Many years ago, the average Arabs would attribute most of the woes of the Middle East to western conspiracies. But since the Arab Spring -- or winter! -- things started changing and youth in Arab countries would mock those who still believe in conspiracy theories and would instead speculate about the internal mistakes that could have possibly led to the situation at hand.
But the conspiracy talk came again to the forefront in Egypt after monitoring the discrepancy between Western media coverage of the tragedy of the Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 and that of the EgyptAir Flight 804.
After the crash of the Russian flight in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on 31 October 2015, all media reports were -- understandably and logically -- questioning the security of Sharm El Sheikh airport. Britain was quick to suspend all flights to the Red sea resort, even before the Russians although none of the victims were British. UK attributed this decision to communications intercepted by British intelligence which showed ISIS extremists had plotted a major terror attack in the region. It remains unknown till today why UK did not share such valuable information with Egypt nor Russia.Egypt was crucified in every possible way by Western media ignoring the fact that the Middle Eastern country was also a victim of this terror act.
The media treated EgyptAir Flight 804 similarly although the circumstances were totally different. The Airbus A320 took off from Charles de Gaulle Airport heading to Cairo on the 18 May 2016 but it never reached its destination as it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Mother of Yara Tawfik, a cabin crew member who was on board EgyptAir's MS804, kiss her portrait during her funeral service in Cairo. (Photo by: @aymanarefsaad)
All 66 on board are believed to be dead. 33 of them were Egyptians, and somehow every Egyptian family felt emotionally connected to them. Social media reacted by calling for prayers for the souls of all the passengers, pictures of the victims and their mourning families were widely shared amongst internet users in Egypt. In this heart-breaking atmosphere and while all Egyptians were bracing and waiting for results of the investigations to tell them how this tragedy happened, they were taken aback by the misleading coverage of the incident by Western media. For instance, instead of showing facts about the latest Paris terror attacks and how they may be linked to the tragedy or the security status of Charles de Gaulle airport, stories created were trying to cast responsibility of what happened on Egyptair!
We see that the New York Times built a whole story suggesting that Egypt was aware of terror threats based on an irrelevant incident that took place two years ago when some workers in the airport drew political graffiti on the plane!
In an eerie coincidence, the EgyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was once the target of political vandals who wrote in Arabic on its underside, "We will bring this plane down."Three EgyptAir security officials said the threatening graffiti, which appeared about two years ago, had been the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport.
What was also shocking to victims' families the stories -- like the one by the LA Times -- suggesting that the crash might have been caused by the suicide of the pilot although no evidence nor reports support this theory at all.
More outrageously, a French photojournalist was reportedly fired from her job when she refused to make up a story about the lack of security of the Egyptian airline because she insisted that no evidence till now suggest the responsibility of Egyptair.
Such discrepancy in the coverage of Western media make the average Egyptian reflect on the reasons behind such double standards and clear bias. Away from all the irrational talks about conspiracy, one can't help but wonder about the narrative that is being forced to be held about Egypt.