On July 30th, UNICEF’s Egyptian branch issued the following statement:
“UNICEF is deeply concerned by reports that children have been killed or injured during the violent confrontations in Egypt over recent days. Disturbing images of children taken during street protests indicate that, on some occasions, children have been deliberately used and put at risk of witnessing or becoming actual victims of violence. Such actions can have a long-lasting and devastating physical and psychological impact on children. We call on all Egyptians and political groups not to exploit children for political ends, and to protect them from any potential harm.”
If you don’t know what UNICEF is referring to, don’t feel bad. Stories of some of the Muslim Brotherhood’s daffiest political tactics over the last month have largely gone un-mentioned in Western media. The story goes something like this:
The Muslim Brothers have been actively involving children in their demonstrations calling for Morsi’s reinstatement. Play areas have been set up at protest sites to help facilitate parking one’s entire family there for an extended period of time. Children have been yanked off the street and from an orphanage; in exchange for food, given signs with slogans glorifying political martyrdom; and not allowed to leave the protest. The darkest accusation is that the Brotherhood has been actively working to instigate the military’s actions today with the hopes that children would be amongst the dead, giving them the most brutal images possible in advancing their claims of victimhood.
Since my source of information on the above matter mostly comes from Egyptian television with an aggressively anti-Brotherhood/pro-military bias, I am hesitant to report on how accurate any of this is with confidence. My suspicion is that much of it MAY be grotesquely overstated. That said, UNICEF seems to think much of the claims are accurate and this narrative is consistent with my first-hand impression of the Muslim Brotherhood’s post-Morsi pro-Morsi game, namely, that what they want is as much bloodshed from their own ranks as possible in order to invoke the empathy of the world. The first time I saw one of these protests with my own eyes, several men in the crowd were somberly walking down the street carrying their own burial shrouds. On the one hand I wanted to laugh, given how ludicrously melodramatic these theatricalities were. On the other hand I wanted to cry, as I was observing the symptoms of what I think is completely genuine mental derangement on the part of some of these people. While typing my previous sentence, I was coincidentally listening to a chant at a pro-Morsi demonstration from a few days ago on CNN. CNN didn’t translate what the protesters were saying. But I will: “With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Islam.”
In short, the Muslim Brothers seem hell-bent on reinforcing the ugliest of Muslim stereotypes: that they’re a bunch of warped lunatics eager to meet paradise. And for what? Morsi? Standing by Morsi until they’re dead is the most productive thing these people can think of doing in their desire to promote Islam? Wanting to die in the name of fighting anti-American imperialism is batty enough. Right wing Islamist psychosis just might have set a new loony bar though. And I can’t blame CNN for not translating. As someone who has to actively live with fellow westerners stereotyping my spouse regularly (a veiled Muslim herself), I cringe at the idea that what I am writing right now might contribute to people’s negative impression of her and every other perfectly normal Muslim I know and don’t know. It’s important to note that Morsi’s remaining supporters represent a minority of Egyptian society at this point. It’s important to note that his remaining supporters EAGER TO DIE represent a minority within that minority. And to whatever extent the reports regarding the use of children are true, the guilty parties there are an even smaller minority within a minority.
So… What to make of the events of today? Given how disparaging I was of the Brotherhood in the above, you may think I’m going to defend the military, the interim government, and its security forces. Far from it. If anything, my above commentary makes the atrocities of today all the more inexcusable. Knowing full well what the Muslim Brothers were after, the security forces proceeded to give them exactly what they wanted: a death toll that the world HAS to pay attention to. In a post I wrote earlier today I condemned what has happened as a basic infringement of human and civil rights. I reiterate that statement. The Muslim Brothers have every right to live (even if some of them apparently want to die) and they have every right to articulate their warped political and religious ideology on the street. The most damning evidence of who the Brotherhood are was in the way they governed for a year. The second most damning evidence of who the Brotherhood are are the sentiments articulated in their own protests. Why on earth would the military feel so compelled to clamp down on the best evidence in existence right now as to WHY Morsi shouldn’t be in power? The military has given us a stark reminder of why THEY shouldn’t be in power either. The classic political explanation of Egypt as a place that must be ruled by either Islamic Right-Wing Extremism or Police State Right-Wing Extremism has been reinforced today. And it’s unbearably depressing.
Lastly, a video reinforcing some of the claims mentioned in the above:
http://www.youtube.com/...
I’ll try to find other videos translated into English and add them here later.