Egypt and the Contradictions of Liberalism by Dalia Fahmy Daanish Faruqi

Author:Dalia Fahmy,Daanish Faruqi [Faruqi, Dalia F. Fahmy & Daanish]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780748832
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC

“The nation”

After the large anti-Morsi protests on June 30, 2013, many analysts joined a chorus of voices suggesting that the Brotherhood was foreign, unpatriotic, and not loyal to Egypt. At the same time, Egyptian state and private news outlets began referring to anti-Morsi Egyptians as “the nation,” and pro-Morsi protesters as treasonous.

As evidence that “the nation” had risen up against a despised president and his unrepresentative (and very small) group, numerous news outlets reported that thirty-three million Egyptians had protested against Morsi and the Brotherhood on June 30. (According to crowd-sizing experts, the cited protest figures were off by many millions, with overall protest figures likely between one and two million in total53)

Upon showing a video of anti-Morsi protesters during his July 3, 2013 broadcast, Al-Nahar Network’s Mahmoud Saad proclaimed, “these are the people.” Saad referred to pro-Morsi protesters as “them,” said the pro-Morsi protests were small (standing on mere “street corners”), and claimed that the protesters there were a part of “extremist groups.”54 During her July 3, 2013 broadcast, al-Hadeedy referred to anti-Morsi protesters as “the nation,” and argued that key Muslim Brotherhood figures were guilty of espionage.55

On July 26, 2013, the CBC Network’s Khairy Ramadan said the Muslim Brotherhood does not “understand the meaning of nation.”56 During the same broadcast, Ramadan referred to the MB as “foreign agents” and “unpatriotic.” He repeatedly referred to anti-Brotherhood protesters as “the nation” and referred to the Brotherhood as “terrorists.” The CBC’s al-Hadeedy proclaimed on July 3, 2013, the day of the coup, that “Egypt is coming back to us.” She also said that no one can “rape” the people of Egypt, “neither the French, nor the English, nor the Israelis...nor the Muslim Brotherhood.”57

In August 2013, Tahrir Network anchor Dina Abdelrahman encapsulated “the nation” sub-discourse in this way: “There are not two groups (in Egypt). There is the Egyptian nation (on one side) and there is a group of Muslim Brothers (on the other side).”58

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