Egyptian Sinai: Important Indepth Egyptian perspective

As always, most of the western and mainstream media analysis on this part of Egypt are especially biased and highly politicized, merely serving the interest of western governments and their Egyptian military ally Sisi without any consideration to the reality of the situation on the ground nor any due respect to the Egyptian victims.

Considering the lack of balanced writings on Sinai, and that Egyptian voices from Sinai are rarely heard and forcibly silenced by the Egyptian regime and the international media alike, we wanted to share the following English tweets on Sinai by researcher and journalist Mohannad Sabry. He hasn't said anything publicly since June 2017 but decided to speak up since the last massacre has hit his close friends and family hard.

From his Amazon biography: 
Mohannad Sabry is an Egyptian journalist who has reported extensively from the Sinai Peninsula. 
He was named a finalist for the 2011 Livingston Award for International Reporting and has been published in Foreign Policy, The Miami Herald, GlobalPost, Al-Monitor, and many other international publications. He was the field producer of PBS Frontline's "Egypt in Crisis," aired in 2013 and nominated for the 2014 Emmy Award for News and Documentary.

He is the author of an important book: Sinai: Egypt's Linchpin, Gaza's Lifeline, Israel's Nightmare 

 

The following are Muhannad's tweets on the recent massacre of Rawda mosque:

Several tweets, my thoughts on #Sinai's Rawda massacre. https://t.co/obHsU5io7F

— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) November 27, 2017

1) Out of respect to the fallen, dozens of which are relatives of my dearest friends & colleagues in #Sinai, I decided to break months of silence & write my little thoughts on Friday's #Rawda massacre and #Sisi's so-called war on terror.

2) #Rawda, and Bir ElAbd for that matter, are literally surrounded by military encampments from all sides. One example is the Bardawil Lake, a military zone where fishermen are reeling from the army's control over everything, a few kilometers away from the massacre scene.

3) #Sisi, his regime, military & security departments, as well as journalists, researchers and locals, know that the Sufi community, and the Jararat clan of the Sawarka tribe, are a prime target of #ISIS, their figures and clerics have been assassinated over the past years.

4)  #Sinai's Sufi community, for decades, has succeeded in accomplishing what billions of dollars and hundreds of military lives squandered over the past years in #Sisi's military campaign couldn’t achieve: Keeping thousands of youth from joining ISIS or picking up arms.

5) Bir ElAbd is a part of North #Sinai which the military has claimed over and over again that it maintains full control over, but Sisi's Egypt is a live example of how ironfisted military presence doesn’t in any way resemble control, it just provides easy targets for terrorists.

6) Once again, #ISIS, or whoever is behind the #Rawda massacre, with as little as a bunch of machine guns & SUVs, have destroyed the false claims of success and accomplishments echoed for years by #Sisi's regime and the Egyptian military.

7) As for the military response & expecting any shift in its strategy, if #Sisi cared to change any of this, he would have over hundreds of military and police deaths, including some of the field commanders of the #Sinai campaign.

8)  It is simply naïve, and stupid, to think that the Egyptian military, which killed scores of civilians during its reckless bombardment of villages south of #SheikhZuwayyed & #Rafah, will suddenly overhaul its policy over the death of civilians in a terrorist attack.

9) Most importantly, #Sisi & his military have always used and capitalized on terror attacks to justify and further intensify their oppressive and lethal control over #Egypt, not just #Sinai. I wonder if defeating terrorism is a top priority for this regime.

10) Finally, each and every one of the #Rawda massacre victims, was a true, powerful and peaceful shield in the face of terrorism and its bloody doctrine. May they rest in peace.

Human Rights Day 2017: #SpeakUp4Egypt

The following media is part of a campaign launched by Al Karamah foundation ahead of the International Day for Human Rights to raise awareness about the overlooked ongoing human rights crisis in Egypt. Please follow and write on the hashtag: #SpeakUp4Egypt on Twitter and Facebook.







This is the campaign's video:



The following video profile is on a young Egyptian photographer who is a victim to the unfair judiciary and military system in Egypt.

On June 1, 2015, Omar Mohamed Ali and his wife, Esraa Eltaweel, were leaving a restaurant in Cairo when they were stopped by police officers, and subsequently disappeared for 15 days. While Esraa was charged with "spreading false news" and imprisoned for 7 months, Omar's case was transferred to a military court, and he was sentenced to life in prison on May 29, 2016. Omar was charged with "leaking classified military information", though no evidence has ever been found against him.

Disability as a price for #Jan25

The following are two examples we came across for ordinary young Egyptians who lost the ability to walk in their early twenties as a result of being injured in a peaceful protest against the military leadership after the military coup in 2013. 

As always, we try our best to highlight the voices and perspectives which don't get the same attention in the English and western media which likes to paint a black and white image for what has gone and is going on in Egypt. These two had very normal lives like any other university student in Egypt or the world until they decided to stand up for the truth. The price they paid for this was rather expensive.  

Asmaa Gamal who is pictured above is a young Egyptian woman from Alexandria who lost her leg for the revolution exactly 4 years ago, in November 2013. When he was shooting her, the police office said: "Now you won't be able to march in any protests any more".

Asmaa was shot by an Egyptian police officer during a protest in her leg and went through an amputation operation to remove her leg right after that. 

Asmaa walks on one leg since 2013 but since then she has also continued to be a huge source of hope, inspiration, and faith for so many in her circle as well as for thousands of social media followers. 

                           

Mohammad Yousry a young Egyptian man from Alexandria was badly injured by the Egyptian security forces during the protests which took place as a response to the military coup shortly after it took place in July 2013.

He was paralyzed as a result and lost the ability to move. Like many revolutionary youth who were injured during the revolution, he is now on a wheel chair.

When you feel that your loss was big, when you feel despair and disappointed, remember the heroes who fought for a better future for Egypt!

Remember their sacrifices and the very high price they paid for the revolution and for standing up for justice, freedom, and truth.