Thread by @salamamoussa

A few thoughts on the latest sectarian incident in Minya & the disparity between the words of President Sisi & actions of the security forces. The incident itself is like many others. Average citizens form a lynch mob & attack #Copts & their properties

That citizens can form a lynch mob is nothing new or particular to #Egypt. Happens everywhere, and historically even in the US. The issue is one of official reaction, both during the event and in subsequent days.

The police are of no use during the incident. "Reconciliation sessions" afterwards are meant to hide rather than highlight the problem, often to the disadvantage of the victims. Why is that?

The social discourse in #Egypt is rife with incitement, not only against the #Copts, but against all sorts of other groups. This is symptomatic of a social fabric in the process of tearing itself apart.

The security services see their job as shutting down all expressions of protest or differences. When engaged in this process, other things fall by the way side. They are more concerned about one man with a sign than a mob with weapons.

The security services are in the service of the state, not the nation in #Egypt. The nation itself has long become an adjunct to the state. However chilling a mob attack is, it is more chilling to consider that Egypt itself is being torn apart

Framed as "sectarian", the issue has less urgency than framed as the failure of a nation. Failure to respect its citizens and failure to hold up a national ideal and a common project.

#Egypt is less essential to the #Copts than they are to Egypt. The failure to respect diversity is at the root of the failure to have a minimally non invasive and less oppressive state. The #Egyptian state is in the process of unwittingly killing the nation.