Egypt's poisonous culture of hatred

In our repeated attempts to stop the state of polarisation in society over the last year, the Nour Party encountered a culture of hatred which must be addressed

I stand astounded, unable to find appropriate words to describe the extent of hatred that is rife in Egyptian society now, which is expressing itself over a whole week of videos containing ferocious killings, dragging of people on the ground, ripping off body parts and violating sanctities.
Media personnel, State Security leading officials, politicians and revolutionary youths whose words ooze withschadenfreudeand endorse racial hatred may cause a large number of Islamist youth to commit an unprecedented kind of violence due to their anticipation of a horrible vengeance that is lying in wait, and a new police state that will suppress their will.
We won't argue too much about the volume and enormity of crimes committed by the regime over a whole year; but this must never be an excuse to instill the culture of hatred between Egyptians or to exterminate the remains of mercy in their hearts; or to silence the voice of reason that calls for reducing the scale of revenge.
We are not discussing the crimes of the Third Reich, for instance, so as to give ourselves a license to elicit a speech stuffed with hatred and desire to finish off what's remaining of the Muslim Brotherhood in this way.
Despite myself, I began to compare the exaggerated way of showing respect and reverence to Mubarak's sons, and a salute done by one officer to a criminal like Habib Al-Adly; and deliberately photographing Khairet El-Shater during his arrest in a humiliating way that violates basic privacy rights, then leaking this video to a private channel that is leading a frenzied campaign of hatred that tries to satisfy its desire for revenge. I kept warning about its growth, but the harm was done.
Stopping the state of acute polarisation was our strategic option since we saw the very first signs more than a year ago. This has affected many of our decisions starting with our choice of Abdel-Moniem Abul-Fotouh in the presidential elections, and well as our decision to push various plans for comprehensive national reconciliation –Dr. Morsi read some of these articles in his last statement– and our refusal to participate in million-man marches prior to the 30 June. We also tried via news statements and dozens of TV meetings to instill a culture of national unity and discard that which causes divisions.
In the light of all this, our rejection of the appointment of Mohamed ElBaradei to head the government in this ultrasensitive time can be understood. This is in addition to the agreement of wise people that the current deteriorating economic situation is the top priority.
Thus, we are driven to search for an economist – a technocrat. At this time, when the name of ElBaradei pops up, the gap widens between different political currents, for he is considered a symbol of liberalism and a leader of a political party that was competing with the Freedom & Justice Party, and someone who criticised the president who belonged to the FJP. This will be interpreted as if a real coup was made to enable the one who was not chosen by the ballot, in spite of the will of millions.
Yes, millions took to the streets to express their anger towards the Morsi regime; but they did not demand that ElBaradei or anyone else be president. The millions demanded early elections as soon as possible; this is what we are keen to fulfill.
Once again, we collide with the culture of hatred from a racist group that does not see that the other have the right to express their opinions, unless it conforms to their own leanings. They prevent others from expressing their opinions in a most horrible way and they refuse to even discuss the principle if one rejects ElBaradei or any other person, without discussing the matter objectively or weighing the reasons of refusal.
If you do object, you hear a torrent of racist rants and phrases that wish your extermination and the inevitability of you joining the Muslim Brotherhood in a ghetto excluded from society where your voices won't be heard, and you have no right to participate in deciding the future of anything.
All wise persons have to interfere with all their might to halt this moral deterioration; this can be made via conferences that are inclusive of all different political currents or TV programmes aiming at tackling this phenomenon, to sermonise against bloodshed and contempt towards others. The wise have to move soon, before it is too late to repent for our earlier mistakes.
This article was published in Arabic in Al-Ahram newspaper on 8 July.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/76304.aspx