Global Voices » Elijah Zarwan

Alaa Is Free

Elijah Zarwan — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:27:52 +0000

Award-winning Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Seif al-Islam Abd al-Fattah walked out of Omraniya police station late this afternoon after spending 46 days in detention for attending a May 7 protest. I spoke with him soon after his release and he sounded fine—exhausted after a terrible night in the police station jail, but happy to be free and heading home. Manal and Alaa are Manalaa again.

“Joy is as infectious as sorrow,” the great Egyptian intellectual Taha Hussein wrote in 1929, “and among Egyptians nothing catches so quickly.” A tense hour today bore out the truth of that observation. Rumors suggesting that plainclothes police were beating Alaa and forcing him to remain standing for prolonged periods without sleep spread quickly over SMS touched off a flurry of activity over email and the Egyptian blogosphere. Manal must have spent some frantic minutes fielding calls from concerned friends and reporters. Alaa, she told me, was being held in terrible, crowded conditions with run-of-the-mill hoodlums in Omraniya police station. But his cellmates and the crowded, filthy conditions—not the police—were apparently the proximate cause of his suffering.

Then, minutes later, news came over SMS that Alaa was free.

Hossam al-Hamalawy's post summed up the mood:

he’s out… yes, finally out!!!! hohohohohoh!! MABROUK YA SHABAB! MABROUK YA TENNIN YA BAMBY! [Congratulations, guys! Congratulations, you pink dragon!]

He’s in great spirits. I asked him, “Shall we meet up soon?” He answered quickly, “Of course, next demo!” followed by a long laughter…

And Sandmonkey's agonized post, updated several times over the space of that confused hour, conveyed some of the afternoon's drama.

Perhaps because many of Egypt's Arabic-language bloggers were marching on the police station to demand Alaa's immediate release, the English-language Egyptian blogs carried the news first. The Arabic-language bloggers will join in soon. This time, they'll be joined by a familiar, funny, incisive voice even Torah prison couldn't silence.

Truth and Consequences

Elijah Zarwan — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 05:47:31 +0000

The first thing that struck me as I passed by the Press Syndicate earlier this week to eavesdrop on a meeting of Egyptian bloggers was the Central Security trucks parked around the corner. The steel police barriers around the sidewalk and steps of the Syndicate were lightly manned by a few cops, who stood facing the doors of the Syndicate. They were there, it seemed, to keep the journalists and computer geeks from getting out. Or to send a message. I received it.

Middle-aged men with walkie-talkies (again, borrowing Issandr's phrase… he's got a knack), loitered across the street. These days I go to the Press Syndicate only when there's something vaguely subversive going on, so I don't know if the trucks and the men with walkie-talkies are there all the time now. That night, the image of the glowering cops manning the barriers around the Syndicate struck me as a nice illustration of the government's attitude toward freedom of expression… and it was meant to.

When I arrived, a couple hundred people were crammed into the main auditorium, watching the recent Al-Jazeera documentary about Egyptian bloggers. Posters calling for Alaa's release and the release of the other prisoners flanked the doors to the hall. So this was my second impression: Here were hundreds of people in an auditorium in the Press Syndicate, watching an Al-Jazeera documentary about bloggers and cheering and laughing all the way though. When I first interviewed Wael Abbas last year, he complained that the Press Syndicate wasn't giving online journalists the time of day. Now the local opposition press, Al-Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Politiken, Die Welt, and Liberation are doing “the Egyptian blogger story” and the Press Syndicate is hosting a packed event. The opposition weekly is Al-Dostour is syndicating Egyptian blog posts. How times have changed.

It's too bad it took a rash of detentions to change them. True, media interest was already percolating last summer and fall, but I had a really hard time getting any of the 300-plus reporters at the November World Summit for the Information Society in Tunis to care about Abd al-Karim Suleiman's detention for writing an offensive, but not criminal, post on his blog. Al-Jazeera interviewed Abd al-Karim after his release and followed Alaa and Malek around as they handed out flyers in Tahrir Square, then sat on the footage until Malek and Alaa were arrested. Even then, it took Wael Abbas' lobbying to get them to air the damn thing already.

The next night, banners and placards calling for the release of the detained protesters, including the bloggers, lined the doors and the auditorium of the Lawyers' Syndicate, where secular activists and representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and the banned Islamist Al-Amal Party met to discuss strategies for arriving at common goals. In the garden behind the Syndicate, recently released activists greeted friends they hadn't seen in more than a month. Some participated in a brief demonstration at the gate. Given the treatment Mohammed al-Sharqawi, who also blogs, received when they turned up for a May 25 protest soon after their release from prison, that took courage. And indeed, almost every speaker who took the podium mentioned Al-Sharqawi and Alaa.

The recently freed bloggers continue to campaign for change online and in the streets. Ashraf Ibrahim—detained in 2003 for emailing photographs and accounts of police violence against anti-Iraq war protesters to human rights organizations, then again on April 27, 2006, for participating in a protest in support of judicial independence and clean elections—walked out of the police station last week determined to go directly to the rally at the Lawyers' Syndicate with Malek, who had only been released days earlier himself. Ibrahim told me over the phone that he “wanted to send a message to State Security, to tell them that they wouldn't be intimidated.” In the end, only his exhaustion kept him at home.

At a recent gathering of bloggers and activists in a downtown Cairo apartment, the activists without blogs joked with those who had them about the attention they were getting. Blogging, they laughingly agreed, now confers “brestige.”

But this new prestige may yet carry a price. There's been a lot of email traffic among the Arabic-language bloggers noting that more comments on their blogs that seem to be written by SSI agents. And in a recent comment on The Skeptic, expat Egyptian blogger forsoothsayer reported that she'd heard warnings that “the government is planning an even bigger blogger crackdown” from a public prosecutor friend of hers.

That would be a shame. Egypt has so far maintained a relatively open policy with regard to online speech. Perhaps all the publicity on bloggers, and the Al-Jazeera documentary in particular, might have raised the government's sensitivity to critical blogs.

If the government does, in fact, launch a concerted crackdown on bloggers for what they write, English-speaking readers would do best to turn to Hossam al-Hamalawy at Arabist.net for the latest information—assuming he's not arrested with the rest of them (he's already been briefly detained at an abortive protest in front of the police station where Al-Sharqawi was beaten). Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey are watching closely as well.

For close analysis and background, particularly on the conflict between the Judges' Club and the government over the revised law on the judiciary that touched this recent round of protests off, turn to Baheyya. Check her blog early next week for an analysis of the as-yet unpublished law, which, having won Cabinet approval, should sail through both houses of Parliament as early as next week. Expect, also, more protests when it does: The judges got a peak at the bill during their meeting with the Minister of Justice and told the press that it contains only cosmetic changes—very little that would address their demands or the demands of their supporters in the streets.

Egypt: Blogging Behind Bars

Elijah Zarwan — Fri, 12 May 2006 19:50:41 +0000

On May 10, Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, the award-winning blogger detained three days earlier for participating in peaceful protests in Cairo, became one of the first people to blog from prison.

“Today it hit me,” Alaa began his post, “I am really in prison. I'm not sure how I feel…The way fellow prisoners look at me tells me I do not feel well but I can't really feel it.”

Thanks in part to an energetic campaign in the Egyptian, Arab, and international blogosphere, his detention has already helped call attention to the Egyptian government's recent crackdown on dissent. Soon after Alaa's detention, a handful of bloggers from around the world began a group blog dedicated to campaigning for his release. Andy Carvin, a Massachussets-based blogger created a video urging bloggers to participate in a “Google-bombing” campaign to associate Alaa's name with “Egypt” in Google's databases. Others began work on a Wikipedia page on Alaa. Shohdy Naguib Sorour—in exile in Russia since 2002, when he became the first Egyptian to face prosecution for his online activities—urged Russian bloggers to get involved. Sandmonkey started a successful online petition (and found he was getting a lot of online visits from the Egyptian government thereafter).

The international press penned stories. International rights groups Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch issued statements. People gathered for protests in front of Egyptian consulates in big American cities. Meanwhile, the comments on Manalaa.net, the blog Alaa and his wife Manal maintain, continue to show an outpouring of support from within Egypt and around the world.

Sandmonkey, referring to a few of the international posts seemed astounded by the response from the “one blogging world:”

Do you understand what this means?

It means that the Americans, Europeans, Arabs and Israelis are actually 1) in agreement, 2) united with one goal in mind, and 3) working together to achieve it. How about that? Is the blogsphere awesome or what?

His good mood didn't last long. On May 11 in Cairo, two outspoken, senior judges refused to appear before an extraordinary disciplinary board convened to punish them for speaking out against vote-rigging and voter intimidation in last year's elections because they could not bring their defense lawyers with them.

Outside, police violently dispersed demonstrations in their support, again. This time, police and “middle-aged men with walkie-talkies” (Issandr El-Amrani's description) also beat journalists from Al-Jazeera, Reuters, and the Associated Press. They also briefly detained an employee of the U.S. Embassy. Sandmonkey was blogging the day's events in real-time. Issandr has a good account at Arabist and photographs on Flickr. A friend sent me an account with some analysis by email.

Baheyya, reflecting on the recent unrest, remained optimistic:

What is happening in Egypt today has caught the men of the regime off guard. They never anticipated the resolve of judges to follow through on their mission of ensuring clean elections. They never anticipated the persistence and depth of popular support for the judges. And they never imagined that indiscriminate and brute force would only reinforce the resolve of both judges and activist segments of the public. Most of all, they never thought that election-time mobilisation would continue well after elections were over.

Sometimes, it is the simple but fatal mistake of miscalculation that is the undoing of the high and mighty.

My emailing friend is less so:

This state is hopeless. It is authoritarian and rotten to its core and one can only hope that some sort of change occurs. Yet, I remain skeptical that no matter how brave or stubborn the social forces resisting the state are, that much can be achieved. In Egypt, there can be no third way. This is not a state that is behaving like its scared or weak. It is a state that is boldly asserting its repressive power against its unarmed citizens. This state is not interested in practicing politics. It is incapable of dealing with its polity politically or diffusing political problems. Instead, it relies on repression, coercion, and intimidation. A high majority of Egyptians will be forced in acquiescence through fear. Yet, fear cannot and will not ever expand regime power.

The U.S. State Department even weighed in. Its May 11 statement on the government crackdown was about as strong as these things come:

We are deeply concerned by reports of Egyptian Government arrests and repression of demonstrators protesting election fraud and calling for an independent judiciary. Particularly troubling are reports of Egyptian police tactics against demonstrators and journalists covering the event that left many injured. We urge the Egyptian Government to permit peaceful demonstrations on behalf of reform and civil liberties by those exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression.

We are also troubled by reports that the periods of detention of many of those arrested have been extended and that security-related charges have been filed against them. We have noted our serious concern about the path of political reform and democracy in Egypt and actions such as these are incongruous with the Egyptian Government's professed commitment to increased political openness and dialogue within Egyptian society. We will be following up with the Egyptian Government regarding our concerns and will continue to push for political reform and freedom of speech and press. We support the rights of Egyptians and people throughout the Middle East to peacefully advocate for democracy and political reform.

Further, the Associated Press reported grumblings about Egypt's U.S. military aid package on Capitol Hill.

A “namby pamby response” Sandmonkey scoffed. “A muddled message,” Arabist.net agreed. Perhaps, but the press, and now the diplomatic response, should have at least put the Egyptian government on notice that it can't detain more than 100 secular activists and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, or beat journalists covering the detentions, without the world taking notice.

Kifaya Under Arrest

Elijah Zarwan — Mon, 08 May 2006 23:19:35 +0000

There's a gentle spring breeze blowing in Brooklyn, and the sounds of kids playing basketball are coming in through the window from the schoolyard next door. It's early evening, at the end of a sunny weekend. Across the street, neighbors are singing intentionally off-key to an earnest version of “Wimoweh.” It's clashing with the piano from downstairs. I'm sunburned from a day eating homemade Indian food with an old friend in Prospect Park.

And I'm stunned, sickened, and anxious to get back to Cairo. Another friend of mine, Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, went to jail there yesterday (May 7). He was among 11 young people arrested for turning out to support Kifaya activists arrested in last week's crackdown at the latter's scheduled hearing this morning. The tireless Aida Seif El-Dawla, who was there, says ~~Assistant Interior Minister~~ a senior intelligence officer known by the name Sami Sedhom told the protesters, “You bitc***. You sons of bitc***. This is how it is going to be from now on if you do not behave and know your limits. If you do not behave you'll have the bottom of my old shoes all over you.” (Her full email is posted at Arabist.net)

Police released three people—Sara Abd al-Gilil, Mohammed Awaad, and Yasser Abbas Mohammed—and held the rest in the Saida Zainab police station before transferring them to the Heliopolis State Security Prosecutor's office. A friend who works for a wire agency tells me he just heard the prosecutor has ordered them held for 15 days.

“We were just there to be present at the court hearing,” Aida said. “They encircled us…they wouldn't let us go.”

Friends of two of the detainees told Aida that security agents had called to say they were “screwing them right now.”

The eight people still in custody from yesterday's arrests are:

Ahmed Abd al-Gawad
Ahmed Abd al-Ghaffar
Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam
Asmaa Ali
Fadi Iskandar
Karim El-Shaer
Nada al-Qassas
Rasha Azab

These most recent arrests, coupled with the arrests last week, are dominating the Egyptian blogosphere. Wael Abbas has photos. “The Egyptian regime is getting bloody wild,” Freedom for Egyptians observed in the headline to her May 7 post. “Security forces are lashing out in all directions detaining anyone who would open his/her mouth in any street in Egypt using very arbitaray procedures, thanks to the renewal of the Emergency Law…One year ago…a political writer told me ‘this regime will be thrown away with blood.' I didn't want to believe him, but I am seeing blood coming! I am saying it now with my eyes filled with tears,” she concludes.

Toman Bay is concerned that “the government will continue this illegal arrest until the infamous May 25th passes (the first anniversary of the constitutional amendment referendum, and the police brutality against protestors).”

Sandmonkey writes, “We are on our own, and the regime is getting more desperate, paranoid and brutal by the minute.” Toward that end, he is encouraging people to campaign for Alaa's release. The campaign is spreading rapidly across the Egyptian and expatriate Egyptian blogosphere.

In the same vein, a group of Ahmed al-Droubi's friends and supporters have put together a blog devoted to campaigning for his release and the release of those arrested with him on April 26, and Big Pharaoh has posted a list of useful Egyptian government contacts. I hope these won't dilute the effort to free Alaa. But when Malek and three other bloggers were arrested at protests last week, Alaa felt strongly that whatever campaigns people launched should be in support of all the detainees, not just the bloggers among them. I know that he would not want special attention—for good or for ill—because of his rising international profile.

I've met these people. I can't imagine the Interior Ministry honestly regards them as a threat. True, Alaa is an award-winning blogger and the son of veteran rights activist Ahmed Seif al-Islam, but the protests represent a nuisance rather than an existential threat to the regime. Yet the Interior Ministry does seem to recognize that the arrests could backfire: A spokesman told Al-Jazeera that those arrested the morning of May 7 had been released (just as they were being transferred to the Heliopolis State Security Prosecutor's office) and the Interior Ministry told Reuters that no one had been arrested.

So is this the regime's new idea? Crack down, arrest those protesting the crackdown, arrest those protesting the arrest of those protesting the crackdown, deny everything? Protests are no longer tolerated. The core of the Kifaya movement is now in jail.

When I first met Alaa in the summer of 2005, I told him I was worried the government would crack down on the Kifaya protesters after the elections, when the world's attention was elsewhere. I asked him if he was worried about what would happen if that came to pass: Many of the protesters were young, they had never been in jail, they didn't know what could happen to them. He said he believed that it was too late for the government to put an end to the protests, that once people had tasted a bit of freedom, the regime couldn't roll it back.

“The government would pay a heavy price if it clamps down on us,” Alaa's father told the BBC's Heba Saleh last year. The coming days and weeks will see both those predictions tested.