Egyptian blogging on trial
The trial of Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, who is on trial for his writings criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, Islam and President Husni Mubarak, resumes in his home town of Alexandria today. Fellow blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy writes:
- From the way the trial has been going, and Kareem’s family’s recent media stunt, unfortunately I’m expecting a harsh verdict. I hope I’m proven wrong…
Kareem's supporters have been running a support blog called Free Kareem, which distributes news of the various public actions being held in his support in various places around the world. I see that sadly none are listed for Egypt. The only Middle Eastern country in which activities are posted is Bahrain. The photos indicate that many of these actions are very sparsely attended. Having taken part in any number of sparsely attended public actions of my own I understand that doing that-- especially in a place where such public actions are not very common-- takes a certain amount of courage.
The way I see it, this trial is about Kareem Amer-- but it is also about the fate of blogging and the freedom of expression in general, in Egypt. In the past few years all of the public media here has become markedly more open and more ready to publish views highly critical of the regime. This applies to the print media as well as the blogosphere and other portions of the internet.
Here, by the way, is a very interesting article on the whole subject that was posted recently on the Muslim Brotherhood's website. It surveys the whole scene of the Egyptian blogosphere-- secular and pro-MB-- and has material from an interview conducted with Hamalawy:
- Hossam el-Hamalawy, one of the most famous Egyptian bloggers, whos is publishing http://arabist.net/arabawy/, says that the Muslim Brotherhood experience with the Internet started early, seeing the Islamic group as among first political powers to use the Internet and Email groups from an early time.
El-Hamalawy suggested that he was receiving many Emails and statements from Muslim Brotherhood Email Groups as early as 2002.
El-Hamalawy added that the weblogs have been introduced to Egypt by the secularists, specially Leftists whether the mainstream Left ( those affiliated to a leftist party or group ) or leftist individuals; but the actual revolution of weblogs in Egypt was during 2005 referendum, after which bloggers managed to make weblogs a credited source of news.
El-Hamalawy pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood’s young members’ use of the weblogs took place later on may be because the weblogs are considered personal diaries in which personal feelings are expressed while the Muslim Brotherhood discourse avoids such methods, specially under the tense relation with the regime and security.
El Hamalawi added that the most important Muslim Brotherhood weblog that has been recently browsing is: http://ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com/ because it follows up the news of detentions among the Muslim Brotherhood group.
And here is a post from yesterday on the MB website, under the title Blogs against military rulers, which summarizes some recent blog postings on the continuing campaign of detention and economic expropriation that the Egyptian authorities have been maintaining against the MB.
I just note, finally, that if Kareem Amer is sentenced to a jail term it is possible he could be subjected to some bad harrassment in jail-- from guards or fellow prisoners who object to the criticisms he has voiced of the role of Muslim religious authorities and/or are influenced by the government's accusations that that makes him un-Islamic and a threat to national security. I think it would be excellent if an influential organization like the MB could declare publicly that it stands against any mistreatment of Kareem Amer or any individual on the basis only of views that he or she has expressed and of government accusations against him...
I see that Abu Aardvark has an excellent post on the Free Kareem campaign on his blog today. He writes,
I am not criticizing anyone for rallying to Nabeel's [i.e. Kareem's] or [Ayman] Nour's defense. They should. But they should also see this as part of a comprehensive regime crackdown on Egyptian political opposition, with the attack on the Muslim Brotherhood the leading edge of the regime's anti-democratic backlash. People who claim to care about Egyptian reform, democratization, and human rights should take a slightly wider view of the problem than the travails of one anti-Islamist blogger or one liberal politician.
I completely agree.
BBC has him sentenced to four years
I am deeply concerned that we continue to fund Sunni-Arab dominated dictatorships that commit grave human rights abuses and do not allow for sufficient political representation by opposition parties.
I am also struck by a recent case where Saudi Arabia had 4 Sri Lankan robbers beaten, detained without trial, and executed, their headless bodies being left on public display afterwards. This is a criminal action against humanity itself, and it goes well beyond the bounds of cultural relativism. It is a disgusting act to unfairly imprison, torture, and kill someone without even allowing them minimal legal representation.
Sorry I didn't focus on the case of the blogger, I just think that these issues are directly tied, and that action towards some kind of basic respect for human rights (which should determine aid) on both fronts is sorely needed. Of course, I try not to be too cynical about this, but it does seem to be that an American need to retain access to oil as well as political influence in the Sunni Arab world has resulted in our bankrolling deeply repressive regimes (in case anyone asks, I think the same applies to Israel, with the difference that Israeli Jews have a great deal of liberty from the state while Israeli Arabs as well as occupied and enemy Arabs do not have nearly the same rights).
You are right mike, but Sunni has nothing to do with it, nor does Arab : "...we continue to fund dictatorships.." And not just "dictatorships" either, in Colombia and the Phillipines, in Sri Lanka itself, in Israel, in Azerbaijan...wherever the rich are bullying the poor, regardless of race or religion or constitutional preferences there you will find the United States.
I think you misunderstand me. We are in essential agreement. But there is a big difference in the Middle East from other places. My point is not at all that there is anything in Sunni Islam that makes states worse than others. For there are countries like Malaysia and some small Gulf countries and Lebanon that do just fine. My point is that a whole alliance of people who identify themselves as "Sunni" and launch attacks on the very religion of Shiites (as with dozens of Saudi clerics, or Egyptian insurgent TV which depicts Iraqi Shiites as pawns of Iran set to dominate) is being sponsored by the U.S. We are giving money to these countries which directly create sectarian issues.
And my point about internal repression was not directed at Sunni Islam in particular. Decapitating foreigners without even trying them and then putting their bodies on public display is morally illegitimate. But consider the motive for doing such: it is presumably to deter others from doing such and to "maintain moral standards". To the extent that this overzealous and fanatical interpretation of law is linked to any particular religion, then we should be highly critical of that particular manifestation of the religion (though not the religion itself in broad terms).