A beautiful piece. "Egypt is certainly a land of ironies. While the killings at Maspero were taking place in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood did not rally to the aid of those suffering from state violence. On the contrary – it validated and supported the then military regime of Field Marshal Tantawi. A year later, revolutionary activists took them to task on that, during the anniversary, when the Muslim Brotherhood attempted to rewrite its role in supporting the state narrative before. A year after that, it was the Muslim Brotherhood backed rally against the military that was attacked by state forces. While that protest was resulting in dozens of unarmed civilians being killed, representatives of the state went to the memorial in Nasser City, to remember and pay their respects to the fallen military of the 1973 war. The ironies abound: while one faction remembers one tragedy, other members of their faction are carrying out another tragedy. That tragedy is against another faction, who not so long ago was content to validate another tragedy, carried out by the faction that is now against them, against yet another part of Egypt. That is where, it seems, Egypt has come to: a place of tragedy and remembering. But only remembering the tragedy that is against your clique – your camp – your tribe – your cause. Not simply the tragedy of death; not simply the sadness accompanied by the loss of life. For all that people try to make it into a ‘human’ issue, where all blood ought to be considered as sacred, it is not that. It cannot be that, unless all blood, indeed, is sacred. Until then, the cycle continues – death, tragedy, and the remembrance of it, but only selectively. How unselective you are, when it comes to recognising and honouring those losses you know about, even if they are not personal to you and your cause, does say something about you."
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 08:36:50 +0000
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