PLANK JULY 17, 2012
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Much has been written about the role of the internet and social media in the Arab Spring last year, particularly in Egypt, where protestors organized and communicated on Facebook and Twitter. But while global connectivity can help protestors overthrow dictators and tell the world their story, it also gives everyone access to the less-inspiring corners of the web. That was on display this past week during Hillary Clinton’s visit to meet with leaders in Egypt.
You may have read about the protests that greeted the Secretary of State in Alexandria. Egyptian Christians and secularists are concerned about the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and they oppose the newly-elected president Mohamed Morsi. Protestors outside the U.S. consulate threw tomatoes and shoes at Clinton’s motorcade, jeered her with shouts of “Monica, Monica!” and waved signs with messages like: “Stop U.S. funding of the Muslim Brotherhood” and “Clinton is the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Why were these Egyptians so riled up about Clinton? Because they’ve been getting their news from American conservatives, including one Michele Bachmann.
TIME’s Abigail Hauslohner and the Lede blog at the New York Times have excellent run-downs of the situation. According to both, Egyptian opponents of the new president are convinced that the U.S. government is sending billions of dollars directly to the Muslim Brotherhood and that the Obama administration has a secret pro-Islamist agenda.
Those are serious charges and it’s hard to understand why Egyptian Christians could believe them … unless you’ve been listening to Bachmann and other American conservatives lately. Bachmann and four other House colleagues recently demanded an investigation into what they call the Muslim Brotherhood’s “deep penetration” into the Obama administration, claiming that five federal agencies contain Muslim Brotherhood agents.
One Egyptian-American Christian who met with Clinton during her stay even cited statements by Bachmann as the evidence behind his concerns. On Twitter, a Wall Street Journal reporter asked an Egyptian blogger about her claim that the U.S. was sending billions of dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood – she pointed him first to an article on Lucianne Goldberg’s site, and then to a radio show with noted Islamophobe Frank Gaffney and retired American general Jerry Boykin, who yesterday was announced as a new vice president at the Family Research Council. When the reporter pointed out that Gaffney and Boykin produced no evidence for their claims, the Egyptian blogger insisted that a high-ranking U.S. military officer wouldn’t just make something up. Of course not.
Follow me on Twitter at @SullivanAmy.
6 comments
Treason: 1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. 2. A betrayal of trust or confidence. Bachmann has a defense (insanity). Goldberg, I'm not sure, although Jewish Episcopalean (how did that happen?) might be evidence of insanity; if not, her offspring is evidence that a Jewish Episcopalean combination causes insanity or she (or her late husband) is a carrier of the insanity gene.
- rayward
July 17, 2012 at 12:15pm
The Right has become mentally unbalanced, and the Web is a big reason for this. I was waiting to see the doctor at the VA Medical Center in Seattle Tuesday, and I was listening to two old veterans talk. They blithely agreed that there are secret clauses in Obamacare to take away all the guns of American citizens. I'm sure they got that wacko idea from Right wingnut e-mails. The Right is not interested in objective knowledge or any knowledge at all. Joe Wilson, the fool who screamed that Obama is a liar during a SOTU address, was on Washington C-Span Journal this morning. Although forced to admit that the two multi-trillion wars and Medicare Plan D that came about under Bush raised the deficit, he immediately announced that the Bush tax cuts raised Federal revenue by 13% and that the Democrats who took over Congress in 2006 negated the deficit reduction that Bush brought with his tax cuts. Joe Wilson is off his meds. The Right and Republicans take wishful fantasies as facts, and then they repeat those "facts" to everyone they can reach. The above article proves that. The Web does a lot of good, but it does just as much or more harm. Willfully uninformed people who desperately want fiction to be fact are enemies of democracy and freedom. Unfortunately, we have to let them speak their tiny, conspiracy-filled minds. Rant on, Michele! Entertain us!
- magboy47.
July 18, 2012 at 9:26am
Bachman continues to make this Minnesotan proud. Oops, did I say "proud"? I meant to say "puke".
- Fishpeddler
July 18, 2012 at 10:02am
Fear of Islam is justifiable. It is a totalitarian system that persecutes religious minorities such asEgyptian Coptic Christians, subjugates women, and punishes homosexuality and apostasy with death. The Obama Administration's acquiescence to the Muslim Brotherhood ascendency, warnings to the Egyptian military to respect electoral results, and failure to protect Christians in the Middle East, especially in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, has aroused fear and provided scope for rumors. I don't believe that Obama has given money directly to the Brotherhood, but he has no doubt offered to provide economic help to Egypt under the Morsi regime. Egypt's economic condition is dire. It has a population of 85 million people, most living close to subsistence. It must import half of its food and has only a few month's foreign currency reserves. It is hard to see whether the Muslim Brotherhood has a real plan to salvage Egypt's economic situation. Frightening tourists with religious restrictions and threats of violence is no help to a major industry. Cutting off oil and gas exports to Israel (Jordan shares Israeli pipeline) and fomenting lawlessness in the Sinai costs money and frightens away investment.
- amidut
July 18, 2012 at 1:29pm
Thanks, amidut, for the reminder that the Muslim Brotherhood is not an organization that we should look favorably upon. Your observation, though, is far off-point. The point of this post was that Bachmann and her future fellow psychiatric ward patients have made serious unsubstantiated allegations that are hurting our relationships with the segments of Egyptian society with whom you clearly would agree that we should be IMPROVING relations.
- Fishpeddler
July 18, 2012 at 3:37pm
Perhaps Bachman has particular reasons for warning about Islamic parties' notably intense hostility to homosexuality?
- ironyroad
July 18, 2012 at 5:02pm