Thomas Friedman, "The Arab Quarter Century": 90% of Egyptian Women Have Had Their Clitorises Removed

Would-be Middle East expert Thomas Friedman is back with more هراء, i.e. balderdash.

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Arab Quarter Century" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/opinion/friedman-the-arab-quarter-century.html?_r=0), Friedman belatedly gets around to acknowledging that "the Arab Spring" is more akin to the Thirty Years' War than the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Yeah, who would have ever guessed . . .

But wait, Friedman is ready with a rejoinder for me:

"Some will say: 'I told you so. You never should have hoped for this Arab Spring.' Nonsense. The corrupt autocracies that gave us the previous 50 years of 'stability' were just slow-motion disasters. Read the U.N.’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report about what deficits of freedom, women’s empowerment and knowledge did to Arab peoples over the last 50 years. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria are not falling apart today because their leaders were toppled. Their leaders were toppled because for too many years they failed too many of their people. Half the women in Egypt still can’t read. That’s what the stability of the last 50 years bought."

Well actually, Tom, Egyptian President Morsi is telling us that 61% of Egyptian women are illiterate (see: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tahir-square-tales-egypt/2013/apr/8/egyptian-president-morsis-iniative-support-womens-/). Okay, what difference does another 4 million illiterate Egyptian women make? Actually, a lot.

And then Friedman doesn't mention that 90% of Egyptian women have had their clitorises removed, i.e. undergone female genital mutilation.

Yup, the killing and chaos were coming, and Obama's "lead from behind" strategy in Libya, Egypt and Syria have allowed events to spin out of control. In Egypt, notwithstanding the barbarism being perpetrated against Christian Copts (some 10% of the population), oppression of women, attempts to rein in free speech, and pervasive anti-Semitism, the Obama administration has sought to continue to provide the Muslim Brotherhood regime with $1.5 billion in annual aid (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/world/middleeast/kerry-announces-millions-in-us-aid-for-egypt.html).

Friedman admits that he has been surprised by "two things":

• "The first is how incompetent the Muslim Brotherhood has been."
• "The second surprise? How weak the democratic opposition has been."

The Muslim Brotherhood's incompetence? Tom, just read about their stance on women's rights (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/03/you-just-wont-believe-what-obama-is.html). It was all in the cards, but you were having too good a time in Tahrir Square with Roger Cohen and Nicholas Kristof to take notice.

"How weak the democratic opposition has been"? Friedman truly is an imbecile. He honestly expected to see a strong democratic opposition in a country in which 95% of Egyptian Muslims believe it is "good" that Islam plays a large role in politics, and in which 84% of Egyptian Muslims believe that persons abandoning Islam should be executed (see: http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/).

Friedman's conclusion:

"Given all this, America’s least bad option is to use its economic clout to insist on democratic constitutional rules, regular elections and political openness, and to do all it can to encourage moderate opposition leaders to run for office. We should support anyone who wants to implement the Arab Human Development Report and oppose anyone who doesn’t. That is the only way these societies can give birth to their only hope: a new generation of decent leaders who can ensure that this 'Arab Quarter Century' ends better than it began."

What a naif! Obama reads this poppycock? God help us.

Thomas Friedman, "Watching Elephants Fly": Friedman Flies Into Cairo

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Watching Elephants Fly" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/friedman-watching-elephants-fly.html), Thomas Friedman informs us that he is back in Cairo covering the Egyptian elections from a women-only voting center in the impoverished Shubra el-Khema neighborhood. Watching the women, who have all undergone genital mutilation, cast their votes, and continuing to ignore his recent dalliance with anti-Semitism (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/12/thomas-friedman-newt-mitt-bibi-and.html), Friedman again expresses amazement over the Tahrir Square rebellion that toppled Mubarak. Friedman says of that rebellion:

"If you didn’t see it coming, what makes you think you know where it’s going? That’s why the smartest thing now is to just shut up and take notes."

Indeed, while covering the events at Tahrir Square, Friedman, Kristof and Cohen largely ignored the bearded, non-English speaking "shock troops" from the Muslim Brotherhood, who, gritting their rotten teeth, hurled rocks back at the Mubarak supporters. Instead, interviewing university graduates and urbane plant managers, the trio from The Times portrayed a delusive picture of events in Cairo.

What makes me think I know where matters are headed in Egypt? The answer is easy, Tom. Almost a year ago I informed the readership of this blog (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/02/roger-cohens-hosni-mubarak-agonistes.html) of the results of a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in December 2010 (http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/):

"At least three-quarters of Muslims in Egypt . . . say they would favor making each of the following the law in their countries: stoning people who commit adultery, whippings and cutting off of hands for crimes like theft and robbery and the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion."

According to this report, 95% of Egyptian Muslims also believe it is "good" that Islam plays a large role in politics. Given these numbers, it should hardly have come as a surprise that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis have taken some two-thirds of the ballots in Egypt's elections.

Notwithstanding the Pew Research Center data, Friedman today blithely concludes:

"That box and all the hopes stuffed into it by so many average Egyptians is surely necessary for a new beginning here. But it is not sufficient. The country needs a leader — there is still a huge vacuum at the top — who can take all those votes, all those hopes, and meld them into a strategy to create the jobs, schooling, justice and security that all Egyptians clearly crave. If that happens, those ballot boxes really will have delivered a different future for Egypt. Until then, I am just taking notes."

No mention by Friedman that the Muslim Brotherhood's deputy leader, Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, recently told the Arabic daily al-Hayat that his party will not recognize Israel “under any circumstance,” and that it intends to cancel the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel (see: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=251732).

Thanks for the mindless blather, Tom. Once again, you've made my morning.

Nicholas Kristof's "A Rite of Torture for Girls": Indeed, and What About Egypt?

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "A Rite of Torture for Girls" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/opinion/12kristof.html?_r=1&hp), Nicholas Kristof deplores the practice of female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision. Writing from Somaliland, Kristof describes this abomination, intended to deprive women of their sexual drive, which can lead to a host of medical problems:

"This is one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide, with three million girls mutilated each year in Africa alone, according to United Nations estimates. A hospital here in Somaliland found that 96 percent of women it surveyed had undergone infibulation.

. . . .

But it is clear that the most effective efforts against genital mutilation are grass-roots initiatives by local women working for change from within a culture. In Senegal, Ghana, Egypt and other countries, such efforts have made headway.

. . . .

Although some Christians cut their daughters, it is more common among Muslims, who often assume that the tradition is Islamic. So a crucial step has been to get a growing number of Muslim leaders to denounce the practice as contrary to Islam, for their voices carry particular weight."

"Headway" in working for change in Senegal, Ghana and Egypt? What about Egypt? As reported by DHS in a June 2009 report (http://www.measuredhs.com/pr1/post.cfm?id=103D45DB-5056-9F36-DC5160A996D00DDC):

"While over 90% of Egyptian women age 15-49 have been circumcised, the 2008 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) indicates that female circumcision rates are declining and that support for the practice is waning.

Four in five (81%) young women age 15-19 have been circumcised compared to 94% of women age 24-29. This marks a substantial decline in female circumcision in recent years. Female circumcision is least common among those with secondary or higher education; only 87% of women with secondary or higher education are circumcised compared to 98% of women with no education.

Women’s support of female circumcision is also decreasing. The 2008 EDHS reports that only 63% of ever-married women believe that female circumcision should continue, compared to 82% in 1995. In 2008, more than one-third of women and one-quarter of men believed that female circumcision should be stopped."

Sure, these statistics would appear to indicate progress, but not nearly enough.

I ask myself why Kristof did not write about this issue during his recent sojourn in Cairo, where he extolled the downfall of Mubarak. Likewise, Kristof didn't tell us about the "Million Women's March" from Cairo's Tahrir Square two months ago, intended to coincide with International Women's Day, but which brought out only several hundred persons. As reported by The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/rival-protesters-clash-women-tahrir):

"There have been ugly scenes in Tahrir Square as hundreds of women, many of whom had recently faced tear gas alongside men during the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak, attempted to hold a 'Million Women's March' in Cairo to highlight their hopes of playing an active part in building a new Egypt.

They were harassed and intimidated by a counter-protest made up of mainly men objecting to the call for a new constitution allowing women to stand for the Egyptian presidency.

As the women, who were marching on International Women's Day, found themselves surrounded they chanted 'the people want to bring down women' – a variation on the 'the people want to bring down the regime' chant that became the Egyptian revolution's battle cry.

"Women were caught in the middle and groped," witness Ahmad Awadalla said. "When I tried to defend them they said, 'why are you defending women? Are you queer?'" These scenes were repeated until the army dispersed the crowd."

While in Cairo, Kristof also didn't write about the ongoing horrors being perpetrated against Egypt's Christian Copt minority. This past Saturday, Muslims attacked the Saint Mina Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba with firebombs and gunfire, resulting in 10 dead and 186 wounded (see: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=219704).

Why didn't Kristof write from Cairo about the persecution of the Copts or female genital mutilation? Is it because these stories didn't jibe with his otherwise rosy picture of nascent Egyptian democracy? Such columns certainly would have provoked the Muslim Brotherhood, and Kristof might have quickly learned that he had overstayed his welcome in Egypt.