Still unable to reconcile itself to a Muslim Brotherhood president, privately owned Al-Dostour continues its series of “end of days” warnings with another shrill, front-page diatribe against the group.
“Long live the revolution … long live the revolution … the group has arrived,” it announces sardonically before continuing, “Egypt is returning to subjugation and repression.”
The newspaper puts journalistic objectivity to one side in order to rail against the Brotherhood in eight points, warning readers that the dissolved National Democratic Party is being resurrected in the form of the Brothers. It demands the implementation of a Turkish-style parliamentary system and ends with the dark warning that former US President George W. Bush once allegedly said that “we made a mistake when we entered Iraq because the true door to the Middle East is Egypt, not Iraq.”
This tone continues inside with two full-page spreads. The first lists the “landmine” problems Egypt is suffering from that threaten to undermine President-elect Mohamed Morsy’s presidency. The second, titled “Islamists … failure begins from the seat of power!” contains dark warnings about Islamists’ dislike of power transfer and their habit of causing catastrophes when they assume power.
Liberal party paper Al-Wafd as usual employs a similar tone, declaring on its front page that the Brotherhood “is beginning its plan to control the presidency” and reporting that the group’s Freedom and Justice Party is negotiating with other political parties over the distribution of government portfolios, according to unnamed sources in the party. The Salafi Nour Party has refused to talk to anyone other than Morsy himself about this, the paper claims.
This news is not reported in any other paper and, in fact, contradicts a story in private daily Youm7, according to which strong directives have been issued to members of both the Brotherhood and the FJP not to speak in the name of the president.
In a reflection of the power struggle the country is embroiled in, state daily Al-Ahram divides the above-the-fold section of its front page into two equal halves: one about Morsy and another dedicated to head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Al-Ahram also features a thin examination of Coptic fears surrounding the election of an Islamist president, the headline of which is, “Dr. Louis Grees: Morsy’s speech was reassuring.”
The story quotes various, very sanguine Coptic figures, none of whom have a bad word to say about Morsy or the Brotherhood.
One of the interviewees, researcher and intellectual Waseem al-Seesy, has three demands for Morsy — first, that the president-elect visit defeated candidate Ahmed Shafiq at home, as Abraham Lincolnvisited his rival upon his election to the American presidency. In reconciling with Shafiq, Morsy would “reconcile the Egyptian people as a whole and bring them together in unity.”
Second, Morsy should read the entire US Constitution — “it would only take half an hour” — particularly its article on non-discrimination, “which is the secret to US supremacy.”
Finally Seesy asks that Morsy read Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal’s writings on the “soft state,” which suggest that the rule of law is always absent from undeveloped, poor states.
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
