Doaa El-Bey and Rasha Saad highlight the views surrounding the deadly battle in Cairo Bloody clashes in Egypt between Christian Copts and the army were the focus of pundits this week. In their articles they advised Egyptians to face the truth and not to accuse "foreign agendas" as the cause. In the pan-Arab daily Asharq-Al-Awsat, Tariq Al-Homayed wrote that Egypt has a lot of problems, "and the sad thing is that the solutions to these problems are extremely difficult to implement." The reason for this is, Al-Homayed argued, is the "absence of a sense of leadership, at all levels". "Post-Mubarak Egypt is no less dangerous than Mubarak-era Egypt, as the voice of reason is absent, whether we are talking about the media, politics, religious platforms, or even the arts," Al-Homayed wrote. In his article "Egypt faces itself" Al-Homayed wrote the most important national interest that must be protected in this regard is Egyptian unity. He maintains that the issue in Egypt is not one of "infiltrators" or "remnants" or "hidden hands". The problem, according to Al-Homayed, is a purely Egyptian issue. Therefore, it is in everybody's interests today for a civilian presidential council to be established "to stand between the Egyptian people and the army in order to govern this transitional period and allow the Egyptian army to return to its barracks" and fulfil its mission as the guarantor of the completion of the political process in Egypt, not a side show [in the political process], which is what is happening today. Also in Asharq Al-Awsat, Adel Al-Toraifi wrote the "Arab Spring countries' religious and civil debates". A quick reading of the debate, Al-Toraifi wrote, leaves you feeling that the decades-old debate between the pro-religious and the pro-civil society supporters within political Islam in the Arab region remains at a standstill. According to Al-Toraifi, one side argues that the Arab revolutions were not Islamic but called for justice and equality. A second claims if it were not for Islamic movements these uprisings would have failed. However, a third opinion argues that political Islamist movements and groups have themselves suffered from the earthquake that struck the ruling political regimes in the region, "and we are now dealing with the emergence of a new Islamist discourse &-- a (post Islamist) policy focussing on political work and activity based more on shared interests than ideological commitment." Al-Toraifi asked which we were facing: "a new (post Islamist) political Islam or a non-ideological phase of the Arab Spring?" He hinted that the current phase of popular uprisings is still ongoing, and those countries hit by "revolutionary fever" have yet to free themselves from the instability that surrounds them. "It may take years until researchers can test how the Arab protests impacted upon the thinking of Islamist groups, and their future political behaviour," Al-Toraifi concluded. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Ghassan Charbel described the scenes coming from Egypt as "heartbreaking, especially because they are from Egypt, the country entrusted with a pioneering role in the Arab world." In "Our sick homelands", Charbel wrote that Egypt is the country whose "history, position, and size nominate it to be infectious in terms of its successes, but also its setbacks. It is a radiant country with its choices, writers, novels and films. The [Arab] nation cannot claim to be well if Egypt is ill." Charbel wrote that, "it is a dangerous sight that a march by the Copts has deteriorated to a bloody clash with the security services." Charbel added that after those painful scenes, "we heard words that we, the Iraqis, Lebanese and others, have heard before." Charbel criticised comments claiming it was foreign hands that are behind what is going on, hands that are attempting to sow discord and stoke its fires. "Invoking conspiracies is a natural product of denial," Charbel warned. Charbel, however, did not rule out the possibility that there are foreign or domestic plots. There are no miraculous or quick solutions to problems that have been accumulating and growing in complexity. He advised that the only solution to these divisions and clashes is that the state build upon citizenship, equality, institutions, acceptance of others and partnership, all under the constitution and the law. "The solution begins with the admission that our homelands are ill and that their constituents need to be reunited on the basis of the right to disagreement. We have lied to ourselves and to our peoples for too long, and it is time to admit it," Charbel wrote. Also in Al-Hayat, Elias Harfoush wrote that "the bloody clashes" that took place in the middle of Cairo two days ago, in the backdrop of the demolition of a Coptic church, were not surprising "except for those who thought that the mere fall of Hosni Mubarak and the neutrality of the Egyptian army on 25 January were sufficient for the emergence of a new dawn in Egypt." This incident, Harfoush wrote, comes in light of omnipresent doubts from the part of most Egyptian parties concerning the seriousness of the military council when it comes to keeping its promises of actually transferring power to a civilian successor. On top of that, Harfoush wrote, the practices of the military council resemble to a large extent those practices experienced by Egypt prior to the revolution in confronting the protests and the demonstrations. Many sides, Harfoush wrote, will try to make use of the Cairo clashes. "In Egypt, some Salafi movements believe that the firmness used against the protesters constitutes a lesson to the Copts who are &-- according to those movements &-- raising the ceiling of their demands in an unprecedented manner in return for having participated in the revolution and in the ousting of the former regime," Harfoush wrote. In addition, Harfoush noted, some neighbouring countries where similar revolutions are simmering, are looking at sectarian division in Egypt and at the victimisation of the Coptic minority once again as an indication of the threats posed against the minorities in those countries if the revolutions were to succeed in overthrowing the current regimes. "This brings about the traditional question asked by many, including the sects' leaders all the way to the masses: are the minorities of the Arab world destined to find protection only in the shadow of dictatorships? And must political freedom necessarily lead to majority control over everything that disagrees with it in the Arab countries? Doesn't the contemporary Arab lexicon include the least bit of liberalism and respect for others that might spare us all that?"
