Bloggers are on the front line against repressive regimes across the world: More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report. In 2007 three times as…
Showing all posts tagged Egypt
The Left should oppose repression
I’ve spent most of my professional life skewering the unhinged tendencies of the Right (not least debunking its support for Israeli violence). Sadly, some on the Left are equally ideological and blind to their own propaganda. Western support for Cuba remains fairly strong on the Left, despite the vast evidence that Fidel Castro ran a…
The independence struggle
Taking apart a US-dictatorship, one step at a time. (Thank you Facebook, blogging and on-the-ground activism in Egypt.)
How to escape a brutal American friend
A reliable American ally – Egypt continues to repress any kind of political activism – requires creative thinking by anybody caught up in its madness: James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone. Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in…
No tolerance here
Egypt is currently in political chaos – and this recent post by a Muslim Brotherhood member is revealing – but the following behaviour is utterly counter-productive: Egypt has ordered the seizure of a special edition of the German news magazine Der Spiegel after it was deemed to be insulting to Islam and the Prophet Mohammed,…
Let the Brotherhood be heard
It takes a certain kind of Jewish publication – such as New York’s Forward – to publish an article by the Muslim Brotherhood’s political bureau chief. They should be commended for opening the lines of dialogue: The Muslim Brotherhood is not pushing for radical change in Egypt. Aware of political realities, we decided to contest…
Campaigning for all (including Islamists)
My friend Elijah Zarwan, a New Yorker who until recently was a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Cairo, writes about the Muslim Brotherhood, its treatment at the hands of the US-backed dictatorships and the universality of human rights: Let me be clear: I don’t support the Muslim Brotherhood. I’m fundamentally opposed to their platform,…
The power of the pulpit
Ibrahim El Houdaiby, Conflicts Forum, February 25: Those who believe that the ongoing crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood by the Egyptian regime will cause a major setback for the country’s largest and most powerful civil opposition group are definitely mistaken. Brotherhood members are an integral living part of the Egyptian society who can never be…
Alternative Jewish thinking
The siege of Gaza has failed. In praise of the Jewish blogosphere. We need America’s help. There Won’t Be Peace in the Middle East Till There’s a Naqba Museum in the U.S.