Today I spoke with a very good friend, an Egyptian who has
known change in his country since 1952 and is currently on holiday in Austria.
He is disgusted with the news coverage. “It’s lies, exaggeration, not what is
really happening,” he told me. His son and brother communicate with him daily
from Cairo. Yes, there is a curfew in the cities, there is violence, and
unfortunately, Mohammed el Baradei, a member of the interim government and one
of the architects of Egypt’s Arab Spring, resigned this week.
We blame this new
revolutionary action, these demonstrators who demanded the step-down of Morsi.
Did they have the right to do this? Why did they take this action?
What we don’t hear is that the Muslim Brotherhood, with its
wealth, pays for the demonstrators to make trouble, pays for them to demand the
return of Morsi, and also one very little-known item, they have paid for
members of Hezbollah to infiltrate into the Sinai where they are holding the
interim government and military under el Sisi to ransom. Their demand: “Reinstate Mr. Morsi and we will stop fighting
here.”
The media ought to be ashamed that it does not deliver the
other side of the story; it seems they more than relish the idea of
broadcasting violence and bloodshed without giving voice to the facts. Yes, we
need to be cautious, but informed caution is the requirement for any situation,
especially informed regarding this sensitive part of the world, informed
because misjudgment leads to further prejudice and ultimately, violence. We
need to be given an insight into the real Egypt, the real situation as it
stands, not repeated pictures of women in full burkas crying over lost family
members, men pushing and shoving their way into a makeshift morgue. Who are
these people? Are they Morsi supporters or are they those revolutionaries who
want a secular Egypt, not an Islamic State?
Egypt is in turmoil yesterday, today, and in all likelihood
tomorrow until the results of the 30 June 2013 revolution are settled. Briefly, the problem stands that the Muslim
Brotherhood and its supporters refuse to accept the removal of their president,
Mohammed Morsi. Morsi and his party began implementing steps to create Egypt as
an Islamic State. Last November and December, for example, Morsi issued unilateral changes to
the new constitution limiting the rights of women in addition to re-legalizing
the infamous practice of FGM (female genital mutilation).
The crux of the problem now is the continuation of
violence. What we hear on the news,
however, does not reflect the reality. We are told that the security forces are
indiscriminately killing civilians; law and order cease to be part of the scene
in Cairo and other parts of the country. The world deserves all sides of the
story, not merely the side which sells the most news.Both sides deserve a voice. Below are four links to articles
which give some insight into the other.
Gwenn
Meredith
President
Middle East Connections Consultancy
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