The Time of the Brothers?

Not every one is so sanguine about the future of post-revolutionary Egypt or so sure that the Muslim Brotherhood will not play a major role in it. Below is the cover of the current issue of Jeune Afrique [Young Africa], a French magazine dedicated to African politics. The headline reads: “Egypt: The Time of the Brothers.”

In general, reporting on the Egyptian events in the French media has been as mind-numbingly uniform as in the American media. But Jeune Afrique has long marched to the beat of a different drummer. It is, for instance, one of the only major French print media – perhaps indeed it is the only one – to have published an extensive and critical examination of the Mohammed Al-Dura affair, and it did so already in 2005.

This latter fact should, by the way, give cause to pause to those commentators – including some on Pajamas Media – who like to affirm that all Arabs are inveterate Jew-haters and that is just the way it is. Although Jeune Afrique has its headquarters in Paris, it was in fact founded in Tunisia by the journalist and businessman Béchir Ben Yahmed. Ben Yahmed remained the editor-in-chief of the publication until 2007, and he remains the publisher to this day. In short, prejudice is never a good substitute for knowledge.