Comments on: Egyptian Bloggers Against Terrorism

By: Taran

Taran — Sat, 30 Jul 2005 06:10:54 +0000

I wonder who terrorists view as terrorists.

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:43:56 +0000

Another unfortunate postponement of the galvanized, heartfelt public outcry against terrrorism by the Muslim masses, we all know is just chomping at the bit to take to the streets.

http://onearabworld.blog.com/273793/

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:56:04 +0000

Here is a completely demoralizing account of how many so-called moderate Muslims are still unwilling even to admit who their terrorist persecuters are.

http://www.nysun.com/article/17686

By: Rebecca MacKinnon

Rebecca MacKinnon — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:45:26 +0000

Yep we’re on top of it Rufus. Reported it in our roundups section today: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/2005/07/28/egypt-vigil-this-friday/

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:39:51 +0000

I see that SandMonkey has finally got official permission and is giving the demonstration another go today.

Instapundit is also giving it play.

http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/07/it-is-on.html

By: Luisetta

Luisetta — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:31:00 +0000

Rufus: You are asking some difficult questions which have just as much of a place in this debate as the questions the West needs to ask itself about its foreign policy and colonial history. I found the photo of the Egyptian bloggers enormously heartening. Numbers aren’t everything. And apathy is everywhere. Now I’m really going to do some (paid) work…

By: Luisetta

Luisetta — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:20:47 +0000

…and here is an approach to the terrorism debate which I find daring, difficult, murky, but ultimately the best I have seen anywhere…

“…the terrorist has inadvertently become a mirror image of the thing she or he hates the most. She or he is a product of hopelessness, created in part by everybody else’s misunderstanding of who she or he is and what she or he stands for.”

http://www.aamindell.net/shortrecipe.htm

By: Luisetta

Luisetta — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:12:52 +0000

…in case that html didn’t work out, here is the URL for my blog again: http://www.thespiritmercurious.blogspot.com

By: Luisetta

Luisetta — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:11:37 +0000

There seems to a murky borderline zone in this debate where Muslims can feel contaminated by the projections of the West (”terrorist” “jihad” “extremists”) and where non-Muslims feel contaminated by their lack of experience of Islam, of repressive forms of government, or by the (historically inspired) projections of non-Westerners (”colonialists” “Islamophobes” “Orientalists”). Murky is good…This comment has got rather long and rambling, so I have removed the rest of it to my own blog.

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 06:48:47 +0000

OK, wait a minute. I missed the message in #2 stating that in Sharm alSheikh, scene of the bloodshed, 1,000 people marched against the violence. I hope it was indeed about the rejection of terrorism in the Muslim way of life that some of the quotes represent it to be. Because most of the other quotes emphasize the economic impact on these resort workers being a major reason for marching.

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 06:34:52 +0000

So you are saying that in just this one case the Egyptian government, the second largest midEast US aid recipient, was the reason all those terror-intolerant Muslms didn’t show up? Like they show up everywhere else? And they would have if Egypt didn’t deplore their message that blowing up its lucrative tourist areas is bad?

SandMonkey himself offers another explanation:

The Egyptian blogosphere is almost as apathetic as the Egyptian public : Big on words, small on action. Actually when I think about it, that’s the problem of our country as a whole.

http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/07/story-of-protest.html

I think its a pattern beyond Egypt’s borders.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 23:20:18 +0000

To Rufus,

No it does not make you an Islamophobe, it only shows that you don’t know how difficult it is to stage any kind of protest in that country of 70 million as you say, not because of the fear from ‘Islamist’ but of that from their own governements.

By: Rufus Lee King

Rufus Lee King — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 18:20:49 +0000

Is this really a moment to celebrate? In the wake of this fresh Al Qaeda style killing of 88 people, and in a 90% Muslim nation of 70 million, only 7 people showed up to protest.

The more Global Voices tries to showcase some infinitesimally small splinter of Islamic protest to the brutal jihadis, the more obvious it becomes that Islam as a whole is muzzled from any real moderating force by its violence-loving factions.

This is the real crux, it seems to me, of the global epidemic of Islamic terrorism. The successful suppression of would-be peaceful counter-currents within Islam by fear of violent retaliation and/or the spectre of apostacy.

And, as we well know, me pointing at this pattern of quiescent moderation makes me an Islamaphobe.

By: Ritzy Mabrouk

Ritzy Mabrouk — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 11:11:47 +0000

Right, I too want to be moderate about this but I don’t think erasing the word ‘terrorist’ from our vocabulary on political grounds would do any good. ‘Violence’ would have been an appropriate term if some people had been fighting outside Ghazala Hotel. This was a politically motivated attack so the term ‘terrorist’ is appropriate. And just avoiding using it because people who symphatize with the cause, in one way or degree or other, might get offended is not anything I believe in either, it sounds like a klich’e but sometimes you need calling evil for what it is. Yes, I do think dialogue is imperative to solving the issues behind this. That’s a different story though.

By: Mike C

Mike C — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:22:06 +0000

Is there something similar for non-Muslims to show solidarity & support for the moderates & respect for Islam?