Barbara Benini

on: Salafaists and the Arab Spring, by Nick Amies

When I read an article on your prestigious web magazine, I assume that the sources to which you are referring are well informed about the matter they are talking about, especially the experts whose words are quoted. Well, being a translator from Arabic into Italian and a resident in Cairo for many years, even during the Revolution, I am quite astonished by the incorrect information which are given to readers.

First of all it is well known that the bombing at the Church in Alexandria on 31st December 2010 was backed by the ex Interior Minister Habib El Adly, and this was discovered by the people of Egypt when they entered the sites of the Security Forces (Amn el Dawla) and opened their secret files, in March 2011.

Secondly, many bloggers and famous intellectuals wrote about the incidents occurred lately in the area of Imbaba, where a church was burned down, but it turned out that the Salafists did not have anything to do with it, but it was still people sent there by the old regime in order to apply the very well-known philosophy of "divid et impera".