This week witnessed several steps taken by the presidency and the rest of the government to fight terrorism and show the world the true face of violence facing the country after the pro-Morsi sit-ins in Rabaa Al-Adweya and Nahda Square were dispersed. Al-Shorouk on Monday quoted army General Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi as saying to those who incite violence, ‘Egypt will never kneel'. Al-Wafd also quoted Al-Sisi that ‘We will not remain silent at attempts to destroy and burn the country and intimidate people'. Al-Watan warned that ‘Terrorism of the MB reaches stage of assassination'. Al-Akhbar on Sunday wrote ‘Egypt will never kneel: MB shoots at citizens from the minaret of Al-Fateh Mosque and sets mosque ablaze before being arrested' and Al-Ahram quoted the presidency: ‘We will confront the terrorism of extremists and the government; we will apply the law to all those who shed blood'. Newspapers tried to show the impact of the outbreak of violence after dissolving the sit-ins. Makram Mohamed Ahmed wrote that the MB is the first loser in the dispersal of the sit-ins in Rabaa and Nahda, failing to preserve its major gains throughout the last two years during which it acquired exceptional status. “In the last few months, the MB lost all these benefits in addition to the sympathy of the majority of Egyptians,” Mohamed Ahmed wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. The writer wondered whether some of the sensible members of the group would be willing to save what is left of the MB via restructuring it as a religious group and dismissing all the leaders that took the MB to a deadlock. However, Mohamed Ahmed expressed his firm belief that Egyptians would never forgive the group for the heinous crimes committed against the people for decades including the siege it imposed on the constitutional court and the Media Production City, torturing people at the presidential palace, and in Rabaa and Nahda, and its failure to properly run the country. Mohamed Barakat wrote the violence committed by the MB which escalated on Wednesday answered a few queries regarding various and dangerous past events namely who planned the Battle of the Camel and who planned breaking into prisons and police stations in January 2011. These incidents, Barakat added, had been a mystery up until the last violent acts committed by the MB which showed the group trying to destroy the country and committing the worst forms of violence against citizens in cities, burning churches, attacking police stations and damaging and destroying public and private properties. “It has become crystal clear that the MB is ready to destroy and burn the country and its people in quest of power. It did this before and it is doing it again,” Barakat wrote in his column in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Wagdi Zeineddin described what the MB did as a last-minute attempt to save itself. Meanwhile, Egyptians will not rest until the group is completely dissolved. Zeineddin wrote the MB is now implementing a plan to usurp Egypt of its sovereignty via the support of those who helped the group reach power. But when they assumed power, he added, they misused it and took the country to complete destruction. The US and international zionism, Zeineddin elaborated, started a plan to divide Egypt and found in the MB the tool to implement that plan. However, the people discovered that the MB is a criminal group that should be uprooted. Thus, millions of Egyptians took to the streets on 30 June and 26 July to authorise the army and police to uproot terrorism. “Egyptians continued their mission to abort terrorism and succeeded. The MB is now taking its last breath before dying,” Zeineddin wrote in the independent daily Al-Wafd. Mohamed Ali Kheir wrote that Egypt needs creative political solutions in this difficult phase. He called on decision makers in Egypt to assess what happened and decide on future steps accordingly. The Egyptian state, Kheir added, is facing a difficult situation since the protests of millions of Egyptians on 30 June have ruined the US project in the Middle East which the MB was supposed to implement in Egypt. The writer pointed out that in managing the crisis, Egypt should rely on a few factors namely that millions of Egyptians support the state, that there is other Arab support especially from Saudi Arabia and the fact that present decision makers are selected on the basis of appeal to the people. Thus he repeated his call on decision makers to look for creative solutions to the political crisis and use all the support they can get. Kheir also bet on sensible MB members “who should assess what happened in the last year and question why they failed and forced millions of Egyptians to isolate the group”. Mahmoud Khalil tried to address the fears of many Egyptians. He wrote in his regular column in the independent daily Al-Watan that people are asking about the reward that the police and military would get after all the efforts and sacrifices they made in their battle with the MB. Some expressed their fears, Khalil added, that police would return to their despotic practices and create a police state that would aim to protect the regime at the expense of the people. Others, Khalil continued, are afraid that the army would rule and that would herald the resumption of military rule in Egypt. He emphasised that times are different now and that the police “would never return to their old ways under Mubarak not only because the police changed but also because people changed. They would not allow a repeat”. Likewise, the return to military rule is impossible. Khalil reminded readers that when Al-Sisi wanted to uproot violence and terrorism, he could not do so before asking for authorisation from his people. “Whoever is afraid of the return of the police state or military rule should realise that Egyptians have changed.”
