During his days of peace and terror, Arafat was often accused of saying one thing in Arabic to his people and another thing entirely to the Western media. This brand of doubletalk is common enough in the Middle East, but these days Islamists are discovering that the internet can expose their doubletalk almost as fast as both sides of their mouths can move.
When the Muslim Brotherhood called for protests against the US Embassy in Arabic while sending a reassuring message on Twitter in English, the US Embassy in Cairo boldly called them on it.
.@khairatAlshater:We r relieved none of @USEmbassyCairo staff were harmed & hope US-Eg relations will sustain turbulence of Tuesday's events
.@khairatAlshater:We r relieved none of @USEmbassyCairo staff were harmed & hope US-Eg relations will sustain turbulence of Tuesday's events
.@Ikhwanweb Thanks. By the way, have you checked out your own Arabic feeds? I hope you know we read those too.
Now the ruling Tunisian Islamists are getting called on their own doubletalk. (Via Religion of Peace)
Ever since the attacks on the US Embassy on Sept. 14, Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi has been increasing his media appearances.
The Tunisian leader has slightly modified his statements
on jihadists while addressing the public. Jihadists “pose a threat to
Tunisia,” he told Agence France Presse. However, in an interview with
the Tunisian television channel Al Watania 1, Ghannouchi said: “My
statements have been misrepresented — we have no intention of fighting a
religious movement.”
He did not even contact the AFP journalist who quoted him as stating
that “jihadists pose a threat to Tunisia,” in order to object to the
publication of his statement. This indicates that Ghannouchi is playing
the game.
Stunts like these are supposed to convince the US and Europe that the Salafists in power are more moderate than the ones in the streets, when they are actually two sides of the same coin.
Ennahda has taken no action against the Salafists, for the same reason that their Muslim Brotherhood friends in Egypt have kept their hands off, because there is more that unites them than divides them.
Obama can try and pretend that the Brotherhood or Ennahda are a barrier against the truly bad extremists, but the facts show otherwise, while the rest is just doubletalk.
Stunts like these are supposed to convince the US and Europe that the Salafists in power are more moderate than the ones in the streets, when they are actually two sides of the same coin.
Ennahda has taken no action against the Salafists, for the same reason that their Muslim Brotherhood friends in Egypt have kept their hands off, because there is more that unites them than divides them.
Obama can try and pretend that the Brotherhood or Ennahda are a barrier against the truly bad extremists, but the facts show otherwise, while the rest is just doubletalk.
No comments:
Post a Comment