Gatestone Institute
Has anyone stopped to ask where the
headlines "Muslim Brotherhood Wins Egypt's Presidential Election!"
originate? They come, of course, straight from the Muslim Brotherhood
and its allies—particularly the Qatar-based Islamist propaganda machine,
Al Jazeera—and were then unquestioningly picked up and spread like
wildfire by the Western mainstream media and talking-heads.
Left unquoted by the Western media are the
many Egyptian analysts that have a different tale to tell—that the
secular candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, has won.
But what does the Muslim Brotherhood have
to benefit by claiming victory now, if official results might prove
otherwise on June 21, a mere three days from now? Simple: they will be
able to scream foul play—and gain the world's sympathy. For days the
world will have been inundated with news that the Brotherhood won, so
that, when and if it hears that Shafiq won, it will naturally conclude
electoral fraud—which best serves the Islamists' interests.
Mahmoud Baraka,
a Shafiq campaign spokesman, maintains that "their candidate [Shafiq]
won the presidency, with 52% of the votes"—precisely the same number the
Brotherhood is claiming—adding that the Brotherhood's claims to victory
"are bizarre and unacceptable," a "big act."
Likewise, talk show host Tawfik Okasha
appeared emphatically saying that the Brotherhood's claims are "all
lies," that most polls indicate that Brotherhood candidate Muhammad
Morsi "failed," and that the Islamist group's motive is simply to sow
"discord and dissension." He proceeded to give several examples of how
the Brotherhood's claims are incongruous with reality.
But why believe Shafiq's spokesman and
staunch secularist Okasha? Good question. Here's a better one: Why
believe the Muslim Brotherhood? Why follow the lead of an organization
that has mastered dissimulation, an organization that promised Egypt it
would not run a presidential candidate, only to renege once opportune?
Knowing the Brotherhood's deceptive tactics—"War is deceit"
declared their prophet—there is good reason to think that they may have
planned a propaganda victory well before the elections. They could
claim victory, won fair and square; they could have their Islamist and
Western media supporters trumpet it; they could embed it in everyone's
mind over the course of three days before the results are formally
announced—all to set the playing field to their advantage.
Then, if Shafiq wins, everyone—from
militant Islamists in Egypt to a grandstanding U.S. Secretary of
State—will shout, "foul play!" thereby exonerating the long promised
civil war Egypt's Islamists vowed to wage if the election did not go
their way—a rebellion that would then be portrayed in the West as a
result of "grievance."
The truth is, as of this moment, no one
knows which candidate won. What is known is that it's a close race.
Perhaps Morsi will win; perhaps Shafiq. Short time will tell.
In the meantime, although the media need to
"break the news" and not be left behind, prudence is in order. It is
counterproductive for the West to eat straight out of the Brotherhood's
hands—to unreservedly follow their tune and propagate their
unsubstantiated information—which is precisely what the Islamists want:
it works only to their advantage.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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