Saturday, November 3, 2018

Between Minya and Sharm El-Sheikh , There is big distance for real !!

There is a big distance for real between the city of Sharm El-Sheikh in Sinai and the city of Minya in Upper Egypt. According to google maps, it is 557.1 km by car but earlier Saturday it seemed that there are 557.1 light years between there.

In one city, hundreds attending a mass-funeral in a Coptic Orthodox church to mourn the victims of the latest terrorist attack in Egypt while in another city thousands attend a glitzy forum on the same day.

On Saturday, Hundreds of Egyptian Christians attended in a Minya-City-Church the mass-funeral of seven Egyptians who were killed on Friday near Saint Samuel the confessor in the desert of the Upper Egyptian governorate in the second attack of its kind in two years.

Mourners at the Church by Mohamed El-Hakim
Mourners at the Church by Mohamed El-Hakim 
Angry and grieving at the same, the mourners could not stop themselves to express their anger publicly when Churchmen began the usual “Thank you Egyptian government officials”.





I totally understand the anger of those grieving mourners.
Once again the current Egyptian regime let them down and they express their anger in the only possible safe way.

On the other hand, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated on Saturday the second edition of the World Youth Forum in the city of Sharm El-Sheikh with thousands of attendees.

Those who were killed on Friday were not there, they were not remembered much from the speakers except Nadia Mourad, the Nobel Peace Prize 2018 recipient as I understood from the news as she tasted the same kind of poison in her own land.

The Egyptian mainstream media whether TV channels or newspapers have focused only on the WYF, the big event that is sending an important message to the World.
The show must go on so the terrorists won’t win !!
Mourners at Minya desert on Saturday "Alaa el-Kamhawi"
Mourners at Minya desert on Saturday "Alaa el-Kamhawi

The news and photos of Sisi riding a bicycle in Sharm El-Sheikh and attending Pre-opening discussions and sessions on Friday made the front page on Saturday in the State-owned newspapers in the center while the news of the massacre was a side news.
State-owned newspapers on Saturday
"President Mourns the victims of the terrorist attack"
I have been following international media and it seems to me that the only news that captured the attention of the world in the past 48 hours is that horrifying massacre in Minya desert not that forum in Sharm El-Sheikh despite all the money spent on its publicity.

I am afraid that I am from the generation that was raised to stop any sort of festivities or celebrations for three days if a neighbor loses someone in his or her house. Egyptians have old traditions when it comes to mourning and grief.
Mourners at the Church on Saturday included Muslim women too in Minya
Mourners at the Church on Saturday included Muslim women too in Minya
"Roger Anis" 
The families of those seven people along many others do not ask the cancellation of such a big event sponsored by at least two state-owned banks but a little consideration and a little respect to their grief would be nice.

The conference will be over by Tuesday yet the sadness and anger will continue among the families of the victims and other concerned Egyptians.

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