Belated Grief

It is virtually impossible to open a newspaper or read an online daily without coming across a headline that mourns – or announces – the death of the former Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi. Most headlines stated the obvious, leaving little room for interpretation. However, most headlines from Middle Eastern portals chose - as expected - a vaguer route, confusing the reader and leaving him/her to question the point behind the selection of the catchy titles. “The death of the only democratically elected President”… “after years of imprisonment Morsi meets his maker”…..”The death of a leader amidst a long trial”.

What do these titles mean? Is he being mourned? Are people upset that he died? Is the complaint about how he died? The timing? The place? The lack of action from authorities to respond to his health deterioration – as claimed by the Turkish authorities? What are we mourning here?

The fact is, Mohammad Morsi has been jailed for the past six years. He was no allowed media exposure, he was denied medical attention albeit his deteriorating health condition (a diabetic whose vision was being compromised), and who was simply selected a scapegoat for the geopolitical agenda amidst the stand off between Iran and Saudi Arabia, in which the terrorism card was deployed religiously in every argument made under the sun. People learned nothing from the 1950s, and a similar approach was being deployed yet again after over half a decade of time. Jailing and banishing people for simply not agreeing with the political discourse of a strong minority. 

What should have been lamented and mourned was not his death. It was these long years of unjust incarceration, the double standards applied in Egyptian politics, the mass hanging of young men who were misled into radicalism, the demonisation of an Islamic agenda, the blatant disregard to human rights, the systematic oblivion to the fact that an elected figure by a hopeful majority was imprisoned for simply belonging to a school of thought that has been dubbed ‘fundamentalist’...and to the loss of hope in decency and justice. 

What is shameful from all of that is the late remorse and sadness that hit as all. If his death serves any purpose, it is a wake up call to how powerless we are in an age of manipulation and self-imposed self involvement. Morsi's heart stopped pumping…just as our minds stopped thinking.