Egyptian Chronicles

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Egypt's stormy weather : Day 2

For the second day in row the storm weather continues. It is freezing for real. It snowed in some part in Alexandria and Damietta earlier today. Already Alexandria had the worst weather ever with strong wind that brought down a mosque's Minaret earlier today. Thankfully nobody was hurt.
Here are photos for that cold storm that hit the country from Cairo , Giza, Alexandria, Damietta , Gouna and Port Said.

Here is a video showing that crazy weather in Alexandria.

Merry Coptic Christmas 2015 :)

Merry Coptic Christmas to all Egyptian Chronicles readers celebrating it tonight around the globe especially in Egypt.
On this merry occasion, I would like to share with you this Ahram Online video report by Randa Ali about Egypt’s Hanging Church after 16 days on renovations.

Inside Cairo’s Hanging Church

Of course tonight President Abdel El-Fattah El-Sisi stole the Christmas with his short visit to the Christmas mass. Addressing the public inside the cathedral, El-Sisi has become the first Egyptian president to attend a Christmas mass even for a very short time. Other Egyptian presidents also attended other masses in the Cathedral but none had attended even for a short time the Christmas mass.
For the historical record , ousted Islamist Morsi attended the Christmas mass in 2012 as the leader of Freedom and Justice Party, not as a president.
Now fairly El-Sis won the admiration of many Egyptian Coptic Christians “except of course the revolution Christian Youth who have not forgotten Mina Daniel and his brothers” and got more hatred from Conservative Islamists who have not forgotten what he said at Al-Azhar from changing the Islamic religious discourse and need for “Religious revolution”.
Tonight, all TV channels in Egypt as well Egyptian Christian TV channels are flying the moon with that symbolic visit while you can imagine how the Islamists including the MB are turning this visit on a proof that El-Sisi fights Islam and supports the Church …etc.
As much as I understand how many Christians are over the moon with that visit , one of the lessons I learnt from the past 4 years when it comes to “unprecedented” moves, visits and decisions, it is a political PR for both inside and outside audience by politicians and Rulers.
Personally I do not care about such visit even it is symbolic because in the end of the day it is a temporary “symbolic” in a country where there is no true citizenship, where there is deep religious discrimination in the State institutions including the institutions El-Sisi comes from, where there is a deep religious sectarianism.
The problem is the Christians will always pay either way because of politics in Mideast as a minority because of the dirty politics and that dirty game between undemocratic military based regimes and Islamists. This is a fact.
Anyhow enough of that El-Sisi who stole Christmas. Let’s remember that tonight Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth of a prophet who was considered by his people as a rebel.

The holy family in Egypt

Merry Christmas once again.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

And we got one hell of a stormy day in Egypt

Jordan got Huda and Lebanon got Zeina while We got in Egypt unprecedented cold sandstorm , it is one cold winter indeed. Earlier today we had a cold sandstorm in several governorates in Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, Giza , . Alexandria had its share and more today from the storm which is actually a seasonal storm. Usually the Coptic Christmas storm is a rainy one but today it was a combination of sand and rains. Ports in Alexandria have been closed.
Anyhow enough talking , here is another Storify slideshow about Egypt’s stormy day from different governorates but mainly in Alexandria

Below a video from Alexandria earlier by dear friend Karima Khalil

Egypt and Morocco : The Unspoken crisis

Things between Egypt and Morocco are not well. They can not be well. The State TV in Morocco described what happened in Egypt in June 2013 as a coup , oh yes they said the “C” word officially in the State TV. It did not stop at here. They described Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as the Coup’s leader who won fake elections. This is the first time an official Arab state TV says something like that.

Morocco’s State TV describes El-Sisi as a coup leader

Soon this video went viral in Egypt. The Moroccan ambassador in Egypt claimed in media statements that “some anonymous person was standing behind this act in order to disturb the relation between Egypt and Morocco”. Well I think the ambassador should re-check his statement because this week the Moroccan State TV aired a news report attack El-Sisi and his regime defending the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Jazeera.
Updated “11:41 AM CLT” : Moroccan newspapers say that the Moroccan ambassador in Cairo Saad El-Almy returned back to his country on Tuesday. There has been no official statement regarding what is happening from both countries. There has been no confirmation from Cairo regarding the Moroccan ambassador.

Morocco’s State TV attacks El-Sisi and defends Al-Jazeera and MB

Of course the Pro-Military Egyptian journalists like Mostafa Bakry are accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of standing behind those reports as usual and as expected.
On Sunday Turkish Andalou News agency claimed that Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry was going to visit Morocco later this month in an attempt to end this crisis between the two countries. Yes there is something going on and amazingly it is ignored in mainstream media.
Things are quieter in Cairo than in Rabat as it seems.
Now why did Moroccan State media decide to slam El-Sisi and his regime like that in an unprecedented move ??

Celebrating Moulid Nabawy 2014 in #Egypt

First of all Merry Moulid to all Muslims around the globe. Today Muslims celebrate Prophet Mohamed “PBUH” ‘s birthday {Moulid El-Nabawy}. As usual we have our own Egyptian style of celebrating the Prophet’s birthday in Egypt and aside of our traditional sweets , it turns out that we got Sufi Moulid parades.
Oh yes it turns out that Sufi orders organize parades during the Moulid El-Nabawy in different governorates like Sharkia, Aswan and Port Said.
I m surprised because I have never known that we got Moulid parades in the first place. I know that Sufi orders organize parades around the shrines of their Sufi saints but for Moulid El-Nabawy , this is something new to me. Their photos look joyful.
Interestingly it turns out that the Sufi orders used to organize a Moulid parade annually till it was suddenly stopped from six years ago. I do not know the reason behind the suspension of the parade in Port Said from six years ago. It turns out that after the revolution the Sufi orders asked the authorities to organize the parade but yet their request was usually rejected for security instability.
Here are photos from Sharkia , Aswan and Port Said. Aaa El-Kamahawy went to a small village in Sharkia and took photos from there while Ahmed Kheir El-Din took the photos in Aswan , in the heart of the city.

That is short video clip filmed by dear friend Ahmed Kheir El-Din in Aswan yesterday during the parade. Oh yes for some reason the people in Aswan organized the parade on Friday and not on Saturday.

#SisiLeaks : Episode 2 “ The case of 30-something people”

And Sisi leaks Season 2 has not finished yet , it is just starting.
After listening to the first secret recording for the alleged phone calls from El-Sisi’s office related to ousted Morsi’s detention in summer 2013 , we got another audio secret recordings from El-Sisi’s staff once again.
Once again the secret alleged recordings are aired through a Pro-Muslim Brotherhood Satellite TV channel. This time they are aired through Al-Sharq TV channel owned by Islamist businessman and former presidential hopeful Bassem Khafga.
Operating from Turkey, the TV channel includes TV hosts from Muslim Brotherhood members and guests as well Pro-Muslim Brotherhood supporters from TV hosts.The channel is available on HotBird Satellite , I do not think it is available on Nile Sat but I once read that it is available on another Satellite that it is in the same position of the Nile Sat and so we can see it in Egypt using its same frequency. To be honest I have never seen it on Nile Sat. Up till now the recordings are being aired through Moataz Matar’s Night Talk show in the channel. So far the channel aired three secret recordings .
I will discuss each recording in a separate post because each one got its own circumstances.
The first alleged audio recording is about the infamous and sad case of 37 Abu Zaabal detainees who were killed in police van that turned in to an oven during their transportation from police station to jail in August 2013.
Read that comprehensive report by Patrick Kingsley in the Guardian about this awful crime to refresh memory in order to know the back story of this recording.

Shahin "L" and Kamel "R"

burnt alive inside a police van. You should read
Once again Major General Mamdouh Shahin ,the minister of defense aide for legal affairs and Major General Abbas Kamel , the head of El-Sisi office in the ministry of defense then “He is currently the president’s chief of staff” star in that recording. Interestingly this audio recording is not for a phone call between the two men but rather an alleged conversation between them inside Kamel’s office inside the ministry of defense. Yes their conversation was allegedly recorded from inside an office and this is alarming enough to anyone sane.
Now in this alleged recording , Abbas Kamel asks Shahin to talk to the judge overseeing the trial of Abu Zaabal of “Those 30-something people” in order to help the son of their colleague Brigadier General Abdel Fattah Halmi. Now Helmi’s son “Islam Abdel Fattah Helmi” is the third defendant in the case accused of manslaughter in the controversial shocking case. “ The Boy is going to die” Kamel allegedly says to Shahin and Shahin answers back “ Do not worry I will speak to the Judge for you”.
This implies that Shahin allegedly interfered the in the case. By the way “ I will speak to the judge for you” has become a hashtag and meme in its own way.