A letter to his Excellency, President el-Sisi, voicing disappointment

By Sameh Sabri – Ahram Canada-

We are disappointed because you appointed an extremist man of dark ideas, Dr. Mohammad Othman el-Khosht, a president of Cairo University, and you appointed the Salafi, Alaa el-Bassioni, a president of the First Channel;

• We are disappointment for you sacked the great writer and thinker, Ibrahim Issa, and shut down his great TV program because he citicised some of your policies, and shortly later you converted his daily paper, al-Makal, into a weekly magazine after Ibrahim Issa addressed in an objective, unprecedented and daring way the file of the persecution of the Copts critiquing with evidence and documents the failure of the government, even its collusion at times (with the persecutors – Trans.);
• We are disappointed because you turned your back on the case of imprisonment of literary writers, thinkers and reformers, the likes of Fatima Naoot and Islam Behery and left them a as an easy prey to be devoured by the extremists and fanatics;
• We are disappointed because, I attended one of the meetings regarding the reform of religious discourse at the Ministry of Culture to which your Excellency were personally invited to find the meeting a mere “farse”, literally, despite the exuberant costs of the meeting and the attendance of over five hundred youths representing the majority of the governorates. And the result is nothing;
• We are disappointed because we knew that even Amro Adeeb, Youssef el-Hosseni, Lamis el-Hadidi, and Wael el-Obrashi are threatened of being thrown out if they went out of the script and criticized the policies of your Excellency;
• We are disappointed because you did not receive the lady from el-Karm who was stripped of her clothes and with her every Egyptian lady was stripped naked. You did not receive her and did not honor her, while you received and honored the lady, Om Asharaf, who was slapped on the face by a youth from the Muslim Brothers, as she was carrying a picture of the president; and as you received Mona, owner of Orbat Ghalid. You did not receive the Lady from el-Karam, you who are known for not missing and opportunity without taking humane civilized stances;
• We are disappointed because you did not pardon the monk, Paulos of Rayan, the monk at the monastery of Makarios the Alexandrian, in he valley of Rayan, without any justification;
• We are disappointed because you did not take any step in the case against the four children who were sentenced to five years (in proison – Trans) for merely making a video mocking ISIS. You did not move although it is in your power and it is your authority and your right. President Mubarak has done that and suspended the imprisonment sentence against Ibrahim Issa in the case known as “the correctness of the president”;
• We are disappointed as we witness the terrible injustice dealt to poor youth, Guirguis Baroumi, who was accused of raping a Muslim girl and sentenced to five years (in prison – Trans.) despite the forensic medical report, which affirmed he was incapable of the act. Despite all that, you did not move;
• We are disappointed to see injustice the Christian teacher, Demiana Abd el-Nour, who was unjustly accused of denigration of Islam and was sentenced o prison and a 100,000 Egyptian pounds fine, despite the fact that the law in such criminal cases set the maximum fine at 500 Egyptian pounds only. Despite all this, you did not move;
• We are disappointed because you did not take any step and did not bring to justice those implicated in Maspero massacre;
• We are disappointed because in your speech after the massacre of the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, you took to blaming the satellite stations for repeatedly showing pictures of the massacre, using the excuse that doing that hurts the Copts feelings. This despite the fact that you are completely aware that covering this serious terrorist attack in a manner that is not proportional with its horrific nature is what would have wounded the Copts at the core; Copts have long been exposed insult and experienced severe injustice long before the existence of satellite TV channels when the Egyptian TV would ignore the terrorists acts to which the Copts were exposed in upper Egypt. So, if you were trying to cover up the failure of Security, you should not do that by tacking it to Copts’ feelings;
• We are disappointed because you leave those who urge terrorism free in the country spreading in the lands corruption, enticement, darkness and declaring others Kafirs, while you did not take any steps to contain them and bring them to account for their actions;
• We are disappointed because you see the mass evacuation of Copts from their villages, the burning their house and shops, then humiliating them in unjust arbitrary committees without your intervention either directly or indirectly through policies that would prevent the repetition of this tragedy and guarantee the application of the law and punishing the attackers;
• We are disappointed as we see your thought project, or rather more accurately the lack of a thought project, leads us to the fatwa (religious edicts) kiosks in metro stations which advises Muslims on the spiritual defilement of Christians;
• We are disappointed as we witness the complete disappearance of the opposition youth from the scene. For we no longer hear or read but only one voice saying “long live the king and his accomplishments and his projects”;
• We are disappointed to see what the Free Egyptians party was exposed to and channel One TV to change course to be the party and channel that is a mouthpiece of the regime and the president;
• We are disappointed because we hear from you only beautiful sentimental talk but we don’t see this talk translated into reality on the ground;
• We are disappointed as we see a president as sincere, loyal, patriotic as president Abd el-Fattah el-Sisi stray away from the correct path, and instead of taking advantage of the opportunity after a popular strong revolution during which the people threw up the idea of religious rule and no longer had absolute trust in those who espouse religiosity; instead of taking advantage of this historic opportunity to plan for the building of a secular progressive Egypt, alas we see him considering too much the fanatics and Wahabis. Thus we don’t find him having any clear policies that tears the terrorist ideology from its roots be that in the Azharic or general education, or be that in the information or culture or in the Ministry of Youth or in anything;
• We are disappointed as we don’t see you taking any step to defend the thinkers and the enlightened to be at the forefront in the Ministries of Education, Information and Culture, and Youth but we see you doing completely the opposite;
• We are disappointed because we see a patriotic sincere president with trembling hands, trembling..trembling from whom we did not receive until now anything but words in matters of citizenship, confronting terrorist ideology and Egypt’s modernity.

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Translated by Coptic Solidarity from:

سامح صبرى يكتب : رسالة عتاب لسيادة الرئيس // السيسي