DOROTHY: If you were really great and powerful, you’d keep your promises!
OZ’S VOICE: Do you presume to criticize the….
Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the Wizard at the controls of the throne apparatus
OZ’S VOICE: …Great Oz? You ungrateful creatures!
Tin Man, Lion, Dorothy and Scarecrow react as they look at the Wizard
DOROTHY: Who are you?
The Wizard peers out from curtain, then ducks back out of sight and his voice booms out again: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. Go before I lose my temper! –”The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
By Barry Rubin
It is amazing how mass media coverage of the Middle East switches gears and implicitly admits to having been wrong while continuing with the same themes. Or sometimes, buried deep inside an article, there’s a flash of truth that conflicts with everything else that’s been said, even by the same reporter. But then the light goes out; the stygian dark returns; and it was as if that flash had never taken place.
In working on a new edition of my book, Islamic Fundamentalists in Egyptian Politics, I have reviewed media coverage from January 2011 to the present. It is virtually impossible to find a single reference–and certainly not directly from a journalist–saying that the Muslim Brotherhood was a radical group.
Instead we were told daily that it was moderate, pragmatic, against violence, not really anti-American, and so on. We were told that it was full of moderates and factions, especially of young people.
The narrative is being falsely shaped in this way:
–The Brotherhood is protecting Egypt from the even more radical Salafists so the West should support them.
–The real battle is between the military and the civilians so the Brotherhood is–or, at least, if it chooses to be–the champion of democracy against the armed forces. Supposedly, then, the liberal Egyptians will be grateful to the Islamist group even as it crushes them.
Now, in a new article, New York Times correspondent Robert Worth tells the story of Mohamed Beltagy, a beloved and heroic (according to Worth) Muslim Brotherhood figure who opposes repression by the military. Worth doesn’t tell us that the Brotherhood supports the repression because it helps it to get rid of moderate–though politically inept–rivals. It is, however, clear that people like Beltagy have no real influence in the Brotherhood. In other words, if there are moderates they are marginal in a party that has almost half the seats in parliament.
But then–suddenly!–there’s this amazing admission stuck way down in the story and not highlighted in any way:
“By July [2011], many of Beltagy’s young and more vocal friends had been ejected from the [Brotherhood] movement. Their sin was the establishment of the Egyptian Current, a youth party that blended young Islamists and a range of leftists. To Brotherhood youth, this was one more sign of the movement’s rigidity and narrowness.“
In other words, most of the real or so-called moderates in the Brotherhood have long since been kicked out. All that talk about young people changing the Brotherhood and splits within the movement amounted to absolutely nothing. And do you remember hearing anything about the Egyptian Current party? Did it win any seats in the election? Of course not. Even the “Facebook kid” party won less than 2 percent, after months of our being told they were going to run the country.
These people weren’t numerous or important; they were just guys with whom Western reporters liked to hang out. We were being told nonsense or–when the reporters knew it was nonsense–nothing at all.
Here’s proof in Worth’s conclusion: “The fact remains that only the Islamists have the power to face down Egypt’s military and deliver a more democratic government. And if they fail to do so, they may face a rebellion within their own ranks.”
First, the Brotherhood is now going to be in power. The military is ready to make a deal and turn over power to them.
Second, a “more democratic government” means that the parliamentary majority of Brotherhood people and Salafists, will rule as they please. And what possible reason is there to believe that a tiny number of powerless dissidents, most of whom have been expelled, will launch a rebellion against a group that has just proven itself the most successful organization in the entire Middle East?
If you have any doubt check out this story which shows the Brotherhood blocking a march by moderates demanding the military turn over power faster. Think this one through: the moderates demonstrate demanding that the military turn over power to the Islamists faster but the Brotherhood opposes it since the group doesn’t mind waiting a few more weeks to gain power and also wants to get along with the army.
To Worth, the Brotherhood is led by a group of “anxious old men who are accustomed to autocracy and now find themselves in a frightening new era.” Yes, they are supposedly trembling at taking power when they are actually just being smart and cautious. No doubt Hamas, Hizballah, the Iranian and Syrian regimes, the Islamists in Tunisia and Libya, and the rulers of Turkey are also just plain scared since they allegedly know they have no business being in power? Wrong. They are on a mission from God. And aside from that, they want power, wealth, and the implementation of their radical program to the greatest degree possible.
Treasure the moments when the mass media narrative splits open and shows what lies behind it. They are rare indeed.
Note: Memory Hole in the title is a reference to George Orwell’s 1984 where the truth is destroyed so that the lowly citizens are kept ignorant.
I guess it is hard to mingle with the average Egyptian and stay secluded in a five star hotel at the same time. Perhaps Robert Worth should get out and see the real Egypt, visiting a soccer match may be a good place to start.
“And what possible reason is there to believe that a tiny number of powerless dissidents, most of whom have been expelled, will launch a rebellion against a group that has just proven itself the most successful organization in the entire Middle East?”
I find this quote hard to credit. What reason? Why, the very revolt that brought down Mubarak in the first place. The only way the army could put down a second such a revolt would be to do what the Mubarak machine and army refused to do in the first place, use massive live fire on the Egyptian people. The MB has legitimacy now and will lose it if they fight in the streets; there is no reason for them to do so and they don’t have the numbers anyway. How big do you think an organization is that vets it’s members for 5-8 years before allowing them to join, a relic of the old secret police days.
The MB has no security forces and to ally in themselves in principle with the army (which is all they can do) and against protesters who are shot would put the MB in the same philosophical space as Mubarak and the NDP; a dangerous move.
Remember that the people were firmly on the side of the army a year ago. This has eroded considerably and outright calls for them to stand aside are louder than ever. The MB is in the danger of having the same thing happen to them if they don’t play their cards right.
The MB, as predicted by supposed “idiots” like Thomas Friedman, are in an unaccustomed political space and not a space in which they can use force. Now it is the MB that can be and will be called to account. If protesters are openly defying the army in the streets of Cairo defying the MB is nothing.
The fact of the matter is that the MB political organization has trumped the civil protesters but it should be remembered that those same people who predicted the MB would exploit the revolution the MB couldn’t bring off themselves show therefore that the MB is still in the same boat where a revolution continues on the street that really didn’t and doesn’t need them. How can the MB exploit that now that they are on the other side already and perhaps the wrong side when it comes to the army.
Those who claim the MB won’t resort to politics because they don’t have to fail to realize that the MB MUST resort to politics because they don’t have the numbers, nor do the salafis, to commit to the streets. No one knows how this will turn out but putting the MB in naked power already when we’re only into the first act is cynical and wishful thinking to buttress their view of the “Arab Spring” as endemic failure. Things fail or succeed of their own accord, not because one wants them to.
“I *do* believe in spooks, I *do* believe in spooks. I do, I do, I do, I *do* believe in spooks, I *do* believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do, I *do*!”
As I stated in your yesterday posting, I learned a long time ago that the news media has an agenda, and it’s not always the truth, but rather what they want to the truth to be. We’re not all sheep in America, many of us see this, just not enough to make a difference at this time.
I also learned a long time ago to try and figure out up front, what is their motivation for doing or saying what they do or say? I get hurt a lot less this way.
Good article, thanks!
“They are on a mission from God. And aside from that, they want power, wealth, and the implementation of their radical program to the greatest degree possible.”
That sentence really says it all. Once that fact is accepted everything else falls into place.
Islamic “fundamentalism” is caused by Islam; period.
Democracy for the sake of Democracy is totally meaningless. The fact that people are allowed to vote means only that they are allowed to vote. Nothing more. What they choose to vote for, or against, is infinitely more important and more consequential than the fact that can cast a vote.
In America in 2008, more than half the voters in America voted for a man who told us that he didn’t like his country, didn’t respect our constitution and wanted to “fundamentally change America”. This from a people with more than two centuries of experience with democracy. For all practical purposes America voted against Western values.
Considering that the vast majority of Egyptians have had approximately fourteen centuries of indoctrination with Islamic “values” and virtually no real exposure to Western thought, one has to wonder what would make ANY rational person actually believe that the right to vote would suddenly imbue Muslims with a respect for Western values, and cause them to magically produce a liberal democracy, or anything even remotely resembling a liberal democracy.
It could be the that many non-religious people, such as most journalists, believe that all religions are fairy tales and therefore pretty much the same. It then follows that Islamists are just “people, just like you and me”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Muslims daily brutality and endless acts of heartless atrocity, committed in the name of Allah and in emulation of Mohamed, should convince even the most casual observer that they are not just “people, just like you and me”.
Journalists who relentlessly apologize for Islam clearly have their self proclaimed superior minds made up and steadfastly refuse to be swayed by the facts.
“But then–suddenly!–there’s this amazing admission stuck way down in the story and not highlighted in any way”
That’s how admissions against interest get introduced these days. They are useful when the previous narrative (e.g. the Facebook Revolution) has become inoperative but the groundwork for the next narrative has yet to be laid. At no point will they admit error in any previous reporting. But that goes without saying.
Oceania has always been at war with EastAsia.
Note the Obama line on Islam: the murder of 14 people at Fort Hood by a Mohammedan, Maj. Nidal Hasan, shouting “Allahu Akbar” is now being described by the Obama administration and its Mohammedan sycophants as “workplace related violence” instead of “Muslim terrorism.” A close aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is Huma Abedin, whose family are members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Apparently, the State Department and other federal agencies are no longer allowed to refer to “muslim terrorism.” And didn’t Secretary of State Clinton support the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) UN Resolution against criticizing Islam?
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