Roger Cohen of The NY Times famously told us in February 2011 (emphasis mine):
Already we hear the predictable warnings from Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu: This could be Iran 1979, a revolution for freedom that installs the Islamists. But this is not 1979, and Egypt’s Facebook-adept youth are not lining up behind the Muslim Brotherhood, itself scarcely a band of fanatics.
Things have not exactly, um, gone according to plan.
The Muslim Brotherhood is in control, has taken over the military, is disregarding the judiciary, is pushing through a new Constitution which tramples, according to the opposition, minority rights and other freedoms, and sends thugs into Tahrir Square to beat up male protesters and sexually assault female protesters.
Roger Cohen has told Mohammed Morsi to stop it right now:
On #Morsi‘s mistake in #Egypt, urgent need to change course and why draft constitution being rushed through unaccepable nyti.ms/RlpPJz
— Roger Cohen (@NYTimesCohen) November 29, 2012
Mohammed Morsi is not impressed. Not even with the fact that barely a week ago Cohen graciously give Morsi “the benefit of the doubt” that Morsi’s motives were “honorable.”
Morsi wonders, what don’t you understand about the Muslim Brotherhood?
Via al Jazeera:
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi addressed the nation on Thursday night amidst ongoing unrest, and while he called for dialogue and offered sympathy for the deaths of the protesters, he offered few concessions and dismissed his political opposition.
Via Times of Israel:
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi addressed the country for the first time since mass protests began earlier this week, defiantly standing his ground on the issue of the draft constitution, the upcoming national referendum, and his immunity from oversight.
Morsi said in a televised speech that if the controversial constitutional draft is rejected by the Egyptian people in the December 15 referendum, he will form a new constituent assembly to draft a new version of the constitution.
Yet Morsi also angrily accused some of the opposition protesters of serving remnants of the old regime and vowed never to tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his “legitimate” government…l
Morsi said that the controversial decrees he issued last month granting him immunity from legal oversight are non-negotiable, bar one, but invited invited the opposition to a “comprehensive and productive” dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace. He offered no sign at all that he might offer them any meaningful concessions.
Morsi said he would form an assembly to draft a new Constitution if the controversial one scheduled for a vote on December 15 fails to pass. In other words, heads the Islamists win, tails they try again.
That is the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood. Even if by some miracle the new Constitution loses on December 15, it will be just a bump on the Muslim Brotherhood’s highway.
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Comments
The US media is straining every nerve to retain the happy glow they projected during the Arab Spring and Morsi’s election. Democracy and an age of reason would settle on brutal Egypt like the perfume of Spring, and there was no reason whatsoever to be skeptical of the oh-so-moderate Muslim Brotherhood.
Can’t tell if the US State Department is still singing in that choir, but they’re all part of the inner circle of the noble intellectuals of the media, and no one has been issued any new hymnals that I know of.
Must take some real hard work to be as stupid as Roger Cohen. Of course a bitter clinger like me could have seen this coming last year, but oh yes, according to the NYT and Cohen, I’m just a dumb ol’ bitter clinger.
Roger Cohen:
2012 Winner of the Senator William Borah “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler—all this might have been averted” Award.
Congratulations, Sir.
I’m pleased to inform you that by winning this award, you are automatically entered into the 2012 P.T. Barnum “There’s a sucker born every minute” Award contest.
Good luck.
Obama voters, including the Silicon Valley crowd, won that Barnum award.
Well, look at the bright side – at least Morsi is keeping his campaign promises… Nobody can say they didn’t know his platform.
I love commentary from The Onion. Roger Cohen’s column there is always a deft exercise in satire. Well done again, Roger old boy.
Well, if Morsi won’t listen to Cohen, then hear it from me: Back down, dude!
There, that should do it.
Morsi…invited the opposition to a “comprehensive and productive” dialogue starting Saturday at his presidential palace.
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And custom shroud fitting… Maybe not next month. Maybe not next quarter, but soon…
Roger Cohen is a Liberal Jew, a worm like traitor to the State of Israel, and why he thinks Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood terrorist dictator Morsi actually cares about what Roger Cohen says and thinks, is truly delusional and pathetic.
But that’s the way pathetic naive appeasing capitulating liberal weasels think and act.
Well, that’s odd. Why aren’t the usual suspects demanding Muslims to end their occupation of Egypt? Is it because they fomented and supported regime change to replace one dictator with another more ideologically favorable to their own interests? The same thing happened in Serbia, and the same actors were also strangely quite. It’s difficult to find authentic human and civil rights activists these days.
Damascus, Cairo, Washington, Assad, Morsi, Obama; it’s only a matter of degrees, isn’t it.
The NY Times is used to making the Speaker of the House back down, so why not some clown in Egypt?
“The Muslim Brotherhood is in control, has taken over the military, is disregarding the judiciary, is pushing through a new Constitution which tramples, according to the opposition, minority rights and other freedoms, and sends thugs…”
Sounds like someone’s been taking lessons from Obama.