Morsi's post consisted of the address to the Egyptian people at Tahrir Square, after his election. It was flowing in superlatives. Below, just a few snippets:
"Social justice, freedom and human dignity are our basic slogans..."
"We Egyptians, Muslims and Christians, are harbingers of development and civilisation and we will remain so."
"we will work to have a system of Egyptian values, especially in the area of freedom and human rights, and women's and children's rights, and to remove all forms of discrimination."
"Therefore, say with me together my beloved people, by our will and our unity and our love for each other, we will be able to make a great future."Soon enough, in the comments section, PeterNW1 linked to a post by the (US-based) Egyptian Coptic blogger Raymond Ibrahim, who'd found a snippet by President Morsi from six months back:
The original article on elbashayer.com can be seen here. The Google translation contains this fragment:
According to the popular Egyptian website, El Bashayer, Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, just declared that he will "achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya," the traditional Islamic tax, or financial tribute, required of non-Muslim "dhimmis."
In a brief report written by Samuel al-Ashay and published by El Bashayer on May 27, Morsi allegedly made these comments while speaking with a journalist at the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, adding "We will not allow Ahmed Shafiq or anyone else to impede our second Islamic conquest of Egypt."
Mohamed Morsi Alastbn candidate for the Brotherhood, Egypt Amusliman it would open for the second time and enter all the Christians in Islam or to pay tribute.and
Mursi said the second is the conqueror Mohammed Morsi and me Cisgelh history.
The journalist said: What do you think voting in the cluster given by the Copts for the team Shafiq.
Mercy replied, saying: They have to know that the opening is coming and Egypt will be Muslim and they have to pay tribute or migrate as one who left.
Although, as all Google translations, it's not 100% perfect, the context seems clear enough. According to Morsi, Christians in Egypt will have 3 choices: convert to Islam, pay a tribute or leave Egypt.
Another user, "Hereslookingatyou", responded to PeterNW1's post, accusing Raymond Ibrahim of being an "Islamophobe", and saying that the accusation at Morsi was a "lie". As a response, I wrote the following comment, under my long-time Guardian username:
Response to Hereslookingatyou, 25 June 2012 8:17PM
The following day, the comment had 50 recommends - then disappeared...
Below is a screenshot of the comment:
The next picture shows the comment, with the previous comment visible:
The final screenshot shows the comments page after the deletion:
Did the post - consisting of a citation of another website, and recollection of Morsi's past statements - contain "hate speech", or anything else which would break the Guardian's community standards?
PeterNW1's comment (about Morsi suggesting Christians should pay the Jizya) is still visible on other threads. Which begs the question - was my comment deleted by a Guardian moderator (surely extreme, even for them?) or did Morsi himself, or one of his staff, take it upon themselves to re-edit the comments in such a way that "inconvenient" comments ceased to exist?
And if so, what might that imply for the future of Egypt?



Err, the original source (of Ibrahim's article) is elbashayer.com, not Raymond Ibrahim - and the Google translation does indeed suggest that Mohammed Morsi, the new president of Egypt, said that Christians in Egypt should "pay a tribute".
And there's nothing to suggest that elbashayer.com in Arabic is an "Islamophobic" website.
So, looks like Mohammed Morsi, who a year ago in a BBC interview said that the Muslim Brotherhood "wouldn't put up a candidate for president", is making false promises again - either to the English or Arabic-speaking public. Deal with it.