"Previously on Egypt"
If you want to know what it's like receiving Nour The Intern's sometimes twice-daily email of links, see below. I have reproached her many times about her choice of reading material, to no avail. Warning: some links will take you to the websites of some completely discredited Egyptian publications, in other words, almost all of them at this point.
Previously on Egypt:
- Raba’a residents may be complaining about the protesters relieving themselves in their gardens, the building of makeshift stone walls around the mosque, the loudspeakers, the chanting and the hassle of getting searched, but the protesters, too, are not exactly happy themselves. The shock still hasn’t subsided and although leaders try to keep the morale high throughout the day, but once it’s time for prayers many often cry. Here’s a video of an entertainment segment, where a young man paints a portrait of Morsi upside down in under 12 minutes, while the speaker told this painful joke: The “lying (secular) media that believes itself” is like a man with an 80s model car he wanted to sell, but knew he couldn’t because it’s an 80s model. So his friends tell him a sign on the car saying “Mercedes 2013.” Days later his friends asked him if he sold the car. “What, am I crazy to sell a 2013 Mercedes model!”
- The Raba’a protesters truly believe there is 4 to 5 million on the street supporting Morsi. They also believe that there are Christian Morsi supporters among them, they are just really quiet and invisible.
- In an effort to assert their persistence and intention to stay in Raba’a not just to reinstate Morsi, but also because there is safety in numbers for their wanted leaders, who were now impossible to arrest without more bloodshed than usual, Safwat Hegazi went on stage to announce the suggestions of female protesters to bring ovens to the sit-in in order to bake Kahk for Eid, which is about a month away.
- Beltagy told Bloomberg that “if Mursi is returned to office, the upper house of Parliament is reconvened, and the constitution is restored, then the Brotherhood will agree to early presidential elections and will grant amnesty to everyone who carried out the coup.”
- The MB has washed its hands clean of responsibility for whatever is said on stage in Raba’a. According to its spokesperson, Ahmed Arif, the MB has no control over the stage and its views are not represented by the speakers. That way Jamaa’ al-Islamiya leader and longtime Morsi supporter Assem Abdul Maged can go on stage and thank “American stupidity” for turning Morsi, a regular president who had his fans and critics, into a symbol for Muslim nations to unite behind and fight American culture and military coups, and MB’s Essam el-Haddad can ask the US and EU to send forces to protect Morsi from protesters.
- Stories about “sex jihad” and “legitimate privacy” apartments for married couples in Raba’a al-Adawiya all over the place. For instance, a FB post about two women at Raba’a have been allegedly sexually assaulted by islamist protesters, who tried to use “sex jihad” to excuse themselves was widely circulated and readily accepted as a proper representation of all things bearded, when, on the other hand, the 80 cases of group sexual assault in Tahrir, July 3, didn’t tarnish the protesters.
- El-Beltagy said that the video of him talking about the Sinai attacks was "creatively edited" to make it look as if he masterminded the attacks.
- Youssef el-Husseiny told the spineless Syrians who are here to support Morsi to go back and solve their problem in their country, or else they’ll come in contact with the shoes of the Egyptian people.
- Wagdy Ghoniem prays for the death of Sheikh Al-Azhar because he sided with "Tawdoors" against a bearded Muslim, who memorized Quran and has a wife who is veiled.
- Army distributes 950 thousand meals in all governorates. When MB does it; it’s morally reprehensible. When the SCAF does it; it’s ramadan charity.
N.