Tahrir’s Troubadours
Cairo's City View Hotel provides a warm welcome for visitors. Ahmed Moses and Hany Bade want their guests to feel comfortable. But when their shift is finished, they play a very different role. The hotel overlooks Tahrir Square and that's where you will find them, at the tent city protest. Ahmed and his band play a part in Egypt's ongoing revolution.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): What will you say on Judgement Day? About those who died in the Square, about the soldiers, the guns, the tyrants, and those who stayed at home and the cowards?
Ahmed and his band have played a part in Egypt’s on going revolution.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): Music plays a major role in any revolution, in the history of any revolution. It’s easier to get people to listen when you sing than when you speak.
One Christian, and the other Muslim, an unlikely and creative team.
HANY BADE (Translation): The lyrics I write reflect the feelings of people around me, the spirit of the revolution, the goals we set out to achieve on 25 January. We wanted to achieve our basic rights, freedom, to express ourselves with words, to be heard. Part of this was achieved in the square but sadly most of it wasn’t.
The next day, we travel to Hany's tiny apartment in a poor part of the city. I want to learn more about these men.
HANY BADE (Translation): I write poetry and often let people hear it but no one responded to it or appreciated it. I saw that Ahmed listened and he tried to guide me and gave me some suggestions, he being an artist, a singer with a great voice. So art brought us together as did our shared experiences and our Egyptian culture. It didn’t think of him as a Muslim and me as a Christian. We shared a lot of experiences.
Ahmed lives in a much more wealthy part of the city. I have been invited for lunch. Ahmed's mother knows all about her son's involvement in the revolution.
AHMED’S MOTHER (Translation): To death, I tell you.
REPORTER (Translation): How so?
AHMED’S MOTHER (Translation): I mean, excessively patriotic.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): Like any mother, Mum gets a bit worried.
AHMED’S MOTHER (Translation): I do get so worried about him and keep calling him but he tells me “Mum, I must do this. Even if I get killed or martyred, don’t be sad, others will fix the country.” Of course he kills me when he says that but I respect that he’s very patriotic and loves his country and does what he wants to do without fear. That’s what I like about him most.
It is a family that thrives on political discussion, and it continues as friends turn up.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): So loyalty of a defence minister has to be guaranteed because any coup in any country involves the defence minister.
Then Ahmed fetches his guitar. It's clear that Ahmed and Hany love their city and their country. But sectarian tensions have exploded in Cairo. Last May, Christian churches were attacked in the suburb of Imababa. The locals say that dozens died and hundreds were injured. It seemed Egypt was on the brink of chaos. We are on our way to Imababa, to visit the scene of the riots. The talk is about police harassment.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): Then he takes you to the police station and if you dare speak up, it will be like “which organisation do you belong to? An Islamic group or what.”
HANY BADE (Translation): Or frame you for something you didn’t do.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): Like a coup.
HANY BADE (Translation): It’s a corrupt regime.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): This is the problem. This is why the solution has to be radical. Which is very difficult.
REPORTER (Translation): What’s the solution?
AHMED MOSES (Translation): To have an overhaul, to destroy a whole system, a country’s essence. It’s very hard to do. But you have to do this to rebuild it properly.
Ever since the riots, the suburb has been on edge. It is not long before my filming causes concern.
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): Welcome to Egypt. But please, no stirring. From Arabiya or Al-Jazeera, no stirring up.
REPORTER (Translation): Can I ask you a question?
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): Please.
REPORTER (Translation): Is life back to normal, no disorder?
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): There is unrest. Of course, life is not as it used to be. But it’s only temporary.
REPORTER (Translation): Are you Muslim or Christian?
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): Muslim.
REPORTER (Translation): No problem if you were Christian.
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): We are all brothers.
REPORTER (Translation): Bless you.
LOCAL MAN 1 (Translation): Even if I have a Jewish passenger and he’s talking reasonably, I will talk to him.
A short distance away is a church that wasn't attacked. Both Christians and Muslims feel at ease here. We've come to talk to Father Michael. He's a key figure in uniting Christians and Muslims. He's convinced the riots were planned.
FATHER MICHAEL (Translation): We lived not knowing who was a Muslim and who was a Christian. Today we can see the division and there are “hidden hands” behind it. I say “hidden hands” and I mean those in charge of the country, the government, because things were very stable. It’s just about creating sedition by the old regime.
The next day, there is a large rally in Tahrir Square. The crowd sends a message to the military.
CROWD CHANT: 20 years of tyranny! Of course you must run over me. Sayit louder and louder. We will not leave the Square.
It's been 15 months since massive demonstrations here signalled the end of the Mubarak regime. The tents look ramshackle. But Ahmed says they are the heart and soul of the revolution.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): For as long as our demands are not met we’ll put them up again and stay in the square. Thee tents are symbols of liberty, freedom and of the country.
And everyone has the same message.
LOCAL MAN 2 (Translation): We’ll continue to protest until you transfer power to a civilian government.
But there is an ugly undercurrent of mob justice.
LOCAL MAN 3 (Translation): God willing, it’s for the president.
LOCAL MAN 4 (Translation): For the president.
LOCAL MAN 5 (Translation): It’s silk too, not just anything.
LOCAL MAN 3 (Translation): It’s expensive. Really expensive.
While some prefer rough justice, others are preaching unity.
CROWD LEADER (Translation): Brother, Salafis, liberals and youths of the revolution, all stand united for the benefit of this great nation. Muslims, Christians, stand united.
But in a nearby mosque, the message isn't about tolerance.
SHEIKH MOHAMED ABDEL RAHMIN (Translation): Like those who worship the cow. I told you before that what condemns India. I said that in India’s biggest city, New Delhi, traffic stops for hours because a cow is lying in the street.
Sheikh Mohamed Abdel Rahmin is a Salafist. He rails against anyone who doesn't support his fundamentalist beliefs. Including Jews and Christians.
SHEIKH MOHAMED ABDEL RAHMIN (Translation): They know in their hearts and their priests tell them that they are infidels. They can say what they want. I believe in Jesus and Moses but the Jews do not believe in Muhammad nor do the Christians. We believe in all prophets and messengers.
REPORTER (Translation): You mean to say Christians are infidels.
SHEIKH MOHAMED ABDEL RAHMIN (Translation): God said that, not me.
The sheikh's Al Nour party holds a quarter of the seats in the parliament. He wants an Islamic government.
SHEIKH MOHAMED ABDEL RAHMIN (Translation): What agrees with sharia continues, what doesn’t gets abolished.
Ahmed knows the Salafis well. He spent his early years in Saudi Arabia, their spiritual home. He fears his democratic revolution is being hijacked by these fundamentalists.
AHMED MOSES (Translation): It’s this fear, because they say no to everything. Artists, creative people, the educated and the thinkers are all fearful. It’s because to them, everything is “no”, “wrong”.
No-one knows what sort of nation Egypt will become. The battle for the revolution is being played out day and night. And the Troubadours of Tahrir Square refuse to be silenced.
Reporter/Camera
FOUAD HADY
Producer
GEOFF PARISH
Editor
DAVID POTTS
Translations/Subtitling
DALIA MATAR
JOSEPH ABDO
SUHEIL DAMOUNY
Original Music Composed by VICKI HANSEN