So
can you write “Arab Spring,” free elections, democracy in Egypt, and
such things 100 times? Might this be somewhat in contradiction to the
fact that:
Muslim
Brotherhood President al-Mursi has just named the editors of the top
Egyptian newspaper and other media outlets. They are state-owned, you
know, there are a
half-dozen good little independent newspapers.
But one of them, al-Destour (ironically meaning, The Constitution) has just had a full issue seized on
charges of “fueling sedition” and “harming the president through
phrases and wording punishable by law.” We know this through a report in
the Middle East News Agency, the state owned monopoly.
And
what was the inflammatory report? That the Brotherhood was going to
seize power and that liberals and the army should join together to stop
the country from being turned into an Islamist regime.
Seems
to me that if it weren’t true there wasn’t any need to confiscate the
issue, right? After all, everybody would have seen that it wouldn’t
happen and all would have shared a good laugh!
Other
columnists are charging that the Brotherhood is trying to turn their
newspapers into reliable house organs rather than let them be free.
Reminds
me of a personal experience I had in Cairo over thirty years ago. An
al-Ahram newspaper editor was well-known for being the highest-ranking
Christian in journalism. I went to see him and mentioned that I knew he
was a Christian. He launched into a long lecture about how wonderfully
Christians were treated in Egypt, there was no discrimination against
them, etc.
After
a while I mentioned that I heard he had been on the television the
previous evening but I had missed it. For no particular reason, I just
asked, “How long were you on, fifteen minutes?”
Without missing a beat, he shot back: “Fifteen minutes! You’d think they’d let a Copt be on for
fifteen minutes! I was on for three minutes.”
Reported by me word by word as it happened.
Professor Barry Rubin, Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org
The Rubin Report blog http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
He is a featured columnist at PJM http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/.
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.gloria-center.org
Editor Turkish Studies,http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t713636933%22
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