EMAD MEKAY [email]
A lecturer at Stanford University and an investigative journalism fellow at University of California, Berkeley, Mekay returned from Egypt a week ago after three months.
He said today: “In the U.S. media and the media in both Egypt and Libya, I do not see division lines clearly and perhaps almost deliberately so. The protests in Egypt were sparked by allegations made by U.S.-based extremist Christian Coptic activists that they produced an inflammatory film that they were planning to release on 9/11. It is not clear why they took credit for the movie. The U.S.-based extremist Copts were repeatedly on Egyptian TV and newspapers owned by former Mubarak regime figures touting their presence in the U.S. as one reason why they succeeded in producing the movie. They were being quoted extensively on their alleged movie launch which inflamed feelings. …
“Here’s a link to a story on a major portal owned by Naguib Sawiris, Egypt’s richest man, urging and prodding the Egyptian government to take action against the movie and the U.S. It’s one of many that came from supposedly ‘secular’ news outlets for ‘revenge.’ This is being driven by businessmen upset at the fall of Mubarak to the point of creating storms every now and then to push the region into chaos. They’d rather see the Arabs get angry with the Americans over a non-issue and ignore the real issues.”