Rabia.jpg
4 Fingers symbol in support of Rabaah
Well, the killing has started since dawn this morning in Egypt. The news is horrific, the pictures graphic, bodies burned to their bones, brains seeping out of their heads.
Yet many Muslims are silent.
Where are the critics of Israel when the Egyptian military is more brazen, more brutal, more deadly?
(it is also more cowardly - it only fights unarmed protesters. If confronted by another military such as that of Israel, it says "meaow" and even gets them to fight its own civilians in the Sinai Peninsula).
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Images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mosaaberising/sets/72157635071774090/
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
”In 12 days of fighting in Gaza, there were less dead than in six hours here.“
Whatever the final tally, the constant stream of bullet-riddled, disfigured protesters meant it was impossible to store the corpses properly. Inside a room which during the previous two massacres has been used as a morgue, 42 bodies were crammed up against each other on the floor.
As the carnage unfolded and more protesters were killed, other areas were appropriated to house the dead.
Behind the stage which has been used by Islamist leaders to rally pro-Morsi supporters for the past six weeks, 25 bodies were laid out wrapped in white shawls, unrefrigerated in the sweltering August sun.
Next to the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque - where flies were soon gathering on the ten corpses laid out in the prayer hall - another room being used as a makeshift morgue.
A total of 31 bodies had been placed here. Volunteers had no time for sentimentality; the same hall was being used to treat wounded protesters, many of whom were lying moaning in agony just yards from the nearby cadavers.
”It's a genocide,“ said Dr Yehia Makkayah, a medic at the Rabaa hospital. ”They want us to disappear from the country. I could never imagine that Egyptians would shoot Egyptians using these weapons.“
Such was the chaos inside the hospital, a reception area on the second floor had been utilised as yet another morgue to store a further 26 bodies. One floor up in a tiny storeroom, two more corpses were lying in gleaming pools of fresh blood.
Corridors barely a yard wide were lined with dozens upon dozens of wounded. Luckier patients received drip feeds from a friend or relative; those who were luckier still had the luxury of a hospital bed. The floors were sticky with blood and vomit.
The sheer volume of the dead and the dying meant it was often impossible to move up and down the main staircase. Injured protesters, most of them felled by live fire, were stretchered up to the operating rooms, blood trickling from their wounds as they went. The dead were stretchered in the other direction, down to the lower level morgues.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
There was a solution on the table. The Muslim Brotherhood accepted it. General Sisi didn't.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
I have added the symbol for solidarity with those massacred at Rabaa to the blog post.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
What does the 4 stand for?
"How many people find fault in what they're reading and the fault is in their own understanding" Al Mutanabbi
the root word for Rabaa if 4. The place name may translate to something like 4th square or something.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
The way I learnt was that the hand sign is 'how micro buses in Egypt communicate. 4 means rab'a in public transport so when you see a guy leaning out of a bus doing that hand sign, it means that bus is going to rab'a. Each area has a hand sign/catch phrase' and the hand sign for Raba'a is used to show support for innocent eygptians cos that area was destroyed. Or something.
That comment should have a retweet button on it.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
Oooo, i never knew that. Thanks for the information Valkyrie!
In simple terms, can someone kindly explain what is going on in Egypt? I've been deliberately ignoring the Middle East section of the news. There is no good versus bad right? Are they both wrong?
Summarised version. Check out admin's blogs abt egypt.
1 - get mubarak out, elect muslim brotherhood, morsi becomes president
2 - egyptians are supposedly extremely unhappy with Morsi as he's too "islamic". The west supposedly watches as "huuuuuge" protests unfold.
3- morsi is out, the army take over. Apparently by themselves, most likely the west helped "a little".
(4) - now, many many Egyptians obviously want Morsi back, protests everywhere. Army clamps down with an iron fist and the backing of the west.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
There is a good (while slightly incompetent) versus bad (and murderous).
President Morsi was democratically elected, they stuck to peaceful means to get thre and have done so since.
The military and the coup supporters are calling for blood, many even the murder and eradication of anyone linked th the Muslim Brotherhood.
Morsi's presidency was hampeted by the old special interests wanting return to how things were and a conspiracy to undermine him by the military who prefer to kill the MB than do anything else, and the elite who got rich off Mubarak.
There were shortages in utilities and everything which miraculously disapeared after the coup.
Saudi funded most of it, but the US also funded some of the opposition groups. El Baradei was meant to be the public face of the coup, but he got slightly sidelines and then choked at the responsibility of all the blood being spilt by his friends.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
"there was much disappointment over the failure to stand of the widely admired Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency." - a tourist in the Arab Spring, Tom Chesshyre.
why didnt he stand? and i thought he was a "good" guy?
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
Quite simply as part of the Arab Spring the egyptian people participated in a fair election and voted in Morsi and the brotherhood.Morsi said all the right things to get voted in and form an administration however a short while tampered with the constitution and gave himself powers not seen the Pharoah.Add to that the intoduction of repressive measures and a clandestine walk to becoming a theocratic state the people started demonstrating in larger numbers against him thereby creating a power standoff.The army abhors a vacuam and got rid of Morsi in a bloodless coup.These kind of events have been repeated many times in the muslim and arab world however whats different this time is the followers of the MB have started to foment trouble within the city centres using their armed wing to take pot shots against the army provoking an over the top reaction .
People who expect the army to behave by what we would consider normal standards just do not know the middle east.I expect the army newly confident after the gulf kingdoms and Saudi Arabia promises of financial succour will look to exterminate the brotherhood in a few weeks .Cant say we will miss them.
Better a secular democratic Egyot than another radical theocracy.
Much admired *abroad*, not really influencial in Egypt. He did not stand as he had no one who would vote for him.
He decided to follow the undemocratic route to power through a military coup.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.