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The continued willingness of pundits with no previous experience in or expertise on Egypt to opine about what is taking place there continues to impress. As CNN's Ben Wedeman tweeted from Cairo, "If I had a dollar for every silly statement made by instant-Egypt experts in newspapers, TV, I could retire tomorrow."
If, however, you are an intellectually curious American looking to make sense of either Egypt or currents in Political Islam, here are two great books to get you started. The first is Max Rodenbeck's Cairo: The City Victorious. Rodenbeck is the Economist's longtime Middle East correspondent and grew up in Egypt. His book on Cairo is really just lovely. The second -- an antidote to all the ill-informed ravings about Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood -- is Albert Hourani's Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, probably the best single-volume introduction to the main currents of thought in the Arabic-speaking world since Napoleon routed the Mamluks at the Pyramids.
Or you could just watch Glenn Beck explain all of this, as I did while stuck in the airport in Jacksonville, NC yesterday. Beck was, needless to say, akin to the love child of Leszek Kołakowski and William Montgomery Watt in explaining how political Islam and Marxism will combine to create a Muslim caliphate in Europe. (If, you know, that love child was high as a kite on PCP.) Having successfully scared his viewers s***less, he predictably broke for a commercial for one of those gold funds he endorses. Success!
Update: Yes! Thanks to the YouTube, you can now watch Glenn Beck's lecture yesterday. This is amazing. I watched this with 20 other people, and you could see the way in which we were collectively growing dumber as this went on.
Wow. Can I have some of the
Wow. Can I have some of the drugs that Glenn Beck gets? (Whats with the small subliminals where his face is in closeup 4-10 frames?)
Riots in the streets of England? Is that the EDL he is referring to? The mediterranean on fire? Whut?
But its cool that he thinks that our marxist/muslim masterplan is real, its rare to get such recognition. Fake it til you make it. 3 world war! Woo! Years of planning by Bill Ayers!
Uh oh...You used Beck's name
Uh oh...You used Beck's name in vain! Here come the trolls...
Incidentally - I don't know if it's in AR 670-1 or something, but every dental clinic I've ever sat in (for hours and hours and hours) is always playing HLN's Morning Express. That damn show is the bane of my existence. Robin Meade...easy on the eyes, numbing on the soul.
On a serious note. Egypt
On a serious note. Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World by B.K. Rutherford is a fantastic read that traces the development of several forces in Egyptian society over the past few decades... economic growth, liberal constitutionalism and Islamic constitutionalism.
On a more serious note. I can't tell if Beck himself is that dumb... or he knows his viewers are. I was flipping through yesterday and saw this, and couldn't stop watching the entire show. Couldn't decide whether his logic was so poor that it was funny... or scary that thousands of his viewers will believe every word of it.
You're right about Beck. I
You're right about Beck. I watched him "debate" with Bill O'Reilly on Egypt last night on the tv at the gym. Apparently the one rule of the debate was the first person to use a fact loses....It was a tie. I also saw Chris Matthews brilliant analysis of how Egypt is proof positive that we didn’t need to invade Iraq because the Iraqis would have rose up peacefully and ousted Saddam themselves. Why is it that cable news gives the most time to people with the greatest tendency to have diarrhea of the mouth? When I want to know what’s actually going on, I listen to NPR.
I decided to brave the storm
I decided to brave the storm and watched the Glenn Beck video here. Abu Muqawama, I hold you responsible for my anxiety level spike. Factually, he's wrong about so much. But it's his analogies, inferences, insinuations that are repeatedly off the wall. God help those who only get information from Glenn Beck.
But you can't just dismiss him as a buffoon. Beck's extremely good at giving the viewer the sense that he, and only he, will help you understand a confusing mess, that "the media" is against the truth, and that he's going to break it down in an informative, useful, way that doesn't as he says, "insult your intelligence." Glenn Beck is dangerous. But thank god for YouTube, which will show in hindsight how clueless his various predictions are.
The idea that there is some
The idea that there is some kind of end times/apocalyptic show down between the western world and the Muslim world (and perhaps even the godless hedonists in Europe) is much more prevalent than you'd think. I remember sitting at a bar in Penn Station before going home after the FSO test listening to a guy tell me that his son was in the army infantry and he'd been a USMA grad, but the real trouble was going to come in "20 yrs when there is an all out war in the Mid East between the US and Islam, we'd all better be ready to fight" he said. Obviously he's just one person and anecdotal evidence like only counts for so much, but the sad fact is that a lot of Beck's viewers likely already believed a scenario like this is unfolding anyway, where the entire Islamic world unites and fights against us. Beck isn't quite mainstream but he's definitely not some fringe character either. Just check the comments section on any newspaper site, Free Republic, LGF, Blackfive and a lot of other milblogs, etc.
My God, that was the most
My God, that was the most amazing twelve minutes of my life! I'm cutting CNAS a check right now.
Wait, who is behind the
Wait, who is behind the coming insurrection? Is this an Osama thing? Or an Obama thing? Sneaky Kenyan trying to move his caliphate up to Germany while undermining U.S. resources to deal with it.
I do wonder, does he make public the "many experts" that he consulted with to verify his "truth?"
Off to the library I go. But
Off to the library I go. But while both books are intriguing in their own right, I'm also compelled by a gnawing curiosity to see if Hourani will perform as advertised on the specifics of current debate. How will he offer the definitive word on the Muslim Brotherhood 1928-2011? Has nothing transpired or come to light since his writing in 1962 to reshape matters? History is relevant and interesting, but how can it be an "antidote" to modern assumptions unless reason is given for how and why the conclusions and insights of the past apply to today's particular circumstances?
It gets worse: Fox had
It gets worse: Fox had written "EGYPT" on Iraq in their map of the Middle East.
Either way: Give us a reaction to the fresh violence! Looks like a setup extrodinaire.
Trying to sift thru all the
Trying to sift thru all the OSINT on this tough at best; What do you think about the Brookings Institutes reviews and analysis? i guess my question is, what OSINT Think tank Sources do you feel are credible sources of information:
do you have a couple of web sites, in addition to your blogs that one might follow?
Is it obvious that Glenn Beck
Is it obvious that Glenn Beck is wrong? There is certainly a possibility that Egypt will go the way of Iran.
That possibility does not bother ME. I think that the US has done far more harm to Iran than vice versa. And I believe that if the Egyptians want to be ruled by the Muslim brotherhood, it is their business. It is not the business of America to tell other nations what to do.
But I think it is dishonest to pretend that there is NO similarity between 1979 Iran and Egypt now. We have to wait and see what happens.
"I am going to tell why we
"I am going to tell why we really went to Iraq in a few moments". He's been doing this for years, and now he's going to tell!!!
I actually thought Beck
I actually thought Beck referring to Arab dictators as 'Frenemies' was pretty funny. The only quasi-accurate statement of the whole rant!
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