In Bahrain, Silly Bahraini Girl (which is me) is back home and surprised at what she saw at her country's airport:

Reality of how mad this place has become smacks you in the face the second you land at the Bahrain
International Airport and see all the ground staff wearing surgical masks, from the ground handling staff to the immigration and customs officers. “What's wrong with you?” I ask them. “Is there a plague in Bahrain?” I continue questioning […] the situation seemed tense and and the level of swine madness was certainly the highest I have come across everywhere I have travelled through since pig mania gripped Planet Earth. Why wasn't there a single person wearing a mask at the airports of San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto and Heathrow which I have travelled
through over the past few weeks?

Still in Bahrain, Sohail Al Gosaibi smells a conspiracy in the air, noting that exaggerating the effect of swine flu benefits the media, advertising and pharmaceutical industries. The Saudi blogger writes:

The media almost always exaggerate the situation, remember that fears sells.  And newspapers and news channels have to sell advertising space and airtime to make money, and the more shocking and scary their stories, the more viewers and readers they have, which leads to more
advertisers, and more profits.

Al Gosaibi also quotes an article he has read and concludes:

According to the article, the US and UK governments have  billions of dollars worth of Tamifluiflu stock that they must use within the next few months, or they’ll expire.  Interesting, huh?

And speaking of theories, Jordan Reform Watch also has something up his sleeve and writes:

Ahhh..The swine-flu with all the accompanying conspiracy theories..A Jordanian “Scientist” specializing in diseases claims that Mecca And Medina are somehow isolated from disease, thus there is no need for the talk about the possible outbreaks that might result from the millions of pilgrims being in extreme proximity while performing Hajj..

Kill them Pigs..Go To hajj..You will be disease free..

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia, who blogs at Egyptian Chronicles, is also concerned about how the disease will spread during the Hajj [annual Muslim pilgrimage season to Mecca], where millions of pilgrims from around the world converge to Mecca to perform the ritual. She notes:

the discussion about the future of Pilgrimage “Hij” and Omra [smaller pilgrimage] this year is still debatable. The minister of health wants to cancel Omra where as the minister of tourism is against the cancellation , I do not need to speak about Pilgrimage.
Of course the debate is much hotter among the clerics themselves. Saudi Arabia understands the challenge it is facing already and decided to deal with the situation as much as it can in the Omra and pilgrimage , it recommends that pregenant women , elderly and kids to avoid pilgrimage this year , I really respect this move.
I also have a better suggestion. In such circumstances why not to limit Omra and pilgrimage for the first time pilgrims only from men and women

Our final stop is in Syria, where blogger Yaser Arwani [ar] links to a news story which says that Syria's first swine flu case was recently reported in a Syrian doctor, who works in Australia and was on a visit to her country. The female doctor travelled to Syria through Dubai International Airport and the disease was not detected until a few days after her arrival.

The story goes back to August 2008, when Marwa filed a defamation case against her killer, Axel, a 28-year unemployed German, after he called her a “terrorist” because she wears the hijab (Islamic veil).

However last Wednesday, Alex stabbed her 18 times to death in a German courtroom after the judges announced she won the case against him, and that he had to pay 2,800 Euros as a fine for his previous insults.

Marwa, 32-year-old Egyptian, was the wife of an Egyptian academic, who was on a scholarship in Germany. Her husband was also hurt in the incident and is now in critical condition in hospital, between life and death.

Zeinobia expressed her anger in a post titled “What If She Were A Lesbian“, and said:

The woman is 32 years Marwa El-Sherbini , she was a pregnant in her second child when she was was stabbed.
[…]
This is for sure a hate crime but unlike other hate crimes like homophobic crimes or anti-Semitic crimes, it did not make the headlines abroad and I do not know why !! This is a racism crime , a woman is shot down stabbed like that so simple in the court room for God sake and it is not important to be covered in the media as it should !! She was a mother who was a pregnant for God sake !!
May Allah bless her soul , she is a martyr of racism and hate.

Ahmed esmat questioned on Twitter

The same thought was echoed by Hisham Maged on his blog, playing the What if game:

Let us play the What IF game, just imagine if the situation was reversed and the victim was a westerner who was stabbed anywhere in the world or -God Heaven- in any Middle Eastern country by Muslim extremists, or even what the media used to call ‘minorities’ in Egypt! You definitely would have heard the world’s buzzing and the internet goes down too!

Bikya Masr, who was closely following the incident, asked if Marwa can be the symbol to bring people together. He demanded an immediate action on the diplomatic and national levels:

Across the Middle East, anger is high. This anger, however, cannot fall into random diatribes against Germans, or Germany. It must maintain some semblance of coherence for any campaign that should be established to succeed. And it will if Sherbini truly is a symbol that can bring people together much like Neda in Iran did.
[…]
Do people believe Sherbini is a symbol? […] Egyptians should be outraged that a woman was verbally abused for wearing the veil and being Egyptian in the first place. The government should be sending a strong signal to Europe that this behavior is unacceptable, but they remain silent. That leaves it to the Egyptian population to take action.
[…]
Let us walk the streets in front of the German Embassy and demand a full investigation and report. Because if Germany cannot do this, then it once more proves that European hate for Muslims and Arabs is stronger than their so-called “freedom.” Yes, Marwa is a symbol, but she should be a symbol to bring people together, not divide them.

Another blogger Sadafat wrote:

Egyptian bloggers commenting or venting out their frustrations on Twitter.

As for myself, I found myself writing these lines on my blog Lasto Adri:

With only 19 members, I support & I am proud that “Omar Suleiman” is the next President of EGYPT is a Facebook group campaigning for Suleiman; Wael Samir, creator of the group ended his introduction of Lieutenant General Omar Soliman saying:

Gen. Omar Suleiman, .. I am proud that you are the next President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

and about his future political role, he wrote:

In the recent years, due to his powerful role in Regional political scene, many speculations rose to conclude that Suleiman will succeed current Egyptian president, Mubarak and become the fifth Egyptian President, or at least become a Vice President. Although many have voiced that these rumors are true due to many factors including power, respect amongst Arab leaders and Israel, neither Suleiman nor the National Democratic Party spoke of this or commented on any future political role for Suleiman. Despite this, he still remains a plausible presidential candidate, should the next president come from a military background.

El Negm El Sa3ed (Rising Star) is the anonymous owner of Omar Soliman's blog. His slogan is:

The Arabist is so excited about this blog:

[A] Blog dedicated to advocating Omar Suleiman as Egypt's next president – today's front page story in al-Dustour. Its slogan: “no to the Brothers, no to Gamal”. I think this representative of a fairly large constituency in Egypt, but you have to wonder: Mubarak-haters are unhappy with his son, understandably, but why then go with his right-hand man? The other thing you have to wonder – who's behind the blog? Is this a test balloon by the Omar Suleiman people as we approach succession? The game is on, people, the game is on.

In this post, El Negm El Sa3ed quotes what renowned Egyptian politicians have to say about Omar Soliman in comparison to Gamal Mubarak:

Speaking of Gamal Mubarak, Wael Nawara posted this poll on his blog:

In this post he quotes Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper saying:

In that post, he quotes The Global Post saying:

The blog showcases various clippings from Al Dostoor Newpaper, Al Osbou', Al Jazeera Channel, The BBC Video Report, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, and more - all in support of the new presidential candidate.