The world was astonished by Egypt’s peaceful January 25th revolution and in particular, the cohesive relationship among Egyptian youths and their united determination to overthrow the regime. Inside the revolution’s crucible, many different movements and ideologies melted together – this included leftists, liberals and political Islamists. They were united by a single goal: to overthrow the regime.

The world was astonished by Egypt’s peaceful January 25th revolution and in particular, the cohesive relationship among Egyptian youths and their united determination to overthrow the regime. Inside the revolution’s crucible, many different movements and ideologies melted together – this included leftists, liberals and political Islamists. They were united by a single goal: to overthrow the regime.

However over the two years following the revolution, this has changed. Political differences have caused rifts among the youth and this has resulted in serious accusations of political infidelity and treason as well as armed conflict; the latter is reflected in early December’s riots around the Heliopolis Palace in Cairo.

The story of two young Egyptian men – Fadi Abu Samra, 24, and Osama Hassan, 33 – reflects this. They met during protests in Saa Square in Damietta at the end of January. One has left wing leanings and belongs to the April 6 Youth Movement (A6YM) and the other is part of the Islamic political party, the Muslim Brotherhood. The two made friends during protests and then played a role in various protests; they were together during confrontations with Egyptian security forces and they took part in neighbourhood committees for public safety, which involved guarding banks and public facilities together.

However, as the political circumstances have changed, their friendship has too: the two friends have broken off their relationship and become bitter enemies.

“The rift between me and my friend Osama has become even greater, especially after I criticized the positions of the Muslim Brotherhood and of Freedom and Justice Party [the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party] and their abandonment of the revolutionary youth for political gains,” says Abu Samra.  “As a result, our friendship has almost completely ended.”

Abu Samra noted that Hassan had denounced A6YM on his Facebook page, calling it the Satan 6 movement and accusing it of being too influenced by the West. However when A6YM announced its support for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, who would eventually go on to become Egypt’s new president, Hassan switched sides again, praising A6YM.

Abu Samra says he felt moved to speak honestly to Osama about their friendship, noting that he did not believe it to be very genuine as it seemed to change with the political mood. When a few days later, A6YM also changed their minds about Morsi, Hassan’s broke with Abu Samra again – just as, Abu Samra says, he had expected him to.

Abu Samra believes this friendship flip-flop is the result of the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood – he thinks the organization asks for blind obedience and doesn’t like its members to question its moves or motivations. Anything the Muslim Brotherhood does is supposed to be pro-Islamic; anything done against it is anti-Islamic. Abu Samra obviously doesn’t believe this.

Meanwhile Hassan has his own opinions on why his friendship with Abu Samra has broken down. He thinks that young revolutionaries like Hassan are inflexible in their thinking too because they say that whoever disagrees with them is anti-revolutionary. 

Hassan says he knows that the revolution was successful because Egypt’s people put aside their political and personal differences in favour of one over arching aim. 

“We were like one hand at that time,” Hassan says. “But then it’s quite natural that each faction and political party would go back to their own ideologies and political tendencies. A leftist cannot change and an Islamist cannot be secular,” he notes.

Hassan thinks that his leftist friends, be it Abu Samra from A6YM or anywhere else, don’t believe that “we, as an Islamic movement, have a vision different from theirs but that this does not necessarily mean we are unpatriotic or that we are betraying revolutionary martyrs’ blood.”

Since the recent protests outside the presidential palace in Cairo though, the friendship breakdown has become worse and seemingly irreversible. Hassan says he has cut off all links with some of the people who were with him during the revolutionary protests, especially after Damietta’s Muslim Brotherhood headquarters were attacked.

“Political differences have turned to hatred and there is an attempt to exclude other political movements,” Hassan argues.

Is he right? Has this hatred and these seemingly intractable political differences extinguished the revolution’s flame? Or will Egypt’s people find some common ground? Doubtless the answers to these questions will be revealed in the days ahead – one only hopes they are positive.