Dear friends and all who may be concerned about the sad state of current events in Egypt,

Due to the fact that until recently the government disconnected the internet and many of the phone lines, I am only now able to respond to your messages. I’ll try to explain as much as I can as briefly as possible.

You’ve probably heard about the revolution in the news, but western media can’t report precisely and in detail what’s really going on. I’ve never been into politics, but we Egyptians are now living in a serious state of emergency all over the country. There are many factions involved, and the confusion is creating a blackout of the facts.

The protests were a peaceful effort to achieve legitimate goals. The Anger Revolution is not coming from any particular political party but rather from common Egyptian citizens. It started with a few Egyptian groups using Facebook and calling the movement “Youth of 25 January”, the main goals being to seek reforms, democracy, and social justice and to break the fetters of the persecution, oppression, and corruption that we’ve been living with for so long.

At this moment so many of Egypt’s enemies are trying to take advantage of these events.

On the 25th of  January protesters started to express their desires in a peaceful way; unfortunately the government reacted violently. I have personally witnessed police trucks ploughing into the crowds.

The 26th to the 28th of  January were the anger days, as many Egyptian people were getting more and more mad and upset because the government and police were using violence against the protesters.

On the 28th of January around sunset the police disappeared, having received a command from the Minister of the Interior to pull out. By most analyses this was “high treason”, as the order originally came from the Police Corruption Ministry.

Immediately most of the prisons were opened and thousands of prisoners were let out. Prisons and police stations were looted and ruined in what constituted total anarchy.

I’m sure many foreigners and suspicious organizations are involved, in sabotaging the protests. I can’t believe they were trying to burn the  Egypt Museum and some other antiquities locations but thank God the people and the army saved it at the last moment (some antiquities were damaged but luckily they can be repaired).

I witnessed many criminal activities including the looting of  malls and homes. The good news is that when people saw this anarchy they started to form local groups to guard areas from burglary and murders.

This was necessary because, as I said, there were no police. A policeman I know told me that he received orders from the head officer to fall back, put on his civilian clothes, and go home. But some good police deliberately ignored the command.

Around this time the Egyptian army started to disperse across the country to protect the people. We began catching people in criminal acts and handing them over to the army. By forming hundreds of citizen groups we succeeded in chasing down and catching many criminals. We retrieved many stolen cars. Still it’s very dangerous here because a lot of criminals are hiding.

We don’t know how many innocent people have been killed but we know the death count is in the hundreds. We don’t know how long we can stay up all night patrolling our streets. There aren’t as many of us and people  are getting tired. I don’t understand why the new government doesn’t give the command to repair the police stations so we can go home and let the police do their jobs again. So many wrong and confusing things are happening. People can’t work and so many stores are closed.

In the mornings thousands of people protest, demanding that the president retire, and in the evening everyone then goes to guard his area, holding sticks, tools, or knifes from their kitchens!

Life is messed up, but we still have hope, and we still pray.

I wish the government would make a serious reformation so that we can live in safety and security and return to normal life again.

I’ll try to keep safe so I can keep you updated with the latest news.

Please pray for peace for all of Egypt.

Regards,

Ahmed Ghazy