Why is it that much of Egypt’s private media is “so profusely” opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood, asks Washington Insittute fellow Eric Trager, before supplying an answer in the form of a link to a New York Times opinion piece published this weekend by Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Essa. It turns out that journalists aligned against the Brotherhood have good reasons for their antipathy:
I had gotten used to threats during the long rule of President Hosni Mubarak, which dragged me before its courts about 70 times and sentenced me to prison on four occasions. But the [Mohammed] Morsi era was different. Under Mr. Mubarak, I was threatened only with prison; under Mr. Morsi, my life was in danger.
The Morsi supporters’ siege of the Media City compound was airtight. They hung up my picture, alongside that of other commentators critical of Mr. Morsi, with nooses drawn around our necks so that we looked like wanted criminals from old Westerns. Meanwhile, they searched all those who came in and out of the studios, destroying cars and attacking some of the journalists and Morsi opponents who’d had the bad luck of being scheduled for a TV appearance… Even today, nearly two months after a popular revolution removed Mr. Morsi in July, Media City remains under threat by the Brothers.
Essa’s experience resonates with an alternative future sketched out by Egyptian satirist Bassem Yousef shortly after the Egyptian military stripped Morsi’s Brotherhood-linked government of power. Yousef evaluated statements by Morsi and his allies made on the eve of the crisis – in which they declared that the Brotherhood had run out of patience – and sketched out a scenario that would have seen Brotherhood’s domestic opponents violently purged.
A poll recently published by the Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) showed that two out of every three Egyptians described themselves as “content” with moves made by the Egyptian military against the Brotherhood after Morsi was removed from power. As for how they felt the country was doing before he was removed, a poll published in recent days sums up the Egyptian mood:
Baseera poll: 78% of Egyptians say #MuslimBrotherhood rule was worse than expected, 3% better than expected, 12% as expected, 7% unsure.
— Barbara Ibrahim (@blibrahim) August 27, 2013
[Photo: Gigi Ibrahim / Flickr]