A school principal in Cairo told the police that a student had been found with a ruler carrying the four-finger Rabia gesture; and yes, the police came to the class and arrested a 12-year old child who was released on a bail of 500 Egyptian pounds after a few days in custody.
"This incident encapsulates thousands of words on the situation in Egypt as the country bids farewell to a dark year in its history in which the spring has turned into an autumn," wrote Taoufik Bouachrine, the publishing director of the Morocco-based daily Akhbar Al Youm.
Three years ago, the January 25 revolution ousted the head of the regime, Hosni Mubarak. The military- headed deep state, however, had withstood the democratic tide until it managed in leading a "counter" revolution through a military coup on July 3, removing from office Egypt's first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and opening the door wide to yet another military dictatorship, the writer noted.
Six months into the coup that was wrapped in a popular, media and regional cover, the picture now is much clearer. General Al Sisi did not come to save the civil state from Brotherhood's theocratic rule. He came to rid Egypt's deep state and its patrons abroad of the "head" of the Arab Spring that emerged from the ballot boxes in Egypt and earlier in Tunisia, with prospects to spread across other Arab states, the writer continued.
Last week, three leaders from the April 6 Youth Movement were sentenced to three years in prison. These youngsters were in the vanguard of the protests against the Brotherhood's rule and they backed the so-called road map for Egypt's political future. But when they protested against a new law restricting protests and against the police state's laws, the junta arrested them.
Now human right organisations mention Egypt only with police state practices, which is the biggest political slap in the face of those who gullibly imagined that General Al Sisi stepped in to salvage the country from the Muslim Brotherhood's authoritarian rule.
Granted, the Brotherhood in office made catastrophic mistakes; they underestimated the power of their opponents; they were not good in office as they were in opposition; they acted naively when they trusted the Salafists and succumbed to their extremist blackmails, and when they trusted General Al Sisi who would encourage them to take a hard line with their opponents, gulling them into trusting the army was on their side.
Yet all this does not justify the military coup that was only a prelude to a series of counter-revolutions following the Arab Spring, the writer said.
Now Egypt has a long way to go to arrive to democracy, with much blood to be spilt on the way. But the country will get there at the end. This is exactly what Europe's modern history teaches us.
Chatah's killing targets March 14 and backers
"Hizbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security and foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 years", this was the last comment on Twiter made by former Lebanese minister Mohamad Shatah, who was assassinated in a car bomb on Friday, editorialised the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi yesterday.
In a statement issued on Friday, former prime minister Saad Al Hariri implicitly accused Hizbollah of involvement in the killing of his political adviser Chatah, the paper reported.
"The suspects ... are those who are fleeing international justice and refusing to appear before the international tribunal; they are those who are opening the windows of evil and chaos to Lebanon and drag regional fires into the country", Mr Hariri's statement's said, in reference to the five Hizbollah members wanted for investigation over the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri and the organisation's military involvement in Syria.
Mr Chatah was the ninth politician from the March 14 Bloc to be killed since the assassination of Mr Rafic Hariri in 2005. An economist, he was known as a moderate, knowledgeable figure and a foreign policy adviser in the Future Movement.
At home, the blow mainly targets the key March 14 alliance figure Saad Al Hariri; and abroad, it targets the countries close to the alliance, particularly Saudi Arabia and the US.
Brotherhood has been given kiss of life twice
History will record that Egypt's interim government has given the Muslim Brotherhood the kiss of life twice in a year, the first when the security forces dispersed their sit-ins in Rabaa and the second when they forced it to go underground, remarked Bilal Fadl in the Cairo-based paper Al Shorouk yesterday.
By outlawing Brotherhood, Egyptian authorities have exempted it from any political costs that organisations above ground normally pay, the writer noted. Now the Brotherhood can revel in what it does best: playing the role of the victimised party against which every one plots.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian people who asked for early presidential elections have been provided the military rule with a "civil skin"; they demanded protection from terror in Sinai and have had fear instilled in their minds and hearts.
And until those who will survive the current lunacy realise that no party, however strong it may be, can get rid of all opponents, the casualties, as usual, will be ordinary people who, just to get the ball of sustenance rolling, elected the Brotherhood and when this failed authorised the military chiefs to intervene. And yet, their goals remain unfulfilled.
Digest compiled by Abdelhafid Ezzouitni
aezzouitni@thenational.ae