The Fake Outrage of the "Muslim Street"

Egyptian Sandmonkey has stumbled upon a very interesting discovery!

It turns out that in October of 2005, an Egyptian publication published those very cartoons that Muslims all over the world are now "outraged" about, but not a single peep emerged from the "Muslim street" back then!

Click here to check out the Sand Monkey's Entry. He has scaned the newspaper, so there is no doubting the authenticity of his claim!

The question we now have to ask ourselves now is WHY?

Why did Muslims decide that it was appropriate to protest and burn embassies these past two weeks, but not in October when the cartoons were first published (in a prominent Egyptian daily mind you)?

I have my suspicions (they're quite obvious), the Sand Monkey has his....

Now while the arab islamic population was going crazy over the outrage created by their government's media over these cartoons, their governments was benifitting from its people's distraction. The Saudi royal Family used it to distract its people from the outrage over the Hajj stampede. The Jordanian government used it to distract its people from their new minimum wage law demanded by their labor unions. The Syrian Government used it to create secterian division in Lebanon and change the focus on the Harriri murder. And, finally, the Egyptian government is using it to distract us while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt's poorest families. But, see, the people were not paying attention, because they were too busy defending the prophet by sending out millions of e-mails and SMS-messages, boycotting cheese and Lego and burning Butter and the danish Flag. Let's not even mention the idiots who went the usual route of "It's a jewish conspiracy", spouted the stupid argument about the Holocaust, or went on a diatribe with the old favorite "There is an organized campaign-headed by the west and the jews- to attack and discredit Islam, and we have to defend it". They proved, once again, that the arab world is retarded and deserves no better than its leaders.

Qudos to Sand Monkey for this wonderfull discovery! This type of stuff is what the Blogosphere was made for!

Update: Michael Totten has brought to my attention this article from the Wall Street Journal that documents the Egyptian government's role in fanning the flames of protest. The article will be accessible today only, so I will copy and paste some exerpts.

In this volatile environment, a group of Danish Islamic clerics angered by the cartoons succeeded in enlisting help from Egypt's secular government, which has been struggling to contain a potent Islamist opposition. Secular forces in the Arab world, eager to burnish their image as defenders of Islam, provided an important initial impetus for the protests, but now are scrambling to control the fury.

...

Mr. Abu-Laban began working closely with Cairo's embassy in Copenhagen, holding several meetings with Egypt's ambassador to Denmark, Mona Omar Attia. "Egypt's embassy played a fundamental role," he says. Egypt and other Arab regimes saw the furor as a good opportunity "to counteract pressure from the West" and "to show people they are good Muslims," he says.

...

The first delegation left for Cairo in early December. As that nation was about to hold the final round of the first democratic election in modern Egyptian history, the government was battling accusations from some quarters of insufficient piety. Ms. Attia, the ambassador, denies that authorities tried to manipulate the cartoon issue as an electoral ploy.