• EGYPT
  • August 21, 2014
  • 4 minutes read

Journalists For Reform: Arming Revolution Rejected

Journalists For Reform: Arming Revolution Rejected

 Columnist Hassan Kabany, ‘Journalists For Reform’ movement coordinator, hailed the significant progress achieved by the Egyptian Revolution on the ground in the ongoing fourth revolutionary wave launched by the Anti-Coup Pro-Legitimacy National Alliance on the first anniversary of the Rabaa and Nahda massacres. He further stressed that the revolutionary scene needs commitment to essential principles so it would remain on the right path.



In comments posted on his Facebook page, he said: "The most important point in the Retribution Revolt is the answer to the revolutionaries’ most frequent question: ‘Is the Revolution only demonstrations?’ But it is evident that indeed it was not demonstrations only. Because revolutionaries have various mechanisms of popular resistance and tactics of non-violence.


Some have been tried and tested on the ground, technically and electronically, with great success, and without abandoning the peaceful approach to self-defense. Junta repression was responsible for any incidents where non-violence was ignored.


"The youth’s use of popular resistance tactics based on peaceful principles frustrated and confused coup authorities. Yet the emergence of a group that expressed impatience with the Muslim Brotherhood’s peaceful approach, and called for armed resistance and the arming the of the Revolution in its district in the south of Cairo quickly made the headlines in junta media. Spreading the news about that group, military-controlled media repeatedly showed clips of previous bombing scenes in more than one area. Our colleague Salah Bedewy debunked all that when he revealed the names of junta officers involved in the ‘Helwan Brigades’ episode."


Kabany stressed that non-violence has been and will remain the strategic choice for the Egyptian Revolution, and that it goes hand in hand with the mechanisms of popular resistance, since it affirms the right of self-defense and frustrates any attempts to spill Egyptian blood. He added that non-violence also prevents the revolutionary movement from getting dragged into scenarios that do not suit the real situation in Egypt, and which have been proven ineffective – even ruinous.


Hence, he added, non-violence constitutes an important pillar in the proper foundations of the Revolution.


"The continued targeting of youth by junta militias with live bullets, and terrorizing them into graves and prisons, is a clear message that reveals the youth-hating mentality of the elderly military generals who plundered this homeland. It also reveals their mad desire to kill the future of the Egyptian people.


"All youth movements, especially those just returning from the June 30 episode, must take appropriate stances and move on from the sticky spot of issuing superfluous self-exonerating statements or riding the wave… I certainly appreciate the role played by youth, students and Women Against the Coup who gave the revolutionary movement powerful momentum and judicious commitment."