The Traveller Within

حازم صلاح أبو إسماعيل عدو البيبسي الأول

2011-12-04T01:19:00.006+02:00

(english speakers: skip the text, go to the video, it's subtitled. And know that this guy wants to run for President in Egypt...)

شاهدت ال"شيخ" حازم صلاح أبو إسماعيل - و إستخدامي للفظة شيخ هنا دلالة على السن لا المكانة الدي
نية - يتحدث بفصاحة و لباقة شديدتين على التلفزيون. أعجبني أسلوبه و نجاحة في الهروب من الأسئلة الصعبة.

بس أتذكر أن حازم أبو إسماعيل مهما لبس من البدل فهو ما زال الرجل الذي يقبل أيدي قادة الإخوان (و هو حر في ذلك) - داحضا أي كلام عن إختلافات جوهرية فهم جميعا أبناء فكر واحد، و من لا يجد غضاضة في ذلك أنصحه بالتفكير المستقل أولا (مين عارف) و هذا المقال ثانيا.

بس السبب الأساسي لهذه التدوينة هي هذا الفيديو القصير الذي يعطينا فكرة عن قدرة صلاح أبو إسماعيل الذهنية، و إستعداده للكذب و المداهنة لكسب معجبين و رسم نفسه كمدافع عن الدين ضد الأعادي.
و الأعادي في هذا الفيديو هم....

بيبسي. الأشرار ولاد التيييت.

الرجل ده عايز يحكم مصر يا أصحاب.

(ملحوظةـ لو فيه حد فعلا مصدق موضوع بيبسي ده فإعرف أن مشروب بيبسي كولا موجود بإسمه هذا منذ عام 1903. يعني 45 سنة قبل إنشاء إسرائيل أصلا. و إتفصل بقا من هنا عشان أنت من هنا و رايح ممنوع تدخل المدونة دي تاني.)

Samira, exposing Egyptian army violations

2011-11-18T04:56:00.006+02:00

UPDATE: Samira's first hearing is taking place at the State council in Dokki, Giza as we speak. [29 Nov, 10:00 AM]

Samira Ibrahim is 25 and looks younger. Actually she reminded me of those chatty girls who skipped class at Cairo U back in the day.

Samira was arrested by the Egyptian army at Tahrir square on March 9th and subjected to a barbaric "virginity test", which aimed at humiliating female protesters and was conducted by officers, not doctors.

Today. Samira is suing the army, telling her story, demanding her rights, and hopefully ensuring this doesn't happen again.

I am boundlessly admiring.

Global Post has a reasonably good story and interview with Samira.

I also strongly recommend the following video, from the No Military Campaign, titled "Samira's Story: "What happened to me could've happened to any other girl" where you can meet Samira and hear her story. English subtitles are available, click on the "cc" button at the bottom of the screen.

Palestinian Freedom Riders defying Apartheid. Yes, simple as that.

2011-11-18T04:08:00.005+02:00

Six people on a bus they were not allowed to ride because of racial discrimination.

The idea was amazing, touching, 50 years ago, and it still is today. The genius of the act is its simplicity.

Six Palestinians took the bus. Fadi Quran, Nadeem Al-Sharbate, Badee Dwak, Huwaida Arraf, Basel Al-Araj and Mazin Qumsiyeh.
Fadi is a graduate student. Mazin is a professor and historian. Huwaida is a leading activist and the cofounder of the Free Gaza movement.

They waited at a settlers-only bus station in the West Bank. Because even inside the tiniest remaining piece of occupied Palestine, Palestinians aren’t allowed to take certain buses, drive on certain roads, access entire towns.

So they waited at a settlers-only bus station. With keffiyehs, lest you think they were being stealthy. And t-shirts saying “Freedom”. “Justice”. And “We Shall Overcome”. In English and Arabic.

The first bus driver didn’t stop for them. Nor did the second. Or the third.
Eventually one stopped, they got on board. The driver, freaking out, called the Israeli army. Palestinians on a Jewish-only bus! Aberration! How dare they!

The bus pulled in at the Hizmeh checkpoint, one of many that separate the occupied West Bank from internationally-recognized occupied Jerusalem.
The Freedom Riders refused to get off, asserting their right to go to Jerusalem.
The army violently dragged them from the bus and arrested them.

I don’t know about all but I know that at least some of them actually have the residency papers that allow them to go to Jerusalem.

No, that’s not why they were arrested.

It is because they defied a segregated system that determines where you can go, what streets you can walk, what buses you can ride based on your ethnicity.

Huwaida, Mazin, Basel, Badee, Nadeem, and Fadi were later released.
Many more Freedom Riders will undoubtedly follow.

Photos are from the International Solidarity Movement.

Future Parliamentarian Sandmonkey sends you his Eid greetings

2011-11-06T09:27:00.003+02:00

Our friend blogger/writer extraordinaire Mahmoud Salem, otherwise known as the Sandmonkey, is running for Parliament as an independent for the Heliopolis seat. This banner - and others like it - appeared this week in the neighbourhood, and are, i believe, the beginning of his public campaign.

Make sure you vote for him on November 28th!

PS -- clicking sandmonkey.org redirects you to his campaign website: http://salem2011.org/

Check it out for yourself. NOW.

The Maspero killings and the shit we don't want to face but will have to eventually

2011-10-11T18:04:00.004+02:00

Since Jan25, I have seldom felt as down as i did in the past two days, after a peaceful march in Cairo on the evening of October 9th ended in blood and mayhem, leaving 23 civilians dead and hundreds of injured.

How it happened? My guess: the Army underestimated the resolve of the protesters + took for granted that they'd be easy to disperse or would bend to light violence. They didn't; the soldiers freaked out and went crazy, literally running people over. So not premeditated per se, only insofar that they thought they had a soft target ahead they could manhandle all they wanted.

That the protesters were mostly christian is still tangential to my story, but i'll get to it very quickly.

Now a lot of us managed to see through the dust and realize that this was a people-vs-state, revolution-vs-status quo fight. And it absolutely is. Revolution continues. The public discourse in the local media is also by and large followed suit; editorials about "Egypt is bleeding" and variations thereof abound and help drive the point.

But go outside the circles of activists (and of our Twittersphere) and you'll realise that unfortunately not everyone is getting past the easier Muslim-Christian dichotomy.
Two (three, rather) main reasons for that:

A - deep held mistrust between religious communities; there's little point in burying our heads in the sand really. By and large, Christians stay among themselves, Muslims as well. (you know i'm right). Of course it's easy to camouflage that in a game of numbers (in a country where 90% are Muslims it's easy to say that an all-Muslim group is a fully acceptable statistical event) or in "community events" for Christians but, save for a lucky few, close social circles are often religiously homogeneous, or nearly so.

B - state-sponsored incitement. Man did state television go completely insane on Sunday - with lines such as "the christians killed soldiers" and "we call upon honest citizens to go defend the army" (the absurdity of it never hit them) national television was in full incitement mode.

C - Add to the above that the amount of misinformation, as well as missing information is staggering. From the genesis of the crisis - a problem around a church/church-related building in Aswan and its permits - to the actual number of victims, particularly within the army, we don't know half the truth.

And in the absence of truth, lies (and, worse, rumours) prevail.
(just so you get an idea of the breadth of the rumours: one is that the army had killed more people and dumped their bodies in the Nile. Yep, that much.).

And what is being done to help clarify the state-vs-people narrative to the people who have fallen for the muslim-vs-christian one? NOTHING.

Worse even. While we've adopted the state-vs-people narrative, the government solutions - or rather reactions, for solutions they are not - are all in response to the presumed muslims-vs-christians axis.

The Cabinet - that lame duck of a cabinet - is adopting a "unified law on houses of worship" which we've long called for and which would theoretically resolve a few issues (though assuming the problem was really about that is a drastic oversimplification); and now there are talks of an "anti-discrimination law" which will surely both be redundant, for there are laws in that perspective, but most importantly will be hastily written overnight and adopted by said lame duck of a cabinet and will lead to an awful number of transgressions and misapplications, in the time-honoured tradition of overreacting.

Which leads me to the core of the "shit we don't want to face but will eventually have to":

1 - the reaction of the public at large.

First, your regular Muslim citizen. A numerical majority, what they have seen - especially in the absence of proper information, which is a HUGE cause of the problem - on television (according to a number of people of all walks of life i have spoken to in the past two days) can be summed up as follows:

->; christians riot;
-->; the mainstream media mourning the dead rioters;
--->; nobody mourning the dead soldiers;
---->; the state offering concessions to Christians.

if you think I'm exaggerating, just read a newspaper. Heck, just the front page of today's Al-Ahram. If you don't know any better, this is exactly the impression you'll get.
What that could possibly lead to is resentment.
Which is, well, bad.

Conversely, your average Christian: witnessing young co-religionaries being run over by APCs and armoured vehicles can only beget anger. Especially when no-one is held accountable for their death. Not unlike within Muslim ranks, there are TV stations and bearded dudes who are peddling the Muslim-vs-Christian narrative. It's a particularly easy narrative to have adopted when the audience has indeed suffered discrimination in the past.

2- the army.

The army took a severe beating on Sunday - of the kind the police has been getting since the onset of 2011. I'm not saying that it wasn't deserved, far from that - they really had it coming - but they're not acquainted to those. As of this morning, the army was refusing to release the names and numbers of the army injured and dead. Which could hint towards what was my first reaction:that they're lying and that the army has had no victims -which would go in the direction of what our sycophant of a minister of (mis-)Information had said, that "we are not sure army soldiers were attacked by protesters", a statement he pronounced after his overzealous minions on state TV had screamed that "the coptic protesters are killing army personnel".

But we do know the army suffered casualties. We've seen videos of protesters chasing soldiers - especially those they managed to snatch out of the vehicles that were running people over - and beating them. So that some soldiers would've died is not improbable.

Then why keep the numbers secret?

one explanation might be that they don't want to appear like wusses who can't defend themselves in front of an unarmed group;
But another possible explanation i heard today, and which is all the more frightening because it's also not improbable: because the army doesn't want to mine the morale of its own troops.
Because what if you're an army soldier and you hear that X of your buddies, brainless conscripts or fellow officers, were killed by protesters - how would you react when you are next sent to break up a protest?
You'll be very. Very. Violent.

(and if you add a religious resentment to your hatred of protesters, well, it'll get even uglier.)

Make no mistake: we MUST get into full crisis management mode. This is one of the nastiest events we've had to deal with, not only for the sheer amount of grief it brought, but also for its repercussions.

As we think of remedying the problems that Egyptian Christians face at home, we must keep in mind what that means to, or how it impacts the rest of the society. Solutions (not band-aids) need be found, Proper communication must be conducted to ensure that everyone understands that what is being done will be rectifying an injustice, not giving someone an unjust advantage. Which is why i am a little weary of this new anti-discrimination law -- i fear it will be misused. Because that could also turn ugly.

Then the army. We've often tried - without really meaning it - to distinguish between the SCAF (the villains) and the army (who are 'our boys'). We never believed our own lie because, let's face it, the army is the SCAF's tool of repression.
But if, as i suspect, we'll be facing on the streets an angry army that wishes to avenge its dead, then the next phase - regardless of the politics of the SCAF, which are a different discussion altogether - could be a very bloody one.

So there you have it.
Brace yourselves. Prepare for a rough landing. It's going to hurt.

The Anna Lindh Journalism Awards (I, umm, won!)

2011-10-11T03:38:00.006+02:00

[Entry crossposted at eldahshan.com and at travellerwithin.com – hoping to consolidate both into one website. Promise! Apologies if that has caused any confusion to new readers.]

I was already ecstatic when I received an email informing me I was shortlisted for an Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean journalism award. Such an honour!

As I saw the competition however, I simultaneously grumbled and sighed (as well as had googley eyes and frowned at the same time. Yes, multitasking facial expressions is a gift). Among such impressive company, my chances were slim at best.

So I just went with the motions and went ahead to Monaco – the visit itself shall be a different post - and tried to enjoy my 40-hour visit to the city-state. (and I did).

The ceremony was held this week at the Oceanographic museum, home to the world-famous Monaco aquarium and its mini-sharks. Seriously, mini – no bigger than a large bottle of water. Cute sharks. Who’d have thought. Nature has a funny sense of humour.

Anyway. Though originally running in the “Citizenship and Democracy” category with a selection of articles written during and after the revolution, I was actually awarded a Honorary prize by the Jury, alongside Palestinian blogger Asmaa El Ghoul, for our writing both online and offline.

Which is, well, pretty damn awesome. Very, very happy here!

(For some obscure reason, the AFP journalist which many others copied decided I was a “face of the Arab Spring” – an epithet whose ridicule is only match by my dislike to the expression “Arab Spring”. I never claimed I was. Nor did I say a word of the first 15 lines, which they copied off my blog and pretended I said it during the interview).

The other wonderful winners, in the press, television, and radio categories are:

Iason Athanasiadis (Greece) : “Revolution Game Over?” – Al-Majalla Online Newspaper

Abdel Aziz Hali (Tunisia) : « Il était une fois deux révolutions » - Le Temps

Rachel Shabi (UK) : “We were looking for a nice, peaceful place near Jerusalem” - The Guardian

Mekioussa Chekir (Algeria) : « La tolérance à l’épreuve de l’unanimisme religieux » - La Tribune

TV: Nada Abdelsamad (Lebanon) : “The Jews of Lebanon” - BBC Arabic

Radio: Andrei Popov, Valentina Dumitrescu, Ileana Taroi (Romania) «Quand Romeo rencontre Juliette» - Société Roumaine de Radiodiffusion

Some media coverage :

TV5 : Deux bloggeurs arabes récompensés par le Prix méditerranéen du journalisme

Monte-Carlo News: Monaco ha accolto la cerimonia del Prix Méditerranéen du Journalisme 2011

AFP : مدونان عربيان يفوزان بجائزة المتوسط للصحافة

[Entry crossposted at eldahshan.com and at travellerwithin.com – hoping to consolidate both into one website. Promise! Apologies if that has caused any confusion to new readers.]

I was already ecstatic when I received an email informing me I was shortlisted for an Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean journalism award. Such an honour!

So I just went with the motions and went ahead to Monaco – the visit itself shall be a different post - and tried to enjoy my 40-hour visit to the city-state. (and I did).

Anyway. Though originally running in the “Citizenship and Democracy” category with a selection of articles written during and after the revolution, I was actually awarded a Honorary prize by the Jury, alongside Palestinian blogger Asmaa El Ghoul, for our writing both online and offline.

Which is, well, pretty damn awesome.

Other winners, in the press, television, and radio categories are:

Iason Athanasiadis (Greece) : “Revolution Game Over?” – Al-Majalla Online Newspaper

Abdel Aziz Hali (Tunisia) : « Il était une fois deux révolutions » - Le Temps

Rachel Shabi (UK) : “We were looking for a nice, peaceful place near Jerusalem” - The Guardian

Mekioussa Chekir (Algeria) : « La tolérance à l’épreuve de l’unanimisme religieux » - La Tribune

TV: Nada Abdelsamad (Lebanon) : “The Jews of Lebanon” - BBC Arabic

Radio: Andrei Popov, Valentina Dumitrescu, Ileana Taroi (Romania) «Quand Romeo rencontre Juliette» - Société Roumaine de Radiodiffusion

Media coverage :

TV5 : Deux bloggeurs arabes récompensés par le Prix méditerranéen du journalisme http://www.tv5.org/cms/chaine-francophone/info/p-1911-Deux-bloggeurs-arabes-recompenses-par-le-Prix-mediterraneen-du-journalisme.htm?&rub=13&xml=newsmlmmd.d5c26431bfc109fabfbace3858bbc957.41.xml

Monte-Carlo News: Monaco ha accolto la cerimonia del Prix Méditerranéen du Journalisme 2011 http://www.montecarlonews.it/2011/10/07/notizie/argomenti/altre-notizie-1/articolo/monaco-ha-accolto-la-cerimonia-del-prix-mediterraneen-du-journalisme-2011.html

AFP : مدونان عربيان يفوزان بجائزة المتوسط للصحافة

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYYKd-IG4cfz00fJLo55f2vsF8VA?docId=CNG.9f9812b60426ab09539a0ea641c78b5d.261

Flying while Muslim on September 11th

2011-09-11T21:26:00.003+02:00

Gdansk Airport, Poland.

I don't know if it's because it's September 11th, but this bearded brown guy was just subjected to the most disgustingly intrusive body search by an overzealous Polish customs employees. The bastard literally ran his (plastic gloved) fingers inside the line of my shorts. No, i didn't have any metal, no, the metal detector didn't buzz, and no, no one else got that treatment - except the other brown guy. I asked him.
The veiled woman was also searched thoroughly - including her hijab, which was patted, squeezed, almost pulled.

Thank you, America, for demonizing us in everyone's eyes, even some monolingual idiots from the Polish hinterland.

It is heartbreaking that over 3000 people have perished 10 years ago. I have myself visited Ground Zero on the fourth anniversary of the attacks. I held hands with 9/11 families and attended the memorial ceremony, including the reading of all the names of the victims.
(Which, i believe, is more than most Americans can say have done to honour their memory.)

But when will we move past this tragic incident that - keeps paying, sadly enough. Never mind that at least two generations of white people will forever flicker at the sight of me. The tens of thousands that face racism on daily basis because of their faith or skin colour. Popular racism, as well as institutional racism - from extra security checks to permits and visas rejections, for example. To jobs lost or applications rejected. To dirty looks in the subway, as I had something to apologize for.

And while every lost life is one life too many, on the scale of disasters, we as an international community have seen worse. Off the top of my head, since then, about 108,000 died in Iraq as result of an unjust war that was engineering by a vindictive mind. God knows how many in Afghanistan. In the past 6 months, 40,000 Libyans have been killed. As have thousands of Syrians. Thousands of Gazans. Tens of thousands have died in the horn of Africa famine due to our inaction. Add to those the various earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, and natural disasters globally. Then add the millions dying around the world in the wars that don't make it to our newspapers.
I could go on. But you get my point.

I'm sorry, but this year, my sorrow is mixed with anger. I am tired of having to suffer because America has decided that a collective sin should be carried by all brown people everywhere.

My sincere condolences. May we, collectively, succeeded in getting past the memory of September 11th 2001.

-----------

On board of airplane. Taking off now. The Polish man to my right just crossed himself.
But I cannot raise my hands in prayer - someone could see it and call an alert. So i keep my hands quietly on my knees.

Until when?

The #FlagMan is already on a t-shirt!

2011-08-23T01:07:00.002+02:00

(Isn't that the cartoon by Carlos Latuff?)

Photos from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo protest, 20 August 2011

2011-08-21T14:10:00.004+02:00

Yesterday morning (so before the #Flagman events.)
The full set is on Flickr!

Israeli press roundup: on Egypt, Sinai, and military action [Dynamic post, to be updated regularly]

2011-08-20T01:26:00.007+02:00

UPDATE: 21 August, 3:15 PM

Haaretz is respected, ‘reference’ newspaper. Left-wing, supposedly. Has around 10-12% marketshare. Generally solid reporting. (Even if their diplomatic correspondent Barak Raviv was speaking out of his ass this week.) yesterday in his coverage of the Eilat attacks, throwing accusations everywhere.)

Yediot Aharonot (and its website, Ynet) is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

Jerusalem Post: English speaking newspaper. Right/far-right. Very pro-settlers, IDF cheerleader.

Israel National News is the website of Radio station 7 (Arutz Sheva), which is far-right/super pro-settlers, and almost rabidly Arab-hating. The radio station is widely followed by right-wingers.

21 August 2011

Video: Angry Egyptians Break into Israeli Embassy Compound

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News (Arutz 7 radio)

Well, apart from the fact that the title is a lie...

Summary: Egyptians bad, Israel good.

Highlights:

"Egypt had requested and received permission from Israel last week to place armed forces in the Sinai despite it being against the peace treaty, in an attempt to put down the chaos reigning in the peninsula since Mubarak's fall."

"Israeli officials have contacted American and French counterparts in an effort to calm down Egypt’s diplomatic furor, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly spoke with the head of Egypt’s Supreme Military Council, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi."The peace agreement between Israel and Egypt is of great importance and strategic value to stability in the Middle East," Barak said."

'Egypt: Jerusalem using Gaza escalation against PA statehood'

News, Jerusalem Post

>> Apparently, Egypt is currently mediating between Israel and Hamas? Huh.

"According to the report, Egypt delivered a message from Jerusalem to Hamas that Israel was only targeting the elements responsible for the terror attack in Eilat that left eight people dead on Thursday and would stop its strikes on Gaza if rocket fire into Israel stopped."

Egypt report: Talks on gas supply halted

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

Header:

"Source in Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum says secret negotiations on amending price of gas sold to Israel stopped following escalation in south. Meanwhile, attempts continue to repair Sinai gas pipeline"

'Egyptian army shoots to kill'

Tsur Shezaf, Yediot Aharonot

Weird piece. The title is irrelevant. The author's sources are, ummm, a friend of his. Not a bad read though.

It seems that if the Israeli government avoids invading Egyptian territory, and investigates the killing of the Egyptian soldiers hastily, cooperation will be restored and the fight for Sinai's control will still have a chance.

Israel has no strategy

Nahum Barnea, Yediot.

Intelligent piece, imho.

Egypt is currently ruled by a provisional military regime that exists at the street’s mercy. The commitment to the treaty with Israel exists, but is under daily assault. We can assume that the next regime will further minimize its commitment to the agreement. The Camp David Accord is a vital security asset. Israel must not give it up. The Israeli government must draw lessons from its failure to manage the crisis with Turkey: We must not lose Egypt.

Egyptian becomes hero after removing Israeli flag from embassy

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

With videos of the protest. I'm most amused that it's only at the second to last paragraph, after describing the flag and quoting Ahmed El-Shahat, the reporter realizes the following:

The young Egyptian also linked his actions to events on the border on Thursday, when six Egyptian soldiers were killed, saying that it was "the simple reaction to what Israel did to Egyptian soldiers in Sinai." He expressed hope that his actions would be repeated by "a billion Arabs."

Egypt deems Israel's apology for policemen deaths 'insufficient'

News, Haaretz

Highlight:

"The cabinet, with army generals in attendance, has been holding crisis meetings daily since Friday after thousands of Egyptians protested in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight, burning Israeli flags, tearing down metal barriers and demanding the expulsion of the Israeli envoy.
Hundreds of Egyptians continue to protest outside the embassy. One protester burned the Israeli flag and replaced it with the Egyptian one, a Reuters witness reported."

Israel must maintain neighborly relations with Egypt

Haaretz Editorial

Rather short-sighted piece that seems to believe, umm, anything anybody declares. But it's okay nevertheless.

"The new Egyptian leaders have also declared their allegiance and commitment to peace accords and commercial agreements with Israel. This is the government that is declaring its determination to fight terrorist organizations in Sinai, a government with which Israel must continue to cooperate and which it must view as an ally in advancing the same goals"

Israel needs to apologize to Egypt

Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz

Reasonable piece, though giving more strategic thinking credit to the Egyptian 'government' than it deserves.

Operative line: " This is a relationship that obligates Israel to exercise extra caution"

-------------------------

19 August

For the past days, the Israeli media has been beating the war drums with Egypt – first accusing Egypt of not protecting its borders properly and letting Palestinian militants through, then accusing it of complicity. That they murdered 6 Egyptian policemen and officers over the past 36 hours something that hasn't registered in their media.

Noticeably, the media's tone vis-a-vis Egypt is aggressive, threatening, and clearly inciting.Warmongering, I daresay.

I’ll try to update this space frequently, once or twice daily for the next few days, as articles come by. Most of those are the English version of Hebrew mainstream media, unless otherwise noted.

So check frequently! Also send me articles you think should be included and I’ll try to.

19 August 2011

Retired General: Time to Intervene in the Sinai Peninsula

Israel National News

Israel National News is the website of radio station 7 (Arutz Sheva), which is far-right/super pro-settlers, and almost rabidly Arab-hating. The radio station is widely followed by right-wingers.

Highlights:

“General (res.) Uzi Dayan, who headed the Israeli National Security between 2003 and 2005, said Thursday in the wake of the combined terror attack in southern Israel that it is time to restore the IDF’s ability to operate in the Sinai Peninsula.

“Just last week I sat down with the chief of staff and discussed the issue of southern Israel,” Dayan told Arutz Sheva. “I won’t disclose the contents of the meeting, but I will say that from a military perspective we need to prepare for a new reality.”

The Egyptian revolution has created a vacuum in Sinai

Avi Isacharoff, Haaretz.

Haaretz is respected, ‘reference’ newspaper. Left-wing, supposedly. Has around 10-12% marketshare. Generally solid reporting. (Even if their diplomatic correspondent Barak Raviv was speaking out of his ass yesterday in his coverage of the Eilat attacks, throwing accusations everywhere.)

The tone of the article is overall worried, but not threatening as every other newspaper in the country.

Highlights:

“It should be noted that Cairo is making considerable efforts to reinstate order in Sinai. Since it sent 1,000 soldiers accompanied by tanks and armored vehicles about a week ago, the Egyptian army has exposed a plant for producing weapons in the El Arish area and several arms smugglers have been killed.

In this sense Israel has no choice but to continue and rely to a large extent on the Egyptian army's activity to quash Islamic terror in Sinai. But reinforcing the forces is a drop in the sea in n area more than twice as large as Israel. As long as completion of the border fence between Egypt and Israel drags on, another attack like yesterday's is only a matter of time.”

Cairo: Israeli flags torched before embassy

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

Yediot is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

Coverage of the afternoon demo. Second hand reporting so nothing genius there. The article describes some of the slogans he alleges were sung at the protest, then moves on to describe the killing of the soldiers... and denying it:

Highlight:

“GOC Southern Command Tal Russo explained the six Egyptian deaths, saying a border patrol had hit explosive devices apparently laid by the terror cell near the border. He did not comment on reports by al-Jazeera, which said the Egyptian soldiers were victims of an Israeli airstrike.”

Let IDF into Sinai

Ron Ben Yishai, Yediot Aharonot.

Yediot is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

From the veteran military correspondent of the country’s largest newspaper, this is seriously worrisome shit.

Summary: Egypt needs to let the Israelis deal with their security threats in the Sinai; otherwise, the author hints that the Israelis should go in themselves.

Highlight:

“Egyptian army cooperating with terrorists:

To be on the safe side, [the terrorists] chose to come out directly from an Egyptian military post located on the border. It's unlikely that the Egyptian soldiers didn't notice them, but they did nothing to stop them or warn the Israelis of their arrival.

Later, they even fired on IDF forces dispatched to the area, probably with the intention of covering for the terrorists who remained alive and continued to exchange fire with the Israeli soldiers. This cooperation with terrorists is a phenomenon which must be dealt with.”

Blood in the streets

19.08.11. Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. [English speaking newspaper. Right/far-right. Very pro-settlers, IDF cheerleader].

Try to get through the vitriol if you can...

Highlights:

“Since the Palestinian terror war began in 2000, then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak did almost nothing to prevent massive arms smuggling by Palestinian terror groups through Sinai. The Palestinians – from Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad – were assisted by Sinai Beduin as well as by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah. Mubarak also did next to nothing to prevent human and drug trafficking from Sinai into Israel and Gaza.”

“We need to increase the Southern Command’s force levels by at least one regular division, preferably an armored one. We need to equip the IDF with more tanks and other platforms designed for desert warfare. We need for the IDF to begin training in desert warfare for the first time in 30 years. We need to drastically ramp up the quality of our intelligence about Egypt.”

Telecoms are the leading ad spenders in Ramadan

2011-08-10T17:18:00.006+02:00

In case you were wondering as I did, telecom companies are the biggest ad spenders in Ramadan.
Apparently a single running costs around 32,000 EGP on private television channels (which is a little less than double the regular price).

The numbers for last year's advertising expenditure were recently made available by PARC, the Pan-Arab Research Center; they're only a guideline for this year's ad spending, but you can get idea of the money these companies are putting down:

1. Etisalat Egypt: $56 million.
2. Zain (all markets): $52 million
3. Mobinil: $50 million
4. Chevrolet (global): $38 million
5. Mobily (Saudi Arabia)

Four out of the five top spenders are telecoms, apparently spending about $200 million. Just that.

This year, it is clear that Coca Cola, Pepsi and Vodafone Egypt are also sparing no expense to be on people's radar. I'll look forward to this year's numbers!

Then when the numbers are out, I'll compare those to the money spent on their CSR campaigns. Mobinil has a training programme for the unemployed; Etisalat Egypt has a water and sanitation project; Vodafone Egypt promises a massive literacy programme.

Not that I can claim adv money would be better spent otherwise - the return on this investment needs to be calculated. But just for comparison purposes... :)

#ThawretWeladElKalb, #J14 protests, and the Hashtags of Perception

2011-08-10T14:19:00.011+02:00

There was a “Walk Like an Egyptian” sign, in English, on Rothschild boulevard in Tel Aviv. And even a giant إرحل"” - “Leave” in Arabic - on a banner on Kaplan street, followed by “Egypt is here” in Hebrew.

The Egyptian non-violent revolution was impressive in many respects, and the Israelis admired the events as much as anyone else; their banners this week reflected this.

A couple of days ago many in the Egyptian twittersphere took part in a running joke: #ThawretWeladElKalb, which can be roughly interpreted “those bastards’ revolution”. (before anybody goes in the comments to tell that it translates to"the dogs' children revolution", the word-for-word translation sounds more rude than it actually is in Arabic, and is completely irrelevant).

The jokes were mostly about translating the events of the Egyptian revolution into the Israeli context. (my favourite joke was about the Man Behind Shimon Peres). Some were insulting but most weren’t. But the hashtag itself is insulting, so to an outside reader the content of the tweet matters little.

The Israelis weren’t particularly amused. Some were insulted, shocked, surprised. Some, like @Elizrael, attempted to reason; some had ready-made responses. Haaretz was the first media outlet to pick up on the story (translation here).

The discussion within the Egyptians was interesting, too. Some people attempted to object to the unnecessary insults; some pointed out that there are Palestinian Israelis taking part in the protests (There are, but very few). the responses they got ranged from intelligent to utterly-insane-must-block-the-SOB.

"The Egyptian revolution is undoubtedly inspiring, but this does not justify any compassion to protesters demanding to improve their living conditions on occupied land"

This post isn’t about whether we should care about or support the J14 protests. (especially that it seems that, surprise surprise, it is ending by the construction of more settlements in occupied Palestine). Nor is it to object – yet again – to the unnecessarily offensive humour, which I did the very first moment, and still do.

What I am trying to figure out in all that is the difference of perception. Columnist Nawara Negm summed it up best – even if she only meant to crack a joke:

"The Israelis are shocked that the Egyptians hate them.
The Egyptians, in turn, are shocked that the Israelis are shocked."

See this is fascinating. Many Israelis pray daily for the demise of every Arab and would like nothing more than a replay of the 10 plagues; but many, like the rest of the world, know nothing about us, and were actually fascinated by our revolution, hence the tributes on the streets of Tel Aviv. We can safely assume that most did not expect the #ThawretWladElKalb hashtag.

At the same time, for many Egyptians, the state of animosity is a given; that the counterpart – the adversary - fails to see it is also rather surprising.

There’ll be no conclusion here about “30 years after the peace agreement, etc etc”. Draw your own.

Best newspaper headline ever: مبارك ما بيعرفش!

2011-08-04T15:01:00.004+02:00

مبارك ما بيعرفش!
literally "Mubarak can't!" (let your imagination run wild...)
جريدة الطريق

200 km/h On the Autostrade! [Book launch, 20 July, Ahmed Shawky museum]

2011-07-17T04:39:00.008+02:00

Warning: Egyptian* artists at work!

Autostrade is a comics anthology by more Egyptian comics artists than I count (actually, I can - 21 of them!) and the launch for the first issue is in a couple of days. Wednesday, to be precise. And many are regulars of the #CairoTweetups, so we're even more excited!

I've cancelled plans for the July #CairoTweetup because of the Tahrir sit-in (which oftentimes feels like a tweetup itself - just come around to the "No to Military Trials" tent and #SalonElMonkey at any given time of day or night) but I think we'll make an exception for the Autostrade big launch. I'll definitely do my best to be there.

So, there! Marwan, Lujee, Mazloum, Khorazaty, Mog (and all the other authors of course) we're very proud of you! Mabrouk!

If you don't know the authors, worry not! We've been promised special backstage #CairoTweetup access :) And if you don't like them (ha, ha, ha...), go anyway: Performances by Hany Mustafa (who rocks) and City Band (whom I don't know, but am told are good) will also entertain you.

When: Wednesday 20 July. 6:30 PM. Performances start at 7:00 PM.
Where: Ahmed Shawky museum, 6 Ahmed Shawki Street, off of Mourad Street ,Corniche El Nil. I understand that's south of the Four Seasons in Giza.

Do: bring friends. Shake hands with the authors. Buy a copy of the book.
Facebook event: here.

* I think there's an Afghan Saudi artist somewhere in the mix. Agenda kharegeya, naturally.
** drinks are free. Added benefit ya3ni.

The Mogamma3 is open!

2011-07-13T13:50:00.002+02:00

"The Mogamma is open by order of the Revolution. (yey!)

In case you missed the 5 AM commotion this morning, after which Tahrir protesters effectively wrestled the control of the Mogamma' from the pricks (who are either hot-headed pricks or, as widely assumed, Military intelligence) who had closed it two days ago under the guise of "civil disobedience" - despite the move being completely stupid and counterproductive.

The building has been open since this morning, and employees have been going back this morning, being greeted by smiling "Hamdellah 3al Salama" by the protesters.

Hurray!

From Tahrir: One guy's response to Essam Sharaf's speech

2011-07-10T00:23:00.005+02:00

For all those who say the #Jul8 protesters don't know what they want

2011-07-09T23:08:00.004+02:00

عشان الناس اللي لسه بتقول متظاهري 8 يوليو مش عارفين طلباتهم ايه

"The people demand the removal of the Military Council"

"The best thing in the entire, entire world" -- Vignette from Pakistan

2011-06-28T12:00:00.002+02:00

In the cacophony of vendors shouting at me at the Karachi airport, he stood there smiling. A real, and pretty confident smile, through his thick brown beard. Then he said "well just come in and take a look, why not?".

I spent the next half hour picking up souvenirs and chatting with him.

"M. Abed" said his badge. M for Mohammad - a prefix for a huge number of names in Pakistan. I equally introduced myself using mine and my father's name -- when I say "Mohamed" people look at me as if expecting the logical rest of the name..

"I started at 11. I finish at 11. Then my colleague comes and he stays from 11 AM to the next morning".

"Wait a second. You're telling me you do 24-hour shifts? Are you mad?"

"No no, it's much better this way. Less than a day, no time to spend with my family. I finish at 9, get home around 10, but I can't sleep because zuhr (noon prayer) is at 12. So I wait, do my prayer, then get some sleep. Then I wake up at 4, do the 'Asr prayer, then have some food. Then get some sleep. Then I wake up to pray Maghrib, and spend the evening playing with my son, and if I want to go out with my wife, we can. Wait, I'll show you his picture".

He fiddles with his phone and shows me a couple of photos of a handsome young boy in a white shalwar kamiz, with his school bag on his back.

Abed's smile widens. It's an uncontrollable smile. And he's no longer talking to me.

"His name is Assem. He's 8. He's the best thing in the entire, entire world".

عن السلفيين و الفئران الكارتون - Of Salafis and Mice

2011-06-27T18:53:00.006+02:00

UPDATED -- ENGLISH VERSION BELOW!

كان فيه واحد يهودي يضع الوسخ على باب سيدنا محمد عليه الصلاة و السلام كل يوم الصبح، فكان الرسول يزيح الوسخ ببساطة و يمشي. و في يوم لم يضع الرجل الوسخ فسأل الرسول عنه فعلم أن الرجل مريض – فما كان من الرسول أن زاره داعيا له بالشفاء.

هو ده تصرف السلف الصالح تجاه من يسبهم – السلف الصالح اللي على الأغلب لكان يشعر بالخجل من تصرف سلفيو اليوم الذين ينسبون أنفسهم إليهم.

لم أكن يوما معجبا بنجيب ساويرس و لا مشروعه السياسي. أولا لأن المال و السلطة مش مفروض يجتمعوا أبدا – لأن لما ده بيحصل بينتج لنا أمثال أحمد عز – بس كمان الرجل هو الجيل الثاني من أسرة علاقاتها المشبوهة بالسلطة عادت عليهم بدخل هائل (يعني مثلا: ليه موبينيل أخدت سنتين كاملتان كان لها الإحتكار التام في سوق الإتصالات المحمولة في سوق عملاق مثل مصر؟) بالإضافة للعب مشبوه في البورصة من كام سنة (ضم أسهم شركات لرفع وهمي لكمية التداول و حاجات ظريفة من هذا القبيل). بس في هذه الحالة الرجل لم يخطئ.

مش أخطأ و إعتذر: باقولك لم يخطئ.

الصورة مضحكة. أو مش مضحكة، مش فارقة. و عامة الرجل شال الصورة و إعتذر. الموضوع انتهى.

و الدين بيقولنا أن الأعمال بالنيات. و لكل أمرئ ما نوى.

خلينا منطقيين. هل ممكن فعلا ساويرس كان نيته أنه يسيئ للمسلمين؟ الراجل عايز الناس تنتخب الحزب بتاعه. أكيد مش هايقصد يشتم الناس!!

ايام أزمة الكارتون بتاعة الدانمارك (واللي ذكرت عدة مرات في سياق الموضوع ده بالرغم انها في الحقيقة لا علاقة لها بالموضوع الحالي إلا لكونها تتعلق برسوم كارتون) كتبت قائلا أن الأعمال بالنيات. و أن نية الرسامين كانت بالفعل الإساءة. و قلت كمان أني كنت هاعتبر الموضوع منتهي لو كان الخروف راسموسن رئيس الوزراء بتاعهم إتنيل إعتذر. بس هو رفض.

يعني ايه واحد سلفي – و هو ممدوح إسماعيل رئيس حزب النهضة السلفي (المقترح) - يقدم بلاغ لدى النائب العام متهما ساويرس بإزدراء الدين الإسلامي و السخرية من الرموز الإسلامية"؟" يا سلام؟؟ ليه يعني؟ ده على أساس أن ميكي ماوس عدو الإسلام؟

ولا الذقن هي اللي أصبحت رمز إسلامي؟

جاتك داهية. الذقن مش هي الإسلام. أنا مسلم و من غير ذقن أشعث. و أرفض أن أي حد يحاول يربط الدين بالمظهر بقا.

و عامة اليهود المتدينين بذقون برضه. روح اتخانق معاهم بقا بتهمة الاساءة. يلا ياض منك له!

نيجي للنقطة الأخيرة و هي أن ماحدش كان عمل من الموضوع أزمة لو ماكانش ساويرس مسيحي. من الأخر. بإختصار كدة: السلفيين عايزين يحققوا مكاسب سياسية بإظهار أنفسهم المدافعين عن الإسلام ضد ساويرس الكافر الماجن الزنديق ال ال ال.

و ده أمر زي ما قلت يدل على حقارة سياسية بس الأهم أنه لا يرضي الله و لا رسوله. قال سلفيين قال...

الموضوع بالفعل يحتاج لوقفة.

بس مش ضد ساويرس.

إنما ضد كل الفئران اللي بذقون الذين يدعون التحدث بإسم الإسلام. و بإسمي و إسمك.

خليتوني أدافع عن ساويرس، جاتكو داهية.

A non-believer would put trash on Prophet Muhammad's doorstep every morning; the Prophet would just push it aside and go on his way.

One morning, there was no trash to be found; after inquiry, the Prophet was informed that the man was gravely ill..

So he went to visit him and wish him a speedy recovery.

This is how the Salaf – the early Muslims – would behave when they were insulted. Those early Muslims would be ashamed of today's “Salafis”, who claim to be following in the early Muslims' footsteps.

Naguib Sawiris is a man of dodgy business ethics whose political ambitions I never liked much. Money and power should never mix - because they give us corrupt tycoons of the Ahmed Ezz variety.

Sawiris is the heir of a dynasty long in bed with the State – a State that bestowed such advantages on him like giving his company a complete monopoly on the nation's mobile telephony, or shady stock market dealings to artificially inflated his companies' stock trading value.

Here however, Sawiris is not at fault. (and I ca't believe those jerks have pushed me to write a post in his defense, but some things must be said).

I'm not saying that he did something wrong and apologized: I'm saying that he did nothing wrong.

The picture he posted, of a bearded Mickey Mouse and a niqabi Minnie Mouse, is amusing. Perhaps it wasn't. Either way, when informed that some people were upset, he removed it and apologized.

As far as I'm concerned, the entire issue should be over.

Islam is greatly concerned with intentions, good or bad. And each is rewarded not only according to their actions, but their intentions as well.

Now let's be logical, even if we are assuming that Sawiris is indeed a bad person: he just started a political party. He wants people to vote for him. Would he really intend to insult them? Of course not!

During the Danish cartoons debacle, which has been brought up several times despite being largely irrelevant to the issue at hand, I wrote pointing out this 'intent' issue. In that case the cartoonists did intend deliberately to insult Muslims. I also wrote that I'd have considered the whole issue closed has dickhead Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen apologized. He refused.

Some salafi guy – Mamdouh Ismail, president of the salafi Nahda party (under establishment) – has filed a lawsuit with the general prosecutor's office, accusing Sawiris of disrespecting Islam and “mocking Islamic symbols”.

No kidding! So now Mickey Mouse is an anti-Islamic symbol?

Or is it that – and this is more critical – that long beards are the symbol of Islam?

Utter nonsense. I am a Muslim without a shaggy beard and that's perfectly fine. Actually, so are the vast majority of Muslim men. Likewise, only a minority of Muslim women wear a niqab.

Come to think of it, hey, orthodox Jews sport a shaggy beard too. Go sue them for using a symbol of Islam, ha!

Which brings me to my last point: this would all be a non-issue if Sawiris wasn't Christian. Bottom line is, the Salfis of the Mamdouh Ismail variety are trying to score electoral points by showing themselves as the defenders of Islam from the heathen, Muslim-hating (etc etc) Sawiris.

Which, as I pointed, not only goes against Islamic morality, but is also telling of an immoral group with no political ethics who are willing to sow discord to win a few votes.

A strong stand is necessary. Not against Sawiris and his tweeted picture, but against those rats who have allowed themselves to speak on Islam's (and mine, and possibly yours) behalf.

End Sexual Harassment Day in Egypt: No mercy

2011-06-20T15:13:00.006+02:00

I am furious that we've allowed 50% of our society to feel uncomfortable every single time they step out of their house.
What kind of a embarrassing weakling of a society are we?

Today is Blog Against Sexual Harassment Day so I'll keep it brief and sweet.

Sexual Harassment is a crime that is hard to predict, hard to prove, and more importantly is potentially present everywhere. It takes no skill to be a harasser - anyone can be one. So prevention by legal means - having policemen on every corner - is effectively impossible.
But when the crime has occurred and was proven, legal means can be used. And should.

So intervention needs to be two-pronged.

a. Upstream, the change needs to be societal. We need to teach people to frown upon harassment - actually to find it repulsive. It's not easy but it's unavoidable. People need to not only reject the mere idea of doing it but also of seeing it around them. For kids not to let their buddies do it because "ewww, that's gross!". For teenagers to look with disgust at their friends and say "Duuude, I can't believe you did that, you're a jerk!".
And more importantly, for people to be willing to step in and give a hand to the victim when she needs help.

b. Downstream - so post-crime - the intervention needs to be legal. And swift. And insanely harsh. Solid jail time. Treat harassers as you would treat rapists. Hell, cut their balls off and shove them down their throats for all I care. Tattoo it on their foreheads. No mercy.

We should stop finding excuses for harassers. I don't care if they're sexually frustrated or too poor to marry. That's finding excuses for criminals. And there's a thousand articles, studies, and personal stories proving that harassers are single, married, and that their victims can be young, old, hot, ugly, veiled or not, etc. Sexual Harassment is an equal opportunity crime. Everyone is potentially a victim.

NO. This ends here.

Do the 'social' interventions upstream as much as you want. But once they're guilty, khalas. Their chance is over and it's time for a ruthless reaction.

And women - need to be armed. With attitude and words, first. Stand up to your harasser. (again, I refer you to many other articles). Shame him, insult him. Kick him in the groin, punch his throat, dig your nails in his eyes (I reckon those are the basics of self-defense). Use mace. Profusely. Blind them.

We - women and men - need to fight back.

Connect!ing in Karachi: Social Media Summit #smsPk

2011-06-11T01:06:00.006+02:00

After 4 flights and 20 hours (don't ask...) I made it from Ankara, Turkey, to Karachi, Pakistan, with a 3-hour stopover home to shower and change!

Only been there 2 days but made a number of meetings and visits, a handful of interviews (including one with Sindh TV. I wonder if it will be dubbed. Well, if you happen to speak Sindhi... :) and met a number of amazing people in various fields - from radio broadcasting to PR to tech publishing.
Karachi is not what it's made to be. Of course being Egyptian I know that western travel advisories can make any city sound like London under the blitz, so that the 'security threat' was wildly exaggerated was a given. But I next to nothing about Karachi, so had no expectations.
It has a solid Cairo vibe (with a tad less traffic), drives on the wrong side of the street, and is also a blend of 19th and 21st century, a symptom many developing cities exhibit.

Have few stories to share that I hope to write up in the next days.

But enough about that. I am here to attend Pakistan's first international Social Media Summit, also dubbed "Connect!". Tomorrow (in a few hours, rather) I will be speaking on a panel about social media and social change.
With an audience of bloggers and techies (who will, undoubtedly, grill me in the Q&A session) I pla on focusing on our role as social media users/producers to induce social change - and the main question I hope to discuss will be the 'now what?' debate that we in Egypt are currently having.

The other participant from Cairo is Rebecca Chiao, by the way, co-founder of HarrassMap and overall amazing person.
If you're in Karachi, drop by for the conference at the Avari Towers hotel. We'll have a glass of falsa juice!

Vodafone, Goha, and the Egyptian Revolution

2011-06-02T14:37:00.005+02:00

If I were a Vodafone customer, I promise you I would've switched networks last night - after watching their latest commercial, coming from ad agency JWT, where they are taking credit for the Egyptian revolution.

You read that right. Vodafone and JWT are telling us, in a 3:59 spot, that "we're not trying to take credit for the revolution but really, we totally inspired it with our crappy ad from last year. You're welcome, Egypt".

Because the tag line was something along the lines of "our power isn't that we're number One - our power is in each one of us".
Whatever that means.

Apparently this tag line inspired people to take the streets. I mean, never mind the years of activism, the protests, the decades of cumulated grievances, the terrible economic situation, the trampled political freedoms, the police brutality, the torture, etc.
Nah.

We just watched a Vodafone Ad, and thought: "Hey! We're powerful! Let's topple the president!"

For some reason I am reminded of an old Goha joke:

Goha bet the Calif that he could spend the entire night naked standing atop the highest mountain; the Calif promised him a big reward if he did.

The next morning, having spent the night freezing his arse off on the mountain, Goha goes to collect his reward. The Calif tries to evade paying off:

"Did you meet anybody who offered you help or warmth?"
"I didn't see anything, it was pitch black - the only thing I saw was a ship passing, very far in the sea".
"Aha! So you did get some warmth from the light of the passing ship! You've lost the bet".

Goha's upset, but a few days later, he invites the Calif for a meal to reconcile.
After many hours of waiting, the Calif goes out to the backyard to see what's the deal with the food - and finds the pot hanging on the highest branch of the tree, with a small candle placed on the ground.

"What are you doing? The food will never cook like that!"

"Well if a man on a mountain can warm up from the light of a passing ship", replies Goha, "then the pot on the tree can cook from the flame of the candle".

If Goha had a Vodafone line, I bet you his punchline would've been "Well if a stupid television ad can start a nationwide revolution...."

I can't embed the ad for some reason, so here it is, on the JWT website.

Oh, I remember the ad they're referring to: actually everyone does - because it was terribly, and I mean terribly, bad. Rather long (1:30), and quite incoherent.
We do remember that it was starring Adel Emam - a sycophant who stood with Mubz against the revolution, for that matter - and that, rumour had it, the terms of the agreement with Emam was that he would not pronounce the company's name in the ad (check it out; he doesn't) so they had to come up with a new tagline that did not include the word Vodafone.

What I also remember -- is that Vodafone was among the companies to disconnect their telephone and internet service at the Government's request during the revolution.
We have not forgotten, nor forgiven. Because as a foreign company, Vodafone could've refused to abide by the Government's request. The Gov could've disconnected them anyway, but they'd at least have shown some backbone.

Watch the ad and be the judge. Then go check out the hilarious IHateVodafoneEgypt.com. You'll also find links to the JWT Cairo office, in case you want to give them a piece of your mind.

Now what about this lawsuit regarding them disconnecting their phone and internet services?

Halal Social Networking? Ikhwanbook and Muslimbook hit the web

2011-05-31T22:20:00.004+02:00

Isn't that an awesome homepage? Muslimbook.co.za

NB: The Guardian published a very edited version of the article - below is the full version. (which I think is better :)

The successful launch of an online social network by an Islamist political group in Egypt is an opportunity to visit and test several Muslim social networks, establishing their interest and limitation.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Ikhwanbook states that it is "an Islamic social networking website, committed to the principles of our religion".

Finland-based Muxlim consolidates a network of services which include a search engine, a torrents finder, and a Muslim MySpace, and aims to “connect the world's Muslim communities to each other, and to the wider world, through shared online experiences”.

South Africa’s Muslimbook defines its objective as being “to provide a platform for all Muslims to create a quality network and as an alternative to the anti-muslim Facebook”.

And Baku, Azerbaijan-based Muslimsbook, whose interface is a mix of Russian and English, is openly faith-oriented, coupling religious discussion and knowledge with social networking and whose standard tabs including "Koran", "Hadith", and "References" next to the more common "Groups" and "Members" ones.

The emergence of Muslim social-networking websites, including and not limited to the ones mentioned above, is a highly interesting phenomenon, perhaps to be imputed to both a desire to produce a more-conservative forum for monitored discussion with stricter regulations (read: monitoring) as well as, in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood, to create a familiar-looking forum for existing and new sympathizers.

Muxlim CEO Mohamed El Fatatry suggests an explanation, in an email interview, for the reasoning behind those networks: “Some organizations wanted to create alternatives, while others wanted to complement existing services such as Facebook with an added Muslim flavor that would enhance users experience”.

As it stands however, user profiles are, across the board, quite basic compared to those of Facebook users; fewer photos and videos and comparatively less friends. Members seem to be spending more time on fora and messaging boards than on building their own page. Seen in that respect, those websites have become a middle ground between the discussion forums websites on one end, and the socially oriented Facebook model on the other.

It should come as no surprise that networks and websites would emerge to cater to a particular cultural group; after all, even global social networks customize their settings culturally. Timothy Bataillie, of Belgium-based Netlog, explains that "there are some extra challenges in terms of content moderation in the Arab region. We installed a moderation team that monitors traffic coming from the Gulf region. If they check pages from people outside the region, the website will display a warning notification", to warn users that they may be exposed to content potentially deemed offensive for local standards.
Those ‘Muslim’ social networks are simply taking the logic a step further: rather than hoping for the cultural localization and customization of the website, they are establishing new ones.

Ikhwan Book, which belongs to Egypt’s principal political opposition force, the Muslims Brotherhood, is expressly - perhaps too bluntly - politically-oriented, so much that during its first months of operation, a banner on its homepage would take you to a website of the National Association for Change, a political opposition coalition, and asked you to sign the Association’s petition. Technology professional Tarek Shalaby was quick to point out to the weakness of online security on Ikhwanbook: “anyone, upon singing in, can have access to all details of users and group members”. A fatal mistake for a website that would logically be particularly keen on protecting the identities of its members, not only from the Internet malignant users but also from political opponents who are likely to be interested in knowing what discussions are taking place on an Ikhwan website. Discussions that were, throughout and in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, largely political and, interestingly, not necessarily geared around the political participation of the Ikhwan.

But in the mundane has rapidly regained dominance of the members attention.

Ikhwanbook was launched in early July 2010 as a beta version, and its original (and still active) url made no effort to conceal its inspiration: it was www.ikhwanfacebook.com.
Ikhwanbook sees itself more as a complement than a competitor to Facebook - it actually allows signing in via Facebook Connect for Facebook users.

Defining itself as “technology portal with Muslim values”, Muxlim is a tightly-monitored website - where membership may apparently be temporarily suspended if a user says ‘crap’ on a discussion forum - its user profiles are also weakly protected (anyone signing in can access all data on a user’s profile).

The website has also launched a ‘Second Life’ type gaming platform, Muxlim Pal - where users’ avatars are bearded or veiled.

Muslimbook.co.za’s homepage is probably the most amusing of all: a knock-off of Facebook’s, where non-descript avatars located on a world map are connected by dotted lines, Muslimbook’s avatars are, here too, bearded men and veiled women. In fact, most of the website’s interface is reminiscent of Facebook circa 2008, with its smaller fonts and way too many widgets.
> It is also the website with the greatest and most remarkable attention to user privacy issues. The first notification on my dashboard was about picture privacy - and a brief tutorial on how to reduce their visibility and exposure to other users [something that Facebook would arguably never do].

The website’s accusation of Facebook of being anti-Muslim is likely to meet approving nods from some potential users. After all, Facebook has, more than once, been accused of political bias. McGill professor Rex Brynen reported that Facebook didn’t allow the creation of pages with the word “Palestinian” in them. It has shut down a number of political pages and disabled user accounts of their administrators, while allowing anti-Muslim hate speech and incitement to violence to roam free. (In all fairness, Facebook has also inexplicably disabled the accounts of activists across the political spectrum - which doesn’t make its actions any more excusable). It is easy then to see why Facebook can be perceived as being politically involved in the content being shared online - and why some users would like to be involved in a more Muslim-friendly network.

Muslimsbook.com, whose establishment date is unclear but whose archive goes back to November 2008, is overwhelmingly apolitical but seems to be struggling still to find its bearings, torn between offering a (rather limited) set of possible social interactions between users, to providing and sharing lessons in religion, to providing services such as matrimonial personal ads.

Muxlim claims a yearly traffic in the ‘tens of millons’ per year. Ikhwanbook has garnered a decent nucleus of users of about 26,000 users, most in Egypt. The other two networks I tested are less successful - Muslimbook.co.za has 3305 users, and Muslimsbook.com has 51 members - including myself.

Despite their claims and wishes for otherwise, those social networks are both regional and religiously limited in their scope. Ikhwanbook - with its subtitle of 'One world unites us’ - has a primarily Arab membership, with a strong showing from Indonesian users. And despite its assertions that ‘you don’t have to be a Muslim to be a Muxlim’, discussions on Muxlim are overwhelmingly in English, and largely targets Muslims living in Europe and the United States. Muslimbook.co.za finds its members within its local South African market.

Muslim social architects see an evolving model. Says El-Fatatry, “I expect Muslim social sites to evolve from their current form. They will be largely developed on top of existing generic services which provide a comprehensive experience and enable people to connect with both their counterparts in the Muslim community, and society at large. Our new service named Muxlim Pulse organizes information that is already out there on the web, and enables Muslims to have a better utility to identify places, events and people of interest who are near to their geographic location”.

All things being equal, it is doubtful those website are hoping to be the next big thing in social networking; the weak numbers of members make it quite obvious. Besides their lack of innovation, which consists solely of stricter moderation, the demand for ‘clean’ social networking isn’t what the creators of those new websites hope it to be: most users are quite happy to be part of a more open and consequently less monitored social network such as Facebook, even if they are offended by some of the content. After all, it doesn’t seem that the current 1200 members of “i will leave the facebook if they didn't delete [the group titled] f*** islam” have followed up on their ultimatum - the objectionable group is still there.
The only question left for me is whether to keep or delete my new accounts...

Taking back the revolution - Tahrir Square, 27 May

2011-05-27T20:49:00.005+02:00

Official communique number 58 declared that "the armed forces have decided not to be present in the protests locations to avoid such risks (of division between people and army), counting on the revolution youth who will take over the organizing and defense"" - that is, since you're protesting our behaviour, we won't be protecting you from any potential attack.

And the Muslim Brotherhood said they were boycotting the protests, calling them 'anti-national' and essentially declaring they're the army's little bitch.

The result? Egyptians shone bright on Tahrir square today!!
Rich, poor, women, men, muslims, christians, neither, religious, secular, etc. Everyday's Egypt really. The people in the street, on the subway, at uni.
It wasn't the greatest turnout since the revolution, but it was nevertheless really packed. People came out despite the boycott calls, and the attempts by the army to frighten people out of leaving their homes.

And the public is discovering who's on its side and who isn't -- probably the main gain from today's protest.

There was also a distinct activist vibe on the square - less festive, more engaged. I enjoyed that.
I brought a sign too, so was hands up most of the time. till took a few photos though.

What is the Haykestep | الهايكستب | Huckstep?

2011-05-22T17:06:00.005+02:00

At the rally last Tuesday to demand the release of our friend Tarek Shalaby, who was imprisoned along with hundreds of other civilians in the military base of "Haykestep" الهايكستب, for having peacefully protested on May 15th, we had a funny discussion:

What does "Haykestep" mean?

Aside from being one of the main army recruitment and training grounds in Cairo, I did a bit of research and this is what I found:

source

Turns out Haykestep is actually a former US Army Air base. And its original name was "Camp Huckstep". We somehow added a few letters along the way.

It was named after Major Russell B. Huckstep (Vail, Iowa, 1905; Carthage, Tunisia, 1943) - see photo.
As of late 1942, camp Huckstep was also home to the 38th General Hospital, the largest US military hospital of their "Delta Command", with 1000 beds (which were subsequently reduced to 750 in 1944).
They also built a water purification plant.

The army mailing code (APO) for camp Huckstep was 616 (see the stamp on the envelope below)

In 1956, camp Huckstep was attacked by the British Force. The article I found refers to it as a "large material depot" (for the Egyptian army, obviously).

The name of camp Huckstep also pops up on Google in connection to the 1948 Palestine war - apparently it was one of three camps where a number of Jews were detained for 'Zionist activities'.

Now it's Egyptians being detained by the Egyptian army. For protesting in front of the Israeli embassy (should we say, for "expressing anti-Zionist sentiment"?).

Ah, the irony....

Tarek has been released, but hundreds of other young civilian Egyptians remain imprisoned, awaiting military sentences.
Join us in Tahrir square next Friday May 27th to protest military trials for civilians!