More danger in random terrorism

By Magdi Mehanna

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Where civil crimes are concerned, criminals and victims normally stand on opposite sides of the fence. Political crimes are different: the criminal can also be the victim. Take the incident in the Al- Azhar neighbourhood that we all rushed to condemn. The man who committed the crime, Hassan Bashindi, was described as an engineering student who blew himself up in a district crowded with tourists and Egyptians. I don't suppose he had ever thought of looking into the consequences of this act of terrorism, nor do I believe he ever had a clear idea about the purpose of such a deed.

According to available information, this criminal was a young man from a poor family living in one of the Qalyoubia governorate's crowded shantytown neighbourhoods. By all accounts he was a hardworking, successful student. Would he get the chance of a respectable job once he'd graduated? He must have heard of the armies of unemployed young graduates. Like millions of others he followed events around him: Israel's tyranny and the threat to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque in the face of Arab impotence, America's occupying armies pouring into Arab capitals and the sense of outrage and shame felt by every Egyptian towards the occupation's treatment of Iraqi citizens and the casual manner in which their blood was spilt and lives taken away.

This sense of weakness -- both internal and external -- coupled with feelings of despair, frustration and hopelessness, makes Bashindi more of a victim than a criminal. Before he thought of committing a crime, he was contemplating a life no better than death.

This week's Soapbox speaker is former editor-in-chief 0f Al-Wafd newspaper.