Egypt Today..
I just came back from an overdue visit to Egypt, since my last visit, I missed the funerals of three of my brothers. However, when I heard about my nephew’s wedding, I got my passport and ticket ready. Hussein is the twin of Hassan, who was kidnapped from the square during Rabaa’s disburses crackdown in 2013; he has been in prison ever since, Hassan was 17 years old. Hussein’s father died a year ago; Abdraafea would have loved to see his son out of prison and attend Hussein’s wedding. I have been actively campaigning to release my young nephew Hassan for over 10 years, started the Let My Nephew Go petition, calling congressmen and representatives, human rights organizations, and activists to no avail. So, attending Hussein’s wedding was, in a way, a homage to his imprisoned twin brother and his father’s wish.
Continue reading BACK TO TAHRIR SQUARE
Tag: Coup
UNAMERICAN: WE ONLY DO COUPS OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES
UnAmerican; We only do coups outside of the United States.
“Due to travel restrictions, this year, the United States had to organize a coup at home”. the tweet of the day . The storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th by Trump loyalists got Lots of reaction and debate here and abroad, all grieving the assault on the U.S. peacock of democracy. Media headlines, breaking news; the U.S. Capitol under siege, attacks, assaults, invasion, mobs storming the gates, anarchy in the USA, to insurrections trying to topple the U.S. government. “This is a Coup,” declared David Graham at the Atlantic. Trump’s supporters stormed the gates with their flags and smartphones, breached security, occupied the Capitol during electoral counting proceedings, usually a very doll peaceful day at the Capitol. I understand the criminality of the mops action incited by Trump himself, asking his patriots to storm the Capitol, because they are very special people. ” Trump Wants us Here” shouted one protester. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s T.V. lawyer, the American Mayor, declared that it would be a “Trial by Compact”. Trump, who invoked the racist quote during BLM protest of “When the looting starts the shooting starts,” encouraged the looting of the most revered democratic building in the land. But at the end of the day, when the dust settled, the reality crushed the mob internet fancy , they finally been cleared out, and the electoral voting counting proceeded, Joe Biden, declared our next President. The Republican party loyalists who have been appeasing Trump for four years got what they wanted from him, two conservative supreme court judges, billions of dollars handout for the wealthy, canceling the Iran Nuke deal, climates change changed, now exercising extreme political distancing from the infectious loser. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Ted Cruz, Jim Jordon, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy shared Trump’s election steel myth; Supporting his insidious racist, anti-immigrants, anti-Muslims, anti-women, anti-workers, anti-climates, anti-multiracial democracy. V.P Pence who has been Trump’s lapdog, delivered him the Evangelical votes couldn’t deliver him the Capitol vote . Those hoodless Ku Klux Klan, right-wing extremists, evangelical nuts, white nationalists who stormed the U.S. capitol who are subscribing in the racist narrative that if you ate white, you can get away with shooting someone in the fifthAve. or storming the Capitol with your smartphone. They are living in the dark past refusing our multiracial democracy, where for the first time, millions of blacks, POC used their voting right to get the white nationalist, racist out of the white house without a coup. When do you call a coup a coup? According to Webster, the definition of a coup is “the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group” a military coup when that small group is the Military. Jonathan Powell, a Coup Expert, defines a coup d’etat as “an overt attempt by the military or other elites within the state apparatus to unseat the sitting head of state using unconstitutional means.”, and needs to meet three conditions. 1. Are the perpetrator’s agents of the state, such as military officials or rogue governmental officials? No, only Trump, and he is leaving in 10 days or sooner. . 2. Is the target of the Insurrection, the chief executive of the government? No, it was the Capitol. 3. Do the plotters use illegal and unconstitutional methods to seize executive power? Nupe, only smartphones and flags. Those who quick to call the attack on U.S. Capitol a coup should look at the military coups worldwide that America either masterminded or supported. 1948 in Syria, Iran, 1953; Guatemala, 1954; Congo, 1960; Dominican Republic, 1961; South Vietnam, 1963; Brazil, 1964; Chile, 1973; Algeria, 1991; Egypt, 2013; Turkey, 2016; Bolivia, 2019; the list goes on. The few thousand people who stormed the U.S. Capital on January 6th never dreamed that they would go that far and it would be that easy to storm the Capitol, I visited the Capitol a few times, and I know how hard it is to get even close to Pennsylvanian Ave. If storming the Capitol was that easy, Bin Laden would have had a simpler plan. During the Arab Spring, Dictator Mubarak refused to stepdown shutdown Twitter, millions of Egyptians went to the street and forced him out. a few years later, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stormed the presidential palace riding his tank, toppling the first democratically civilian-elected President, Mohammed Morsi, thousands of people marched into the street to protest the military coup, knowing that they could be massacred, 1000’s were killed. In 2016 when the Turkish Military rolled their tanks into streets to take over, President-elect Erdogan used his iPhone to send a message to his supporters to get out to the street and face the Military tanks. The military coup failed. Most Americans however stayed home, they believe as Joe Biden the storming of the Capitol to topple the government is un-American; We only do coups outside the United States.
Ahmed Tharwat
Host/Producer
BelAhdan TV
Arab American TV Show
Writes for National and International Publications
Blogs at Notes From America
Follow him on Twitter
Lives in Minnetonka, MN
THE DEATH OF A DICTATOR! … Mubarak, tested positive for Mortality at age 91!
“I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with pleasure.”
There is a lot of debate about the origin of this quote and variations of it. Most agree it has a Mark Twain flavor. Regardless, there is no debate about the sentiment I had when I learned of ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak’s death this week. At 91, Mubarak finally tested positive for mortality. Islamic tradition asks us to speak well of the dead, but Im planning on writing a piece longer than a few words!
Like all Egyptian military dictators before him, Mubarak came from a humble background join the military academy, then climb the political pyramid to dictatorship. He was born in a village in Monufiya called Kafr al-Meselha, on May 4, 1928. His father, Ibrahim Mubarak, was a courthouse janitor and his mother, Naeema, was a traditional woman, an illiterate housewife.
Continue reading THE DEATH OF A DICTATOR! … Mubarak, tested positive for Mortality at age 91!
