We have already explained that the fight U.S. President Donald Trump has put up for pastor Brunson, who was convicted of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations and served his time, is tear-inducing for U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens should be proud of this, of course. But only if this sensitivity is shown for them all.
What else would make a citizen proud of his country than knowing that carrying your country’s passport will protect you wherever you go, knowing that wherever you are your state will always be backing you?
In fact, this is not only true for U.S. citizens, but any passport holder of a country which claims to be a true state should give instill this confidence in its citizen. As long as a state instills this confidence in its citizen, the contract, the organic relationship and the commitment between two parties can be powerful.
Is this really the case for U.S.? Is the Brunson case alone sufficient enough to show how strong the U.S. passport is? To question this, we mentioned the 20 or more U.S. citizens who are being detained in Egyptian prisons. These people do not go on trials that are conducted publicly like Brunson’s trials in Turkey. They don’t have rights like prisoners in Turkey have. They don’t have the option of house arrest if their medical condition requires it.
One of these people is Moustafa Kassem. He came from New York, where he has been living for many years, to Cairo in July 2013 to visit his family. He was then 48 years old, so he is 53 now. Around the time he arrived, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi carried out his infamous coup, and ousted Mohamed Morsi who had appointed him as defense minister, on the grounds that he was not sharing his power with the opposition enough and that he was becoming too authoritarian. And the moment he rose to power, he established the most authoritarian, the cruelest and the most despot dictatorship in the history of Egypt.
Nevertheless, the Egyptian people who couldn’t accept this coup were still standing against it and demonstrating for a legitimate rule against the coup. Sisi was able to stand these demonstrations only for 40 days. At the end of 40 days, he intervened in the demonstrations with the bloodiest and the most brutal operation which led to the massacre of thousands of people. The square hospital where the dead bodies were brought was pulled down with heavy equipment and the bodies inside were set ablaze. All the other people who were there and didn’t die were arrested.
At that moment, Moustafa Kassem was in a shopping center away from the Rabaa square with his brother in-law. They found themselves in the middle of conflict. When the police stopped them and asked for IDs, his brother in-law showed his Egyptian ID, even though he was also carrying an American passport, and was able to pass. Kassem, on the other hand, showed his American passport thinking that it would put him in a better position, then things started to unfold. Right there, the police pinned him down, beat him up and took him with them. They arbitrarily arrested him. Since that day, he is trying to prove that he has nothing to do with the events. They convicted him, along with 738 others, of acting against the Sisi administration and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Moustafa Kassem is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has no relation to them, but these things happened to him just because he was coincidentally there that day. Living in that prison he is been detained in for 5 years alone is a kind of torture. There is no proper sanitation. Rats, bugs, snakes, scorpions are everywhere. It is not possible to live in such an environment and stay healthy. Put the winter aside, there is nothing to keep it cool in hot summer days.
U.S. citizen Moustafa Kassem is already suffering from many illnesses, from diabetes to lung problems. The Egyptian government, which doesn’t even allow his insulin medication to be put in a refrigerator, is literally watching him die. After this incident, Moustafa Kassem went on a hunger strike. This hunger strike made him as thin as a rake. Despite this, his voice remains unheard. He is rapidly dying.
Let’s leave aside hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who are also living under these conditions. Let’s assume that you think a U.S. citizen is worth all the Egyptians. But we are talking about 20 or more U.S. citizens living under these conditions Mr. Trump.
Even the claim that all these people are supporters of Morsi hasn’t been proven. There are people like Moustafa Kassem, who have nothing to do with him. But why do you risk damaging the reputation of the U.S. passport just because your ally is making these accusations? Or should we consider this as an important sign that you are discriminating among your citizens?
Do you think that when an American citizen is a “good Christian” then the whole of America should mobilize to “save soldier Brunson,” but when an American citizen is a “good Muslim” you should say “let him stew in his own juice”? Where is that legendary, egalitarian American citizenship?
There is still an opportunity to prove that this myth is actually true. Before, there were interventions of Senator John McCain and Pence for Moustafa Kassem but they were feeble. If Trump shows just a fraction of the sensitivity he has shown for pastor Brunson, that would be enough to save Kassem. Not just for him, all the other people who are being kept in Egyptian prisons under similar conditions.
Who knows, if they can get out they may find the opportunity to talk about who is living under what sort of conditions in Egyptian prisons.
Can this be the reason why the U.S. government has been so careless about this issue? Do they think they can sacrifice 20 U.S. citizens for their new dictator in the Middle East?
