Anti-President Protests In Egypt Grab Headlines In Syrian Media

Egypt’s anti-president protests on Sunday grabbed the headlines of Syria’s state media which appeared flagrantly biased in favor of the nationwide movement.

Since the beginning of the protests, Syria’s TV channels, Facebook pages, and the state agency website have been dedicating inclusive coverage to the events in Egypt with a tone biased toward the protesters opposing President Mohamed Morsi.

With Egypt recently cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and Morsi waving the Syrian rebels’ flag, Damascus unleashed a barrage of criticism against the Egyptian president who hails from the powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

Syria’s pro-government TVs kept airing satirical news program of Bassem Youssef, better known as Egypt’s Jon Stewart, who had once been detained for criticizing and poking fun at Morsi.

A news anchor at Ekhbaria TV said the protesters in Egypt have “right demands” with the screen behind her split into seven sections showing live protests scenes in different Egyptian cities.

The Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad has a history of enmity with the Muslim Brotherhood, especially in 1980s and recently during Syria’s two-year-long crisis where the rebels share the mindsets of the Islamic group.

Shaker Murjawi, a Lebanese political analyst, told the Syrian Sama TV that if Morsi fell, the project of the Muslim Brotherhood, not only in Egypt, but also in Syria and Turkey, would also collapse.

Apart from the media coverage, some Syrian pro-government protesters rallied at the Egyptian Embassy in Damascus, burning posters of Morsi and stepping over his photo while hoisting Syrian and Egyptian flags.

Official SANA news agency cited Suhiab Shuaib, a political analyst, as saying that the rally at the embassy came to express full support for the Egyptians in their rejection to the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood “that has taken Egypt years backward and tired to spread ignorance and extremism under false names.”

SANA also said in a commentary that “the shaky throne of Brotherhood has started to reel in Egypt at the roaring squares where throats are warbling and calling President Mohamed Morsi and his Brotherhood to return Egypt to the Egyptians.”

The news agency also slammed the pro-Morsi demonstrators who gathered in Raba al-Adawieh Square, saying the supporters of the Brotherhood are “trying to create confusion… at a time when Egypt … has started a flow toward the day of victory… against an authority that has proven, by all aspects, its despotic nature. “

Millions of anti-Morsi protesters gathered Sunday in Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square, the area where protesters brought down former President Hosni Mubarak a couple of years ago.

At least four were killed Sunday in Upper Egypt during armed attacks on anti-president protests in Beni Suef and Assiut, state- run news agency MENA reported.

Also, Egypt’s health ministry said that at over 250 were injured so far in the pro- and anti-president protests in several governorates including Cairo, Alexandria, Daqahliya, Gharbiya, Minufiya, Beheira and Beni Suef.

Xinhua