Egypt: Undemocratic & Less than Free

Our media worked overtime to convince the world that a quest for democratic freedoms was what stirred the hearts of revolutionaries in Egypt. Obama and his State Department played a part in the drama by fanning the flames of the revolution, as if there was an actual chance that democracy could flourish in Islamic Egypt when democracy has failed so miserably in Islamic Iraq and Islamic Afghanistan.

Why did the Media attempt to sell such a cockamamie story and why was the Obama administration involved?

We know the nature of Islam to be undemocratic. Islam brands non-Muslims as inferior to Muslims, and one would have to be living under a rock not to know that women are treated as second class citizens in Islam. Moreover, being a Muslim male isn’t enough to guarantee freedom to a man, as we know from watching Shiites and Sunnis kill each other over the years. Finally, there is the unsavory aspect of Islam and slavery that still happens even today.

 If you have been paying attention to Iraq and Afghanistan, it should come as no surprise that Christian churches are being burned and the homes of Christians ransacked and pillaged in post-revolutionary Egypt. The Assyrian International News Agency has the following story on its website: 

Christian Copts in Egypt Protest Muslim Attacks

By Mary Abdelmassih

 

 

 (AINA) -- Thousands of Christians, joined by many Muslims, have been staging sit-in since March 5 in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting the attack on the church in the village of Soul and the inaction of the Egyptian armed forces in preventing the Muslims from torching and demolishing the church and terrorizing the Christian Copts and forcing them to evacuate the village.

The church, which has been completely demolished, has been used by Muslims to pray there to humiliate the Copts said the protesters.

 

The protesters were joined by 15 priests, including priests from the demolished St. Mina and St. George's church in Soul, Atfif in Hewan, 30 kilometers from Cairo, blocked the path to the main October and May 15 bridges. Some of the Coptic youth lay in the middle of the roads to prevent cars from passing, which brought traffic in this busy area of Cairo to a stand still for hours.

 

The demonstrators accused government officials of complicity and silence to the exposure of Copts to violence and looting and demanded the recovery of their church, which was razed and taken over Muslims while under the sight of the Egyptian army. They held banners and chanted "We want our rights" and "Demolish our churches or our homes, the Coptic voice will not abate."

 

Read the rest at: http://www.aina.org/news/20110307205517.htm

 Given the treatment of CBS reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square, it should also come as no surprise that Egyptian women can’t seem to fit in to the new post-revolutionary Egypt. The following  Associated Press story is about the treatment of Egyptian women in post-revolutionary Egypt:

Egyptian women's rights protest marred by hecklers

By Hadeel Al-Shalchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAIRO (AP) -- A protest by hundreds of Egyptian women demanding equal rights and an end to sexual harassment turned violent Tuesday when crowds of men heckled and shoved the demonstrators, telling them to go home where they belong.

 

The women - some in headscarves and flowing robes, others in jeans - had marched to Cairo's central Tahrir Square to celebrate International Women's Day. But crowds of men soon outnumbered them and chased them out.

 

"They said that our role was to stay home and raise presidents, not to run for president," said Farida Helmy, a 24-year old journalist.

 

Sexual harassment remains widespread in Egypt, where women often are afraid to report sexual assault or harassment for fear they and their families will be stigmatized. A 2008 survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights found that 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women in Cairo said they had been harassed - while 62 percent of men admitted to harassing.

 

Read the rest at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_WOMENS_PROTEST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-08-15-11-43

 So what’s up with the White House and with our media?  Why did they spin such a cockamamie story? 

Were our political leaders and our media involved in intentional duplicity or are they not as smart as we have been led to believe? This last query is a scary either-or question that leaves us with less than a desired response no matter what we pick as an answer. 

Moreover, if we fell for the freedom and democracy carrots, shouldn’t we be a tiny bit embarrassed that we can be led so easily by the nose? 

Islam is undemocratic and no amount of wishing and hoping or mindless political and journalistic spinning will ever change that fact.