Sometimes piecing together a jigsaw puzzle is more difficult than it need be because not all the pieces are in one and the same place.
Just like a dough set aside to rise and expand, when it comes to the Middle East the problems endemic to the region seem to expand out of the confines of the oven and spread far and wide.
“Piecing the Jigsaw” (Al-Ahram Issue no 136) was a revealing and disturbing piece of analysis. Not because the article was in any way incorrect but rather because it was so very correct.
The bombing at the Al-Hussein Mosque was an atrocious act of terrorism.
That anyone could link the killing of French tourists and maiming dozens of other civilians to events in the Gaza Strip is ludicrous. 2920 days of Gaza rockets fired at civilians in Israel, followed by 21 days of Israeli retaliation to put a stop to the terror emanating from Gaza, has no bearing whatsoever on events in Egypt. This was terror on Egyptian soil with a very specific domestic agenda of political subversion in Egypt. Tenuous links to events abroad are nonsensical, a convenient way of deflecting attention away from the real aim.
What isn’t nonsensical, however, is the way such acts and such thought processes are finding their way far beyond the borders of Gaza, Egypt and the Middle East.
The Swedish cities of Malmö and Södertälje were recently rocked by Islamist/Left-wing violence claiming inspiration from the Hamas war against Israel and Israel’s response last month. Battles with the police, massive demonstrations against the presence of Jews guilty of the crime of playing tennis, shops being blown up and torched and schools being shut by the police to protect the children.
All in the name of Islamist and Left-wing “dissatisfaction” with events in Gaza.
When enough’s enough, you have to say so. Hopefully Egypt will be firm in saying “enough” and will deal with its problem
And hopefully Sweden will be courageous enough to do exactly the same.
Firmly.
Al-Ahram, Times, Expressen, AB, Sydsvenskan, SvD, SvD2, SR, Erixon, JTA, MXp, FiM, Världen Idag, Världen Idag2, Kino, DN, Skanskan,