Double standards and an imbecile media

Oflife

Indeed, but further, there are uprisings and injustices in other ME nations as I type this (including Iran) and these are getting nothing like as much coverage as a single (accidental or justified) shooting of a Palestinian by the IDF, which shows that the Western Liberal media really is trumpeting the downfall of the very democratic system that makes their existence legal and possible in the first place.

#contradiction #hypocrisy #bias

Jaffer Clarke MMP

>Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist fanatics<

Melanie Phillips is wrong here. The Brotherhood is a moderate group who did not
figure largely in the Egyptian revolution.

Jaffer

Augustus

Egypt is in dire straits. The average income of an Egyptian is not much more than £1 a week.
You can't buy much bread for that, and bread is a staple in Egypt. It is also a political indicator: When the bread price rises, so does public anger. Contrary to what Western journalists have been championing, the land on the Nile isn't a land of highly qualified people able to quickly
turn a revolution into a modern
developed country; 35% of male Egyptians, and 45% of the women
cannot read or write. Nine out of every ten Egyptian women have been genitally mutilated.
The whole country is deeply immersed in a culture which has
a lot of trouble with human rights, womens' rights, legal rights, and democracy. The Egyptian stock exchange has crashed, the Egyptian Pound is now not worth much more than 10p, foreign factories have closed, and tourism, worth £7.5bn p/a, has come to an abrupt halt. Egypt currently has a debt of about 15 billion sterling, mostly with French and British banks which it will find impossible to pay back. A failed state - and we know what happens to those!

steve

Please explain, Melanie, why Ferguson is more credible on Egypt than conservative Charles Krauthammer who called for the Egyptian military to take charge of the transitional period before elections, which is exactly what has occurred?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020305173.html

Joshua

The thoughts of "Jaffer Clarke MMP":

1) "George Galloway is one of the most sincere, hard-working MPs in parliament and these are trite and vague allegations trumped up against a decent and passionate man."

2) "To say that one religion is different from another with regard to violence is also patently false...The fact is that all Abrahamic traditions have an equally balanced and unbalanced attitude to violence. To preach that “turning the other cheek” is the sole province of Judaism and Christianity is misguided. The Qur’an offers many examples of forgiveness."

3) Jaffer Clarke, the joint deputy leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, said that Islamophobia had been exacerbated by the police referring to the "overall majority" of Muslims being law abiding.

4) "By demonising the burqa – a legitimate, if somewhat overstated, cultural artifact, they show to the world a lack of tolerance, a gap in humanity, and also a dreadful void in their empathetic qualities...Yet, British women sported a veil on a modern hat up to 1950. I am sure they would have gained entry to his meeting rooms, had they so wished."

AY

In modern society, individual freedom is a condition for realizing best human potentials, creativity, sincerity and altruism.

In archaic societies, freedom is the dream of a criminal - to loot, rape and enslave with impunity.

Israeli PM just said it's time to be prepared for the worst.
Wise, wise words.

VEBott

Let's be honest, what we wanted from Obama was that he keep a military regime in power, a regime that would repress and if necessary execute the Muslim Brothers. That required an army that hadn't mutinied, as it probably would have done had the officers ordered it to shoot on the crowds.

So, since the chaos couldn't continue indefinitely, Mubarak had to go.

Never mind what Obama said in public; what would you have wanted him to say in private to Suleiman and Co, and how do you know he didn't, Melanie?

Forest Fan

'The Brotherhood is a moderate group' http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2007/10/11/egypts_brotherhood_party_details_platform_akin_to_that_of_iran/

Hmmm.....

Adam B.

The international media is also studiously ignoring the anti-Semitism which has come to the fore in these demonstrations. It was employed by both the demonstrators in Egypt and Mubarek - both accusing each other of being driven by the Jews. Furthermore, there was a baying mob shouting anti-Semitic slogans outside the synagogue in Tunis yesterday, and there has been an upsurge in racist attacks.

Yet the real brave souls daring to portest in Tehran scarcely get a mention.

arnoldo87

Melanie,

I am disappointed by your piece. Surely the best way that a permanent peace with Egypt can be gained is by the establishment of a more democratic secular Egypt. Your cynicism may be well founded and the whole enterprise may collapse into another dictatorship or worse.

But most of us are prepared to give the Egyptian army a chance and take them at their word.

What's the alternative? What would you wish for?

An American

Augustus,
You are right, as usual.
The reason most of our leftist media can't see the writing on the wall is because, for them, this is ALL about Obama. They hope and pray that events will turn out good in Egypt for Obama's sake. After all, Obama is now in the running for president for 2012. It would just be horrible for Obama if Egypt tanks.
Did you see the interviews in the Cairo streets by a US reporter? All of the questions were about how Obama's encouragment had helped this freedom protest...the answers didn't please the said reporter. The Egyptians could care less about Obama and one blamed him for continuing to support Mubarak...but the reporter persisted and ended his interviews about how Obama had helped free the Egyptian people.

Need I say more?

maggie menzies

.

The other offensive part of this story is the behaviour of CBS and other US media.
Can you imagine if a reporter was dragged out of a Tea Party rally and attacked in the same way? Do you think that the US media would have waited 4 days before mentioning it? Would CBS have issued the terse, barebones statement which they have? Do you think that they would afforded the same privacy to any other victim if she had not been a journalist?

Pablo Schwartz

Yes, the military *still* holds the power in Egypt .. not unlike the situation in both Turkey and Pakistan. These are all - for better or worse - celebrated Western "allies" .. tho' I guess the most inexplicable ally of all is Saudi Arabia, the single greatest exporter of terror in the region.

Shaun Harbord

Double standards? If democracy is worth agitating for in Iran (and it is) then surely no true believer in democracy can pick-and-choose as to where and who we should support?

Edward in the USA

Jaffer stated that the muslim brotherhood is a moderate organization.

Since when is demanding death for apostates from Islam a position of a moderate organization?

Nick

Pablo writes - "tho' I guess the most inexplicable ally of all is Saudi Arabia, the single greatest exporter of terror in the region"

Not really that inexplicable, is it? The US and UK governments sell billions of dollars worth of arms to the Saudis. And the Saudis have oil. It's just good business, right?

Grumpy true Zionist

for another interesting take on the media vs the arab world, take a look at what Daniel Greenfield says on his blog - Sultan Knish

Nester

The problem is that we in the West have this penchant for seeing everything in our own eyes and do not appreciate that for an Egyptian democracy does not mean what it does in London or Paris or Washington. So the folk in Egypt rise up against a dictator and hey presto there's a Western style democracy in place. Dream on! The only reason why there is only one democracy in the Middle East based on Western ideals of democracy and probaly only ever will be is that Israel made the conscious decision on its founding that its principal guiding light would be democratic government as understood in the West. This will not happen in Arab countries because they have as much right to preserve their culture even if it does not "sit right" with us. Granting freedoms which we take for granted but which are an anethema to that culture will just not happen.

Andy Gill

What happened to Lara Logan is the result of years of state-sponsored anti-semitism and hate preaching in Egypt.

The mainstream western media, usually so eager to document the failings of the Israeli government, has never challenged the vicious racial incitement endemic in Egypt and other Islamic states.

It is high time western nations and the UN declared that aid to Islamic countries will be conditional on ending their traditions of institutional racism.

Sergio Nemirovsky

to arnoldo87, take a look at what the US-endorsed military governments did to almost every american (Latin-american you would say) country in the 70s. Armies make war, they are nor institutions for ruling a country. Please do not endorse military juntas anymore!
I am lucky I was just a child as thousands of people disappeared in Argentina, only to appear floating in the coasts of Uruguay or in mass graves.

Lizzy

Well said Andy Gill: and women's rights, too.

aelle

" Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows "

And none stranger than Niall Ferguson, characterised by the distinguished US economist and Nobel prizewinner Paul Krugman as a "poseur" and shallow attention-seeking commentator on economic and political issues.
Nor does one need to look far to discover the source of his anti-Islamic views. Ferguson left his wife and three children for the strident feminist critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, herself an apostate from Islam and a former colleague of the extremist Geert Wilders.

But as has been observed " My enemies' friend is my friend ".

aelle

Oops!
That should, of course, read :
"My enemy's enemy is my friend"

TDH

"...pro-American dictatorships have more moral scruples..."

This is said with a straight face and a highly educated ignorance of history.

Is it being endorsed here?

arnoldo87

Sergio Nemirovsky,

I am not endorsing military juntas at all. I am recognising the reality of the situation and hoping that the army will keep its word.

I ask you the same question I asked Melanie:-

Given that we have to start from here, what do you think should happen now to minimise bloodshed and to finish with a democratic Egypt?

John Thomas

"...enthusiasts for human rights – even though Egypt is one of the most hysterically Judeophobic countries on the planet" (MP) - for many white, middle-class, educated, comfortable, "liberal" Westerners (you know the sort) there is no conflict between being enthusiastic for human rights and hating Israel.
Arnoldo87: define exactly what you mean by "peace", please (as in "permanent peace").

John Thomas

"...shallow attention-seeking commentator on economic and political issues" (aelle) - I'd have thought all commentators on economic and political issues would have to be attention seeking. "Nobel prize winner" (ditto) - the Nobel prize may have conferred standing and credibility once, but since Obama got it for "peace", it is discredited, and its holders can only gain credibility by what they have otherwise done.

Finton Stack

Melanie Phillips 17 February 2011 - "Egypt is now under a military dictatorship once again with precious little prospect of true democratic reform or human rights."

Melanie Phillips 1 February 2011 "It is still possible that the military will stabilise the situation in Egypt and defuse the revolt, keeping the Muslim Brotherhood out of office."

Well, you got want you wanted. Happy now? No, of course now.

Derek BLADES

Oflife refers to an "(accidental or justified) shooting of a Palestinian by the IDF".

What would be a justified shooting?

arnoldo87

John Thomas,

What do I mean by "peace". The same as everybody else.

You (rightly) complain about liberal Westerners who hate Israel yet talk about human rights. So how do you feel about the Egyptian people? Are you any more respectful and tolerant than the "Judeophobes" are towards Israel?

I ask you the same question I asked Melanie and Sergio Nemirovsky. - "What do you HOPE happens now in Egypt?"

And to all three of you I ask - where is the positivity? How can the enthusiasm of the Egyptian people for democracy best be used to help everyone in the Middle East?

Gordon Square

Post Iraq the USA has lost whatever credibilty it had with the majority of the Arab world, this would have been the same under obama as under mcCain/palin.

It is ironic that the neoconservative vision of US global hegonomy, heralded by 'shock and awe' has gone completely pear shaped with the US in global and domestic decline whilst China quitely surges ahead.

Augustus

aelle - Geert Wilders is not an 'extremist', he is a mainstream Dutch centrist liberal politician who has become famous for his campaign
to stop the increasing Islamization of Holland. He doesn't believe that young Muslims should be allowed to run riot in the streets of many towns in Holland and attack indigenees because they don't like their sexual or religious beliefs. He is only derided by
the BBC and others because any public figure who sides with Israel and speaks out against a
culture preaching hatred and domination, especially if they are popular, doesn't sit well with such people. It is they who seek to capture the flag of
freedom with their cultural dominance, not Wilders.

TDH

And Bahrain fits into this Manichaean world how - as friend of the US or evil Islamist regime?

blue_&_white_avenger

Andy: "It is high time western nations and the UN declared that aid to Islamic countries will be conditional on ending their traditions of institutional racism."
You're not serious about the UN are you? The Human Rights council seats in the UN are dominated by the Islamic block of 57 nations.
Israel has been the focus & subject of most resolutions by this lot who pontificate about Human Rights yet are the world's worst abusers. Their hypocrisy is absolutely staggering (which I suppose is on a par for the UN in general)

blue_&_white_avenger

Blades, regarding justified shooting, the usual events are armed geezers planting bombs against the border fence or along the patrol route. Bit like the IEDs targeting the Brits in Kandahar.
The British soldiers might find it safer to shoot a bit more rather than the weekly toll back to the UK in body-bags.
It's called war.

HuddsOn

I have had my doubts about Barack Obama in the past, but during the uprising I believe he has been a force for good. Not because of anything has said or done, but because of what he has NOT done. Had there been a Republican or hawkish Democrat in the White House, there's a real danger he or she would have tried to meddle in the crisis in some ill-conceived way - sending in Special Forces, threatening to cut off military aid if Mubarak resigned or the wrong kind of candidate replaced him, or just giving the ruling elite the green light to mow down the protestors Tianamen-style. All of which would have served to further inflame whatever anti-Western opinion already exists in Egypt. The worst-case scenario - a takeover by Islamists or other malevolent anti-Western forces - could have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By contrast, Obama's decision to sit on the sidelines and make vaguely encouraging noises seems eminently sensible. There's a time for intervention and a time for non-intervention.

If you fel the need to detox after overdosing on right-wing pessimism, I recommend Olivier Roy's current article ("The is not an Islamic revolution") in New Statesman. It contains some unevidenced assertions (just like MPhil's piece above) but it is certainly an intriguing read.

http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2011/02/egypt-arab-tunisia-islamic

Tilly

Augustus

The Anti-Defamation League - whose main agenda is fighting anti-Semitism - has been among Geert Wilders' fiercest critics.

Following a speech in which he claimed "Islam is not a religion" and described the Koran as a book of hatred, the ADL issued this statement:

"The ADL strongly condemns Geert Wilders' message of hate against Islam as inflammatory, divisive and antithetical to American democratic ideals.

"The rhetoric is dangerous, incendiary and wrongly focuses on Islam as a religion, as opposed to the very real threat of extremist radical Islamists."

Augustus

Tilly - And there I was thinking
it was the radical Muslims who used the Koran to preach hatred
and thereby to condone it. Are we talking about the same Koran,
the same book that both moderates and extremists use?
Instead of defending Wilders'
right to defend true liberal values, everyone appears to want
to silence him, and label him a
racist and an Islamophobe. And Tilly, even some Americans are
capable of sticking their heads in the sand.

Maddy1

Would advise any interested reader to check out Theroux's droll account of an evening with Egyptian intellectuals in his book "Dark Star safari".

Sergey

The reality is that the whole Arab world is now on the brink of a total civilization collapse. Islam and democracy are not compatible. Islamic statetes can not modernize and can not feed anymore their explosively growing populations without modernization. So whatever will happen further in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia ans so on, the endgame will be a Multhusian one: war, famine, epidemic and societal breakdown. Only after half of the population will die out, some stabilization will be possible.

Islam is quite compatible with democracy: democracy is nothing more than mob rule.

See this article - 'Islam Plus Democracy Equals Islam' by Edward Cline - to understand why:

http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/war-peace/islamic-jihad/6266-islam-plus-democracy-equals-islam.html

Derek BLADES

HuddsOn Thank you for your sensible defence of Obama's actions during the Egyption crisis.

He has also shown much good sense in dealing with Iran. American support for the protest movement there would be the kiss of death.

O-Dog

Mel, you are v critical in recent posts of Obama for 'throwing an ally under the Islamist bus'.

What do you think Obama should've done to prop up the Egyptian dictator you are so fond of?

el's southern border.

"Egypt is now under a military dictatorship once again with precious little prospect of true democratic reform or human rights."

Unduly pessimistic surely. The American puppet regime has been turfed out and the army is now preparing for elections in a few months' time. Today there was a massive demonstration just one week after the departure of Mubarak to warn the military against back-sliding. Looking at the situation disapssionately one has to conclude that everything is so far on track.

The truth is, of course, that the die-hards on this blog site don't give a damn about "true democratic reform or human rights" in Egypt. Their only concern is to keep a friendly regime on Israel's southern border.

alleagra

Jaffer Clarke MMP says the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate group.It's deniable that one of their stated aims is to create a state ruled by Islamic law, or Sharia. Negotiable, I suppose. Somehow I doubt it.

Lee Ryken

Join Tourism Boycott of Egypt until Lara Logan's attackers are convicted and imprisoned.

gareth

thanks Mel - I have been watching the news a bit - but learned nothing about Egypt etc...except that the media is not fit for purpose anymore. BBC and CNN in particular.

Okey

Much of the reporting about recent events in Egypt demonstrates much of what is wrong with Western journalism. Incessantly we're told by stern-faced, learned-looking reporters that "30 years of despotism / dictatorship have come to an end in Egypt, and a democratic Egypt is emerging."
In actual fact Egypt has never in its long history been ruled by a regime that gave its people the freedoms that Westerners have achieved. Before Mubarak there was Sadat. Before him Nasser. Before him, Naguib, who overthrew the monarchy which had been a British puppet. Before that, the Ottoman emperor...and so on.
At the moment, Egypt is ruled by a military regime.
While it is to be hoped that eventually democracy will triumph, Western reporters should be reporting facts, not fables or wishful thinking.

But then, I know that that is just my wishful thinking.

Okey

The poster, "el's southern border's", sole concern seems to be that Israel should be confronted by a hostile southern border with Egypt.

el seems unaware of the belligerence of previous Egyptian regimes, who 5 times between 1948-1973, precipitated wars of aggression against Israel. Wasn't el alive when the late President Nasser declared that he would achieve Israel's demise imminently?
Don't the people of Israel have a legitimate concern about the continued adherence of Egypt to the "peace" treaty on which President Sadat placed his signature in 1979?
Don't Israelis have cause for concern, given that despite the piece of paper, Mubarak's regime (supposedly "moderate"), continued to pour hatred and bile and viciousness into his country's bloodstream, and most of the intelligentsia did likewise?
el, enter the real world.

An American

Nester,
So you don't believe the internet has had any influence on the young people of the Middle East. Where do you think the idea of protesting everything their dictators stand for...came from?

It's true, that should a new government raise itself out of this chaos...it will not be what we in the west consider to be a true democracy. But a little democracy is better than none...and maybe as time goes by, more and more freedoms will be demanded and given.

That's the rosy secenario...I believe it will actually be worse for the Egyptians when the Islamic Brotherhood takes over...it will be a theocracy with absolutely no freedoms...especially for their poor women.

wonderer

I agree with everything you say, Melanie, except the use of the word "an" in the heading, but perhaps that was the fault of a careless sub.