Global Voices » Mostafa Hussein

Egypt: Egypt blocks 3 opposition websites

Mostafa Hussein — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:32:04 +0000

JC reports that he received two emails telling about three main opposing websites being blocked by the government. Users of the main ISPs in Egypt cannot have any access to these sites anymore.

Egypt: Clemenceau awaits

Mostafa Hussein — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 07:15:27 +0000

Amr writes about the decommissioned french aircraft carrier waiting to pass through the Suez canal. In its way to be taken apart in Indian scrap yards. Egyptian Environmental affairs Agency listened to activists and now considers the ship hazardous waste and illegal.

Egypt: New museums

Mostafa Hussein — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:40:58 +0000

Egyptology News, is reporting that “the Ministry of Culture has placed Egypt’s museums at the top of its priorities. This year will witness the inauguration of up to five new regional and national museums and the re- opening of three others after restoration.” The building of the new Grand Museum of Egypt is expected to start this year. The Grand Museum of Egypt is going to be the largest museum in the world.

Egypt: The Massacre of the Sudanese Refugees

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:11:57 +0000

Photo by Nora.

The tragic and bloody end of the Sudanese sit-in is still the main discussion topic in the Egyptian blogosphere. It is another brutal police action that I can't keep on saying that it proves to us that Egypt is living in a brainless police state. Egypt is living in a police state and this is yet another tragedy created by the goons in this regime. It is a regime that has no respect for anyone, its own citizens or some powerless refugees.

Nora Younis
Nora's amazing account with pictures is a must read and can not be summarized here. You have to read it fully.
Nora collects several press clippings about the event. And several eye witness reports.

Debunking lies by Egyptian State Media
Mohamed reminds us that every time security forces uses unjustified force and brutality, the national newspapers tries to cover up and twists the facts.
While Ta3zeeb responds to every lie spread in the media and newspapers.

The Egyptian prime minister will not apologize over the incident and he visited the injured police men only. While the Sudanese government thanks Egypt for exercising patience for so long.

Photos
Egyptian Conscience posts a large collection of photos by media and other sources. While here are some photos before the massacre by Elijah and Youssef.

Questions
R asks if the image of Egypt is more important than the lives of the Sudanese refugees ? He asks this after the Muslim Brotherhood MPs insisted on questioning the government over its actions that damaged the image of Egypt internationally.

Outrage

Two demonstrations were organized on the 31 of December in the same place the killings occurred.Yesterday a group of bloggers organized a protest. They want to stand against the incident every Thursday.

Independent media, human rights groups, the opposition, international media and international groups are asking for an independent investigation. Including Sudanese nationals in Washington D.C.

Relief
I am ashamed to say this, but over some blog comments and other few bloggers did express that they were glad that the refugees were moved from such a prominent residential area. However, they didn't approve the killings.

New Cabinet
Elijah reports on the tragedy and the recent cabinet reshuffle.

TortureInEgypt.net
A new blog that monitors and reports incidents of torture in Egypt. It covered the massacre of the refugees in depth. The blog is in Arabic.

Egypt: Police violence against refugees

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 14:30:50 +0000

~~Ten~~Twenty were killed and more injured including a four years old girl after thousands of Egyptian riot police used force to end a three month old protest in front of the UNHCR office. A protest will be organised tomorrow noon against the killings and the use of violence. Nora posts photos of the aftermath.

Egypt: Elections ends and more

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:48:17 +0000

Finally the elections of the People's Assembly (the lower house of the Egyptian Parliament) are over. With a bloody end and surprising results, that would probably heat the political debate in Egypt for the next five years.

Summary and results

With a 26% voter turn out and out of the 444 contested seats, Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) secured the majority (77%) of seats in the Parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) gained a surprising 20% of the seats and the secular opposition and independents were heavily defeated and only secured the remaining few seats. President Mubarak appointed 10 members, among them 5 women and 5 Christians as they are remarkably under represented in this term. There are still 12 seats to be decided.

Only 33% of the candidates running as NDP won, the remaining were independents who ran against NDP candidates but rejoined the party as soon as they won.

On another side a total of eleven persons died, more than 600 injured and around 1300 of the Ikhwan were detained.

The final day of the elections

The re-run of the third stage being the bloodiest of all, 8 died and 500 injured. War like scenes were shown on TV and other media.

Baheyya says:

As many feared, the last day of voting today saw security forces intensifying their use of violence against voters to thwart any further gains by opposition candidates, especially the Muslim Brothers. Security forces did not confine themselves to blockading roads and closing off polling stations, but fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of voters.

Baheyya also posts lots of photos of the Intifada like scenes.

Sandmonkey posts lots of photos too.

Boody reports that in his city of Zagazig police blocked the polling stations from the early morning. He witnessed thugs exchanging rocks with Brotherhood members. While the anti-riot forces used tear gas.

Previous GlobalVoices coverage of the elections:

Kefaya protests the thuggery and forgery

Freedom for Egyptians mentions the protests which have seen from 1000 to 2000 persons marching in downtown Cairo.
While Sandmonkey asks if, after the loss of secular opposition in the elections, the movement lost steam.
More photos of the protest

Telecom Egypt IPO

Telecom Egypt's initial public offering made a storm in Egypt. Ikhnaton2 says that he doesn't know much about finance but he heard people who never dealt with the stock exchange before selling their valuables and buying as much as they can in this IPO. He says that people see this a very valuable stock to own with a big potential. He says that this IPO however might hurt small investors. (Arabic)

Zein takes some photos with his mobile of masses of people trying to get in a stock broker's office.

Abo Islam
We have mentioned before the arrest of the Egyptian journalist Abo Islam. You can follow what the Egyptian blogosphere is writing about Abo Islam.

Football
Mo Nassar analyzes in detail the defeat of the Ahly (representing Africa) against Saudi Itihad in their first match of the World Club Championships.

Finally something positive
The Lady Ostrich (El Set Na'ama) writes in Arabic with photos about a project that improved the conditions of parts of a slum area in Cairo.

From the Gaza-Egypt border

Mostafa Hussein — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 07:07:10 +0000

Nora visits the newly reopened border crossing between Rafah and Gaza strip. She takes several photos and writes in Arabic about her experience. She documents the frustrations of people trying to get into Gaza. Notices the excessive video surveillance by Israel. She then explains who can cross the border; Palestinians with a passport who live in the Palestinian territories. In addition to that only people above 40, female, registered as a student in a university across the border or has a document that proves s/he is seeking medical treatment. Egyptians may not cross.

Egyptian Soldier Blogging

Mostafa Hussein — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 18:44:09 +0000

Abdelrahman was drafted in October. He will be spending one year in the military. He is the first Egyptian soldier with a blog. He is writing about his life in the boot camp.

Egypt: Arabian horses

Mostafa Hussein — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:04:50 +0000

Maryanne blogs about a horse show she attended few weeks ago. With pictures of beautiful mares and fillies. She also summarizes the history of the Arabian horse in Egypt and the business of breeding.

Egypt: Journalist Detained

Mostafa Hussein — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 13:43:57 +0000

Alaa reports that armed state security forces detained the Egyptian journalist Ahmad Abdollah “Abo Islam”. They broke in to his house on Monday. Five bloggers visited him and knew from his son that state security forces threatened his family at gun point and confiscated computer hard drives, CDs and books. He was a member of the Labour “El A'aml” party, former editor in ASha'ab newspaper and published two other newspapers. Currently he writes on a website called Balady Net. Abo Islam runs the Center for Islamic Enlightenment, which aims at bringing different religions closer together.

Egyptian bloggers and parliamentary elections

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 17:24:18 +0000

Elections
This week we had the re-run of the second stage and the first run of the third stage of parliamentary elections.

The second stage was the most violent. Although one person died in the first run of the third stage there was less violence but the police and security forces prevented many people from entering polling stations.

76 seats and counting…
The Muslim Brotherhood (a.k.a: Ikhwan) are winning more and more seats in the next parliament.

Baheyya comments on this issue:

The Ikhwan have done well to take voters and their needs seriously, and voters in turn are returning the favour by braving security phalanxes and demanding their right to be heard (above). Now I am deeply ambivalent about the Ikhwan, but who cares? As my Egyptian politics guru rightly reminds (that’s right, guru), one cannot impugn their fundamental respect for the ordinary Egyptian, and their superior skills at capitalising on and augmenting seemingly puny opportunities. They are not infallible and they are not without schisms, but they are committed. And they are clean.

She adds:

The challenge for the Ikhwan as a political phenomenon will be to maintain and truly live up to voters’ trust. No easy task, and not a foregone conclusion.

Issandar of the Arabist, says that not a single political analyst could have predicted that they would win such large number of seats. He also says that they are not entirely innocent from the incidents of violence, yet they are not directly responsible.

Issandar analyzes the MB's tactics in the media:

A thought has been forming in my head over the past few weeks, slowly taking shape into this basic and perhaps obvious realization: the MB is carrying out a long-planned, highly orchestrated and well-organized media offensive in parallel with its political offensive during the elections. This op-ed, and the one a few days ago in the Guardian are part of a string of evidence that it is making a real effort at communication to Egyptian, Arab and international media.

Haisam in the 2nd stage re-run, reports that Dr. Mohammed Abdellah President of the University of Alexandria took university students in University busses to go vote for him. He then joins Malek to visit several polling stations. He says that it was the same thing for all stations. The security forces sealed it compeletly only few managed to get in. Outside every station tens of Brotherhood members were chanting their slogans. He also noticed that journalists and elections monitors were denied entry. While chanting a man asks him why he was standing silent, he replied that he was not from the Brotherhood. The man replies telling him “no problem, aren't you a Muslim ?”

Haisam thinks that Brotherhood is not involved in a game or a deal with the NDP as some important figures did lose seats to the Brotherhood. And even opposition figures who made some deals with the NDP were defeated badly.

Freedom for Egyptians thinks that:

It is such a naïve political game is meant to make us believe that the presence and the continuation of the current regime is protecting us against the evils of the Muslim Brotherhood in a country that pretends to be secular. It is either the regime or the Islamists.

Magdy Helal says as a practicing muslim for him the world Islam carries good meanings and the slogan “Islam is the solution” means a lot to him. And if a person doesn't understand what does it mean he should revise what he knows about his own religion. He also says that whoever is fighting for freedom should support the Brotherhood too. Despite what other opinions say, they have succeeded in opening the doors for the people to choose.

The Second Crossing
The Sandmonkey posts with pictures:

But that's not all. People really wanted to participate and make their vote count, and they decided to outsmart the police who is preventing them from going in, by using laders to sneak into the polling stations like thieves.

In one village, men and women determined to vote resorted to sneaking into the polling station, putting up ladders to climb over back walls — out of sight of police barring the entrance — and slipping through bathroom windows to get in.

Those people braved serious injury so that they can go in and exercise their constitutional right to vote. The Police, which was supposed to facilitate and protect them tried to prevent them from even using that way to get inside the polling station.

Baheyya explains:

Most surprising of all is the tenacity and fearlessness of some Egyptian voters. Unfazed by knife- and stick-wielding thugs, intimidating police formations shooting rubber bullets and tear gas, and the sheer logistical hurdles and sense of doubt accompanying the act of voting, ordinary men and women have trudged to polling stations to demand their rights.
…
But, you see, the vast majority of Egypt’s people don’t have the luxury of over analysing anything. Their life circumstances are much more pressing. The act of voting for them is a matter of survival and dignity.

Ebles considers this the second Crossing.

Rumors
There is a rumor, a strong rumor actually, going around in newspapers and blogs. The rumor says that Gamal Mubarak is going to start a new party together with NDP members who support him. Freedom for Egyptians says that there might be a fight between the old guards and the news ones:

The fight is ongoing between the old guard, led by the Speaker of the Shura Council and former minister of information, Safwat Al-Sharif, and the new guard. Apparently, Al-Sharif alliance won the battle. The new guard led by Gamal Mubarak is seeking to form a new party to overcome their defeat.

Don't bomb Al-Jazeera
The Arabist and Baheyeldin comments on the memo about bombing Al-Jazeera. While I comment on the technology they are using to speak out.

Miscellaneous
Egyptian Person comments on two strange incidents. The first is that a Nasserist parliamentary candidate is asking for the removal of the names of 2000 registered voters from his electoral circuit because they once lived in Israel and are married to Israeli women. Egyptian Person notes that the women are Arab-Israelis. The other incident is that a lawyer filed a suit to revoke the citizenship from the participants of the recent Coptic conference in the US.
Egyptian Person asks:

Who said dictatorship or fascism has to come from the government? And how can we ask a dictatorship to implement democracy if many of the people who demand democracy are the same people who try to throw out those who are different and those who disagree with the “opinion of the people”, and consider them unworthy to be Egyptians to begin with?

The Sandmonkey posts about 25 Pakistanis disappearing without a trace in Alexandria, leaving behind their belonging and passports.

Ibn Ad dunia reminds us of an assassination plot by Mamdouh Hamza. Who wanted to hire hitmen to take down an Egyptian minister and a plan to to kill other prominent old NDP figures.

Despite all this Freedom for Egyptianshas good sentiments towards her country and wants to take a break.

Egypt: Sudanese Protest in Cairo

Mostafa Hussein — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:06:07 +0000

Youssef and Chiara (Italian) took photos and wrote briefly about the protest by Sudanese migrants against the UNHCR in the middle of Cairo. Almost 500 to 1000 (thanks Youssef) protestors are living in a miserable state since September, protesting their state of limbo. They refuse the return to Sudan and refuse local integration in Egypt

Thuggery is the solution

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 20:49:11 +0000

The second stage of Egpytian elections were marked by violence and wide spread irregularities. Officially one died during the first run of the elections and several wounded. But opposition newspapers claimed four died on that day. Few days later another man was killed and 21 were injured in election related clashes. 450 Muslim Brotherhood (MB) activists were detained, most of them were released few days afterwards.

On the day of the first run of the second stage. Mohammed together with Haisam and few others decided to take the risk and go see what was happening in several areas in Alexandria.

In two long posts, Mohamed describes (Arabic) what he has witnessed; swords, knifes, sticks, vote buying, police inaction, thugs intimidating voters, clashes between MB and thugs, broken car windshields. At one point, Haisam was slapped on his back of his nape by one of the thugs. While they were kicked out of a street while publicly cursed and insulted by a coffee shop owner who turned his business into a center for organizing vote buying to the NDP.

Haisam witnessed thugs beating women supporting the MB in front of a voting station. They also hear from other people who witnessed wide spread irregularities including breaking ballot boxes, clashes, people injured and the man who got killed.

Mohammed said he felt it was like war coverage and not election coverage.

Bigpharoh posts several photographs from news wires of clashes and fights. While Egyptian Conscience posts some photos taken by amateurs.

Wa7da Masrya describes her voting experience (Arabic) that day and how she was pressured by MB supporters to vote for them. Yet she refused.

As for the results of this bloody round, we are still waiting for the re-run. However, the MB secured 14 seats. Sandmonkey did the math:

Welcome to the second round of our parliamentarian elections. I am Sandmonkey, and I will be your host for the evening. So far we know that the MB has won 14 seats, which brings their total to 48 seats, and are likely to go into a run-off elections in 4 more, which if they win, will bring their total to 50 seats, 3 X what they had last elections. Once they hit 60 seats it will be really hard to decline them a party, and once they hit 65 seats they will be able to field their own presidential candidate for the next presidential elections. Oh Joy.

As for what happened in the past few weeks here is a summary of the first stage:
The opposition formed a coalition against the NDP, while the Muslim Brotherhood didn't join this front. Both the NDP and the MB campaigns were the most visible. With the MB slogan “Islam is the solution”.

After the first and second run of the first stage of elections the MB won 34 seats (40 after the first run of the second stage). NDP and indpendants who join the NDP secured most of the remaining seats. While the opposition only won 8 seats. With its most prominent leaders losing their seats.

Egypt: Abdolkarim, the Elections and the Muslim Brotherhood

Mostafa Hussein — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:03:09 +0000

This week bloggers discussed Abdolkarim's release, the resuls of the the first stage of legislative elections and more.

Abdolkarim

After the release of Abdolkarim. Malek went to meet him personally and he wrote about his meeting (Arabic). Here is a quick translation of a part of the post:

…
He started to recall the events that occurred.

By dawn of the 26th of October his mother woke him up to tell him there is an officer who wants him. Abdolkarim woke up and the officer told him they want him in Amn El-Dawla (State security). He went with them after they asked about his other brothers.

When he reached Amn El-Dawla they covered his eyes so he can not see the investigator.The investigator started to play the well known psychological game. (If you confess we will not torture you. If you didn't talk we will torture you till you speak.) Karim told him that he doesn't have anything to hide.

Investigator asked: Do you know why you are here ?
Karim: Because of the article.
Investigator: Very good what are your goals, you and your brothers, with such an article ?

(The popular conspiracy theory in our Egyptian security, that there is a certain conspiracy to create another unrest between muslims and christians in Moharam Bek. Feuled by the articles written by Abdolkarim, to create a new lack of security in the region for the benefit of external powers.. ((A very hard to describe ironic remark here, can't translate it))

The investigator at this moment didn't know that Karim is secularist and thought that he was shared his brother's fundementalist views. Karim explained that he is a secular muslim etc. etc..

Karim told me that the investigation continued for 5 hours and that he didn't endure any physical torture.

He also told me that he was well fed and that he had meals from restaurants and toilet was good during his stay in Amn El-Dawla.

After wards he went to the Bab Sharq police station with the political detainees jail away from criminal suspects.

From there he called his family and told him about his where abouts. (Strangely, his family didn't mention this.) Later on he was deported to Torah Prison.

He stayed 12 days and told me that food was ok and they themselves did the cooking. There was TV and they had newspapers. He knew that there are people outside trying to get him out from Al-Destour newspaper.

He was released and went to the Amn El-Dawla again. The investigator told him that he doesn't want to see him again and he has to calm down his writings a little. Karim told me that Al-Ghad(tomorrow) party did nothing and they have abandoned him.

…

Others considered his release the only good news for this week.

Abdolkarim didn't write about his release yet. ~~He also removed all his previous posts.~~

Elections

The first stage of the elections ended. Sandmonkey published the final tally:

NDP…… 114 seats* 70%
MB………. 34 seats 20%
Indies……..8 seats 5%
NFC………..8 seats 5%

Total = 164 seats

NFC is the National Front for Change. They are the main opposition parties.
MB is the Muslim Brotherhood.

The 5%
Ramy points to a comment by Sandmonkey. He assures us that if none of the opposition parties got 5% or more in the parliamentary seats, no one from the opposition will be able to nominate himself as president in 2011. This is due to the ridiculous constitutional amendment.

Mahmoud publishes a mashup of music and several radio, TV and original recordings of voices and reactions to the elections . Mp3 link (Arabic)

From the streets
Alaa posts an account of what he have seen in the first run of the elections, with photos. Earlier Alaa was shouting and screaming that the turnout was very low. Only 10% of the registered voters. And only very few people are registered. At points only 3000 voters were enough to secure a seat in the parliment.

Metamorphosis
Independent candidates after they won the elections turned en masse into NDP candidates. This transformation was resented by many bloggers. Considering it corupt, unethical and dishonest.

Muslim brotherhood
The astonishing large number of seats secured by the brotherhood in the first of three stages made a lot bloggers ask a good number of questions.
Ramy (Arabic) asked the most important ones:

Was it (the results) a deal or conspiracy with the government ?

If it was a deal or conspiracy, who is the winner ? who called for this ?

Was it to frighten the USA to run towards the arms of the NDP instead of Al-Ghad party and the young oppositions?

Was it a tactic from the government to release its stronghold or a move to calm people down ?

Why did the governemnt “leave the door open” for the new opposition and “left” Ayman Nour to be that noisy and for Kefaya to protest and throttled the voices of the brotherhood. Now they have turned their policy 180 degrees and left the brotherhood win and managed cut the hands of the opposition ?

Ibn abdel aziz jokingly nominates himself as the head of the Muslim brotherhood. This means that he is the first person to nominate himself to this position from 70 years.

Football
Rarely anyone mentions football but not after the Ahly won their fourth African Champions League title.

Update: Abdolkarim didn't remove his previous posts and he finally wrote about his release.

Update: Egyptian Person translated parts of Abdolkarim's post.

Egypt: Parlimentary Elections

Mostafa Hussein — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 08:51:03 +0000

The Arabist sums up the results of the first of three rounds of parlimentary elections. 140 seats to the ruling NDP and independants who join the NDP shortly after their win. 34 seats to the Muslim brotherhood and a big defeat to the secular opposition which “apparently having neither the popular appeal to convince voters nor the deep pockets to buy their votes.”