Egypt : A tissue of lies Tariq Ramadan

It's dangerous to be a friend of the United States in the Middle East - this is a fact the United States government knows better than any political player in the Arab world, starting with America's closest friends. The strategy is simple: cover your tracks, forget history, don't let cold hard facts get in the way. For the last sixty years, the United States has supported the Egyptian army and the successive dictatorial regimes (Nasser, despite tense relations, then Sadat and Mubarak) that protected their geostrategic interests, promoted "regional security" and, of course, defended Israel. Nothing has changed: the American administration was squarely behind the 30 June military coup, which was planned well in advance by the army high command and its civilian allies, including Mohammad El Baradei. As early as 2008-2009 El Baradei, one of the United States' key Egyptian strategic assets, had been advancing by stealth. In my bookIslam and the Arab Awakening, I published comments by American officials about him and his involvement in the 6 April Movement. On the day of the coup, the United States refused to describe it as such in order not to interrupt support for its military allies and the new political power structure. Secretary of State John Kerry could only confirm what serious analysts already knew when he stated a few days later that on 30 June the army had "restored the democratic process." There can be no doubt that the United States government fully supports the Egyptian armed forces. Covering tracks is the strategy of choice. Domestically, the propaganda machine is in high gear: the United States had been meddling in Egyptian affairs by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

The new political authorities (the interim president, prime minister and, of course, El Baradei) are playing their parts to perfection: they claim to be "disappointed" by the lack of American backing. In the Washington Post and not in an Egyptian newspaper, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi even - astonishingly - accused the United States government of abandoning him: "You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won't forget that." It was a clever gambit, one that managed to fool a section of the Egyptian population. That would make the armed forces and the civilian transitional government out to be courageous and independent patriots, while American agents and foreign powers had all along propped up the Muslim Brotherhood. The Americans know well the power of such propaganda, and the symbolic gestures needed to make it convincing. But it was a lie from start to finish. The facts and figures produced are a bigger lie: 30 million Egyptians took to the streets, they tell us, and at least 16 million signed an antigovernment petition. Where do these figures, which are repeated like a mantra in the media, come from? By comparing images from the pilgrimage to Mecca with those produced on 30 June (by the Egyptian military, which transmitted them to press agencies around the world: Google claims not to have broadcast them), experts estimate the total turnout at no more than four or five million. In fact, the figure of 30 million is preposterous, as are the 16 million signatures, especially for anyone familiar with social conditions on the ground in Egypt. New propaganda; new lies. It is clear that many Egyptians were frustrated by the situation, exacerbated by power outages and gasoline shortages prior to 30 June, which miraculously ended the day after the coup. But the breadth of the protest movement was blown up out of all proportion. Almost unanimously the Egyptian people - so the story goes - proclaimed its support for its liberator, General al-Sisi, that great democrat totally unconnected with the United States. The International Herald Tribune revealed only a few days later, his close relations with the United States and with Israel.

In the distorting mirror of such propaganda, it is essential to present the current demonstrators only as followers of deposed president Mohammad Morsi, or as members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But the Egyptian population is not made up entirely of imbeciles, "democrats" who support the armed forces or "Islamists" on the side of the Brotherhood. This lie, rammed down our throats by Egyptian and western media outlets, is designed to obscure the ideological dimension of demonstrations opposing the coup d'etat. In all the cities and towns of Egypt, the people in the streets are by no means all members or supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. They include women and men, secularists alongside Islamists, Copts as well as Muslims, youth and older people who reject manipulation and a return to military rule in the guise of "democracy." Many young people were and remain critical of Morsi and of the Muslim Brotherhood and their policies, but there is nothing naive about their understanding of what is at stake politically. In fact, the ongoing mass protests appear to be the unexpected spanner in the strategic works of the Egyptian army, the interim government and their American allies. A mass outpouring of non-violent citizens against the supposedly "democratic" military coup carried out in the name of the selfsame people has left many faces spattered with egg. But here we encounter yet another lie: the claim is made that the people in the street are not only members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but potential extremists working hand-in-glove with the "terrorists" of Hamas (a propaganda trick that never fails in the West) who would not hesitate to use violence. Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi lent public credence to the fabrication when he claimed that Amnesty International had noted that the demonstrators were armed or were concealing weapons. Amnesty immediately published a communique sharply denying his allegations. The new Egyptian authorities are now attempting to demonise the nonviolent demonstrators in the streets, in the wake of the massacres on 8 July and again this week. A new media campaign is now being

deployed: if the government wishes to clear the streets of demonstrators - as it claims - the demonstrators must be portrayed as dangerous and violent, as "terrorists." Western media are unfortunately quite happy to play along with the Egyptian military and civilian authorities. Anything can happen in the coming days. Violent actions by tiny, unidentified "extremist" or "terrorist" groups (the Egyptian secret services are past masters at concocting perfectly synchronised "clashes" or "attacks") may be used to justify further massive police and military action (while trying to surround and isolate the protesters). The next big lie: the armed forces are simply defending themselves. As I continue to emphasise, the Islamists cannot be exempt from criticism. The situation in the Middle East is grave; the future is murky. It is as if the project to bring democracy to the region proclaimed by United States President George W. Bush in 2003 provided, in fact, an immense template for regional destabilisation modelled on the "liberation" of Iraq. Political systems and regimes would be undermined, oil and mineral resources secured, and the State of Israel, silently and to the accompaniment of yet another episode in the "peace process," would continue its deliberate strategy of colonisation. Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and even Sudan are caught up in the maelstrom. Hopes were high that Barack Obama would be a president of renewal and openness. He has been nothing of the kind. His is a pathetic record. As Noam Chomsky has stated, Obama has done even less than his predecessors to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. In fact, he has accomplished nothing. His image was that of the appealing AfricanAmerican president, the gifted orator who has proved just as cynical as his immediate precursor. In the face of this tissue of lies, the non-violent demonstrators - women and men, secularists and Islamists, Copts and Muslims, agnostics and atheists - are the true expression of the Egyptian awakening. They must

stand upright, unarmed; reject lies, propaganda and manipulation; they must become masters of their destiny