Some insight into Egyptian women and their "rights" that may surprise

“In Egypt, there is no girls living alone; single girls alone, this — it is not allowed socially! It is unapproved in Egyptian society. Egyptian girls must always live with the family if they are not married. The married girls live with the husbands, yes, but the single girls always live with the families.”

The female Istanbulite’s eyebrows leaped up in anticipation of news of an incoming women’s rights violation. “Trigger warnings” weren’t a thing back then, so far as I can remember, but even if they were, this bombastic professor would not have come with one. Asks the Turkess: “Women can’t live alone? Why? What if they’re students?”

The professor continued gracefully with his energetic explanation: “Aha, yes, sometimes if the girls are students they live in the dormitory. But this is rare, very rare. Not common, I think. Girls who are studying at the university also live with the family mostly. In Egypt it is not acceptable in society for the girl to live alone. If girls will live alone in an apartment, this will be shocking, it will be disgraceful. Even sometimes the janitor in the building, or the electrician, or the neighbor, he will knock on the door or he will find the girl, and he will say ‘Hey, you! What are you doing? Where is your husband? Where is your father? Why are you living alone here? Are you having men come in your apartment? Do you meet men there? Do they pay you to come there? What are you doing there alone?'”

The Turkish girl’s eyebrows at this point were practically detached from her head, so wide were her eyes with shock: “That’s… that’s horrible! Women have a right to live by themselves if they want to! Women have a right…” More high-pitched, futile cosmopolitan protests followed, but the conversation had essentially ended there, with an unperturbed professor shrugging his shoulders and rushing off to a meeting (with a dramatized wave, a hint of a bow and a gracious “Ma’a As-Salaama!” [“Good-bye!” in Arabic] — as always) and an amused me, softly smiling outwardly, and inwardly chuckling the kind of mischievous chuckle one can only enjoy after witnessing a truly monumental yet unintentional trolling. The disquieted young lady turned to me slack-jawed for reassurances for her offended liberal sensibilities, but I too had places to be, and quickly emulated the professor’s neutral exit. “Well, I guess that’s just how it is over there! See ya later!”

The explanation ...

... in Egypt, a girl living alone is immediately and automatically assumed to be a prostitute. And, hilariously, by the standards of Islamic Egyptian society, single girls living alone in the West are invariably precisely that: whores. And, distressingly, single girls living alone in the West are invariably whores by the standards of the Western society of 1950, of 1850, of 1750, 1650…

Read much more HERE

“You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

Recalling the words of Winston Churchill to Neville Chamberlain.

The difference between then and now?  Say what you will about him, Chamberlain loved his country.

As the Saudis and Egyptians saddle up to invade Yemen and confront Iran,  we have to ask if this is what "Smart Diplomacy" is all about. 

Glenn Reynolds comments:  Before you can dub it [Obama's foreign policy] a failure, you have to know what Obama is trying to accomplish.

The Middle East Is Red With The Blood Of Christians

The Middle East Is Red With The Blood Of Christians. “The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by forces sympathetic to Islamic State over recent days is sadly not an isolated case. On the contrary, it is the latest of countless outrages perpetrated against Christians in or near the Church’s Biblical heartlands over many years.”

A concise summary of John Kerry's trip to the Middle East

Kerry’s stop in inconsiderate Cairo was part of a trip to the Middle East to attempt negotiation of a cease-fire between Israel and the Hamas terror gang of Gaza, and nothing about it makes sense. The mission is unlikely to succeed, would be harmful to the region’s chances of lasting peace if it did, and will further weaken America’s standing the world in the process.

Oh, amd Kerry was obliged to be "wanded" with a metal detector before getting an audinece with the Egyptan leader.  He should have been told to take off his shoes.

The Truth Is Finally Out: Al-Sisi Is Jewish!

Via Glenn Reynolds.

Here's a link to the proof!

Is there no end to this?  Are these people actually sane?  Then I have to remind myself how the American media made Mitt Romney our to be a homophobe bigot for a prank in school, guilty of animal cruelty for putting his dog in a car carrier, guilty of murder for killing man's wife with cancer.  And I realize it's not just the nutcases in Egypt, it's the nutcases in the U.S. 

The Egyptian Main Stream Media – Just like the American version, except its mirror image.

 

 

From France 24:

Egypt’s one-sided media coverage of the ‘Day of Rage’

The vast majority of Egypt's media are portraying supporters of ousted president and prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi as terrorists wholly lacking in political legitimacy.

Egyptians were given a broadly one-sided view of the week’s bloody events on their television screens Saturday.

Private TV channel Al-Nahar showed images of the stand-off between supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and security forces at the al-Fath mosque under the banner, “Egypt Fights Terrorism”.

“Why are they letting them out?” asked a Cairo restaurant owner as the TV showed protesters loyal to the deposed Islamist leader being ushered past a mob of angry locals. “The Muslim Brotherhood’s people are now free to cause chaos and smash shops somewhere else.”

The day after the Brotherhood’s call for a “Day of Rage” protest, that saw 173 people killed in clashes with the police and army, most of the country’s newspapers reported events as a battle against the “terrorist” Islamist movement.

“Most Egyptian journalists feel that they have to take a side,” said Ehab el-Zelaky, head of digital media at privately-owned daily newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm.

“Journalists here would under any other circumstance try to be balanced, to tell both sides of the story. But considering what is happening to this country, many of them see it as their duty to support the state in its war against the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Apparently the military leadership has learned something from America’s MSM: first, get good press.  Once that’s done you can do whatever you want.

 As I was reading the article I was struck by the similarity between Egypt’s media and our own.  As a thought experiment, imagine if you will that enraged Mormons and their allies were rampaging through America’s cities because the last election was stolen from Mitt Romney.  Never happen, you say? 

Work with me a moment and assume that everything that was said about Mormons, Christians and “people of pallor” by MSNBC  is true.  Remember how the Tea Party (a more Norman Rockwell slice of Americana is impossible to imagine) were portrayed as a mob of racist, redneck, gun-toting fascists?   Did I mention racist?  Once you demonize a group, hurting  them is much easier.  Why do you think it was so easy for the people in the IRS to harass and obstruct any organization with Tea Party in its name?   

But back to our story.  Mormons are massing, marching and mobilizing.  The army gets out its armored personnel carriers and tear gas and bullets are flying; hundreds, perhaps thousands are killed.  How do you think it would be reported by NBC?  By CBS, ABC, NPR?  Would reporters travel to the “protest” leaders and ask why they are so angry?  Don’t be silly.  We know this script.  We know who the bad guys are.  Instead, we would have commentators and editorial writers demanding an even more vigorous crackdown.  There would be serious talk about doing away with both the First and Second amendments.  Paul Krugman would explain why religion always leads to deficits and hell, and Thomas Friedman would explain how much better off China is because it’s way ahead of America in the suppression of religion.  Ezra Klein will explain that religion is bad because it’s over 100 years old … or even older. 

Editorials would warn that “America has too long allowed ministers and priests to preach without government permission.”  MSNBC would demand internment camps and the use of drones on churches and temples.    Rodeo clowns would be beaten to death.  Obama masks would be outlawed.

I made up the part about the Obama masks; they are already illegal … I think.  But the reaction of the MSM in the US is totally predictable.  Just as their reaction to rampages to Leftist is always the same: airbrushed, and shown in the most favorable light.  Need evidence?  Just read the treatment that OWS got before it blew itself up and thus disappeared from the MSM radar screen. 

But note this irony.  The American MSM and the Egyptian MSM are reporting on the same events from two diametrically opposed viewpoints.  There may be hope for Egypt.  Some of Morsi's supporters are cancelling rallies.  There’s a lesson here; a “teachable moment.”  I hope Rush Limbaugh explores it next week.     

 

News for Egypt

Army Chief: New clashes won't be tolerated...
Cabinet to debate fate of Muslim Brotherhood...
Saudi prince fires celebrity TV preacher for Brotherhood link...
Cairo Morsi rally cancelled over ‘security concerns’
American al-Qaeda terrorist urges attacks on US diplomats...
VIDEO: Egypt's Coptic Christians living in fear
The vast majority of Egypt's media are portraying supporters of ousted president and prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi as terrorists wholly lacking in political legitimacy.

Islamist: “this is not our country any more”.

True. 

Chuck Pelto comments:

It wasn't YOUR Egypt in the first place.

You tried to do what the Bolsheviks did in Russia in 1917, taking advantage of a dramatic change of regime to install your own form of tyranny.

Democratic forces overthrew one tyrant. Then, within a short period, another form of evil overthrew the democratic forces to install their own tyranny. In 1917 the Communists in Russia. Today, YOU in Egypt!

Fortunately, the Egyptian Army intervened in an effort to save the country from your evil. The Russian people were not so fortunate. And millions of Russian were murdered by the Communist governments.

How's that "Smart Diplomacy" working out for you?

Amr Nabil/Associated Press

Opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi sit under anti-American banners in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday, reflecting the increasing hostility toward the U.S. from a broad range of factions in Egypt.

Arab autumn?

Some thoughts on the military take-over in Egypt. David Warren

At last, good news from the Middle East. Democracy has been overthrown in Egypt. The generals taking over promise new elections in a few months, but with any luck they are lying....

In a democracy

You win by bamboozling the public; by shamelessly vulgar boasting & display; by making promises that can never be fulfilled; by colouring low motives with high-sounding phrases; by offering pay-offs in not-too-subtle ways. You win by mastering the methods of Hollywood and the entertainment media; by employing the tricks of mass advertising to “create demand” & “shape the marketplace.”

On the other hand, rule by generals ...

Generals, in the main, are men of little imagination, & simple tastes. They love order, to be sure, but in the balance of public vices, a little order is seldom a bad thing. They are not easily infected by ideology, or any other form of intellectual ambition; even those who acquire some may lose it after a while. They don’t much care what one is doing, so long as it will not threaten the peace, or otherwise interfere with their breakfast. Should the general be smart enough to fully understand his need to avoid free elections, he will become unobtrusive. He won’t go out of his way to antagonize anyone. He may line his own pockets, & those of his friends — for as Valéry said, “Power without abuse loses its charm.” But the odd billion into a Swiss bank account is a small price to pay for freedom.

It is the officer who may not be lining his own pockets whom we need to fear; the one possessed by revolutionary zeal, associated from the start with Party. Those, let me admit, give Generalissimos a bad name. No, it is only the career general I’m proposing to push forward: the sort already used to giving orders & having them obeyed; who will not feel the need to redesign his own uniform. Real generals, a little on the plump side, & entirely without charisma: that’s where to turn in a pinch. Not to hothead colonels.

 

We are seeing what Franklin meant when he answered the woman who asked him what kind of government they had created.   I had hope that the republic would have lasted a little longer.

Five Lessons from Egypt and the Arab Spring

Via Vanderleun; Sultan Knish

1. Don't Believe Anything You Hear

Egyptian liberals allied with the Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow Mubarak and challenge the military. In those heady Tahrir Square days, they ridiculed the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood was part of the protests and that Mubarak's overthrow would benefit it.

Now those same liberals have teamed up with the military to take down a Muslim Brotherhood government that they told us would never come to power. But don't be surprised if a year from now, after the military develops too crushing a grip on power, they don't run back to the Muslim Brotherhood and Tahrir Square repeats itself a third time with the banners and fireworks and chants about the will of the people.

2. It's Not Democracy, It's Permanent Chaos

Democracy in the Middle East is just another means of political change. It's not any different than mob action, a coup or an invasion. It's just a way that one government replaces another.

3. Everyone Will Always Hate America

The one thing that everyone in Egypt can agree on is that they hate America. And this time around they almost have a valid reason. The Muslim Brotherhood hates America. Period. Not for anything we've done. This hatred is widely shared in Egypt. It will always be widely shared in Egypt. Denouncing America is one of the safest political positions to take. It's the Egyptian equivalent of motherhood and apple pie.

4. Fanatics and Democracy Don't Mix

One of the fondest myths of democracy promotion is that bringing terrorists into the political process moderates them. It doesn't. Fanatics don't compromise because their goals require purity. They feint compromise only long enough to get to power. And then they turn on their former allies.

5. The Muslim World Has No New Ideas

The Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that so many Western diplomats and journalists invested their hopes in, has a lot of modern polish, but underneath is the same old message that Mohammed came roaring out of the desert to deliver.
Despite the social media and memes, the Arab Spring unrest was part of a familiar cycle that begins when empires, whether it's Rome or Great Britain, withdraw from the area leaving the local fanatics, intellectuals and military men to begin squabbling over how to put their perfect society into place.

There's no progress being made. All the new things that were injected into the process come from outside and are used to serve ancient goals. The election machine and the social media account are new tools being used to settle old scores.

Egyptian Belly Dancer to Obama: “we are the Alpha”

Via Instapundit



How's that "Smart Diplomacy" working out for ya?

Obama Approval in Egypt Fell Drastically Since Cairo Speech

Anyone who got their worldview from the editorial pages of the New York Times would assume that Obama’s Cairo speech was a transformative event that repaired America’s image in the Middle East.

The reality however is drastically different.

Obama’s approval level in Egypt in 2009 was at 42 percent. Not bad for the region or for the Muslim world. These days after the prolonged mess that his democracy initiative put Egypt through it’s at 26 percent.

Anyone who's watching Middle East is not surprised.  It's all that "Smart Diplomacy."

Taken Friday in Tahrir Square:

For nine decades, Egypt has fled modernity.

Mark Steyn again.  Read the whole article, it's always worthwhile to read Steyn in full.

It is hard to be too cynical about Egypt ... or about the entire region referred to as Arabia.  Just as you though things are really bad, they get even worse.  Read, for example, Gang Raping Your Way to Democracy

But Egypt is a special case because it is the biggest country in the region with a long history. Forget the Pharaohs, the Romans, the caliphs who ruled, the two millennia of history until the English and French set up a king.

Ninety years ago, Fuad I’s kingdom was a ramshackle Arab approximation of a Westminster constitutional monarchy: Even in its flaws and corruptions, it knew at least what respectable societies were supposed to aspire to. Nasser’s one-party state was worse, Mubarak’s one-man klepto-state worse still, and Morsi’s antidote to his predecessors worst of all — so far.

Steyn gives us the history of "modern" Egypt via the life of Princess Fawzia, the aunt of the last King of Egypt who died the other day at age 91 in Alexandria. 

A long life reminds us of how short history is: Princess Fawzia outlived the Egyptian monarchy, and the Nasserist fascism and pan-Arabism that succeeded it, and the doomed “United Arab Republic” of Egypt and Syria, and the fetid third-of-a-century “stability” of the Mubarak kleptocracy. And she came within 24 hours of outliving the Muslim Brotherhood’s brief, disastrous grip on power. In the days before her death, it was reported that 14 million people took to the streets of Egypt’s cities to protest against Morsi (and Obama and his ambassador Anne Paterson). If so, that’s more than the population of the entire country in the year Princess Fawzia was born. The Mubarak era alone saw the citizenry double from 40 million to 80 million, a majority of which live on less than two dollars a day. The old pharaoh was toppled by his own baby boom, most of whom went for Morsi. The new pharaoh was toppled by his own stupidity. The Muslim Brotherhood waited 85 years for their moment and then blew it in nothing flat.

 

I am being persuaded that people get the government they deserve. 

Gang-Raping Your Way to Democracy

Mark Steyn notes that in Egypt, covering yourself in the body bag known as a hijab, has practical implications.  You are probably less apt to be gang-raped, as long as you stay indoors, that is.

As in the Congolese civil war, where both sides agreed that pygmies made excellent appetizers, in the Egyptian political stand-off, the young men of both pro- and anti-Morsi forces agree on little else except that the chicks are fair game. This ugly aspect has gone strikingly under-reported in America for over two years, ever since CBS chose to downplay the rape of its own correspondent. So I’m very glad NPR chose to do a story on this grim subject, “Sexual Assaults Reportedly Rampant During Egypt Protests.” To put it in the terms famously formulated by Whoopi Goldberg, this isn’t rape-rape but rape-rape-rape:

The rights group says the latest attacks follow an all too familiar pattern since mass protests began in 2011: A few men force a girl or woman away from the people she’s with; rip off her clothes and assault her. Passersby join in the attacks, which range from groping to gang rapes that can last more than an hour.

And the "bloodbath" in Chicago continues; 10 killed, 55 wounded.

The Chicago Sun-Times has counted 38 separate shooting incidents since 6 p.m. Wednesday. Ten men were killed and 55 other people, including two young boys, were wounded.

Wake me when the "bloodbath" in Cairo reaches the level of the "bloodbath" in Chicago.

Welcome Instapundit readers.  Please look around.  Here's one that you may like, or this.

The bar for "bloodbath" has been set awfully low

Footage broadcast by state TV showed Mursi supporters throwing rocks at soldiers in riot gear on one of the main roads leading to Cairo airport.

Young men, some carrying sticks, crouched behind a building, emerging to throw petrol bombs before retreating again.

State-run television showed soldiers carrying a wounded comrade along a rock-strewn road, and news footage zoomed in on a handful of protesters firing crude handguns during clashes.

What is a "crude handgun?"

Egypt violence: Gang throws rivals to their deaths from top of a building

Egypt needs good government, not democracy.

Walter Russell Meade on Obama: Still Wrong About Egypt—and Wrong About the World Commenting on Obama's vaporing about Egypt's transition to Democracy:

It is not at all clear that Egypt is in the midst of a transition to democracy. It is in the midst of a crisis of authority and has been wallowing for some time in a damaging crisis of governance, but is Egypt really in a transition to democracy? And is democracy really what “ordinary” Egyptians want?

Right now one suspects that most Egyptians fear that the country could be in a transition to anarchy, and that what ordinary Egyptians (who are extremely poor by US standards and earn their bread by the sweat of their brow with very little cushion against illness or a bad day at the market) want most of all right now is security. They aren’t fretting so much about when they will have a government more like Norway’s as they are terrified that their country is sliding in the direction of Libya, Syria or Iraq.

As is often the case, Washington policymakers seem to be paying too much attention to the glibbest of political scientists and the vaporings of the Davoisie. Egypt has none of the signs that would lead historians to think democracy is just around the corner. Mubarak was not Franco, and Egypt is not Spain. What’s happening in Egypt isn’t the robust flowering of a civil society so dynamic and so democratic that it can no longer be held back by dictatorial power.

Want America to look stupid and be hated?

If American policy toward Egypt is based on the assumption that Egypt is having a “messy transition” to democracy and that we must shepherd the poor dears to the broad sunny uplands, encouraging when they do well, chiding when they misstep, Washington will keep looking foolish and our influence will continue to fade. If that is the approach our foolishness compels us to take, look for more cases in which American good intentions just make us more hated—not because we are wicked, but because we are clueless.

Makes you nostalgic for the realism of George Bush.