Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt.” Some messages
even mentioned locations for the rallies.
In a country where so many—particularly the poor who don’t have access
to satellite television—rely on the ubiquitous state-controlled media
for their information and cell phones for communication, the approach
was comprehensive and effective. Rather than being depicted as an expression
of popular disgust with the government, the protests were portrayed
as a complex international conspiracy. And indeed, such distorted coverage
whipped up enough anti-foreigner hysteria that a number of expatriates,
including journalists, were viciously attacked on the streets.
Many in the police and Army were apparently convinced by the propaganda.
One activist who was brutally beaten while being detained by the
military told me how an Army interrogator, who tortured him with electric
shocks, was absolutely obsessed with saving the country from the foreign
spies trying to ruin it. In an ironic twist, it was another detainee, a member
of the Muslim Brotherhood—another central part of the “conspiracy”—
who finally convinced the interrogator that his paranoia was unsustainable.
“He told the interrogator that we weren’t a foreign-inspired movement, explaining
it was ridiculous to believe that the Pakistanis, Iran, and the United
States were doing this, as they don’t work together in any way,” the released
detainee told me. The Brotherhood member, he said, told the interrogator
that “we were all Egyptians in the movement.”
Other state employees, including several prominent members of the media,
however, were unconvinced. On Jan. 26, popular TV host Mahmoud
Saad resigned from his nightly talk show, Masr ElNahrda, after state television
refused to broadcast his candid look at the protests. On Feb. 3, a leading
presenter and deputy head of the state-controlled English-language
Nile TV, Shahira Amin, also resigned, saying she refused to continue being
part of the lies and propaganda. Indeed, many of those who attended pro-
Mubarak rallies appeared to be state-company employees. From our hotel
balcony, we watched government-run buses go back and forth from Tahrir
Square, bringing in the thousands of government supporters.
But the xenophobic, state-sponsored attacks collapsed just as quickly as
they had begun. By last Friday, Feb. 4, the pro-democracy demonstrators
had taken back the momentum of the street, overcoming the fear and stag-
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