This Week in Egypt – August 30, 2013

Catch up on the latest out of Egypt every week, with analysis, news updates, photos, videos, and more.

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Between a rock and a hard place: Media and the current Egyptian crisis
| Vivienne Matthies-Boon, Aswat Masriya

A focus of attention, Egyptian and international media has come under increasing criticism as the former has steered away from a balanced and unbiased reporting-style, and the latter has found repeating the same story, unable to grasp the on-the-ground reality. Vivienne Matthies-Boon writes of the complicated narrative of Egypt’s streets, one that both the international and local media are not fully grasping.

“Whilst the most of the mainstream international news sources appear to predominantly (and perhaps rather blindly) take the formal democratic angle, Egyptian media is politicized to the extent that it dehumanizes its political opponent.”

“Scrolling through the different international channels one appears to hear the same mantra: this is a military coup against a democratically elected (and thus legitimate) government and Western powers urge the Egyptian government to return to democracy.”

“The problem is this narrative [international media coverage] brushes over the more complex and ambiguous political reality…One can understand the sense of frustration amongst vast sways of people when they saw their mass efforts being depicted in the international media as nothing but a dictatorial (and thus illegitimate) coup of a democratically elected (and thus legitimate) government.”

“However, at the same time, Muslim Brotherhood supporters are also being dehumanized by the Egyptian television channels and media, which labels the current crisis as a fight against terrorism.  According to this narrative, the Muslim Brotherhood – largely supported by foreign forces – is seeking to spread chaos in Egypt by dropping Egypt in a civil war.”

Why resisting the trite formula is a matter of life and death in Egypt | Nader Bakkar, OpenDemocracy

Official spokesperson for the Nour Party, Nader Bakkar writes of how the extremism of opposing political sides must be countered.

“What is obvious to all is that nobody wants Egypt to be a failed state, not only when it comes to institutions, but also in terms of its social coherence. Yet currently, we are witnessing a large faction within society falling into the hatred trap and finding it acceptable that violence, counter-violence and the violation of human rights has become the order of the day.”

“Those in Egypt who have wisdom will no doubt confirm as history unfolds itself, the huge mistakes committed by the Muslim Brotherhood regime over the last year. Still, this is no reason to consolidate a culture of hatred and enemy images, killing others without mercy, or silencing those who attempt in some way to terminate the cycle of revenge.”

“As for the Muslim Brotherhood, they must re-examine their stands today more than ever. The organization needs to have a new leadership who understands that June 30 was a direct result of the exponential rate of deterioration caused by their mistakes over the year.”

Image of the Week 

Source: @TheBigPharaoh

This Day in History 

On August 30, 2012, ex-President Mohamed Morsi visit Iran, the first Egyptian president to visit in thirty years. While attending the Non-Aligned Movement summit, Morsi expressed support of the Syrian opposition and criticized Iran’s support of the Syrian regime. [Ahram Online, Al-Monitor]

Video of the Week 

CNN’s Karl Penhaul reports on the forgotten – those who have been missing since Egypt’s 2011 uprising.

Cartoons of the Week 


Translation: Laughter while reading book titled History. “Haha, I seriously can not handle this, how much funnier can this be?” 
Source: Youm7


Description: Published August 24 in the Freedom and Justice Party, a Muslim-Brotherhood-aligned daily; a depiction of the Egyptian Commander-in-Chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Source: OumCartoon

Image: Photo: Sarah Carr