From PJM:
It’s after midnight in Cairo and it appears things are quieting down. Today has undoubtedly been an historic day. What the consequence of it will be remains to be seen. We’ll be covering it here for you. But in closing this live blog, let me revisit some of the political and media establishment’s greatest hits over the past few years on engaging the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists in the Middle East:
Bruce Riedel, Brookings Institute ‘expert’: Muslim Brotherhood is “most reasonable option” for Egypt(Jan 2011ames Traub, NY Times Magazine and ForeignPolicy.com:Don’t Fear the Brotherhood (Feb 2011)BBC: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood promotes moderate path (Feb 2011)Reuters: U.S. to resume formal Muslim Brotherhood relations, officials say (June 2011)Ed Husain, Council on Foreign Relations: Was Senator Kerry right to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood(hint: he says ‘yes’) (Dec 2011)John Kiriakou, former CIA and Huffington Post contributor: Why John Kerry was right to talk to the Muslim Brotherhood (Dec 2011)Michael Hirsh, national correspondent for National Journal:Can Obama safely embrace Islamists? (hint: yes) (April 2012)Reuel Marc Gerect, Foundation for Defense of Democracies: The Islamist road to democracy (April 2012)
Also see my article here at PJ Media, “The Three Faces of John McCain on the Muslim Brotherhood.” I could add many more, of course, but you get my drift. Will today’s event cause any self-reflection on the past of the DC political and media establishment? Don’t hold your breath.
Thanks to everyone who followed my live blog today. Hope it was of some benefit to keep track of what was going on.
6:11p Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey, a long-time friend of PJ Media, reports that 4 people have been shot outside the Muslim Brotherhood main headquarters in Muqattam by gunmen inside the MB building.
5:33p Tamarod organizers are calling for another protest on Tuesday.
5:10p The 2nd biggest target of the protests today appears to be US Ambassador Anne Patterson. Her image is almost, but not quite, as ubiquitous as Morsi’s. Here’s just one photo:
4:51p This Al-Ahram video shows the hundreds of thousands outside the presidential palace earlier:
4:47p Department of Homeland Security adviser Mohamed Elibiary tweets dismissively that the Tamarod protests fighting against the fascism of the Muslim Brotherhood.
4:37p Tom Blumer at Newsbusters notes that the US establishment media is ignoring for the most part the anti-Obama, anti-American sentiment of the Tamarod protests.
4:28p 3 anti-Morsi protesters killed in Assiyut when they came under “heavy fire” from Morsi supporters as they were headed to the MB headquarters.
4:06p Game on. Reports are that a large crowd of pro-Morsi supporters are on the move and quite possibly headed towards the presidential palace where there are reports that hundreds of thousands of Tamarod protesters are still there.
3:53p The Ministry of the Interior has estimated the crowd sizes to be 17 million, which makes the NBC News claim of “tens of thousands” absolutely laughable. BBC is also citing the 17 million number.
3:49p Shorouk News has video of what appears to be gunmen on top of a Muslim Brotherhood office (the MB logo can clearly be seen on the building) in Garbiya firing onto the crowd below. Nothing to indicate that the crowd was doing anything remotely threatening.
13 comments:
Hehehe.
The Brotherhood since 1929 has thought that once they sneakily come to power the ummah will unite.
Poor them, their plans aren't even panning out smoothly in the birth place of the Brotherhood (and indirectly of Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hamas, etc).
This stuff is hilarious. Obama must be dealing with intense diarrhea right about now.
As for the protest...I remember seeing the same crap in February of 2011. Same chants of "leave, leave" and "Muslims and Christians, we are all Egyptians"...all that BS.
The dust settles after a while but the spilling of Coptic blood does not.
This is a fantastic turnout. I hope it works out for the best. I'm not holding my breath though.
Christine,
You think too highly of the Egyptian people...glad you're not holding your breath :P
Maybe I have been tainted by the one's who I have spoken to. They were very anti islamic, young and just wanted to live free like we do here.
Don't worry, I won't hold my breath.
My feelings towards the ME have changed over time. I don't hold any hope for it. I am gradually adding Egypt to the mix.
Re: "Obama must be dealing with intense diarrhea right about now."
Considering he is currently on the same continent as 17 million angry protestors - some carrying strong messages against Obama . . .especially with the response thus far to Obama's audacity w/pushing the rainbow agenda . . .yeah, I'd have to agree with your assessment. Maybe the coincidence of Reggie Love surfacing in South Africa has something to do with it too?
This is great, but does anyone imagine the majority of people do NOT support the brotherhood and their goals?
Frankly the best outcome for those who wish to actually rule themselves would be decades of civil strife until it becomes clear to enough people that islamist regimes simply cannot rule without horror
via BBC:
"The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Cairo says many ordinary Egyptians - angered by Mr Morsi's political and economic policies - have been taking part in the rally in Tahrir Square.
At one point, army helicopters flew over Tahrir Square and dropped Egyptian flags, to cheers from the anti-Morsi crowd, he says."
Wow!
The army is giving Morsi 48 hours to comply or compromise with the demands of the people.
This is crazy back and forth. The only rule good for both the majority Muslim and Coptic Egyptian people is a dictatorial one. Anything democratic makes sure the Copts are eventually annihilated.
Copts were on a suicide mission in February 2011 and I hope they have had their eyes opened.
I'm hoping the military will take over the country once again. Democracy only works in educated and enlightened societies. Not in hellholes of the world that have been ruined by Muslims.
I agree with Epa, all these idiots protesting are only protesting because they don't like Morsi. There is no indication of whether they disagree with the ultimate mission of the Brotherhood.
And those thinking this time around it might be different:
There is nothing commendable nor admirable in these protests or these protesters.
This is no different than 2011. When idiots protest and demand that "everyone in power should leave so someone else can come and make our lives better". It always ends in the same endless cycle with the politicians taking the people for a ride.
Sad part in the Muslim world is that it also means the open murder of minorities.
Whatever Mobarak's dictatorship was, it was better than democracy because it at least pretended to protect the Copts. Any democratic leader in the Muslim world will first and foremost swear allegiance to Islam. And then everything from there onwards goes downhill.
I am following on twitter. They are saying that the military has taken over the airport and have arrested 15 MB bodyguards.
Christine,
Now THAT is some good news.
I hope the military reverses everything the MB has done so far and either shoots on sight or imprisons every MB member.
Until I see these things happen though I'm counting Egypt as a lost cause.
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Now, if by some miracle, the military does reverse everything and install a dictator who is (hopefully) at least like Mubarak or better. That would be a HUGE blow to everything Obama has been working for since June 2009.
Should make things REALLY interesting.
BTW if the MB fails in Egypt. How can they hope to regroup elsewhere? MB has been one of the strongest proponents of a return to caliphate. If they can't even get things done right for the caliphate, who will?
Oh boy. This is some good sh*t. Muslims can't get their own sh*t together. Hehe.
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