalities and UN declared Heritage sites. There is none to challenge these acts not even the locals who are descendants of these resting souls. (Gulf News/July 31, 2020 by  Karishma H. Nandkeolyar, Assistant Online Editor)

EGYPT UNDER COVID19 EPIDEMIC: The COVID19 epidemic spreading worldwide is surging in the country of 100 million, threatening to overwhelm Hospitals. While the highest toll recorded in Arab world happens to be in Egypt for several weeks amidst a fragile and neglected health system, the frontline medical fraternity is lacking government support, reports Associated Press. The attendance of staff is being monitored by security agencies. An editor was taken from his home after questioning official coronavirus figures. A pregnant doctor was arrested for reporting a suspected coronavirus case by using the phone of her colleague. Security agencies have tried to stifle criticism about the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s handling of the health crisis. At least 10 doctors and six journalists have been arrested since the virus hit Egypt in February, according to rights groups. Other health workers say they have been warned by administrators to keep quiet or face punishment. One local Correspondent has been reprimanded over “professional violations,” some foreign correspondents have fled the country, fearing arrests. A doctor was arrested for writing an article about this state of affairs, a pharmacist was picked up from work after posting online about shortage of protective gear in the month of July. “Every day I go to work, I sacrifice myself and my whole family,” said a doctor in greater Cairo, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, like all doctors interviewed for this story. “Then they arrest my colleagues to send us a message. I see no light on the horizon.”
In the month of June 2020, the union released copy of a letter to the public prosecutor demanding the release of five doctors detained for expressing opinions about the virus response. Another syndicate member, Mohamed el-Fawal, landed in jail for demanding online Prime Ministers apology for comments that appeared to blame health workers for a spike in deaths. Incensed doctors hit back, saying they’re under-trained, underpaid and under-resourced, struggling to save patients. So far over 117 doctors, 39 nurses, and 32 pharmacists have died from COVID-19, according to syndicate members’ count. Thousands have fallen ill. Security forces shut down a syndicate press conference that was to respond to the prime minister’s comments and discuss supply shortages, according to former leader Mona Mina. Health workers are sounding the alarm on social media. Doctors say they are forced to purchase surgical masks with their meager salaries. The pandemic has pushed the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, a non-political professional group, into a new role as the sole advocate for doctors’ rights.

“These doctors have no history of activism, they were arrested because they highlighted their very specific professional circumstances,” said Amr Magdi of Human Rights Watch, which has confirmed the arrests of eight doctors and two pharmacists. Two have been released, he said, while the rest remain in pretrial detention. In one case, security agents burst into the home of Hany Bakr, an ophthalmologist north of Cairo, according to his lawyer and Amnesty International, over his Facebook post that criticized the government for sending aid to Italy and China while Egypt’s doctors were short of equipment. In March, public prosecutors accused 26-year-old Alaa Shaaban Hamida of terrorism charges after she let a colleague call the government coronavirus hotline from her phone instead of first reporting the case to her managers, according to Amnesty International. Three months pregnant, she remains in pretrial detention. Doctors in three provinces say administrators threatened to report them if they publicly expressed frustration toward authorities or failed to show up for work. In one voice recording obtained by The Associated Press, a health deputy in a Nile Delta province can be heard saying, “Even if a doctor is dying, he must keep working or be subjected to the most severe punishment.” In March, Egypt expelled a reporter for The Guardian who cited a report disputing the official virus count. Egypt’s state information body summoned The Washington Post and New York Times correspondents over their critical coverage during the pandemic. Despite growing human rights abuses, the international community counts on Egypt as a bulwark against regional instability, said a Middle East-focused rights advocate at the UN, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss policy matters. “There is no appetite,” the advocate said, “to address what is going on in Egypt let alone sanction them in any way for what the government is doing to their own people.”

HISTORICAL CEMETRY DESTROYED FOR BUILDING FLY-OVERS: Why is Egypt building two new highways through Cairo’s City of the Dead? For centuries, sultans and princes, saints and scholars, elites and commoners have been buried in two sprawling cemeteries in Egypt’s capital, creating a unique historic city of the dead. Now in its campaign to reshape Cairo, the government is driving highways through the cemeteries, raising alarm from preservationists, reported Karishma H. Nandkeolyar in the Gulf News in its edition dated 31st July 2020. The construction of concrete structure by digging the graves in the cemeteries is hurting the feelings of their living children. Similarly, the antiquities experts say is a blow to efforts to preserve what is unique about historic Cairo. These include not just monuments spanning from Roman-era Christianity, through various Muslim dynasties to the early modern era, but also its cohesion through the centuries.In the Northern Cemetery last week, bulldozers demolished walls of graves, widening a road for a new expressway. The graves are from the early 20th Century, including elaborate mausoleums of well-known writers and politicians. The ornate, 500-year-old domed tomb of a sultan towers in the construction’s path and, though untouched, will likely be surrounded on either side by the multi-lane highway.In the older Southern Cemetery, several hundred graves have been wiped away and a giant flyover bridge swiftly built. In its shadow sits the mosque-shrine of one of Egypt’s earliest prominent Islamic clerics, Imam Leith, from the 700s. As bulldozers worked, families rushed to move the bodies of their loved ones. Others faced losing their homes: though known as the City of the Dead, the cemeteries are also vibrant communities, with people living in the walled yards that surround each gravesite. Cairo’s governorate and the Supreme Council of Antiquities underlined that no registered monuments were harmed in the construction.Itis impossible that we would allow antiquities to be demolished,' the head of the council, Mostafa al-Waziri, said on Egyptian TV. He said the affected graves are from the 1920s and 1940s, belonging to individuals who will be compensated. But antiquities experts said that's too narrow a view. Among the wrecked graves are many that, though not on the limited list of registered monuments, have historical or architectural value. More importantly, the freeways wreck an urban fabric that has survived largely intact for centuries. The cemeteries are included in a historic zone recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It goes against the identity of the location itself. They (the cemeteries) have been an integral part of the history of Cairo since its inception,'' said May al-Ibrashy, a conservation architect who chairs the Mugawara Built Environment Collective and has worked extensively in the Southern Cemetery. The government has carried out a furious campaign of bridge and highway building in Cairo and around the country. Authorities say it is vital to ease traffic choking the city of some 20 million and better link regions, presenting the projects as part of a nationalist vision of a new Egypt. But antiquities experts said that's too narrow a view. Among the wrecked graves are many that, though not on the limited list of registered monuments, have historical or architectural value. More importantly, the freeways wreck an urban fabric that has survived largely intact for centuries. The cemeteries are included in a historic zone recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cairo's governorate and the Supreme Council of Antiquities underlined that no registered monuments were harmed in the construction. It is impossible that we would allow antiquities to be demolished,” the head of the council, Mostafa al-Waziri, said on Egyptian TV. He said the affected graves are from the 1920s and 1940s, belonging to individuals who will be compensated.

TARGETS AL-AZHAR : General Sisi has sought to control religious expression that does not conform with the states vision. According to the UK-based Middle East Eye (MEE) report, he has loosened the autonomy of countrys 1,200-year-old institution of Al- Azhar University, one of the Islam worlds oldest seats of learning and the most widely respected, drawing students from all around the world. Given its influence in determining religious orthodoxy for Muslims within Egypt and beyond, successive Egyptian autocrats have sought to curb its influence and wield it for their own ends. The Egyptian dictator, Abdel Fattah el Sisi, himself has assumed the right to appoint head of Dar al-Ifta, Egypts top Muslim jurist thereby loosening the authority to appoint the lead mufti, the UK-based Middle East Eye (MEE) reported. The institution will enjoy greater financial independence and the mufti will have ministerial-level privileges. Dar al Ifta is currently one of the most powerful religious bodies within the Egyptian states through its work providing consultancy for Egyptian ministers and serving as an arbiter for Islamic issues whether they involve government or ordinary people. Its independence and authority was gradually ruined by the present autocrat step by step since it took reins of power. Scholars who are in supportive mood were given prime positions while the academicians were shown the door. This was evidenced in 2013 during the Rabaa massacre of Morsis supporters by the Sisi regime, in which senior Egyptian religious officials, those in favor of the ruling class such as its former mufti, Ali Gomaa, enthusiastically supported the blood bath. Shoot them in the heart Blessed are those who kill them, and those who are killed by them . . . We must cleanse our Egypt from these riffraff They shame us They stink. Gomaa was reported to have said. Across the Islamic world Egypts Al Azhar and Tunisia’s Al Zaytuna are regarded as the two oldest functioning educational institutes, both of which were originally built as mosques respectively in the 10th century and the 8th century.  For over 1000 years, the two educational institutions have served as the main centres of Islamic learning alongside natural and social sciences, graduating an untold amount of students, including an historical icon like Ibn Khaldun.  Al-Azhar currently has more than 2 million students and 4,000 teaching institutes across Egypt. What makes Al Azhar unique among its contemporaries is its history. Everything else has disappeared, said Usaama al Azami, a British-Muslim academic and a lecturer in Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. (as reported in NDTV)

FAST EVADING RELIGIOUS AWARENESS AMONG ARABS: A growing number of Arabs are becoming less religious, the BBC reported Monday, 24 June, 2019. According to an opinion poll conducted across the Arab world the attitude towards a wide range of issues was ascertained from about 25,000 people through interview conducted in 10 Arab countries between late 2018 to the spring of 2019 under Prof. Amaney Jamal, co-director of the Arab Barometer project at Princeton University. The findings show a five percent increase since a previous similar survey in 2013 in the number of people across the Arab world who identified as not religious. Of the 13% of Arab League nations420 million people who are not religious, the largest group is youth under 30; 18% of who identified themselves as ‘not religious’. .
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The author is former banker associated with research and promotion activities related to Islamic Finance, and associated with Social services Organizations.

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