Egypt Turmoil: Muslim Brotherhood Violence or Government Crackdown?

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post

As violent clashes continue across Egypt, more and more evidence arises demonstrating that, much like the early Libyan and Syrian situations, Egypt is facing a foreign-backed destabilization campaign aimed at disrupting the fragile rule of a government fresh on the heels of a counter-coup and attempting to transition from military rule to civilian government.

Indeed, it appears the Egyptian military’s refusal to capitulate to the IMF, [1] slash the living standards of the Egyptian people,[2] and engage in foreign military adventures is not a welcome development amongst the company of the Anglo-Americans.

As a result of these recent events, and only a day after the violence in Egypt began, Barack Obama announced that joint military maneuvers scheduled with the Egyptian military were being suspended.

As reported by CNN,

Obama on Thursday announced he had canceled joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises, which had been scheduled for September.

“Our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back,” the president said.

He called on the Egyptian government to lift a state of emergency decree put in place to limit public gatherings. Addressing the government’s opponents, Obama added, “We call on those who are protesting to do so peacefully and condemn the attacks that we’ve seen by protesters, including on churches.”[3]

Yet, for all the calls for peace and the propaganda claiming that the pro-Morsi protesters are themselves peaceful democracy-loving freedom fighters, very little is said in regards to their obvious violent attacks on security forces, political opponents, and Egyptian Christians.

In short, one must ask “If the protesters were peaceful, why does Obama need to call on them to stop burning churches? If the protesters were merely responding to the brutality of the Egyptian security forces, why would they be burning churches to begin with?”

In his recent comments, of course, Obama has seized on the opportunity to once again appear as a defender of oppressed peoples, and issue veiled threats to cut off military aid to Egypt as a result of the supposedly unwarranted violence of the security forces. Again, CNN states,

Obama, who has resisted calls to cut off military aid to Egypt and label Morsy’s ouster a coup, on Thursday stressed the United States would not support one political faction over another.

“We appreciate the complexity of the situation,” the president said. “While Mohamed Morsy was elected president in a democratic election, his government was not inclusive and did not respect the views of all Egyptians. We know that many Egyptians, millions of Egyptians, perhaps even a majority of Egyptians, were calling for a change in course.”

But he said he may take unspecified “further steps” because of the government’s crackdown.[4]

In addition, Turkey, a nation that has proven itself invaluable to the Anglo-Americans in the destabilization of Syria, has recalled its ambassador to Egypt.[5]

The UN High Commissioner For Human Rights, Navi Pillay has also suggested that the UN should investigate the violence. “The number of people killed or injured, even according to the government’s figures, point to an excessive, even extreme, use of force against demonstrators,” she stated.[6]

Yet, while Western media outlets are apt to promote the violence committed by the security forces and, at the same time, downplay the violence by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, these highly controlled and compromised outlets cannot fully avoid the obvious violent tendencies of the Brotherhood supporters. Indeed, even the CNN article referenced above was forced to admit, albeit briefly in the middle of the article, that some of the protesters have themselves been armed.[7]

CNN was also forced to admit that, since Wednesday, at least 52 police officers had been killed, a puzzling occurrence if the protesters were merely hippies and techies camping in city squares as they have portrayed. Indeed, the death of 52 police officers is a rather significant amount of damage inflicted by unarmed civilians.[8]

CNN reports,

The most senior Muslim Brotherhood leader still at large, Essam Elerian, said Thursday the protests will continue until Morsy is returned to office.

“They can arrest me and 100 of us, but they can’t arrest every honorable citizen in Egypt,” Elerian told CNN. “They can’t stop this glorious revolution.”[9]

Unfortunately for Elerian, they won’t have to. The overwhelming majority of Egyptians do not support Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, it was mass public opinion and pressure that helped bring the military to its conclusion to depose Morsi to begin with.

It is important to remember that the initial protests, the ones which the Western media has attempted to portray as military heavy-handedness, was indeed a firefight between TWO armed groups and not merely a one-sided battle.

Indeed, as I posited in my article, “Are The Egypt Protests A Foreign Backed Propaganda Campaign?,”[10] it was revealed Thursday that the Muslim Brotherhood protesters were themselves armed, thus explaining the use of force by the military and the subsequent death of 43 Egyptian police,[11] a number now revised to 52.

Although a statistic that was not repeated by the Western media, the death of 52 police officers is a remarkable figure if the protesters had been merely peaceful, nonviolent, and unarmed occupiers of the square.

Furthermore, as Tom Perry and Alexander Dziadosz write for Reuters,

Shocking scenes, including television footage of unarmed protesters dropping to the ground as security forces opened fire, have been seen around the world, but many Egyptians support the crackdown and resent international criticism of the army.

“What happened was the only logical way to end their sit-ins, which did have weapons and … violent people,” said Ismail Khaled, 31-year-old manager in a private company. “Thank God the police ended them. I wish they had done so sooner.”

The authorities and their allies, which control nearly all media inside Egypt, insist those inside the pro-Mursi camps were heavily armed, although international journalists have seen only limited evidence of weapons beyond sticks and rocks.[12]

Although Perry and Dziadosz state that international reporters have seen “limited” evidence of heavy weaponry, the wording of the statement shows that there has been evidence nonetheless, despite the heavily controlled Western media whose line is obviously that the Egyptian military is responsible for all violence that takes place in Egypt.[13]

Regardless of Western journalists’ failure to see the violence wrought by the Muslim Brotherhood, however, numerous instances of armed attacks and savage brutality and intimidation have been documented. It is important to remember that the Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Egypt have themselves been caught in numerous violent acts, such as firing weapons at Egyptian police[14] after the ouster of Morsi and even throwing political opponents off of rooftops.[15]

Indeed, this video, posted to LiveLeak, apparently shows Muslim Brotherhood fanatics wearing ski masks and firing at Egyptian security forces.[16]

It is also important to remember the clearly unwarranted violence and religious-based fanaticism that has spawned attacks by Morsi/Muslim Brotherhood supporters against Christian churches.

In an article entitled, “Egyptian Islamists Target Christian Churches In Waves of Apparently Coordinated Attacks,” Patrick Goodenough of CNS News writes,

Some supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist president directed their wrath at the country’s Christian minority Wednesday, in what activists described as “the worst coordinated attacks on Egypt’s Coptic community in modern history.”

Largely eclipsed by the military’s crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo and resulting loss of life, more than 20 churches in a number of provinces were reported to have been targeted for arson and other attacks.

Through the day news reports and social media posts drew attention to individual incidents and it soon became apparent that a concerted campaign of coordinated attacks was underway. Most of the targeted churches were Coptic Orthodox, but Catholic churches were also attacked as well as at least one Protestant church.

One of the groups monitoring the situation through contacts on the ground, the Australian Coptic Movement Association (ACM), released a list of 16 churches and related sites attacked, and said the true figure could reach 40.

Those it listed included six churches and the house of a parish priest in Minya province, south-west of Cairo, among them a Church of the Virgin Mary which the ACM reported had been “totally demolished.”

Three churches were torched in Sohag province further to the south, a church, convent and school were set alight in the eastern province of Suez, as were a church and Bible Society premises in Fayoum province, west of the capital. It also reported assaults at a church in Alexandria.[17]

In another instance, Egypt’s Mideast Christian News Service reported that eyewitnesses saw Muslim Brotherhood supporters hijack a fire truck to prevent it from responding to the burning church.[18]

The CNS report continued,

“These attacks on the Copts is unprecedented in the modern era,” Bishop Anba Suriel of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Melbourne, Australia, wrote on his Twitter account. “Will the world continue to standby passively amidst this injustice?”

An hour later, citing reports of more than 20 separate attacks, he tweeted again, “Where is the army?”

Ramez Atallah, general director of the Bible Society of Egypt, said two “very beautiful, fully equipped” Bible Society bookshops, in Minya and Assiut, were among the buildings that were torched and destroyed.

“Fortunately we were closed today, fearing such an attack, so none of our staff were injured. The attackers demolished the metal doors protecting the bookshops, broke the store windows behind them and set the bookshops on fire,” he said.

Atallah said this was the first time the Bible Society had been victim of such attacks in its 129-year history in the country.

“We are in deep distress following the coordinated attacks on Coptic Christians throughout Egypt,” ACM said. “There has been little or no police or military protection at all in southern Egypt.”

It said the government had failed to protect Christians despite Islamists’ threats and incitement over recent weeks.

“The pro-Morsi supporters and Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been inciting hatred and violence against Egypt’s Coptic Christians and now we are seeing those threats acted on in an unprecedented way.

“Western leaders have also failed to take the issue of Coptic persecution seriously and seem to be more interested in protecting the rights of those who persecute Christians.”[19]

Interestingly enough, only a week ago, over fifteen Egyptian human rights organizations accused the allegedly peaceful and democracy-promoting Muslim Brotherhood of “clear incitement to violence and religious hatred in order to achieve political gains.”[20]

As always, it is imperative that the Western public side with any people who are fighting for their freedom and their own self-determination. However, it is also imperative that the Western public not outsource their brains to a media machine which has lied to them on almost every occasion, either telling half-truths, quarter-truths, or the exact opposite of the truth entirely. If Western media outlets have been proven liars regarding Egypt, Libya, and Syria, what logical reason would any observer have to believe that they would not do so again?

Thus, with the track record of Western media outlets in mind, until the case against the Egyptian government is proven, it is important to look at every possible aspect surrounding the unfolding violence in Egypt in order to discern the truth.

Notes:

[1] “Webster Tarpley: Morsi’s Falls Set Up By Sellout To IMF . . “ Youtube. Posted by TheRiverMersey. Posted on July 4, 2013.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJNRNiW5VhM
[2] “Webster Tarpley: Morsi Arrested Because . . .” Youtube. Posted by TheRiverMersey. Posted on July 7, 2013.
[3] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[4] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[5] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[6] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[7] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[8] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[9] Sayah, Reza; Simpson, David. “Egyptian protesters defy curfew on ‘Friday of Anger.” CNN. August 16, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/16/world/meast/egypt-protests/index.html
[10] Turbeville, Brandon. “Are The Egyptian Protests A Foreign Propaganda Campaign?” Activist Post. August 14, 2013.http://activistpost.com/2013/08/are-egypt-protests-foreign-propaganda.html
[11] “43 Egyptian police officers killed, government says.” Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews-live/egyptian-forces-raid-pro-morsi-camps/?id=2f3f8182-2123-40da-bbf3-3dc5a5a218e4
[12] Perry, Tom; Dziadosz, Alexander. “Egypt fears fresh confrontation as West deplores bloodshed.” Reuters. August 15, 2013.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/15/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE97C09A20130815
[13] Perry, Tom; Dziadosz, Alexander. “Egypt fears fresh confrontation as West deplores bloodshed.” Reuters. August 15, 2013.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/15/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE97C09A20130815
[14] “Video shows Morsi supporter shooting at Egyptian army – Truthloader.” Youtube. Posted by Truthloader. Posted on July 9, 2013.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4M1d80J4Fk
[15] Mudie, Keir. “Egypt Violence: Gang throws rivals to their deaths from top of building.” Mirror.co.uk. July 7, 2013.http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/egypt-violence-gang-throws-rivals-2034262
[16] “History repeats – Egypt: Provocateurs shooting police.” LiveLeak. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=194_1376554704
[17] Goodenough, Patrick. “Egyptian Islamists Target Christian Churches in Wave of Apparently Coordinated Attacks.” CNS News. August 15, 2013. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/egyptian-islamists-target-christian-churches-wave-apparently-coordinated-attacks
[18] Goodenough, Patrick. “Egyptian Islamists Target Christian Churches in Wave of Apparently Coordinated Attacks.” CNS News. August 15, 2013. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/egyptian-islamists-target-christian-churches-wave-apparently-coordinated-attacks
[19] Goodenough, Patrick. “Egyptian Islamists Target Christian Churches in Wave of Apparently Coordinated Attacks.” CNS News. August 15, 2013. http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/egyptian-islamists-target-christian-churches-wave-apparently-coordinated-attacks
[20] Goodenough, Patrick. “Human Rights Groups Criticize Islamists for Inciting New Violence Against Egypt’s Christians.” CNS News. August 8, 2013.http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/human-rights-groups-criticize-islamists-inciting-new-violence-against-egypt-s

Read other articles by Brandon Turbeville here.

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of three books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, and Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident. Turbeville has published over 200 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.