Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Abul-Naga

"It is not that people in Tahrir were oblivious of the role traditionally played by Saudi Arabia, Israel or the US over the past three decades in bolstering Mubarak and his defunct regime. Rather, it is that Egyptians (and I suspect Tunisians, Libyans, Yemenis, Syrians and millions of other Arabs) have felt, probably for the first time in a hundred years, that they don’t have to take their cue from Washington, London or Paris; that they are the ones who write their own history, and that they are the shapers of their own destiny...For while she is going after US and German pro-democracy organizations, she seems to be unconcerned about the millions of US dollars that state media itself said Saudi Arabia and Qatar had sent to numerous Salafi organizations. Nor does she seem to be concerned about the fact that this money was used to finance candidates in the parliamentary elections, in a clear violation not only of the NGO law, but also of the elections law and the parties' laws." (thanks Laura)