Michael Armanious, a Coptic Christian who now resides in the United States as an American citizen, reveals the hypocrisy behind the riots that took place in Cairo on Sept. 11 in his new blog, The New Egypt.
In his Sept. 20 entry, Armanious reports that, “While Islamists in Egypt demand that Westerners engage in self-censorship when speaking about the Prophet, they have been using the mass media in their country to vilify Americans – and Christians – on a grand scale.”
He provides some interesting details about how Dr. Hisham Qandil, Egypt's prime minister tried to shift the blame for the riots away from the protesters themselves.
Dr. Hisham Qandil, Egypt’s Prime Minister, said the protesters were paid to attack the U.S. Embassy. This was the same story used to explain the murder of Coptic Christians, and other activists, outside a television station in October 2011. Speaking with the BBC’s Arabic service on Sept. 15, Qandil said, “Egyptians, Arabs, Muslims - we need to reflect the true identity of Muslims, how peaceful they are, and talk to the Western media about the true heart of the Muslims, that they condemn violence.” In other words, the rioters, being peaceful Muslims, would not have attacked the embassy if it were not for the money.
Later that day, Hani Salah Eldin, a reporter form Youm 7, an Egyptian newspaper, and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood said exactly where the money came from. In a TV interview he reported that Zionists and Coptic Christians from outside Egypt paid young people to attack the Embassy. Eldin had made these assertions in a column published the day of the attacks.
Following Eldin’s Sept. 15 accusation, Islamist preacher Ibrahim Sheikh Ahmed Mahallawy issued a fatwa: Kill the emigrant Copts, and will you be rewarded. That fatwa is directed at me and my fellow Coptic Christians in the U.S. –your fellow citizens.
Armanious has written about events in Egypt here and here and here.
