Listen to some "terrorism" analysts on the tee vee, and you'd think that the protests in Egypt and Tunisia have been led by Osama Bin Laden himself. But don't buy the spin. These jihadi posers are trying to squeeze as much media attention out of the Middle East upheaval as the pundits you see popping up on cable news.

Since a wave of protests swept one dictator out of power in Tunisia and hobbled another in Egypt, jihadis have found themselves irrelevant to the revolutions. Demonstrators' demands for representative and transparent governments stand don't square with the aims of the extremists, who hold any form of government other than a pseudo-Islamic theocracy to be gravely sinful polytheism. Moreover, Egyptians and Tunisians have made progress by largely peaceful mass protest, rather than through the wanton violence against civilians advocated by self-appointed jihadi vanguards.

But being on the sidelines can get uncomfortable for folks who have enjoyed viewing themselves as at the center of events in the Middle East these past few years. They can't even claim a monopoly on the Islamist boogeyman spotlight, forced to share it with the Muslim Brotherhood – a group they hate because of its participation in electoral politics.

"These guys are consummate media whores," says Brian Fishman, a Counterterrorism Research Fellow at the New America Foundation. "They’re looking to do what media whores do everywhere, which is to be opportunistic."

And opportunistic they have been. Despite holding the dearly paid-for hopes of these movements in contempt, jihadis have sought to position themselves with the people of Egypt and Tunisia by emphasizing their approval of ousting dictators, their only – and extremely narrow – point of tangency.

Prominent jihadi clerics such as Abu Mundhir al-Shanqiti have played up their approval of removing dicatators. In a recent statement on Egypt translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, Shanqiti gave his post-facto blessing to the Mubarak removal efforts. "The call to submissiveness before the tyrants under the pretext of protecting the security of the country and the people, is a form of support to this oppression and a form of opposition to the Shariah texts that commanded its removal," he wrote. "Besides, the security of the country and the people will not be achieved except by terminating these tyrants and getting rid of them.”

In the wake of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's exit, al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb also released a statement to the Tunisian people, congratulating Tunisians – and themselves, despite having not participated in the demonstrations – on the removal of Ben Ali. "That day [when Ben Ali left] was a true celebration. From the most beautiful and joyous celebrations for Muslims, so congratulations to you, and to us, and to the rest of Muslims, with this celebration, and with this victory that time has for long not seen, so praise to Allah, then praise to Allah."

Individual jihadi forum-goers are participating in the discussion, as well. "Since the uprisings began in Tunisia, and then in Egypt, the major forums have been flooded with posts about the events," says Adam Raisman, a senior analyst at SITE Intelligence Group "From the posts I have read, there is not a great deal of concern about the irrelevance of jihadis in what is happening. They appear genuinely happy, if not ecstatic, that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia and that Hosni Mubarak may soon follow suit."

Fishman cautions that not all jihadi commentary on Egypt and Tunisia is the product of consciously cynical framing, some of it's just plain self-delusion. "Just like you see this debate in Washington where everyone interprets these [protest] groups according to their own desires and fears, I think the jihadis are doing the same. They're reading into this what they want to."

Photo: IntelCenter

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