All hail the new Pharoah of Egypt - Mohammed ElBaradei

You —

When democracy doesn't deliver the western friendly face that the people should have voted for, ofcourse he should be appointed after a coup.

Mohammed ElBaradei was the darling face for the western media who would have loved for him to win last years presidential elections to complete a fairytale story. The only problem was that he was little known inside egypt and his bid to become president failed spectacularly.

Now, that is not a problem as he doesn't need to win any popular vote to be appointed Prime Minister. All he has to do is utter a few spineless words. Words supporting the army, condemning the Muslim Brotherhood for "plotting" before the coup. (Plotting what? support for legitimacy).

He says that he wants an inclusive egypt with all parties being involved, but in the same breath supports the arrests of members of the former ruling party and wants they to be processed with due judicial process.

I assume this is the same judicial process that found the popular parliamentary elections unconstitutional because people dared to vote for the wrong people.

Astounding Hypocrisy

Ofcourse the hypocrisy of the coup supports is not limited to the new appointed Prime Minister.

Look online and people will tell you with a straight face that the Muslim Brotherhood were about to ban all critical media and hold opposing voices.

That is said with a straight face, without any hint of sarcasm. What has actually happened is the opposite - the President did NOT ban free press, or hold opposing voices, but the coup has done exactly that - any voice that is critical of the coup has been silenced, TV stations closed, newspapers closed, individuals arrested.

All with the support of the new Pharoah of Egypt, Mohammed El Baradei.

You — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 - 00:37

Such a  big upheaval in Egypt would have required the signoff of both Israel and the US (to stop the aid being cut off, and also potentially manage negative headlines).

Ofcourse Israel will have demands, but even without them the Egyptian army has seen itself as an enemy of the Muslim Brotherhood and its offspring Hamas, which is the government of Gaza.

There will also be pressure on the Palestinian Authority of Mahmood Abbas to stop cooperating with Hamas into order to recreate the fissure between the West Bank and Gaza.

Hummus — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 - 18:34

I was speaking to my Egyptian Christian friend today and I asked her what she thought about Egypt and she very passionately mentioned how herself and neither her family would ever return back there and one of the reason she gave me was 'it would be a step back in time'.

You — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 - 01:51

There is a lot of intolerance in Egypt, and they go over the top. But this seems a general thing in Egypt where there seems to be no tolerance of alternative opinions of viewpoints. If you look at much of the vitriol online against the Muslim Brotherhood since the coup, many wont even consider them to be humans.

Likewise, in a lot of places Christians are being targetted for reprisals for random events (or not so random when the Coptic Christians did not get on well with Morsi's presidency) and there have been targetted killings and mobs with piutchforks going around doing their thing.

There are quite a few christians there too - 20% of the population.

Hummus — Sat, 20 Jul 2013 - 09:40

I would've loved to have asked her more questions, but the situation and place that we were in, didn't make that possible. I think she must've moved when she was really young (she's been to five different primary schools in the UK) OR her parents moved here and then she was born. She was just saying how it's all so backward over there, she'd never want to return, her family have moved on, people over there haven't moved on, etc.