Like it or not, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart is relevant in American politics. If he talks about something, it’s news with a significant contingent of Americans. When it comes to the scandal involving Malik Obama, even Bassem Youssef – the man billed as Egypt’s equivalent of Jon Stewart – has addressed the charges. In Egypt, the story is as pervasive as the Casey Anthony trial or the Duck Dynasty flaps were in the U.S. last year.
Jon Stewart with his Egyptian counterpart, Bassem Youssef last year.
Who can know why Youssef decided to address the topic only in an attempt to dismiss it by subtly mocking Tahani al-Jebali’s claims that President Obama’s brother is an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Jebali, a very credible former Chancellor of the Constitutional Court of Egypt, made the charges publicly last August and has been vindicated with subsequent discoveries.
Youssef’s overall point was well taken, that people shouldn’t run with conspiracy theories based on rumors, inuendos, or unreliable sources. The problem with Malik Obama is that much of the evidence against him comes straight from his own website.
The preferred tactic of forces with a stake in seeing a scandal not come to light is ignoring it. When that is no longer possible, the next tactic is to mock those who make the claims. When such a tactic is used by the likes of Bassem Youssef in Egypt, it’s significant.
To say the scandal involving Malik Obama is reaching critical mass in Egypt would be an understatement. In the U.S., it’s been largely ignored, even by conservative media. To his credit, Mark Steyn addressed it on June 3rd of last year while guest-hosting for Rush Limbaugh (audio below) but even as the evidence has mounted since, Limbaugh hasn’t touched the story.
American Spectator’s Jeffrey Lord picked up the story last May and then did a follow-up to our work that highlighted George Clooney’s hypocrisy relative to the latter’s crusade against Omar al-Bashir, coupled with his support for Barack Obama.
Much has happened since then. Just this month, we published the details of leaked documents from Egyptian security forces that implicate not only Malik’s Islamic Da’Wa Organization (IDO) but also the Obamas and the Clinons. A photo from Malik’s website shows him donning a pro-Hamas scarf while in Yemen in 2010.
Gateway Pundit, World Net Daily, Pajamas Media, FrontPage Magazine, American Thinker, and others have taken notice of the scandal – as has Memeorandum, which posts stories that are trending most in the news. When this story reaches critical mass in the U.S. – like it has in Egypt – there will be politicians who will have a lot of explaining to do.
Critical mass is coming and the longer men in power knew and did nothing, the more culpable they will be.
As always, we remind people that the guilt by association argument is invalid because of the treatment Malik Obama received from his brother’s IRS.
Here is the video of Youssef attempting to diminish the scandal with a comedy bit intended to paint it as a conspiracy theory, though it is in Arabic (18:20 mark). We expect it to be removed at some point but it’s there now.