Miss Mabrouk of Egypt

I endorse Obama

2008-02-01T03:12:00.000+02:00

And no, my name is not Monica :)

I don't think I really can agree with someone who doesn't agree with GW (remember, I always wanted Barbara Bush to adopt me). But I like Obama. Not only can he keep the Clintons out of the Oval office, he can also bring some sparkle back into that great colony in the west. Which republican candidate show such signs of life and energy?

That said, my two cents about the presidential election to come:

The rebublican party is partying tonight. Only two democrats are still in the race and they couldn't ask for a better picture. Neither Mrs. Clinton or Obama will get the large part of the electorate with them (remember you read it here). Thus the doors to the presidency are wide open for a republican candidate. I am not sure that either of the republican candidates deserve to win, nor that they are the good guys they like us to believe. But for the sake of the world order and future peace and security, we need a president who understand the importance of what the current administration has started. It has not been easy and will not be in the future. But it has to be done.

A lot of people will not understand why. As you know, my time is limited and I cannot really go back into that argument again.

On another note, it's been all over the news today:

THE CIA IS DOING SOME MAINTENANCE WORK ON THE INTERNET CABLE THAT IS CONNECTING EUROPE WITH EGYPT, THE MIDDLE EAST AND PART OF ASIA!

Big Pharoah (still love you you know) will agree!
(http://www.bigpharaoh.com)

Hope you are all well. /r

Demonstrators Arrested, Opposition Ready to Resign

2007-03-18T12:51:00.000+02:00

Abu Aardvark is reporting that the opposition is prepared to resign en masse to protest the ruling party's constitutional reforms.

The Arabist is reporting from a police clampdown on demonstrators. More than 30 were arrested, bloggers included.

Global Voices has a lenghty report as well, quoting blogger/activist Alaa Abdulfattah and many others.

Says Aardvark:

I've been writing often about the costs of America's abandonment of even the pretence of caring about Arab democracy. These are summed up very well by Amr Hamzawy and Dina Bishara (of Carnegie) today:

The Mubarak regime is taking advantage of an opportune international moment. With Washington's attention diverted from the democracy agenda, the regime can resort to outright repression of the opposition without risking its close ties with the West.... By resorting to outright repression of the Brotherhood, Mubarak is making a mockery of the American push for democracy in the Middle East. Turning a blind eye toward the ongoing crackdown undermines the credibility of an already shaky American commitment to democratization in the Middle East. It also cements the perception among Egyptians that Washington blesses autocratic regimes.

Lawsuit to Block 21 Egyptian Blogs

2007-03-11T14:35:00.000+02:00

A lawsuit to block a number of Egyptian websites, including blogs who participated in a discussion about Internet Freedoms, is on its way says Human Rights activists in Egypt.

Judge Abdel Fattah Morad, head of Alexandria Appeal Court, has started a lawsuit against the government in Egypt’s Administrative Courts in order to block a number of Egyptian websites. The list, 21-websites-long, includes the blogs and sites that took part in the discussion around the book the Judge has written, and the wide plagiarism evident in the book copying HRInfo’s report on Internet Freedoms in the Arab World, and a how-to-blog guide written by blogger Bent Masreya.

Read more: The Arabist. Arabawy. via Global Voices.

Also: US Dept. of State Egypt Country Report on Human Right Practices.

Question is, how are they planning to block the websites? Is it access to the blogs who are going to be stopped, or are they also hoping to shut the sites down?

Happy Birthday, Osama bin Laden

2007-03-10T16:15:00.000+02:00

– But Shari'a Doesn't Recognize Western Birthday Celebrations. Via Memri.

The London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that tomorrow is Osama bin Laden's 50th birthday. Egyptian Islamist Hani Al-Siba'i, director of the Al-Maqrizi Center in London, said that bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri did not celebrate birthdays because the custom was a Western innovation not recognized by shari'a. He added that the Western media's preoccupation with bin Laden's turning 50 was aimed at provoking him into releasing a new film, which would help them track him down.

Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, March 9, 2007

Is he really a pious man or could he, as I expect him to, be celebrating his birthday in an orgy of hashish and paid female company?

Read what Jane's weekly and Robert Fisk (gasp) has to say about the bearded man turning 50.

On Gods, Presidents and the Muslim Brotherhood

2007-03-08T12:02:00.000+02:00

Oxford Professor Timothy Garthon Ash has visited Egypt and is writing about the presidential succession, Gods, Islamism and the future of Egypt.

Those who take the legitimating religion or ideology too seriously — be it Osirisism or socialism — are missing the point. The gods come and go; what endures over the millenniums is men's lust for power and wealth and their vain quest for immortality.

Changing Gods in Egypt - Los Angeles Times

Did 650,000 Iraqis Die Becuase of the War?

2007-03-06T15:19:00.000+02:00

How is it possible that a new report is showing that the number of deaths in Iraq are more than ten times higher than everybody thought?

Because the new report is not true, possibly even a fraud, says the The Times after discussing the issue with the experts who should know and failing to get answers to questions about basics from the authors.

Professor Spagat says the Lancet paper contains misrepresentations of mortality figures suggested by other organisations, an inaccurate graph, the use of the word “casualties” to mean deaths rather than deaths plus injuries, and the perplexing finding that child deaths have fallen. Using the “three-to-one rule” – the idea that for every death, there are three injuries – there should be close to two million Iraqis seeking hospital treatment, which does not tally with hospital reports.

“The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,” contends Professor Spagat, who believes the paper was poorly reviewed. “They published a sampling methodology that can overestimate deaths by a wide margin but respond to criticism by claiming that they did not actually follow the procedures that they stated.” The paper had “no scientific standing”. Did he rule out the possibility of fraud? “No.”

Link to article.

Abdel Kareem Sentenced to Four Years

2007-02-23T09:58:00.000+02:00

During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.

Hafiz Abou Saada of the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation called the sentence "a strong message to all bloggers who are put under strong surveillance".

- BBC

The 22-year-old former law student, whose own father has disowned him and called for his execution under Islamic law, was sentenced to four years by a court in Alexandria.

- Telegraph

Actually, the Telegraph editor-in-chief will cry when he hear about this misstake in the article:

Also in the news today:

Egypt Nabs Suspected Terrorists

Hundreds of state-security forces and military intelligence personnel launched a search Thursday morning in Egypt's northern Sinai Peninsula looking for the two Palestinians.

The search began a day after 23 Palestinians and Egyptians were arrested and confessed to plotting a series of attacks against tourists, mainly Israelis in southern Sinai resorts.

Among those arrested was a young Palestinian, wearing an explosives belt, who had entered Egypt illegally at Rafah through an underground tunnel from the Gaza Strip.

A Pyramid for Your Neighbors

2007-02-18T16:03:00.000+02:00

This guy in Arizona built a giant pyramid in his own backyard. The neighbours are not happy:

Richard is a dick" became the rallying cry of the neighbors who now sought to have him forcibly removed from the area, his pyramid house reduced to rubble, and his slave labor sent back to wherever slave labor comes from.

If I wanted to see a pyramid in my backyard, I would have moved to ancient Egypt," said angry neighbor Marty Hornchair. "I don't think my wife would ever go for that though, she can really be a bitch sometimes.

Amusing. You tell me if it is true. Link.

Free Kareem Demonstrations, Feb. 15

2007-02-13T00:30:00.000+02:00

Demonstrators around the world will protest on February 15th against the continued imprisonment of Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, a 22-year-old student arrested last November for criticizing the Egyptian government on his personal website. Protests will take place in New York City, London, Rome, Paris, Ottawa, Bucharest, Washington, DC, and a growing number of cities, in hopes of persuading Egyptian authorities to drop all charges against Mr. Soliman, also known by his online handle, Kareem Amer.

Read the full press release.

Miss Mabrouk Enters the New Blogger

2007-02-13T00:26:00.000+02:00

Yepp, Blogger finally moved me to the new platform. Shouldn´t be any changes in appearance but if they missed a few posts in the transfer, do let me know! :)

Smile of a President?

2007-02-10T20:23:00.000+02:00

If it takes another democrat to stop the former first Lady to become president of the USA, then let us hope this smile is enough to take Barack Obama all the way.

I´m still for Condi, of course. But in a race against Obama she has the additional disadvantage of being a woman. Black president, maybe. Female president, perhaps. Black and female? Just a small possibility. Also, she IS a republican. I hear they are not too popular in the great colony in the west nowadays.

I am still anti Hillary. She is stiff. She is pale. She is in constant pain or else she would be able to put on a natural smile. Her main disadvantage: the luggage from the Clinton presidency. I really do not think the American voters are in for another round of that.

Barack Obama is fresh news. Next to him, Hillary is soooo yesterday.

Also, I am quite positive Cindy Sheehan thinks Hillary is really smart.

Washington Post article: Obama formally launches presidential bid

Honour revenge in Art

2007-02-04T14:47:00.000+02:00

Beautiful art by dutch illustrator Irene Maria Jacobs. Click here to see the full picture, it is a story in itself. More art on display over at Verlee's blog and the artist's homepage gallery. The new image in my sidebar portrait field is also borrowed from Irene Maria. Loads of beauty on her site.

Egypt Bloggers Reveal New Torture Case

2007-02-01T13:08:00.001+02:00

The Arab Times (Kuwait) points to the horrible facts and give credits to bloggers who are revealing it. Link.

Amnesty: Trial of Blogger Expands Realm of Repression

2007-02-01T12:49:00.001+02:00

Karim Ameer is up in court again today.

Amnesty International today called for the immediate and unconditional release of Karim Amer, the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticizing Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam.

Read the press realease.

Meet Fulla, My Arab Barbie Doll

2007-01-26T14:10:00.000+02:00

She is not my doll yet but I hope to get one soon. Unlike authorities in Tunisia who are confisticating the doll from stores. A full witch hunt, reports Global Voices. They also have news about imprisoned blogger Kareem´s day in court, via Wa7da Masrya.

Comments are Off ... No, Wait, Back On

2007-01-16T21:40:00.000+02:00

Update 24 Jan: Back on, quiet mode was boring :)
Apologize for any inconveniance.

Comments are turned Off at this site at the moment. Sorry, I should have mentioned it in my last post. It´s only to stave off spam and although it is not a good solution, it is the one on the table at the moment. By all means, send me an e-mail as usual (missmabrouk / gmail).

ta ta

Meanwhile...

2007-01-15T00:47:00.000+02:00

It takes hours to get a good blog going and although I´m pleased what this blog has been in the past, it is obvious that I don´t take the time to work on it as much as needed to make it a stop for frequent flyers in the blogosphere. Who knows, maybe soon enough I´ll find an urge to put in hour after hour of work every day. Thus, I refuse to declare my blogspace officially dead. I may be getting older, but I am not quite finished yet :) So, I hope you all have found new favorite spots on the Internet and that you too cherish all the good times that were and one day will come again, somewhere, somehow. And to all the fellow bloggers in Egypt who are facing a rough time now again - we do pray for you, more than you can now.

BuySealand.com

2007-01-15T00:45:00.000+02:00

Fancy getting out of Egypt? Donate a small sum and keep your fingers crossed for a passport to the New Sealand, aka The Pirate Bay nation-to-be. Site: www.buysealand.com

Egypt Arrests Another Blog Critic

2006-11-20T13:38:00.000+02:00

Police in Cairo have detained a blogger whose posts have been critical of the Egyptian government.

Rami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, was detained along with three friends after leaving the house of a fellow blogger late at night.

No reasons have been given for Mr Siyam's detention. The other friends were released after being questioned.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Egypt arrests another blog critic

Egypt Detains Blogger

2006-11-20T13:19:00.000+02:00

Egyptian police detained an opposition blogger in a chance security check on Sunday, a human rights group said.

Blogger Rami Siyam, who runs ayoubelmasry.blogspot.com, was detained with three other bloggers leaving a friend's house in downtown Cairo around dawn, said Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Egypt detains blogger in random security check - Yahoo! News

Police Detain Opposition Activist

2006-11-13T20:57:00.000+02:00

Egyptian police have detained the opposition Kefaya movement's coordinator in western Cairo hours before he planned a demonstration to demand better public services, the movement said on its website on Monday.

Read More: IOL: Egypt police detain opposition activist

Amnesty Concerns About Freedom of Expression

2006-11-13T20:47:00.000+02:00

Amnesty International is concerned by the arrest and detention of blogger and former al-Azhar University student Abdel Karim Sulaiman Amer apparently because of his critical writings about Islam and Egypt's al-Azhar religious authorities, and the recent imprisonment of Tal’at Sadat, a member of parliament, for “spreading false rumours and insulting the armed forces". These cases represent a further erosion of freedom of expression in Egypt.

Read More: Egypt: New concerns about freedom of expression

UN Tries to Heal Religious Divide

2006-11-13T10:34:00.000+02:00

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due to be presented with a plan of action to ease increasing polarisation of Muslim and Western societies.

The report is by a group of prominent international figures, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ex-Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.

They have been brought together under the United Nations initiative, the Alliance of Civilisations.

The report will be presented at a ceremony in Istanbul. It is the product of 20 minds: prominent international figures from a variety of religions.

They have been meeting over the past year to examine the root causes of the increasing divide between the Muslim world and the West.

Their mandate was to propose a concrete plan of action to bridge the gap and overcome mutual feelings of fear and suspicion.

BBC NEWS | Europe | UN tries to heal religious divide

Best Arabic Blog 2006: Jar el Kamar

2006-11-12T12:46:00.000+02:00

The 15 winners of the Deutsche Welle Best of Blogs - BOB - award was announced today. Global Voices blogged the ceremony in Berlin. Alexandrian blogger Jar el Kamar is the best Arabic blog. Motivation:

An example of citizen journalism, Jar el Kamar has been able to cover incidents in his local city of Alexandria more bravely than your typical media outlet. He was on the front line of dangerous situations including violence happening around parliamentary elections and church attacks. He blogs also about culture, social issues and other topics.

Well earned and many congratulations! Read about winners in other categories here.

Blame the Iraqis First

2006-11-11T12:19:00.000+02:00

Forgive me for thinking that this article on Iraq by Arnold King is hilarious. Highlights:

I think that American troops should stay to protect the oil fields in Iraq. They should also seal the Kurdish region. On the other hand, I'd be happy to see our soldiers walk out of Baghdad, not with their tails between their legs but with their middle fingers in the air. ... We gave them an opportunity to experience freedom and democracy, and they responded by shooting one another and blowing people up.

... It's like "American Idol," but instead of singing or dancing they use beheadings and car bombs. In Iraq, stardom means blowing people up.

TCS Daily

Free Abdel Kareem - Redux

2006-11-09T00:08:00.000+02:00

A security official has confirmed that blogger Abdel Kareem is once again held by state security. I pray for him. He is in trouble for posting comments critical of Al Azhar, the country´s Islamic authority. They ought to be tolerant and have faith that if God have a problem with anyone, he will hand out the punishment himself. Of course, the issue is not merely theological to them, it is about power.

Once again are religious institutions confusing themselves with God: instead of seeing that they are part of the problem, they interpret any criticism of the institution as criticism of God. Such confusion, at least in my ears, is blasphemy. The reaction of the authorities, the religious and the state security, is a sign of weakness: they fail to provide the arguments or set good examples, so they resort to power. I´ll remember that next time someone is claiming that Islam does not need a reformation or that its leading scholars are not backwards.

I don´t know why Abdel Karim persist: he must have known what was coming. Whatever his reason, he is facing up to powers who long ago lost any claim of authority. I respect him for that, and I wish him luck.

What you can do to help is to make sure that you and others are not staying quiet.

Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22, was detained Monday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after being summoned for questioning by state security...

...the blogger lashed out at Al Azhar University - the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning in the region - from which he was expelled earlier this year.
...
... "I say to Al Azhar and its university and its professors and preachers who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: 'You are destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to cry for you, and your regime will end like others have'," he went on.
...
The blogger was already arrested in October 2005 after posting a vitriolic comment condemning the Muslim reaction to a Coptic Christian play that sparked violent clashes after some Muslims deemed it offensive to their religion.

The arrest took place on the same day that Paris-based international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders published a new list of 13 countries that it describes as "enemies of the Internet."
...
"Many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned this year in Egypt, so it has been added to the roll of shame reserved for countries that systematically violate online free expression," the group said.

"President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, displays an extremely disturbing authoritarianism as regards the Internet," the watchdog said, listing a number of recent cases in which bloggers were harassed. ...

Middle East Times: Egypt arrests blogger who criticized Al Azhar, by Jailan Zayan, AFP November 8, 2006

My Previous post today.
Previous posts about Kareem.

Blogger Kareem Arrested Again

2006-11-08T19:25:00.000+02:00

Says the Big Pharaoh:

Controversial student blogger Abdul karim Suliman Amer, known as "Kareem Amer", was arrested for the second time by the state security police. It seems that this time they are determined to put Abdul Karim behind bars and we'll have to start the "free abdul karim" campaign one more time. I am starting to become very worried about internet freedom of speech in Egypt especially after the state knew how powerful blogs can be after they exposed the mass sexual harassment incident in downtown Cairo.

Read the full post.

My Previous posts.

The Children of the High Dam

2006-11-08T19:20:00.000+02:00

A Journey Along the Nile Reveals an Egypt At the End of a Long Era of Broken Promises, Moving Into a Less Certain, Less Secular Future.

Lengthy report by Anthony Shadid, The Washington Post.

Despite All, a Good Day at LGF

2006-11-08T19:07:00.000+02:00

Little Green Footballs is always a very good blog, even when I don´t approve of what it says and that is not as often as you might think. This morning, it was even better. Here is how blogger Charles started out in the post The Morning After:

Good morning, lizards! Our job of saving the world just got a little harder, with the appeasement and anger party in control of the House (and possibly the Senate too).

Followed by some hard news:

Hamas is calling for attacks on the US.

The democrats who have ready lists of investigations and subpoenas.

Last but not least, the UN Celebrats Democrat Win.

Since RSF is Trying, We Ought to Participate

2006-11-07T15:07:00.000+02:00

Right now on the net, Reporters Without Borders are hosting a cyber demonstration against online censorship. More information here. Perhaps if I had a French sense of orientation and logic I would find the campaign site useful. But I don´t. To me, it is just very French. I expected to be able to click on any of the countries on the map that has taken over the front page at www.rsf.org, but it doesn´t work (try Internet Explorer if you care to play around more than I did).

That said, the site offer an opportunity to record a message to Yahoo!´s founder, to protest against Internet Black Holes. The information page also promises the launch of an Arabic RSF site today. Me myself cannot find it. Here is what RSF says about Egypt:

Aside from a few sites linked to the Muslim Brotherhood’s religious movements, Egypt does little online filtering. But President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, displays an extremely disturbing authoritarianism as regards the Internet. Three bloggers were arrested in June 2006 and were held for two to three months for calling for democratic reforms. Others have been harassed, such as Coptic blogger Hela Hemi Botros, who was forced to close down her blog in August under pressure from the police. Finally, a Council of State administrative court recently ruled that the authorities could block, suspend of close down any website likely to pose a threat to “national security.” This could open the way to extensive online censorship.

RSF 24 hour campaign

Cyberdemo Against Online Censorship

2006-11-06T20:59:00.000+02:00

Reporters Without Borders

Tomorrow November 7 at 11 AM
to the same time on November 8

"Reporters sans frontières are asking Internet users to visit their site to show support for RSF's campaign against internet censorship. You can click on an interactive map of the world showing "Internet black holes" (countries which censor Net use e.g. imprison bloggers), send a message to Yahoo against their censorship of search engine results in China, etc."

Read more at A Consuming Experience

Low IQ and the Curse of Africa

2006-11-05T13:04:00.000+02:00

A scholar at the London School of Economics is taking heat for publishing research that says "African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries," writes the Guardian.

Of course we should question the point in opening the lid of this box again - it is not that many years ago that researchers at all good universities were measuring skulls to compare different races, such as caucassian and negro. But it is of course also appropriate to defend evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawas right to publish his research. It is academia, after all.

Kanazawas is concluding that "low IQ levels, rather than poverty and disease, are the reason why life expectancy is low and infant mortality high. His paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, compares IQ scores with indicators of ill health in 126 countries and claims that nations at the top of the ill health league also have the lowest intelligence ratings."

Leaving the obvious criticism aside, such as whether there are any reliable data to draw such conclusions from, I find two other questions far more interesting:

1. What effect does poverty have on intelligence over generations? In richer countries, researchers are now pointing to how low nutrition diets and in particular bad fats are directly affecting how brain cells are connecting to each other. Good food = many connections = fast working brain. Bad food = few connections = slow thinking.

2. Does IQ really matter? In other words, is it and adequate method for measuring intelligence?

The case of MENSA
Over the years, I´ve met plenty of people who consider themselves really smart and they are quick to point out their IQ levels which have qualified their membership in an obscure organization called MENSA (? I think) where other high-IQ scorers are meeting to tell each other how smart they are. The problem is, most of these people can´t tell their face from the ass. There are more wrongs coming out from their mouths than rights. That is of course only my observations. But to qualify it, I have also had the fortune to know some really smart people - and I mean really smart and capable - and I don´t think any of them would ever dream about making a test to prove their IQ to their peers; they would probably rather die than joining an organisation like MENSA.

Can we measure intelligence? Does it mean anything?

The Guardian Observer

Danger at Home

2006-11-05T12:16:00.000+02:00

Ahlan wa Sahlan.

MAGINE VISITING a country where there are more than two guns for every three people, which suffers 45 murders and manslaughters a day, which has 70 active militias and 16,000 gangs in 800 cities, which has been at war with someone for most of its existence, and where the elected president has a 1-in-4 chance, historically, of being killed, wounded or shot at.

But you don't have to imagine, you already live here, in the United States. And the figures above, taken from the FBI and Robert Young Pelton's book, "The World's Most Dangerous Places," are a way of putting travel risk in perspective.

Foreign destinations are often no more fraught with risk than home, sweet home.

Seattle Times

Police Seize 1,400 kg TNT in Sinai

2006-11-04T13:16:00.000+02:00

Oh dear, someone was planning a good firework for Christmas this year.

... a cache of 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) found 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Gaza was to be smuggled across the border. A second cache of 400 kilograms (882 pounds) found east of the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya appeared to be for Egyptian militants.
...
The TNT appeared to be of the same kind that was used by militants in terror attacks on Sinai beach resorts, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Haaretz

BlogHype: Saddam was Going Nuclear

2006-11-04T11:59:00.000+02:00

Was Saddam only one year from buildning a nuclear bomb? According to the Drudge Report, the NYT was preparing an exclusive story yesterday, with Iraqi intelligence documents backing the claim. The morning after, the story wasn´t quite as dramatic, yet there is a lot to learn about what was available to Saddam during an era of UN sanctions.

Right Winged
Captain´s Quarters
TailRank

On topic: Six Arab states join rush to go nuclear

To Believe or Not to Believe, That is...

2006-11-03T00:49:00.000+02:00

Two really good articles if you are interested in the academic discussion of religion.

The Crusade Against Religion - Wired.com

What´s Good About Atheism - TCS Daily

The Right Path - Cosmetic Wise

2006-11-03T00:41:00.000+02:00

Upsi, be careful next time you ask some friends to bring in some favourite skin care products next time - it may turn God´s wrath upon you. According to a new Fatwa by our own Mufti, Dr. Ali Gomaa, creams that lighten the skin is a sin forbidden in Islam. The article doesn´t say if men who use the same cream are sinners as well. Then again, a man who is using face-cream at large must be a sinner per definition, or?

Funny, by the way, did you ever notice in the museum that women always have light skin and men dark in the ancient pictures? I wonder why, since dark is beautiful. I agree with the Mufti - bleaching your skin is a sin. My position is not religious though, I just don´t see the point in changing from beautiful colour to pale.

Here is another funny one: "Gomaa approved of liposuction and stomach stapling for overweight women if there was a medical necessity." Of course it is a necessity my dear Doctor, you are not accusing me of vanity, are you?

Veil Debate Redolent of Nazism

2006-11-03T00:35:00.000+02:00

The public debate over whether or not Muslim women should be allowed to wear veils is redolent of Nazi Germany, according to London´s Mayor Ken Livingstone.

The suggestion that Muslims are the cause of the racial divide in Britain “echoes very much the demonology of Nazi Germany when Hitler said it was the Jews' fault and the problems were brought upon themselves.”

“There is a faint echo of that in a lot of the rubbish we have been seeing in the media recently,” he said.

Link.

I Agree, the Niqab is Not Pretty

2006-11-03T00:28:00.000+02:00

The Veil Storm Hits Egypt

It expresses an extremist attitude ... Wearing the niqab is as outrageous as wearing a bathing suit or pajamas to the office.

Salama Ahmed Salama in Al-Ahram (via Kuwait Times)

Yes, I agree, at least from a fashion point, it is a serious crime.

Mobbing the Other Sex

2006-11-03T00:13:00.000+02:00

Groups of young men chasing women down the streets of down town Cairo to celebrate the end of Ramadan and the feast - how untraditional is not that. It has been reported by bloggers and mainstream media picked up the story faster than usual. Says the BBC:

According to the bloggers, the attackers targeted veiled as well as unveiled women who happened to be on their own.
...
Seconds later young boys were shouting that there was another one by the Miami cinema. We went there and saw another girl surrounded by a crowd trying to assault her. She managed to run inside a nearby building.

The question is: why are we surprised? Of course, we never imagined such mass-attacks would take place. But we should have. The lid has been held down with force too long. We have opened it up and it is about time we realize the transition is not going to be easy. Liberty will be interpreted "do what I like" until a leader is emerging who is capable to explain that freedom is right and any right is always corresponded by an obligation: the obligation that comes with freedom is responsibility.

Welcome to reality, everyone.

Link to BBC article.

Eid Saeed

2006-10-24T01:16:00.000+02:00

Happy Holidays, everybody! It is Eid al Fitr and I guess some of us bloggers will stay of the grid for a few days - I don´t know yet what I myself may be up to or not. There is an extensive report on how the feast is celebrated in different countries on Wikipeida.
I got this beautiful image from the beautiful JanMania blog, Jordan.

Veiled for a Day

2006-10-23T13:05:00.000+02:00

Muslim journalist Zaiba Malik had never worn the niqab. But with everyone from Jack Straw to Tessa Jowell weighing in with their views on the veil, she decided to put one on for the day. She was shocked by how it made her feel - and how strongly strangers reacted to it.
Guardian Unlimited

Good is the King

2006-10-23T12:29:00.000+02:00

A reminder that good is better than bad and that if you are so inclined to believe, God is good.

No matter what power human beings may have over one another, it is nothing against the power of God. No matter how much influence one may have over events on the earth, it is no match for the dominion of God.

It should serve as a reminder for those who think they can rule and run the world for their own agenda. ...

It should also serve as a reminder for those who commit terrible acts of inhuman violence in the name of the King. They think that they are doing good; nay, they do a terrible evil, and we can see through their guise of piety. ...

Hesham Hassaballa is quoting the bible on altmuslim.com.

Veiled Perspectives in the WP

2006-10-23T12:23:00.000+02:00

The Washington Post is trying to leverage the discussion about veils, hijabs and naqibs by telling the story of three veiled women with different perspectives. "Islamist Propaganda" says Little Green Footballs. Can´t bother about that. I suggest instead a good roundup by the veiled lady herself, blogger The Anchoress. The Anchoress: WaPo gives three veiled perspectives

US bans Vegemite

2006-10-23T12:20:00.000+02:00

Finally at least one government who understands that since the dark, salty spread taste shit, it probably is shit, thus a hazard to the public health. I hate it!

It´s all over the blogsphere, link to Tailrank:
US bans Vegemite

Festival of Light - Wish it was Cairo

2006-10-22T16:15:00.000+02:00

Berlin's Cathedral turns into a kaleidoscope: Lighting designer Andreas Boehlke has been illuminating public spaces for 23 years. For almost two weeks night-time Berlin is illuminated by the "Festival of Lights."
Photo: Reuters. Link to pictureshow at Spiegel Online.

Sex and the Muslim City

2006-10-22T13:42:00.000+02:00

Oh! Apparently there is sex in this part of the world. Too bad no one told me :-) The in-depth research and fine reporting is brought to us by Spiegel Online. The magazine is running a lengthy feature titled Love, Lust and Passion: Sex and Taboo in the Islamic World. My cheeks are still burning, I am unable to comment or provide further insight on the topic, but here are a few lines that caught my veiled eyes:

According to Google Trends, the Pakistanis search for "sex" most often, followed by the Egyptians. Iran and Morocco are in fourth and fifth, Indonesia is in seventh and Saudi Arabia in eighth place. The top city for "sex" searches is Cairo.

When the terms "boy sex" or "man boy sex" are entered (many Internet filters catch the word "gay"), Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the first four countries listed.

"They were already convinced that my girlfriend was a whore," says Gundi. The couple ended up behind bars, even after telling the police that they planned to get married in a few months. Only after the woman notified her father the next day were the two released from jail. For Gundi, one thing is certain: "If the officer who stopped us hadn't been so sexually frustrated, he would have let us go."

Link to the article.

Liberal Freedom - For a Few

2006-10-21T11:57:00.000+02:00

I received an e-mail in response to my previous articles this week about liberal freedom and the niqab. It is too long to post in full here, but I will put it in the comment area of this post. A few excerpts:

... It has nothing to do with Islam or Muslims. ... Here's what the problem REALLY is: It is deeply offensive to the most fundamental feeling of people in free societies to see other people openly oppressed. ... To see degradation of another human being worn publicly and held up as a virtue of some sort is simply sickening to us. ... It may be a cultural norm elsewhere to mutilate the genitals of little girls, and considered a virtue; that is not the case here. ... It may be a cultural norm for men to have four wives - but polygamy is unlawful here, and disgusting to the majority of citizens.

.... what if people, for religious reasons, wore men’s clothing designed to expose the testicles, that women's clothing bare the breasts? Would we not all find this appalling? ... The dehumanization of women is obscene to us. To deliberately throw it in the faces of one's neighbours does more than separate - it's offensive. ...

... If people are going to emigrate to free societies, they must understand that they are guests and conduct themselves accordingly, at least in shared public life. Or, live elsewhere. I cannot help but wonder what it is that attracts immigrants to places for which they have such contempt. Please, be happy, perhaps somewhere else. ... Please don't confuse this perspective with any wish to hurt Muslims in any way. It's the custom that's offensive, not the person.

A big problem with this argument is the assumption that women are forced, or brainwashed, to wear the hijab or niqab. It happens and the pressure from a narrow-minded society is indeed increasing. But for many people it is also a choice, a personal step to fulfil their lives. I respect that.

I think we also need to reflect on the differences between some Muslim societies and some liberal societies in the West. The big difference is of course that the Muslim society is a developing society. Therefore, laws and practises that permits polygamy may be in action but it doesn´t mean the society at large are pleased with them, or that people actually use them. Where they do, it will change, in some places sooner than later. In contrast, in the Western society, people do not marry several spouses at once, but after each other. Statistically speaking, a marriage is not supposed to last ten years. Most children grow up with different sets of parents, or single parents. Sleeping with different partners, outside marriage, is considered normal. Regarding clothing that is exposing the human anatomy: women already show off their breasts and no one care too much when men is parading with pants that just about reveal the hair on their testicles. People get away with a lot, because it is a liberal society.

Unless you are Muslim, of course. If you want to wear items your are comfortable in outside your house, people like this e-mail writer freak out. Well, let them freak. It is my right in a liberal society to freak you out. My name may not be Vivian Westwood but I still have the right to wear what I wish. Even if you do not like it. Even if you have nightmares about all the horrors you imagine that I am going trough and that you soon will be experiencing once the people "of my kind" get their hands on you, drag you to the basement to cut your genetials and then marry you off to my uncles in Tehran. Dream on, because it will never happen outside your head and that is why my right to wear what I like is greater than your right to tell me it is not suitable "in your country."

Finally, immigrants are not guests, they are part of the society. With the same rights and obligations as everybody else. You can not dictate how they should live their lives more than they can say how you should go on with yours. You are not above them, they do not answer to you. That is the law. If people in Britain would grasp it, senseless debates about what "foreigners" can or cannot do would soon end. And the liberal society would again flourish.

The Big Pharaoh in a Niqab

2006-10-21T11:27:00.000+02:00

Not really, just joking. But he is annoyed that actress Hala Sheeha is donning the niqab. I am too. I wouldn´t want any young woman to wear a hijab or niqab if it is not an individual choice. In her case, it is probably the only way to survive. God knows what the fanatics have said they will do to her otherwise. Really, I do think that is why famous singers and actresses are turning all-holy on a spot. Check out BP´s before and after pictures, quite funny.

The BP also have this disturbing piece of news:

Well, I just came from Al Arabiya website and saw this news report about a young Egyptian man who raped little girls having religious class in a mosque. And he did it in the mosque's bathroom and he did it in Ramadan!

Gamal Al-Banna in the NYT

2006-10-21T11:10:00.000+02:00

I didn´t expect to find an article about an Egyptian free thinker on the NYT frontpage this morning, but I did. It is of course Michael Slackman who is providing the fine reporting. I am glad he haven´t given up on Egypt yet.

GAMAL AL-BANNA is 85, and for much of his life he has been overshadowed by his famous brother, Sheik Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political party and antecedent of a host of militant Islamist organizations, from Al Qaeda to Hamas.
...
He is a liberal thinker, a man who would like to see Islamic values and practices interpreted in the context of modern times. Egypt’s gatekeepers of religious values, the government-appointed and self-appointed arbiters of God’s word, condemn, dismiss and dispute what he says.
...
“If religion was correctly understood, it would be a power of liberation,” Mr. Banna said. “But it is misunderstood, and so it is driving us backward.” The views alleged to fall outside religion include those on women: They are not required to wear a veil, as most do in Egypt, Mr. Banna believes; they should not be forced to undergo genital cutting, as most do now in Egypt; and they should be allowed to lead men in prayer, which is forbidden in Egypt.

The New York Times: A Liberal Brother at Odds With the Muslim Brotherhood

The Veiled Women of London

2006-10-20T09:16:00.000+02:00

The veiled women in Britain will loose the battle because they are an extermist minority that are not wanted within another minority, says the Asharq Alawsat general manager Abdul Rahman Al Rashed.

The real loss is more important than a piece of cloth and it is that Muslims have lost a great deal of sympathy because of the practices of an extremist minority. In fact, the presence of this minority within western society contradicts not only the principles of the host country but the group’s own principles and religious beliefs.
...
It is better for that Muslim teacher to leave the country and live in a Muslim country that respects her privacy rather than living in a society where social values and what she considers a religious duty conflict.
...
Living in Britain, is like living in any Islamic state in that it is governed by rules and regulations to which residents must abide and must respect. If they cannot, they should go back the way they came.

In my opinion, women who wear the Niqab will lose this battle, primarily because they are a minority within a minority and because many Muslims do not consider it a compulsory part of Islamic dress and so on.
...
Azmi has indicated that she is willing to take off the Niqab, therefore may be able to return to teaching. The biggest supporters of the Niqab in Britain are the leftists and liberals who believe in freedom of dress as one of the fundamental freedoms that the country sanctifies. In the Sunday Times, India Knight defends the Niqab and expresses her view that Muslims today are experiencing the same oppression as the Jews once did.

The Veiled Women of London, Part Two, Part One

Andrew Sullivan Disagrees

2006-10-19T22:59:00.000+02:00

Turns out that the best conservative blogger on the net has an opposing view on the issue of teachers wearing a niqab. Shame, I would have loved to stand on his side. Andrew´s point is that a) if you are working for the government you have to follow the rules; b) the rule is to teach clearly, which you cannot do if your face is covered; c) dresscodes and uniforms for public officials is not an infringement of freedom.

Well, he is wrong.

A. This is not a question about following the rules, it is a questioning of the rules. If the rule said "wear bananas if you like", the naqib would not be an issue. The discussion should question the fairness of the rules, not if people are inclined to follow them.

B. Why is everybody assuming that a niqab and teaching is in conflict? Or that a teacher who wear the niqab on her way to the school is necessary insisting on wearing the niqab in class? Personally, I can remember many teachers who were so ugly I never wanted to see their face, but that is another story. (I´ll call my shrink).

C. If I were a Hindu I would really be offended if I couldn´t wear a turban on my head at work, even if I at the same time have to put up with the silly uniforms some nutty manager ordered for me from the all-polyester discount store. What Andrew and others are saying here is that they do not think that a ban on "religiouswear" is an infringement of personal freedom because they do not think that those religious outfits ought to be so important to anyone. Well, that is a value-statement, not a fact. In my eyes, it is not up to them to decide! Nor me, or you.

Andrew Sullivan: The End of Multiculturalism.
My previous post today: Lipstick Jihad

Internet Explorer 7 is Released

2006-10-19T21:15:00.000+02:00

Internet Explorer 7 is here, finally. The "Google Operating System" blog has the full story.

It has been said that it will be released as an automatic update: if that is still true and you have automatic update turned on, you may want to change it or you will find a new browser version on your system soon.

Is Miss Mabrouk IE7 compliant? I wouldn´t know, you let me know :)

Is IE7 a good browser? I tried a couple of the beta versions and I didn´t like its performance. Features, yes, impressing. Switching from Firefox? Can´t see the point. How about you?

Help! Google is Pornofying MY Blog!

2006-10-19T21:01:00.000+02:00

Beggars belief... on my own blog:

I ticked the "no smut please" box when I set up Google Adsense for this blog but it didn´t help. I am not sure I want to keep the ads anyway, it is a trial phase I am going through. But I do like the Firefox ads in the sidebar. I love Firefox.

Royal Sohour in Amman

2006-10-19T20:46:00.000+02:00

King Hussein of Jordan and his family enjoying a late evening meal at a restaurant in an alley in downtown Amman. Lovely! I found the picture at Sabbah´s Blog, he says it appeared in Jordan Times. Just imagine if we would see a picture of Hosni and family on a night out in Attaba!

Mubarak's Quarter of a Century

2006-10-19T20:34:00.000+02:00

Nice roundup if you want an introduction. And it is safe for kids, the most scary parts are not mentioned - and I am not talking about the artificial colouring of his hair. By the BBC´s Martin Asser.

Egypt Frees Brotherhood Members

2006-10-19T20:14:00.000+02:00

Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, says one of its senior figures and 14 others have been released from custody.

No reason was given for the release of the group's secretary-general, Mahmoud Ezzat, and his fellow party members, who have been in custody since August.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Egypt frees Brotherhood members

Lipstick Jihad

2006-10-19T01:29:00.000+02:00

Time´s Tehran correspondent writes Why Tony Blair is Right About the Veil. I have a problem with the assumptions behind the argument. But first, here is an extract from the column with the second level header Muslim women can't integrate with British society from behind a mask:

The idea that women in niqab can assimilate properly into a community or be effective as teachers distresses me, because it is at heart disingenuous. Clearly, meaningful social exchange requires a face. And the argument that non-verbal communication is inessential only addresses half the problem. The obscured woman, who can see her interlocutor clearly through her slits, is enjoying contact with a face; it's the other party, conversing with a tiny black tent, that bears the burden of the discomfort. It would be more sincere for niqab-wearers to say that they accept the cost of refusing to compromise on the niqab; that it will be considered provocative by their non-Muslim fellow citizens, that it might slow their own assimilation into British society.

The point that follows is that teachers are role models and children should not have to be confronted with a discussion about why a male teacher may find the faces of his female colleagues morally offensive. Further, the underlying idea that men cannot control their sexual impulses is discriminating to men. I can appreciate the argument but I am a liberal so I have to disagree, mostly.

(Showing the face to children of any sex is typically not a problem for the woman in the niqab. When the kids are turning into young men and become a threat, they are also old enough to appreciate that some teachers in the school are very serious about their religion).

Religion is an individual choice, mostly. Although sometimes people don´t think about it as an option, it is as natural to them as breathing air, thinking about the loved ones and falling asleep.
A society is a gathering of individual people, all with their own habits, thoughts and beliefs.
A liberal society is a society where everybody is respecting that people are different.
People who are originally from another culture and country are not lesser people than those whose parents and grandparents were born in the country. They are just the same and deserve the same rights and respect.

Therefore, it doesn´t make sense to tell a person that your values and beliefs are not appreciated in our corner. It is rather rude, actually.

That said, I too think it is desirable if less women wear the niqab. But I do not demand it from them. People in Egypt are becoming more intolerant, ignorant and religious at the same time. Of course there is a connection. But I try to meet that trend with opposition, arguments and education. Not a ban, demand or legal regulation. For the same reason is neo-nazi groups allowed to demonstrate in Western cities: because it would do no good to shut them down (they will continue recruiting underground and will feel victimized). Instead, they are allowed to speak; in the name of democracy and to protect democracy.

The proper conduct is to welcome everybody, regardless of belief. To realize that this is new to me, but I will learn and understand. Above all, to recognize my own fear of what I do not know. Instead of saying "poor darling, hiding under that", think "oh, did you see what beautiful eyes."

All arguments in these discussion are based on the same fear and assumption: we know what we have; we see what we can get and we don´t like it, therefore we resist it.

I can not agree with that position. My liberal heart is bumping too fast. There is room for everybody, everywhere. Just because my neighbour is Buddhist, I don´t have to be. Or care. Or worry. It is not to say there is not a problem, or that non-muslim peoples position should not be respected. But it is to say that Blair is looking in the wrong direction and that he in doing so are becoming part of the problem instead of the solution.

Link

Swimming Hijab Story Continues

2006-10-19T01:14:00.000+02:00

Who would have thought the debate is till going on. The Islamic swimsuit issue has now become an editorial in the Islamic Tourism Magazine!

Previous posts via Google.

Saudi Jeans on BBC

2006-10-19T00:52:00.000+02:00

Blogging boom in Saudi Arabia, says the BBC. Featuring our favorite blogger Saudi Jeans, among others:

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saudi Arabia's bold young bloggers

Finally, a Worthy Peace Prize Winner

2006-10-13T13:03:00.000+02:00

Clap your hands, the Nobel Peace Prize is finally awarded to someone who have done something for the world, compared to previous winners with a questionable role on the world political scene. This Bangladeshi banker is helping his poorer nationals. Hurray!

The inspirational economist Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today for helping lift millions of his fellow Bangladeshis from poverty through a pioneering scheme that lends tiny amounts of money to the very poorest of borrowers.

'Banker' who lends to the poor wins Nobel Peace Prize - World - Times Online

No Niqab Dorm Rule

2006-10-13T10:14:00.000+02:00

Female students were kicked from their dormitory for wearing a niqab, face-veil. Egyptian Human Rights watchdog EIPR is protesting - Brian Whitaker picked up the press release. Some quotes:

...(EIPR) today condemned the decision by Helwan University's President to expel female students who choose for religious reasons to wear the niqab, or face veil, from the university's hostel....

The only thing worse than the arbitrary interference with women's right to choose their dress code is to deprive them of government-subsidised accommodation and meals solely on the basis of a decision they made in accordance with their religious beliefs. ...

Plane Hits Manhattan High-Rise

2006-10-11T22:37:00.000+02:00

Plane. Hits. Manhattan. Three words I never wanted to say again. This time, it is a small plane. No big fuzz, yet. US Airforce is said to be patrolling in the skies though, because it is prudent to do so. I second that. Is George W. flying in circles as well? I haven´t seen any headlines about some obscure websites with videos of people taking the credit for the "attack." If it is a terror-attack, does it mean that the war on terror has failed? If it is not an attack, how is it still possible for anything to fly into a building in N.Y.? Should there not be a gigantic electro-shield or some other star-war-esque energy-bubble protecting the city?

CNN - Developing story.

100 Dollar Laptops to Pupils in Libya

2006-10-11T22:06:00.000+02:00

Yes, it is true. Negroponte met Gadhafi and the laptops will soon be on their way to Libya´s schools:

The $250 million deal, reached on Tuesday, would provide the nation with 1.2 million computers, a server in each school, a team of technical advisers, satellite internet service and other infrastructure.

Read article at AlJazeera.net

Previous post.

The Secret Letter From Iraq

2006-10-10T14:52:00.000+02:00

A marine´s very frank letter home. It is a good read. So good that I have to steal and republish two items that caught my attention more than the other:

Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we'd get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won't give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp . . .

Favorite Iraqi TV Show — Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.

Link to the full letter:TIME.com, The Secret Letter From Iraq

Videos on Muhammad Taken Down

2006-10-10T10:48:00.000+02:00

COPENHAGEN, Oct. 9 -- Videos showing anti-immigrant party members mocking the prophet Muhammad were pulled from Web sites Monday as two youths seen in the clips were reported in hiding and the Foreign Ministry warned Danes against traveling in the Middle East.

Muslim clerics from Egypt and Indonesia condemned the video broadcast in Denmark last week showing members of the Danish People's Party youth wing with cartoons of a camel wearing the head of Muhammad and beer cans for humps. A second drawing placed a turbaned, bearded man next to a plus sign and a bomb, all equaling a mushroom cloud.

Read the article: Danish Web Videos on Muhammad Taken Down - washingtonpost.com

Pyramid Found in Europe

2006-10-09T20:03:00.000+02:00

... the most extraordinary discovery of the millennium: Europe's only pyramids, dating back to the late Ice Age, exceeding in scale and perfection those of ancient Egypt or Latin America.

Well, perhaps not, says The Guardian.

Opposing Double Standards

2006-10-09T12:49:00.000+02:00

Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, is not someone I agree with, but he does have a point about how we perceive freedom of expression:

What about freedom of expression when anti-Semitism is involved?" asked Mr Mousa. "Then it is not freedom of expression. Then it is a crime.

He accuses the west of double standards:

But when Islam is insulted, certain powers... raise the issue of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression should be one yardstick, not two or three," he said.

I agree with him about the double yardsticks: the people who are opposing the Muslims criticism of the cartoons decepting the Prophet as a mad terrorist and his beheading on a stage do it on grounds of the universal human right of freedom of speech, opinion and expression. They do not recognize that this right already is limited. These limitations have been put in place to protect the fundamental freedom from abuse that would erode it.

Thus: if we accept that the right of freedom of expression can be limited (which it is) we must also ask why we do not accept that a large portion of the population of the world consider it outrageous that picturing and slandering the Prophet is not one such accepted limitation.

The reason why it is not is because it was not an issue at the time when all human rights were drafted by, at large, the West, in the UN in the US after the second world war. Eleanor Roosevelt, if the name rings a bell. The voice of the people in the Muslim world was not the voice that it is today, for reasons of political systems and economic development. Today when a global world require a global sense of justice and with Western societies having to face what integration and multi-culturalism really mean, it is a different situation. It doesn´t provide answers automatically, but it poses new questions.

The limitations imposed on the freedom of expression was not put in place overnight. It is still a grey zone in International Law. There is no reason why we should not have a discussion about what constitute a proper limitation today. With the aim of protecting the right, not taking it away.

I am not arguing for new limitations. I am arguing for a debate about the limitations. The outcome may be that all kinds of limitations are wrong and therefore everybody have the right to say anything at any time, at any place. If not, we must have a valid answer to why we should not protect religious symbols. That the people who are opposing it are not religious or consider those who are religious backwards, is not a valid answer.

Two hundred meters from the Arab League HQ in Cairo, two kiosks are selling anti-semitic books, such as Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. As you know, it is not unusual. Anti-semitism - not only anti-zionism - is widespread and nothing that most people think twice about. In some western countries, it is forbidden and those texts cannot be sold in shops. Says the BBC:

But it's clear that some publishers in Egypt do not practise the kind of respect for religious groups that Mr Mousa is calling for from the West.

It is clear that it is not only the people in the West who are practising double standards. Which is also a reason why we should take this discussion seriously, today.

BBC: Contradiction in Arab Cartoon Views

Womens Right by the Book

2006-10-07T09:49:00.000+02:00

Ramadan Postcard, by Amir Normandi

"Even in the Age of Information, it would seem that not all information is created equal: the closure of a successful 3-year-old production of Mozart's opera 'Idomeneo' because, said Berlin police, it posed 'incalculable risk' of inciting Islamic fundamentalists to violence, is a stark reminder that censorship throbs with power while the lifeblood of art is wrung dry. Last year, outrage from Muslim students led Harper College, located just outside Chicago, to remove an exhibition of works by Amir Normandi depicting the oppression women suffer in many Islamic countries."

Partly in response, Normandi, himself an Iranian-born Muslim, has curated a new exhibition of works:'Desire No Shackles/ Imagine No Borders', to examine oppression and the notion of borders in Islam and other contexts. Read more at http://noshackles.blogspot.com

More pictures about Islam by Amir Normandi on this blog here, here, and here.

Europe vs. Islam, Continued

2006-10-05T08:53:00.000+02:00

My previous post raised a few questions, delivered via e-mail and in the comments. While the promise to explain the remaining part of the argument still stands, I want to make a few pointers in that direction today.

Timothy Garton Ash wrote a comment in today´s The Guardian, titled "The struggle to defend free expression is defining our age."

Fanatiques sans frontières (my bold) are on the march. It's wrong to describe this as a single "war on terror"; our adversaries and their ideologies are so diverse. But if you think we are not engaged in a struggle against manifold enemies of freedom, as potentially deadly as those we faced in the 1930s, you are living in a fool's paradise. Which is to say: you are a fairly typical contemporary European.

Fanatiques sans frontières? Excellent expression! But is the threat from the fanatics as dangerous as the fascist ideologies from the pre-war era? It presumes that the larger Muslim population are inclined to embrace it. I do not think so and I am stressing think because I do not claim to know. But I doubt, because societies are complex by nature and it seems to me that Garton-Ash think that the fanatics are unofficial spokespeople for the Muslim world, which is not true. Perhaps he is giving them more credit than they deserve.

There was a book in the mid-90´s, a Harvard professor explaining why the German mindset at the time accepted the Nazi ideology. You would have to explain the Muslim society and "mindset" in a similar way before concluding that the fanatics can win the hearts and soul of the peace loving people I am acquainted with.

But let us move on to the core of Garton-Ash´s argument and two points that are often overlooked in this discussion.

First:

But self-censorship can also flow from a well-intentioned notion of multi-cultural harmony, on the lines of "you respect my taboo and I'll respect yours" - what I've described in this column as the tyranny of the group veto. And there are misguided attempts by democratic governments and parliaments to ensure domestic peace and inter-communal harmony by legislating to curb free expression. ...

Second:

We need a debate about what the law should and should not allow to be said or written. Even Mill did not suggest that everyone should be allowed to say anything, anytime and anywhere. We also need a debate about what it's prudent and wise to say in a globalised world where people of different cultures live so close together, like roommates separated only by thin curtains. There is a frontier of prudence and wisdom which lies beyond the one that should be enforced by law. ...

The fact is that the guiding principle of freedom of expression do not equal "anything said goes". International law - which is constituted by declarations, agreements and court-rulings - is full of explanations and decisions that try to draw the line between what falls under freedom of speech and what is abusing it. In the European "international" legislation, that is, principles and rulings from the European Court of Justice as well as national constitutional laws, you will find that the right is often defined as a right to hold an opinion, as opposed to express.

In other instances, it is well known that freedom of expression is limited. For example laws that state that you cannot desecrate the national flag or insult the royal family. Or that you cannot call your neighbour names or slander your workmates.

The second point I am picking up from Garton-Ash´s article is that it must be clear that the discussion of what is proper conduct is not necessarily a legal discussion. Laws typically reflect what we perceive to be right and wrong, but not all issues are always regulated by law. The law is only the codification of our position. Thus, the discussion about printed pictures of the Prophet and his head falling on a German theatre stage is primarily a discussion about how we respect each other and moral conduct in our society. It becomes a legal discussion when we start to debate whether someone ought to be punished for doing something we object to. It is perfectly possible to argue that by beheading the Prophet you are violating the principle of freedom of expression because that principle is resting on an assumption that we share a perception of morality and you are abusing it. But this is a philosophical discussion, not a political standpoint. We have this discussion because we want to strengthen the principle of freedom of expression. If we did not have this discussion we would leave the playing-field open to those who are violently attacking it and those who are allowing it to erode by thinking there is no need for a discussion.

Because of the grey zone in International law, our communities find it difficult to deal with issues of defamation, discrimination and hate-speech. It becomes extra difficult because the same communities nowadays are populated by people with sometimes fundamentally different views living side by side with people who fail to recognize that our own perception is derative from a common way of thinking at a time when a society only had to accommodate those Christians who were for the Pope and the Vatican, and those against these institutions. Facilitating a discussion that preserve values and include everybody does not have to be the same as giving up your values or excluding someone else. The point of discussion is to see what we cannot see today. Or, to clear the grey zone. That is, we have to trust that we are capable of preserve and include at the same time, even if we today do not know how.

Enough on this topic for today, please trust I will return with more to say. Please do read Garton-Ash´s article in The Guardian.

1st Carnival of African Women

2006-10-03T11:34:00.000+02:00

October 9: The first Carnival of African Women which I was kindly invited to participate in. So, do watch this blog and the Carnival page next Monday. There is also a blog aggregator for African Women. Interesting! I am looking forward to learn more from all participators.

9-11 Atta on Video at Bin Laden Camp

2006-10-02T09:40:00.000+02:00

Apparantly, Egyptian Mohamed Atta was in a jolly good mood already a year and a half before he hijacked a plane on 9/11. The Sunday Times has the video: Osama Bin Laden´s HQ.

As a backgrounder: my post "Attas Father praises London Bombs."

She Aint Pink No More

2006-10-01T19:23:00.000+02:00

Done! Every girl who wish to reclaim her reputation can do with a little makeover -- too bad I myself didn´t remember this earlier, perhaps it would have made it more appealing to dive back into the heavy blogging business. Today´s changes will do for now, or what do you think? I have tested the archive- and item pages back and forward and it seems to be in working order. I look forward to switching to a custom made template (and indeed I began working on one about a year ago that is not finished, yet). Nothing wrong with Blogger's common goods but you know, it is like buying cloths of the rack - especially when you know you´re gonna have to wear it in public. It doesn´t make your day but it is better than running around town naked. Sometimes.

I have made a few updates that you may want to know about:

1. The standard Atom feed is now full length, the URL to paste in your reader is:

http://missmabrouk.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Or perhaps better, use the Feedburner smart atom/rss combo feed, also full length and no summaries, which you can get from the orange colour button in the sidebar, or with this URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MissMabrouk

2. A somewhat shortened blogroll has the bloggs I am trying to keep an eye on for various reasons. Among them, I learned today that Tarek at Green Data is still doing a great job AND he has a very practical design.

3. The e-mail address has changed as I mentioned earlier today. The mailto: link has a permanent place in the sidebar, just replace the DOT in missmabrouk@gmailDOTcom with a real "."

4. The "Suggested" section of the sidebar is now called "Bookmarklets" because that is what the links are about. I added "Del.icio.us this page" to encourage you to bookmark individual pages on del.icio.us. More links will follow, to Digg and other trendy places.

That is it for now. Thanks for coming around and please do let me know what you think about the new colour!

DIY Make Up Day

2006-10-01T11:25:00.000+02:00

Today is my do-it-yourself site makeover day: figured it was time to re-evaluate the funding template and give the basic colours a major overhaul. Rouge and lashes will be re-added to the sidebar, item per item, as my day in the blogger beauty salon is moving on. Enjoy.

Pharaoh, my Pharaoh

2006-10-01T10:04:00.000+02:00

The Big Man himself. Via blogger Canadianpharaoh who says this is "The New Ramses."

Updated Contact Info

2006-10-01T09:24:00.000+02:00

I have updated my e-mail address in the sidebar link and on the profile page. During my time away from blogging, Yahoo! de-activated my inbox and deleted everything I had in it. I successfully re-activated it and have used it for a while but since the messages couldn´t be restored, I´m not too pleased with Yahoo!. So I am with Gmail, of course. If you haven´t switched yet and would like an invitation, send me a message.

Yesterday, I accidentally turned on comment moderation. I am sorry about that. It will not happen again. Comments are now open as normal.

Falling on His Sword

2006-09-30T19:53:00.000+02:00

Falling on His Sword - Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest is the title of a lengthy and interesting article in the Washington Post which in turn is an excerpt from the book Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell by WP reporter Karen DeYoung.

It was a good read and I recommend it for your "Sunday interesting reading list". That is, if you like me, always want to know the details about what happened the minutes before significant moments in history. This article walks you through the time from when the secretary of state was asked to sell the war in the UN General Assembly, via the difficult work of validating claims of WMO´s from the White House and the CIA, to Powell´s last official meeting with the President.

Also from the WP: Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice.

Is Armstrong an Apologist for Islam?

2006-09-28T15:11:00.000+02:00

Efraim Karsh is calling Karen Armstrong an "apologist for Islam" in his NY Sun review of her latest book about the Prophet Mohammad.

In truth, Islam's actual meaning is submission and not peace, or to use Ms. Armstrong's own words, "the perfect surrender (in Arabic the word for ‘surrender' is Islam) that every human being should make to the divine." And it was to achieve this goal and subordinate the Arabian peninsula to his rule that Muhammad fought almost incessantly for the last 10 years of his life, having fled from his hometown of Mecca to Medina in 622 to become a political and military leader rather than a private preacher: not to bring peace to a war-torn country...
In contrast to Ms. Armstrong's depiction of jihad as a benign struggle for self-improvement, the Qur'anic revelations during Muhammad's Medina years abound with verses extolling the virtues of fighting "in the path of Allah," as do the countless sayings and traditions (hadith) attributed to the prophet. As he told his followers in his farewell address: "I was ordered to fight all men until they say ‘There is no god but Allah.'"

The bold mark-up was made by me to question the proposition that Mohammad's reason for fleeing Mecca was to become a political and military leader. As far as I can remember - correct me if I am wrong - he was forced to escape to save his life; he was under attack and had to choose between fighting or dying; the community around him would have perished as well if he didn´t took the initiative and came up with some ideas for how to overcome the attackers.

At this point in our own time, it is worth going back to Karen Armstrong's extensive writing on the history of fundamentalism, to remember the many times in history when also Christianity was man's reason to take up arms, and how much more violent those struggles in the name of one God was (or are, I am not sure they have stopped). Armstrong is writing to remind us that it is not religion that is calling for violence, it is its fanatic interpreters.

So, in the difficult times that are ahead of us in the coming years, please do recognize that the people in the world that are most troubled with fanatic readings of important religious texts are the followers of that very religion. In other words, help the Muslims who believe Islam is a total surrender to the divine; those good-hearted people who cannot understand how people can seek to hurt each other; who are determined to stick to the right path and help their brothers and sisters to do the same.

Please also realize that a majority of these people live in oppressed societies without a functioning legal, political or economical system. Try to imagine what that does to a nation and how it would be to grow up and get by in such conditions. Think about your grandparents generation and how lack of education made them obey to the book because it was the only thing they know; the only legal and moral and ethical standard available to them. If you can understand this situation, it will also be easier to understand the mental constitution of the Muslim evil-doers you see on television. It will also become easier to sympathize with the Muslims who cannot stand up to them in their own countries, be it for reasons of fear or lack of courage of verbal and literal tools. Remember that they are largely on their own: no government, police, judge or social worker will set things right when they go wrong.

In the eyes of many (and I mean really many) Muslims, the persecution began long before 9/11 2001. If some of them fight back with violence, a lot of people will think the attacked had it going for them, it was well served. Understanding why is the only way to mutual understanding which is the only way forward.

Hat-tip: LGF

There is Always a Bright Side

2006-09-27T18:53:00.001+02:00

Says Gaijinbiker (The Riding Sun):

This means we can still kill him
Via Fark, ABC News's "The Blotter" blog says that the French report of Osama Bin Laden's death has been dismissed as a mere rumor.

Round two of Europe vs. Islam

2006-09-27T18:40:00.000+02:00

Round two of the Europeans vs. the Muslims: Chancellor Merkel is the latest fighter to step in to the ring. Be prepared for heavy blows. Last time the European corner only had to defend pictures in a paper in a tiny nation that no one cares about. Now they are meeting an outraged team in the Muslim corner who have just discovered that Europe's leading country are beheading the Prophet in stage acts. And that is just a week after Europe´s Holy Leader propped the stage by declaring in public that Muslims are genetically inclined to violence.

Like last time, the first fighter in the ring is the leader of a government who think this is a matter of free speech. That is wrong. Try to get this:

To a large portion of people in the world, a picture of the holiest of the Prophets is so wrong that they do not even dare thinking about it. It is just wrong. It is evil. It is against everything they believe in. If you were one of them, you would rather drop dead than being caught in a situation where your eyes are falling on such an image. You probably will drop dead if that unfortunate picture ever crossed your path.

If you can identify yourself with these folks - perhaps you also believe some things are just utterly evil, on ethical or religious ground - and if that pictures being or not being in a paper does not make a difference to your day, why on earth would you ever want to offend these people in this way?

For no reason at all, you are spitting them in the face and cussing their mothers. Although you never really realized that what you were doing were soooo baaaaad to them. Now you do.

I´ll tell you this: you would never think about being so horrible to anyone else. Certainly, it is not a thing you would want anyone to do to yourself. Nor do you think it is a decent way to treat your neighbour -- to paraphrase another Prophet.

Now you tell me: (that is, if you do not mind) knowing now how offensive this is to so many good folks out there, why would you approve that anyone go one step further and cut the head of the Prophet on a stage in a public place of entertainment?

Be aware that when you do attempt to state your reasons, you are actually defending your right to be an asshole. I apologize for bringing you the news, but that is the way it is. You know it is bad, offensive, evil, hurtful, unforgivable. Still you want to tell me why it is okey. Fuck you too.

We are not going to have this debate here on this very evening, but the arguments you were going to bring up about free societies and constitutional rights have been dealt with to some extent in this blog before. (Using the Technorati search box with some clever key words will bring most of it back in a snap). It is not the truth or answer to all questions, just a beginning and we will continue soon, if you like.

But I have a point I want to make now: many trains of thought in that field are obsolete when you deal with societies where your neighbour have beliefs that are fundamentally different from yours in some matters (and only some). What was right in 1798 is not one hundred percent right today, only almost and to some. I am not a relativist and I do not believe in trashing what is right. But I want our understanding of our own beliefs to be free from our own prejudice and I want us to acknowledge that the world today is not what it used to be.

If the discussion doesn´t start on that side, it is pretty much pointless to have it. It will make no difference, just spar the European team against the Muslim team and vice versa.

Read: German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday against bowing to fears of Islamic violence after a Berlin opera house cancelled performances of a Mozart work because of concerns some scenes could enrage Muslims

Landrush - Mubarak Domains to Catch

2006-09-12T01:33:00.000+03:00

Nameboy.com has that effect on me -- I keep entering names forever just to see what funny combinations "he" is suggesting. Here are some domains that are available today - go grab it and set up a sweet looking website in honor of... well, have a laugh, at least:

mubarakbay.com
mubarakcon.com
mubarak.info
themubarak.com
supermubarak.com
mubarakmania.com

and..
mubarakhosni.com /.net/.org/.info

... not to forget, available at this moment is also:
pharaohmubarak.com /.net etc. !

Search Nameboy:
Mubarak

Have Faith, Sister

2006-09-08T16:28:00.000+03:00

Blogging sister The Anchoress about her technical abilities:

Without my husband, my sons, one of my son’s friends and Kim…well…I’d be knitting a lot more.

I know that feeling! The search for the ultimate blogging tool continues. "Writely" - the tool from the last post, is currently M.I.A. That what happens when you uninstall other MS applications you never use, like "Onfolio" without thinking what other Microsoft stuff they might be packaged with.

Well, I shouldn´t bother you with that. Let us read The Anchoress instead, together. Her blogging engine is working hard as always and I so much enjoy reading it.

Windows Live Writer (Beta)

2006-09-03T06:44:00.000+03:00

A while ago, Microsoft introduced the Windows Live Writer (Beta) desktop blogging tool. Most of you have heard about it. I thought I give it a try. I have already spent too many hours chasing p-tags in the Blogger interface. So, this is a test post, it will be removed, eventually.

Ramses Taken on a Walk

2006-09-03T06:27:00.000+03:00

Is it true that Ramses Square is changing name to Midan Mubarak now when this Pharaoh has been strapped and shipped to Giza?

Blogging about Beauty

2006-09-03T06:12:00.000+03:00

Politics is not beautiful, especially not in Egypt, and I have to admit that the thought about spending every day thinking about the situation is a good reason to not log in to Blogger. Politics doesn´t improve my looks and I am at that stage in my life when I for the first time have to consider seriously the possibility that I will not stay young forever. That said, I know I cannot resist this blog forever, although I succeeded quite well in the past six months. (I was chocked when I saw the time-stamp on my previous posts!).

I promised myself I would never become one of those who blog about what they had for breakfast so I better go... gotta find that picture of Ramses first though, must have him in the archive. That´s for the next post. You take care now.

Naguib Mahfouz, R.I.P.

2006-09-03T05:55:00.000+03:00

For me, "Children of Our Alley" is one of those few books that one will always compare every other story with. Mahfouz was a master, there is no doubt about that, and it is sad that not everybody are able to see how important litterature is to us. Without different perspectives we have nothing to compare our beliefs with, nothing that forces us to think about our attitudes. The people who despised his work failed to understand that this particular book is also a road in to thoughts about what the Prophets tried to teach us.

Mahfouz stirred controversy among conservatives with his calls for religious tolerance.

The 1959 "Children of Gebelawi" — or "Children of Our Alley" by its Arabic title — told the story of a family patriarch and his sons. The father represents God and the sons represent the series of prophets that Islam believes includes Jesus and Moses and culminates in Muhammad. The book was banned in Egypt.

Islam frowns on any literary depiction of Muhammad, except for straightforward biography or poems of praise. But even more rankling to conservatives is that Mahfouz added a final son who represents science, suggesting he was a prophet after Muhammad.

A fatwa was issued in 1989 by Egyptian radical Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was later convicted of plotting to blow up New York City landmarks. He said Mahfouz deserved to die for his novel, and in 1994 an Islamic militant stabbed the author, saying "Children of Gebelaya" was blasphemous.

Mohammed Abdel Qudous, one of the group's senior figures, described Mahfouz as "a great, modest and devout Muslim man," in an interview with Egyptian state-run television.
---
The Nobel prize, which Mahfouz won in 1988, introduced to the world a man who is seen by many as the Middle East's greatest writer, with 34 novels, hundreds of short stories and essays, dozens of movie scripts and five plays over a 70-year career.

Read the full article: AP/Yahoo! News

Hello World!

2006-09-03T05:38:00.000+03:00

This old engine wasn´t easy to fire up again. Me myself, that is, not Blogger who is still sweet on me. So, what´s up? I´m still planning my come-back, I suppose. Got myself tied up in a lot of other stuff, hope Big Pharaoh and the gang is keeping things up instead. Wish I could be here every day as before, but hey, it´s never too late. Hang in there. Love ya all.

Thank You, All

2006-03-10T01:37:00.000+02:00

It´s good to be back, thank you for welcoming me. I don´t want to say a lot about my departure other than it wasn´t by choice and it was becuase of a personal drama. Yet, the circumstances are not very interesting. I´m protecting my privacy for now.

Miss ya, hope to catch up. I´ll read your comments. If you want to fill me in and direct me to what you and others are doing, I´d appreciate it. Donno much at the moment, other than that I love you all, of course.

ta ta / ritzy

Apologizes

2006-03-08T21:06:00.000+02:00

The plugg was pulled, literally. It was an abrupt termination of what had been nearly six months of full-time blogging. I am sorry I did not have a chance to say good bye. My only comfort during this time has been the nature of the net, where someone leaves, others usually continue. I haven´t been able to check my mail or the comments. I haven´t seen any other blogs. I´ve been off the net. Didn´t think that would happen to me. Didn´t think it was possible that could happen to anyone. But I survived. That said, I didn´t enjoy it. Not at all. I pray I´ll neve leave the Internet again. I´d be the first to sign up for a brain implant if it would keep me connected all the time, forever. I hope you´ve fared better. I look forward to the day when I can pick up where I left. I´m anxious to see how my blog friends are doing. My unexpected leave may have raised many questions. I am sorry about that. I am glad to be back.

Love. Ritzy.

Postcard From Paris

2005-11-10T01:48:00.000+02:00

How Could They?

Surely, rioting McDonald's is punishable by international law? picture via LGF

The Election

2005-11-10T01:32:00.000+02:00

I am not sure I want to blog the current elections to the parliament... well maybe I do, if there are any good news about it. Meanwhile, let me just sum it up with this one quote, from a leading member of the ruling party's policies secretariat, in the Guardian:

"Mr Mubarak now saw political reform as his 'legacy', he added.

Yet few in the opposition see the election in the same terms."

57+ Dead, Says Programmer Craig

2005-11-10T01:26:00.000+02:00

Frequent commenter Programmer Craig left this message to my Amman-Explosion post:

57 dead now, according to the latest news reports. 2 car bombs and 1 suicide bomb, orchestrated to go off at the same time. So, there's some kind of organization behind it. Supposedly, there is a "manhunt" underway for suspected conspirators right now. But with 64% of Jordanians polled supporting terrorist bombings, I fear they could find suspects by picking people out of any crowd at random :\

More Information on Abdolkarim

2005-11-10T01:12:00.000+02:00

More information via Global Voices and Alaa - follow those two links for the full text; the information is from the HR lawyer and bloggers in Alexandria who are following the case of Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman.

Repeated attempts by family members and Alexandrian human rights lawyer Mohammed Khaled Al-Tunsi to get more information on Suleiman’s case from Alexandria Security have met with no success.

On Nov. 6, security agents returned to Suleiman’s house and told his family that he was being held in an unspecified detention center for political prisoners. They did not specify on what charges he was being held. … Since Security agents visited the Suleiman house a second time, the Suleiman family has been less willing to talk about the case. …

Suleiman is either unlawfully detained or has been detained under the Emergency Law. …

Alexandria Security now has two options: They can either detain Suleiman under the provisions of the Emergency Law that allow detention without charge of individuals deemed to be a threat to public order, or they can charge him with defaming religion or exciting sectarian strife … [which] allows for sentences of between six months and five years or fines of between LE500 and LE1000 …

Suleiman’s defenders grant that his October 22 post held Islam in contempt and, given the background of sectarian strife in Alexandria, could be read as “prejudicing national unity and social strife.”

The latter option would play better in Egypt, where the Emergency Law is unpopular and Islam is popular, but would risk turning him into a cause celebre abroad, particularly among religious conservatives in the United States.

Detaining Abd al-Karim under the terms of the Emergency Law carries its own risks: In his campaign for reelection this summer, President Hosni Mubarak promised to suspend the Emergency Law in favor of a counterterrorism law and to pass legislation reinforcing citizens’ right to a fair and speedy trail. Invoking the Emergency Law, particularly in such a high-profile case so soon after the election, would give lie to these promises of reform and would also surely raise eyebrows abroad.

Nowhere did Suleiman call for violence against Muslims. Nor did any such violence follow his post. There is little to suggest that his blog was widely read in Muharram Bek, a working-class neighborhood where economic constraints make Internet use rare. Suleiman himself does not own a computer and maintained his blog from a local Internet cafe. Suleiman was not responsible for the violence in his neighborhood, nor will his detention solve the problems that led to it.

The question of the legality of Suleiman’s detention aside, Egyptian officials conducting a cost-benefit analysis of Suleiman’s continued detention must conclude that it’s not worth it. His detention has already attracted significant attention from local and international human rights groups and media. Particularly on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, where Egypt has the opportunity to present itself as a regional leader in attempts to foster an information society, Suleiman’s case has the potential to cause more trouble for the government than it’s worth.

Alaa: Bloggers Should Support Karim's Release

2005-11-10T00:34:00.000+02:00

Blogger Alaa wrote a very important message on Monday. The full text is here. Alaa says his post is coming late. I say it can never be late and we all know that while the rest of us are busy blogging, his efforts are not limited to the net; he is actually doing something in the real world. I’ll post a few more comments from him soon; here is a bridged version of this message, don't miss the bullet points!:

... when I got to read his article which (probably) got him arrested, I felt disgusted and I almost puked before finishing it off. ... Karim's article about Moharem Bek protests was a childish anger outburst that lacked both civility and meaning, just like the incident itself. Which makes me wonder how it qualified as a civic dialogue, which is the name of the website that posted this article. Also Karim paid the price of being bravely stupid by posting his picture, address, cellular number on the same website. ...

... the Freedom of speech is a non-compromiseable and undisputed right. Everybody is allowed to say whatever he wants and at the same time he/she should take full responsibility for his words. For example, if the speech was found hate inciting, people or organizations have the right to react and sue his ass or just refute it in another article. But this kind of "Moral Panics" that hits the government every time something out of the usual happens in this country is unacceptable. This Gestapo style of the government enforcers held in the name of the "Emergency Laws" should stop right now.

... Bottom-line, this guy disrespects Muslims by generalizing them in this way. He cussed Islam and the Prophet and he also described us as "cattle". Thus Muslims have every right to feel angry and despised. But there are civilized ways ... through refuting his posts or by civil suits and for the religious ones by privately praying for either his "salvation" or his burning in hell.

BUT no one deserves what happened to this guy, although we are not sure what really happened to him but anything that involves amn el-dawla is far away from good. And you can trust me on that, judging from my own personal experience with these thugs at a very young age. They are merciless even with kids.

So, leaving our emotions behind, let me sum up to you why we should support Karim in his ordeal, in the following points:

* Freedom of Speech right is non-compromiseable... it's all or nothing but all.

* Only civic ways should be used to hold him liable to his words, if it was categorized as a hate speech. Also if he really pissed you off by his words, you have the choice to tell him that through comments and emails or simply click the X in the top right corner of your browser like I did!

* National Security methods of arresting and interrogations are barbaric. Karim's next 15 days (the interrogation detention period which is renewable) are going to be intolerable to any human.

* This angry guy is only 21 years old.

* Don't create an anti-Islamic martyr out of him, just like our stupid government did. The Islamophobes just love this kind of stuff and they are just waiting for such an opportunity.

[Edits and bolds are my responsibility - original, full text is here.]

Update, Detained Blogger Abdolkarim

2005-11-09T23:49:00.000+02:00

Sabertooth at the Tar Pit blog is working very hard to raise awareness about the detained blogger Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman. He is encouraging congressmen who are due to have a press conference about Egypts Coptic Christians to raise the issue of Abdolkarim. Read his round-up.

53 Dead in Amman Suicide Attacks

2005-11-09T23:41:00.000+02:00

Head for the news channels.

Sabbah blogged the first announcement from Jordanian TV. He is posting updates at Global Voices.

Yahoo! has about 25 pictures so far.

Roba is blogging as well.

Follow the aggregator, Jordan Planet, to see what the Jordanian bloggers are saying.

God Bless

PS: just returned, will probably be back to blogging late tomorrow.

Holiday Note: Barbie Wears the Hijab

2005-11-07T16:19:00.000+02:00

Jordanian blogger Sabri Hakim says this picture is from a coloring book. I love it as well, Sabri!

I'm rushing to the train for a few days outside Cairo.

Meanwhile, if you want to make sense of what's going on in the world, head to The Anchoress who always manages to tell right from wrong and open my eyes to things I had not seen before.

Abdolkarim: Alaa is tireless in his efforts to make sure everybody knows what is going on and that the information is correct; follow his blog and notice that he also dropped a few links in the comment forum to my previous post; a statement by a HR NGO and a message from Arabic blogger Malcolmix.

The more people who spread the word to the world, the better. Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey will also let you know what they think about the situation, as will tons of other bloggers; follow the links in my previous posts; track it via technorati and you'll be amazed to see how much has been said already - although it is only the beginning. Keep also an eye on Mr Ghost and Fayrouz, like most on my blogroll they have a lot to say.

That's it, gotta run, see ya in a few days. / ritzy

Abdolkarim: Push the Petition!

2005-11-07T13:38:00.000+02:00

So far the petition to free Egyptian blogger Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman has received 89 signatures. Please sign. Please forward the link to your friends and everybody else. Here is the link.

More information at the Committee to Protect Bloggers. Updates, more information and banners at Manalaa's blog.

My previous posts here and here. Also keep an eye on the CPB box in my sidebar - there are more bloggers in trouble and other petitions you can sign when you're at it. Link to CPB here.

Technorati tag: Abdolkarim, Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman, Threatened Bloggers

Viral Hanky Panky

2005-11-07T06:23:00.000+02:00

Evolution or intelligent design? Darwin against God? The current debate in the U.S. is bizarre: why would you not teach science and be able to introduce the opposing theories at the same time? I thought learning was about realizing how little we actually know. Is not Plato speaking to American educators any longer?

Here is someone else they should listen to since we perhaps are up for a nasty demonstration of evolution in action. “Spare a thought for H5N1, the virus causing avian flu,” evolutional biologist Olivia Judson is writing.

The virus might infect someone already sick with a strain of human flu, and the two viruses could have sex, thus creating a new virus that contains some genes from each. Such viral hanky-panky is thought to have led to the flu pandemics of 1957 and 1968.

Or the virus could mutate in such a way that it becomes able to travel between people. Mutations to an avian flu virus are thought to lie behind the 1918 pandemic.

Sex and mutation are two fundamental mechanisms of evolutionary invention. Mutations alter the information content of genes; sex shuffles the pack, generating new gene combinations. ... Now that we can sequence genes and genomes, we know precisely how evolutionary changes accumulate. We know the differences between a fruit fly and a mosquito, between a human and a chimpanzee, between a virus that kills chickens and a virus that kills people. ...

Whether it's preventing a flu pandemic or tackling malaria, we can use our knowledge of evolutionary processes in powerful and practical ways, potentially saving the lives of tens of millions of people. So let's not strip evolution from the textbooks, or banish it from the class, or replace it with ideologies born of wishful thinking. If we do, we might find ourselves facing the consequences of natural selection.

- IHT

Death on the Nile, 4,000 Years Ago

2005-11-07T05:42:00.000+02:00

The story of a mysterious massacre in the royal city of Mendes in the Nile delta area is being unearthed by archaeologists who were stunned to find some 36 bodies in a mass grave under a temple.

They found old and young, men and women, tumbled in disordered heaps. In a civilization that made a cult of death, such discoveries are rare: even the poorest were interred formally, and with some provision for the afterlife.

It is an astonishing discovery; the arid climate in Egypt helps in preservation but this part of the country has been inundated by the Nile every year, at times for up to ten months of the year. Archaeologists say the bodies “are virtual powder in the mud.”

The cause of death is not known but researchers have established that the victims were killed elsewhere and “thrown in front of the podium.” - The Guardian.