Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Dawoud and El-Haddad again

Khaled Dawoud (in translation, via @Gerard_Steeghs)
Despite their belief that the Muslim Brotherhood had completely deviated from the revolution's goals, the stated aim of the parties and movements that rose up to defend the goals of the January 25 Revolution was never to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, imprison its entire leadership and ban them from political activity – and of course not to kill them and mow them down in the hundreds. The actors who are now moving in this direction belonged to a different current that is completely unrelated to the January 25 Revolution; they are the ones who have considered the revolution from the start to be a conspiracy to put an end to their power, influence and corruption [..] The current trend toward exclusion is backed by those who belong to intellectual currents that have always considered the Brotherhood's ideology to be an obscurantist project at odds with the principles of the Nahda and Egypt's progress toward joining the ranks of the European democracies. In my view, these people do not represent the majority in Egypt's secular parties of any orientation, whether liberal, leftist or nationalist, since to put it simply, Egypt isn't France.
Egypt.

Jihad al-Haddad [Gehad El-Haddad ‏ ...] came under fire from some Egyptian social media users who accused him of misleading the Western media about events on the ground in Egypt.
[..]
[Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed al-Beltagi] has taken a more hardline tone when addressing Muslim Brotherhood supporters and Arabic-language media. Privately-owned daily Al-Tahrir quotes Mr Beltagi as telling protestors in Rabaa al-Adawiyah on 3 July: "Say goodbye to your mother, father, and wife, because you will sacrifice your soul to defend Muhammad Morsi's legitimacy."
That's not necessarily an exhortation to violence: many did in fact "sacrifice their souls" in the face of "the killing machines of the army or the police".
Mr Beltagi urged supporters on 11 August to remain in Rabaa square, telling them "your brothers in Algeria gave the greatest example when they offered a million martyrs".
[..]
A video circulating online and on television in July shows Mr Beltagi saying: "[The MB] are not controlling the current violent upheaval in Sinai, however what is happening in Sinai is in response to that military coup, [the violence] will stop once [Army Chief] Abdul Fattah al-Sisi ends the coup."
There follow some inflammatory remarks from a preacher [who is] not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, [but] a staunch supporter and considered one of their strongest allies" and from "an Islamist with ties to Jihad groups and a Muslim Brotherhood supporter [who] was granted the stage at Rabaa al-Adawiyah on 21 June".

Mahmoud Salem (Sandmonkey, @sandmonkey on Twitter) writes:
 For Egyptians, it’s an amalgamation of the worst and cheapest form of propaganda from the ‘90s and the ‘50s. It’s a brilliant time capsule to those who didn’t live in that era and it is broadcast daily on the different Egyptian private TV channels, especially CBC and ONTV. While one wouldn’t expect better from the CBC, it is ONTV that is really fascinating to watch.
...
In the midst of all of this, I find myself missing Gehad Al-Haddad,
It's OK: he was absent from Twitter for a while, but he's back.

13/8 Les intellectuels égyptiens justifient le coup de force mené par l'armée L'intelligentsia soutient la répression des Frères musulmans au nom de la défense de la démocratie. Christophe Ayadd

Update (16:50) No sooner do I write this, there is a new tag on Twitter: . Gehad El-Haddad ‏ has been arrested.
Reuters  Haddad was detained with two other Brotherhood officials in an apartment in Cairo. He served as chief of staff to deputy Brotherhood leader Khairat El-Shater and is the son of Essam El-Haddad, an aide to deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. Haddad [..] is charged with inciting the killing of protesters.

Update (18:40) Egypt seems to have invented the crime of incitement to martyrdom: you urge people to stay in the square in the face of threats from security forces, then when they are removed violently, it's your fault. Either that, or the killing of some protesters counts, killing of others doesn't.

Update (18:50) BBC:  al-Ahram reported that he was suspected of inciting violence and murder. He studied at De Montfort University in the UK.

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