Talk like an Egyptian

The anti-American rhetoric in the Egyptian press seems to be heating up since the anniversary of 9/11. So much so that the U.S. ambassador in Cairo recently felt the need to suggest it was getting out of hand. For expressing these sentiments, he was soundly trounced by, well, the Egyptian press.

If you look at some of the coverage in Egypt's Al-Ahram weekly, lately, the degree to which these folks are maintaining their grip on reality seems to become ever more tenuous. Here are just a few excerpts from this week's issue:

From The tragic unraveling by columnist Hassan Nafaa

...faith in the US...is no longer merited now that Washington sees the world almost entirely through Israeli eyes.

...If the most extreme forms of Jewish and Christian-Zionist fundamentalism are embodied, respectively, in the governments led by Sharon and Bush (or, better, Vice President Cheney), Islamic fundamentalism is embodied in an individual or an organisation that is still very marginal in the Arab and Islamic world. The only state espoused such radical fundamentalism was the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which almost no one recognised.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the "most extreme form of Jewish fundmentalism." And while certainly not the "most extreme form of Christian-Zionist fundamentalism," this comes a hell of lot closer than Bush or Cheney. At any rate, methinks the Islamic fundamentalism of Iran or Saudi Arabia (for starters) could outmatch any and all of the above, hands down. This guy needs to get out more.

And from Outlining a future by Amr Elchoubaki

...It is important to distinguish between two major trends in the Islamist movement. The first is the jihadist trend, "defeated" in its image, locally, in the Arab world, and globally, as the result of events in Afghanistan. The second is the non-violent trend, destined to grow and develop, and embodied by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, Hamas in Palestine, the Islamic government in Iran and the democratic Islamic movement in Turkey.

Wait. Hamas is the embodiment of non-violent Islamism? Now, why didn't someone tell me? This changes everything.

...That the US has worked to suppress forms of peaceful protest in many parts of the Arab and Islamic world has served to escalate the move towards violence.

...The same logic applies to the Palestinian cause. Here, too, the US has worked to close off all avenues for peaceful opposition to a racist occupation and to stifle the Palestinian and Arab peoples' hopes in this central struggle for liberation and national independence. Indeed, the US administration has branded this legitimate struggle as terrorist.

...All indications prior to 11 September pointed to the decline of the jihadist trend of political Islam.

Above all, Washington's tendency to ignore the principles of democracy, justice and human rights should not drive Arabs and Muslims -- the weaker party -- to discard these values as mere western imports. On the contrary it should compel us to adhere to them more tenaciously and to condemn the US whenever it betrays the values and ethics for which, ostensibly, it stands.

I know, I know, it's all our fault and we need to take a lesson in democracy, justice and human rights from the "weaker party," which has upheld those values so magnificently in its sundry bastions of power weakness across the globe. Whew. Someone's in drastic need of a reality check. Any volunteers?