In a quick reaction to Sisi’s renewal of his attack on the January 25, 2011 revolution that toppled the late President Hosni Mubarak regime, a hashtag entitled A Gang has been issued, the list of the most discussed on Twitter in Egypt must go.

In a speech during the educational symposium of the armed forces on the occasion of the anniversary of the victories of the October 6, 1973 war, Sisi said that the revolution led by Egyptian youth and in which a large crowd of people participated was aimed at destroying the state. Through the aforementioned hashtag, activists defended the January 25 revolution as it was a hope for change and united the Egyptian people on one goal and that its goals were not achieved.

The activists on social networking sites responded to Al-Sisi’s speech and mocked it, saying that his regime is a gang to impoverish and humiliate the people, and it must be gone. The activists explained the deteriorating situation in Egypt’s economic and social aspects and the failure of the Sisi regime to address any problem in light of its talk of fake achievements. Participants accused Al-Sisi of dividing the people’s ranks and sowing enmity and hatred among the people after killing and imprisoning hundreds of thousands of opponents in the years following the revolution.

The pioneers of the communication sites saw that Sisi is responsible for the destruction of the state, not the January Revolution, after his neglect of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir and the waste of Egypt’s historical rights in the waters of the Nile. The tweeters considered that Sisi’s system is based on collecting money from ordinary citizens through fines and an increase in service fees, in addition to the many loans from abroad that have brought the country into a cycle of debt.

January revolution

Al-Sisi’s attack on the January 25 revolution comes again in light of tension and anger in the Egyptian street due to the deteriorating economic and social situation, along with many grievances, which were the execution of opponents and the arrest of thousands. The accumulated anger appeared in the demonstrations that lasted for more than two weeks, which began on September 20 and erupted in many villages and cities, killing at least two people and arresting nearly two thousand others.

During his speech, Al-Sisi did not hide his concern about the escalating anger and the demonstrations demanding his departure recently, saying that the issue that constantly worries him is preserving the country. He added that wars were taking place to bring down the state and obstruct its progress, but now there are new generations of wars where the people and the anger of citizens are used as a tool to destroy and obstruct the homeland, as he described. Al-Sisi claimed that he held a meeting with those he called intellectuals in 2011, when he told them, “The issue was not the change, but rather destruction. All countries have challenges, and as long as the people stand with their leadership, they can be overcome.”

Attack on the revolution

This is not the first time that Sisi attacked the Egyptians ’revolution in January 2011, and he was then director of the Military Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department. Other than official speeches, Sisi usually mentioned the 2011 revolution in televised and other interventions accompanied by warnings. In 2018, Sisi was upset during a speech, saying that “Egypt will not return for 7 or 8 years ago,” warning that he might request a popular mandate to confront those he called “those who tamper with the security and stability of the country.”

In the same year, he considered that “what happened in 2011 was the wrong treatment for a wrong diagnosis. Some people presented people with an image that change could happen in this way, and that there is a magic wand that will solve the problems,” he said. During the eighth youth conference in 2019, Sisi held the January Revolution responsible for building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which threatens Egypt’s water security, forgetting that he signed an agreement that allowed Ethiopia to proceed with construction work. During the conference, Al-Sisi said: “I will tell you about one mistake, or one price that we paid, and we will pay because of 2011 (referring to the revolution). You would never have built dams on the Nile without them.”

Al-Sisi described the revolution as the conspiracy that occurred in 2011 in Egypt, and that it was against the armed forces and the interior because they are the centers of gravity that protect the state from falling. In the past month, Al-Sisi returned to hold the revolution responsible for stopping development projects, saying: “There are projects that have stopped due to the events of 2011 and the state of instability.” It is noteworthy that the symbols of the January 25 revolution and thousands of its participants have been arrested and issued harsh sentences against them in politicized trials since Sisi seized power after the military coup in 2013.