As Egypt drowns in the Corona virus crisis, the Sisi regime rejects the emergence of any voice criticizing the way it deals with the pandemic, and uses the same deterrents that it accuses with its political enemies, of propaganda with a national dimension, and exceptional laws to fight what it calls "the people of evil".

This is how the article published by the French website Laurent and written by the researcher on issues of political sociology, Ahmed Abdel Halim, began before he added that if you took to the streets of El-Mahrousa after eight o'clock at night, you see an eternal night in empty spaces except for Egyptian police patrols, spreading to follow the commitment of the Egyptians to the procedures The government has taken special measures to reduce the spread of the Corona virus, such as shutting down supermarkets, cafes, and wedding halls entirely, and opening smaller stores that partially market people.

By the evening of June 30, the number of coronavirus infections in Egypt had approached 66,754 cases, of whom 2,872 had died. The country still recorded hundreds of new infections daily.

And if the whole world was involved in the Corona crisis, Egypt differs from everyone, because it has been in crisis for nearly seven years, according to presidential and institutional pronouncements, in its war with the "evil people" who do not intend for the country and oppose the wheel of development, as described Power and inform it.

Since the state of exception imposes the existence of an internal enemy to justify it, it appears that the Egyptian regime classifies SK with these, as if the virus came against the development wheel in a biological dress!

A familiar media speech
At the beginning of the pandemic in Egypt, the Egyptian media speech focused on shedding its tongues on everyone who asks a question or criticizes a decision about the government's preventive measures to combat the virus. Rather, the "People of Evil" cylinder circulated again, and those who mean here are those Those who take advantage of the "Covid-19" epidemic to question the efficacy of the system in its response to crises.

As usual, Nashat Al-Daihi, a PA authority and author of the “People of Evil” program and author of a book with the same title, criticized the talk of media channels affiliated with the Egyptian opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey, which questioned the reliability of the numbers and decisions announced by the Ministry of Health to limit the spread of the virus. Al-Dehi agreed with the statement of the head of the National Press Authority, Karam Jaber, describing the "people of evil" as dancers to Egypt's crisis in the face of Corona, while the assistant professor at the Faculty of Information Suhair Othman supported them by saying that "the bad rumors adopted by the people of evil" are trying to undermine the efficiency of the Egyptian government in managing the crisis.

Media statements about the crisis came out starting on April 7 after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke during his meeting with the Minister of Health and a number of government and army leaders, calling on the Egyptians not to be drawn into rumors about the numbers of HIV infections, saying: "Will we go for him? If we want Egypt Free from bad people, we must avoid the rumors that the people of evil give us. "

In fact, this term “people of evil” is not new and did not appear with the Corona pandemic in Egypt, as Egyptians have been accustomed to it in Sisi's speeches over recent years. And if this phrase was meant in the minds of everyone first of the extremist groups, Sisi introduced them in a broader way during a press interview in 2016 when he said that "the people of evil are all those who seek to harm Egypt as a people and a state, and try to obstruct Egypt's march as a country and a people ... the Egyptians know them Koyes (the Egyptians know them well), Goh and Bara (inside and outside). " On other occasions, he has said that they are "the Brotherhood and their supporters."

Expanding the exception
After Sisi met with the Minister of Health, parliamentarians and officials in the Egyptian ministries began repeating their warning to several newspapers, channels and social media against questioning the numbers issued by the Ministry of Health, and the inability of the Egyptian state to confront Corona "Covid-19".

The Egyptian government has promoted the state of the exception letter through legal penalties for this circumstance in the country and directed against "rumors of rumors about Corona", where the penalty is imprisonment for two years and a fine of up to 300 thousand Egyptian pounds (about 18 thousand and 540 dollars).

Since then, the syndrome of activists, journalists and citizens has started to be arrested on charges of also joining the people of evil. The most famous detainees were the Egyptian journalist Mustafa Saqr, owner of the newspaper "Al Borsa" and the "Daily News Egypt", and accusing him of spreading rumors harmful to Egyptian national security regarding Corona's developments, in addition to joining a banned terrorist group.

About a month before that, the Egyptian government closed the British Guardian's office in Cairo, after it published an article on March 17 that spoke of thousands of injuries in Egypt due to the government's negligence in taking the necessary measures to block the epidemic.

The Egyptian government has not excluded those expressing their opinions or the personal positions that they passed on on social media, as it has always arrested young people who express their opinion on Facebook and Twitter, such as the arrest of Abdu Fayed, a researcher in international relations, from his home on May 26 last, and his enforced disappearance For a period of six days, he would appear at the Supreme State Security Prosecution and be charged with the same accusations of spreading rumors harmful to national security.

These arrests included even the "White Army". At the beginning of the pandemic, doctors found on social media outlets an outlet through leaflets and video clips expressing their frustration with the lack of equipment and tools needed for them and patients to prevent the virus, until some of them were called from The Ministry's investigation on the pretext of violating the medical profession laws, and warning against participation in broadcasting and promoting rumors, a number of medical officials were arrested and the Medical Syndicate demanded in a statement to release them.

A specialist doctor working in a government hospital, who preferred not to be identified, tells us about the instructions that came to most hospitals, which are security instructions for all workers not to photograph or talk on social networks about a lack of equipment and tools, otherwise those who do so will be subject to strict legal procedures, Even the current emergency law applies to it the punishment of spreading rumors that harm Egyptian national security.

Corona, the enemy of the homeland, has
no objection to many in Egypt from the fact that Corona is the destiny of God, and you find Muslims as Christians pray to God to lift this epidemic. Marches went out at night in Alexandria governorate, when citizens got excited on their balconies, and gathered under their homes, asking God to save them from this epidemic. But in parallel with this belief in God’s ability to lift this calamity, there were also gatherings by night and day in the same preservation of the impact of patriotic songs, as if Corona was an external enemy who specifically intended Egypt and conspired against it and did not mean all of humanity.

Those gatherings remind us of the days of the presidential elections in May 2014 and March 2018, as well as the referendum to amend the constitution in April 2019 when supporters of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi gathered to sing and dance, and chant slogans of maliciousness and anger for the "people of evil" who are waiting for "Savior of Egypt" And as if what is happening is an occasion to express a national sense and not elections between the various political opponents, as happens in various countries of the world.

This was caused by the influence of authoritarian, media and even academic political discourse on the Egyptian citizen, similar to the former Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass who praised the reaction of the authority to this pandemic, saying, "We really feel (we feel already) that the state and the government are standing with all (two support for each ) Egyptian and they are all afraid (and they are both afraid) on us, and therefore the crisis can be demonstrated (this crisis has shown) how we are standing with each other (how we stood together).

The reactions of these citizens also appear as a result of the context of the state of exception that the Egyptian regime put in place seven years ago - that is, since Sisi's accession to power - under the title Fighting evil people who intend to ruin Egypt, especially when the virus arrived in Egypt with the events of the killing of eight soldiers and two officers in Sinai early May. Last May, after an explosive device exploded in Bir al-Abd, North Sinai. Even the Ifta House warned against "terrorist groups" exploiting the Corona crisis, linking in people's minds between the security threat and the health dilemma.

The army also appeared in the role of the Savior and the historical guarantor of the state of stability over the crises the state is going through. The President spoke during his inspection of the special preparations being made by the armed forces to confront the virus, including the provision of six hospitals affiliated with a capacity of 200 beds, and the army intervened to provide health institutions with logistical supplies to face The pandemic, with a total of 10,000 tons of disinfectant resources and analysis equipment used by doctors in all Egyptian governorates.

The Egyptian citizen can be described here as a "subordinate citizen", in the words of the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who is not affiliated with the political, cultural or economic elite, but rather dominated by the repetitive effect of authoritarian and emotional discourse, so many "non-affiliated" saw that Corona enters Amid the global conspiracy that is hindering the Egyptian development wheel, disregarding Corona's description of a biological pandemic that hit the whole world.

This is how the Coruna virus appeared in the cloak of the external enemy staring at Egypt, which was based on its supporters inside from "the people of evil". As for the national Egyptians, they are awaiting the moment of victory over the enemy of the wheel of development and major projects until the state completes its development in safety and security without opposition.