I mentioned earlier Jeff Jacoby's International Herald Tribune article about anti-christian violence in Egypt, and I've now found the link, which is here.
We're in Egypt, and we travel past guarded churches... and wonder what the situation will be like in Cairo. From Jacoby's article:
BTW: I did not mean to suggest, in an earlier post about the Aswan Nubians' criticism of the "troubles" -- aka the March revolution, part of the "Arab Spring" -- that there is any sympathy for Mubarak. There is not. They're glad he's gone. It's just that post-revolution, not all's gone according to hopes (forget about "plans", there weren't any) -- the effect on tourism, the mainstay of Upper Egypt (Nubia!), is devastating.
We see it here in Hurghada as well: rows and rows of half-finished apartment blocks and resort complexes, lying idle. Hotels half full.
Back pockets count, and they're empty.
We're in Egypt, and we travel past guarded churches... and wonder what the situation will be like in Cairo. From Jacoby's article:
THIS IS what a pogrom looks like: “The Coptic Hospital tried its best to deal with the sudden influx of casualties,’’ wrote Sarah Carr, a Cairo-based journalist and blogger, in her firsthand account of Sunday’s deadly attack on Christian protesters by the Egyptian military. “Its floors were sticky with blood and there was barely room to move among the wounded.Read the rest here, from the reprint in the Boston Globe, part of the New York Times network. It's interesting to note that in the reports of the violence in left-wing media such as the BBC or The Guardian, it's always headlined as "Muslim-Christian violence", or "inter-sectarian troubles", or some such, inviting one to infer that the violence is from both sides, equally. It is not. It is Muslim attacks on Coptic Christians. It's been happening for years. It's been reported in many blogs for years (e.g, here). In recent times -- since the rise of Islamists after the "Arab Spring" -- the attacks on Copts have become so bad that even the mainstream media have had to take note. But mostly with the bogus "neutrality" as above -- "inter-sectarian violence", you know, like the Copts bashing Muslims and vice versa, that sort of thing, each side has its story, both right/wrong in equal measure... Jacoby's piece is refreshing in telling it like it is.
BTW: I did not mean to suggest, in an earlier post about the Aswan Nubians' criticism of the "troubles" -- aka the March revolution, part of the "Arab Spring" -- that there is any sympathy for Mubarak. There is not. They're glad he's gone. It's just that post-revolution, not all's gone according to hopes (forget about "plans", there weren't any) -- the effect on tourism, the mainstay of Upper Egypt (Nubia!), is devastating.
We see it here in Hurghada as well: rows and rows of half-finished apartment blocks and resort complexes, lying idle. Hotels half full.
Back pockets count, and they're empty.
