Is The Military Suppressing Legitimate Protest in Egypt?

Dees Illustration

Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post

August 16, 2013

Only yesterday, August 14, 2013, I wrote an article entitled “Are The Egypt Protests A Foreign Propaganda Campaign,”[1] where I discussed the possibility that the Egyptian “military crackdown” on allegedly peaceful Morsi supporters that was being reported throughout the Western media was not the unwarranted use of force that was being portrayed. Indeed, in this article, I asked whether or not the allegedly peaceful protests were truly peaceful at all, whether or not the claims of government violence were exaggerated, and why the Egyptian military would use such brute force against a people they have stood behind and beside on at least two recent occasions. Indeed, I even asked whether or not it is possible that the Egyptian security forces were not acting in self-defense.

While many may find themselves giving a knee-jerk reaction regarding the response of a government controlled by the military, the information trickling out of Egypt in the aftermath of yet another violent clash and an embarrassing and hypocritical Obama speech condemning violence in the Middle Eastern nation tends to lend even more credence to the hypothesis I forwarded yesterday – that the Muslim Brotherhood protesters were not peaceful protesters but violent antagonists attempting to destabilize and destroy the Egyptian government.

Although the Western public was force-fed propaganda on Wednesday August 14 regarding supposed indiscriminate attacks by government security forces against peaceful democracy-loving protesters, a report that was completely ignored by much of the Western media has surfaced painting the Morsi protesters in a different light.

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4] 

“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.”[5]

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.”[6]

Thus, while the Morsi supporters (i.e. Muslim Brotherhood) have been portrayed as the downtrodden majority (note: they are actually a minority) of the Egyptian population who are being mowed down by trigger-happy security forces in a brutal military crackdown, the fact is that the Muslim Brotherhood has been dealing out discrimination and violence toward Egyptian Christians and private property. This alone exposes the Brotherhood’s tendency toward violence and religious fanaticism.

However, the private property of religious minorities has not been the only target of the Egyptian version of the “Syrian Rebels.” On August 15, allegedly in response to the “brutal crackdown,” Muslim Brotherhood protesters stormed a government building in Cairo, setting it on fire.[7]

Yet, even more telling is the fact that the initial protests, the ones which the Western media 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 previous article, it was revealed today 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. [8]

Although a statistic that has not been repeated by the Western media, the death of 43 police officers is a remarkable figure if the protesters had been merely peaceful, nonviolent, and unarmed occupiers of the square.

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.

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.

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 after the ouster of Morsi and even throwing political opponents off of rooftops.

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

Thus, 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] Turbeville, Brandon. “Are The Egypt Protests A Foreign Propaganda Campaign?” Activist Post. August 14, 2013. http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/are-egypt-protests-foreign-propaganda.html
[2] 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
[3] 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
[4] 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
[5] 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
[6] 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
[7] “Egypt fears fresh confrontation as West deplores bloodshed.” Reuters. August 15, 2013. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/15/us-egypt-protests-idUSBRE97C09A20130815
[8] “43 Egyptian Police Officers Killed, Government Says.” Washington Post. August 14, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews-live/egyptian-forces-raid-pro-morsi-camps/?id=2f3f8182-2123-40da-bbf3-3dc5a5a218e4

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.