Black Sunday and the president’s responsibility

I was watching a video of Muslim Preacher Khalid Al-Jundi on DMC, in which he said: “God bless our beautiful president who made all our days like festivals”; at that moment, a church in Tanta and another in Alexandria were attacked in the worst terrorist strike, which at the time of writing these lines had left 25 Christians dead in the first attack and 10 others dead in the second including three police officers, and the head of Shebin El Koum Court.

The irony here is clear and does not need an explanation. Profiteers, who are enjoying the millions they get paid by authority-affiliated satellite channels, not only have been plagued by dullness and thick skin, but they have become experts in lying and misinforming.

So, willing or unwilling, we must agree that our days, as the Sheikh said, have all become festivals. That’s how Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi made them! Even if poverty, hunger and terrorists kill dozens of Egyptians each day, and even if we have to bury our loved ones, Muslims and Christians, who are victims of terror round the clock.

Read: Egypt sacks security chiefs in wake of church bombings

As long as our days are all festivals, what can we complain about? It would be ungrateful toward the blessing of the great leader we have, which is more than enough of a blessing. As long as we’re living in festivals, we have to show content and kiss the leader’s hand, not ask him about what he does, even if Christians get displaced from their homes in Sinai and even if they are killed by the dozens in their churches in the Delta.

Surprisingly, during his participation in the funeral on 13 December 2016 of the victims of the bombing of the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Abbasiya, east of Cairo, the president said: “I don’t want you to think that what happened was a security breach”! However, no one asked the president: If it is not a security breach, what do we call it? Should we call it security innovation, for example?

His statement meant that no one would be held accountable. The president “believes” it is not a security breach; and the page is turned, because the suicide bomber whose name was announced by the president has been killed and buried along with the case’s file, so there isn’t even a defendant to be questioned, and there is no security breach as the president said. The curtain has fallen, never to be lifted again.

Read: Pope condemns terrorism and Egypt blast

It is horrific, that all terrifying terrorist incidents that took place in the past three years have not led to the prosecution of even one official. All the authority does is broadcast national songs and documentaries in a clear exploitation of the pain of the victims’ families and to send a very foolish and childish message that says: terrorism is ugly; as if people are divided over whether terrorism is ugly or pretty.

We don’t know if the president’s constitutional mission is to protect his incompetent men or to protect the people from incompetence and terrorism. The series of recent bombings that targeted poor Christians as they were performing their prayers in churches put the president in front of one of two possibilities: for him to either hold responsible people accountable or to be held accountable himself.

We send our most sincere condolences to the families of our Christian and Muslim brothers who have died in the two incidents. We ask God to give their mothers and fathers patience. We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.

Translated from Arabi21, 10 April 2017

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