Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Tawfik sent an official letter Tuesday to the editor of the Washington Post protesting the paper's coverage of events in Egypt. Tawfik criticized the Post's January 30 editorial entitled "A Bleak Anniversary in Egypt," describing it as biased and insensitive, adding that it was published barely hours after the terrorist attack that took the lives of over 30 Egyptians. The letter condemned the editorial board's failure to show compassion for the plight of the families killed in that attack, and said the only mention of the attack was in laying the blame for the terrorists' acts on the Egyptian government. "By this skewed logic,' Tawfik replied, "Who should we say bears the blame for the Oklahoma or Boston bombings?" The letter continued: "On the other hand, the The Post's coverage of Paris attacks was extensive and balanced and yet the much wider carnage that Boko Haram committed in Nigeria received minimal coverage. Isn't it legitimate for Egyptians and other Third World peoples to ask if The Post puts the same value on the lives of all human beings? Indeed, they have every right to wonder whether The Post and other like-minded Institutions consider us to be legitimate testing grounds for their geopolitical theories and social experiments." Tawfik accused the Post of being biased towards the Muslim Brotherhood with editorials, opinion pieces and every aspect of coverage, writing, "In August 2013, when Brotherhood supporters launched a coordinated campaign of attacks against police stations and Christian churches, The Post's coverage brazenly suggested that the police were behind these attacks. The outlet also consistently promotes the polished English of Muslim Brotherhood propagandists, while muting attention to that organization's Arabic messages, which drive extreme Islamist rhetoric and call for bloodshed, martyrdom and terror. Most recently, the official website of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called in Arabic for its supporters to prepare for ‘relentless jihad where we ask for martyrdom' in Egypt. The Post has gone out of its way to absolve the Muslim Brotherhood of their crimes. This is evidenced by its claim in the aforementioned editorial that "more than 20 protesters were killed by police." The editorial conveniently neglected to mention that at least three of the dead were Muslim Brotherhood supporters who were killed when the bombs they were planting prematurely exploded, and that two were policemen killed by their ‘peaceful protestors.' The investigation will show the number of Muslim Brotherhood supporters who lost their lives in these incidents and how many of the dead were their victims, or unfortunate bystanders who got caught in the crossfire. This latest editorial's greatest service to Muslim Brotherhood propaganda, however, came when it equated peaceful protestor Shaimaa al-Sabbagh with those terrorist bomb makers. Together with millions of Egyptians, I have mourned Shaimaa's death. President Al Sisi has clearly stated that he thinks of her as his own daughter. A thorough independent investigation is underway to bring the perpetrators to justice. But to use this innocent woman's death to whitewash the Muslim Brotherhood's violence is inexcusable. The Post has not been alone in propagating the illusion that the Muslim Brotherhood is ‘peaceful,' has "renounced violence," and represents ‘moderate Islam,' rather than recognize the historically uncontested fact that it is the mother organization from which modern day violent jihad has sprung and that its main theorist, Sayyid Qutb, remains to this day a source of inspiration for terrorists around the world. History shows how a small number of Western academics and lobbyists succeeded in repackaging the Muslim Brotherhood and selling it to their elites as the panacea for curing radicalism, rather than the Trojan horse it really is," he added. he praised the Egyptian president's efforts to fight extremism, saying that "President Al Sisi is leading the way—calling for a revolution in Islamic thought to deny extremists the opportunity to exploit it to their sinister ends. Leading by example, he became the first Egyptian leader to visit the Orthodox Cathedral in Abasseya to wish his Christian compatriots a merry Christmas. A conference organized by Al-Azhar late last year emphasized that confronting violent extremist ideology can only succeed if we draw on the rich heritage of tolerance that our peoples have practiced for centuries, rather than invent excuses for the Muslim Brotherhood," adding, "The persistently flawed lens with which The Post misrepresents the words and actions of President Al Sisi is misguided and threatens the very goal of stamping out radicalism in the region." Tawfik enclosed his letter by calling on the Washington Post to be honest to its readers to save its credibility: "I neither expect nor wish for The Post's coverage of Egypt to be biased to our perspective. But I sincerely hope you will find the courage to revise your positions, not as a favor to Egypt, which will remain a great and confident nation no matter what you say, but to provide a more honest service to your readers and save whatever is left of your credibility in the Arab world."
