Egypt: Get into the Modern World
Happy Birthday US Army (formed on June 14, 1775) and Happy Flag Day to my readers.
Today we spotlight Human Rights Abuse and Egypt.
Here's the story:
Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, a twenty-four-year old Egyptian blogger, was detained in central Cairo on May 7, 2006 while taking part in a peaceful protest in support of two judges threatened with removal from the bench for exposing electoral fraud and also to call for the release of protesters detained in earlier demonstrations.The case of the judges became a focus for public protests during April and May. The authorities confronted peaceful protesters with a massive, intimidating deployment of thousands of riot police.
Hundreds of protesters were taken into detention, many were beaten by police and plain clothes security officers on the street and some suffered torture and ill-treatment while in detention. More than 300 protesters are believed to remain in detention.
On June 4, Alaa's detention was extended for a further 15 days using the powers of administrative detention available under Egypt's emergency law. He faces a variety of charges and accusations, including "insulting the President," but no date has been set for his trial.
I decided to blog about Egypt after reading windypundit: International Affairs Department:
On May 7, Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah (علاء أحمد سيفالإسلام عبدالفتاح) was arrested there during a protest. As part of the world-wide response, several other bloggers have have created the Free Alaa blog to chronicle his ongoing detention and legal troubles.
You may have noticed that I didn't link to the Free Alaa blog through its name. That's because I'm joining with a lot of other bloggers to try to Googlebomb Egypt. That is, we're all trying to game the Google search engine so that the Free Alaa blog appears as one of the top hits for the word "Egypt".
You can join in simply by linking to the Free Alaa blog using "Egypt" as the link text. I was doing it throughout the last couple of paragraphs, but you can also do a standalone link like this: Egypt.
It's really easy. Egypt.
Please join in if you are so inclined. It only takes one link from a page to help a lot.
Now here's my disclaimer: Alaa may be an anti-semitic, pro-palestinian, American-hating, jew-baiting jihadist or worse: a liberal-sniffing American who hates Bush and is willing to destroy this country over this petty phobia. Or perhaps not. It doesn't matter. I don't know the guy but even in this country when we illegally arrest peaceful demonstrators, at least we release them within a timely period. Egypt must do likewise and join the modern world of nations. If Alaa is a decent non-Muslim then god bless him after he's released. If not, then I wish a painful eternity upon his evil soul after he's released.
Others blogging about Egypt:
manal and alaa's bit bucket, Excerpt:
In the end of the protest in solidarity with the judges and the 49 detainees in the last week of April, police refused to let the protesters end the protest and go home, they brought more police forces then started tightening the circle around them, squeezing them..and then they started arresting people. They caught 11 young men and women and took them to Sayyeda Zeinab police station, they let go of 3 of them later on.google blogoscoped, Excerpt:
In the meantime, a Googlebomb campaign has been started to associate the word Egypt with the Free Alaa blog, so that people wanting to learn about Egypt hear of this case.infothought, Excerpt:
I'm late to the party, so I'm just going to use my puny platform to recommend it. Why? Because there's plenty of analysis about Google-bombing problems, Google Ads as activism tools, the consideration of site design, code for "badges", and more.civilities, Excerpt:
Now that I was committing money to buy a Google AdWord for Alaa, my cause was his. I realized I ought to spend a little more time to learn about him.The thought crossed my mind that he might have different politics than I, and that somebody might pick on me later for this. Whatever were his thoughts on Israel, I wondered. I searched his website, and found some topical entries-- but couldn't find any actually written by him, only by the folks he was drawing in. I figured if I ought to draw the line somewhere: I couldn't support anybody who advocated aggression against U.S. or Israeli interests. Anything else he had to say-- well, it was up to him, I was defending his right to say it.
marathon pundit, Excerpt: And for those people living in the Chicago area, or thinking of traveling here to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, keep in mind, about half of the admission to the special exhibit goes straight to the Egyptian government--the same government, that locked up Alaa for participating in a peaceful protest.
Here are bloggers who never want to be arrested in Egypt:
