Rabaa Al-Adawiya massacre reveals what came before it

Even the supporters of the military coup in Egypt could not handle the story of the Egyptian security forces holding a memorial for the martyrs of the Mohamed Mahmoud Street incident, because the extent of the contradiction was too much to justify in writing. The coup authority obviously saw the service as a chance to relive the division between the opposition and the coup, as well as an opportunity to slander the Brotherhood and revive the hatred towards them, as many Egyptians have become surprised by the Brotherhood’s steadfastness and moral superiority over the coup during a time when the latter’s lacking is becoming more apparent by the day.

However, it is strange that the coup regime’s suspected goal was so easily taken up by those opposed to the Brotherhood. They readily took advantage of the occasion to revive the old hatreds and rehash arguments that no longer have weight or value in light of the dangers now present on the ground, such as the restoration of the police state ruling the country with an iron fist, and in light of the Brotherhood’s exceptional steadfastness and perseverance, determination which is unprecedented by any organised trend in Egypt. Apart from their significant and vital role in the Battle of the Camel, the most important event since the 25 January Revolution has been the Brotherhood’s perseverance under a storm of repression and gunfire ever since the coup took place, and this was enough to discredit all claims of the Brotherhood’s cowardice, made by some revolutionaries, because if that were true, then the day of the dispersal of the protests at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares would have been the end of their reign in the streets, as the massacre was so severe that it forced the revolutionaries to not only stay in their homes, but also subjected them to the same restrictions on their freedoms imposed by the coup.

However, the Brotherhood and those opposed to the coup who have not been blinded by hatred, continued to stand strong in the face of the massacres that followed the one in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda Squares, such as those in Ramses Square, Al-Fateh Mosque, and others. Those who were opposed to the Brotherhood were silent throughout their oppression and only woke up suddenly during the memorial for the events of Mohamed Mahmoud Street to state that the Muslim Brotherhood is excluded from the revolution, even though they remain quiet about the atrocities still being committed by the coup regime during that entire period?

We may agree or disagree with the Brotherhood’s caution during the events of Mohamed Mahmoud Street, which caused them not to officially participate and instead have some of their members attend, including the daughter of the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed El-Beltagy, Asmaa El-Beltagy , who later died in the Rabaa Al-Adawiya massacre, but the Muslim Brotherhood’s actions were not done out of cowardice or in order to make deals with the military council, who had and still have views of the group as a leading threat to its control over the state institutions, and who are now trying to eliminate the extent of the Brotherhood’s impact. Furthermore, the day of the Mohamed Mahmoud Street protests was only one day out of a long path, with many other days and more terrifying events, in which the sacrifice of the Brotherhood and the Islamist revolutionaries in general was demonstrated. Where were these other revolutionaries during those days? Where were the sacrifices of the well-known figures and elite who are all over the media now, slandering the Brotherhood, while they themselves were not present at any historical moment or in any heroic position?

Long and difficult battles require pure souls, not rebels who take a stand in one instance to decide they are the people of the revolution, and then after that are shamefully blind to the clashes in the streets and all that has happened to the people since the 25 January Revolution.

The events in Rabaa Al-Adawiya were not only a testament to the determination of the revolutionary Islamic trend in Egypt, nor merely a revelation of the truth behind the deep state, but also a testament to those deserved to be called cowards; those who speak as if they were revolutionaries, but who have not contributed to the course of the revolution. Therefore, nowadays, we see the clear difference between the rebels and the compliers, the courageous and the cowardly. These labels are a result of long experiences, not ambiguous and unclear instances.

These weird contradictions are one of the many countless ironies of the Egyptian situation. Nowadays, falsehood has plagued the atmosphere, and this falsehood is characterised by a certain degree of misguidance that is enough to position a group of villains and opportunists near the revolution in order to talk in its name, even though they are conspiring with those who staged a coup against the revolution and were even members of the regime that the 25 January Revolution was meant to have overthrown.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.