Egyptian Bloggers Continue Challenging Government

Amidst pressure and even torture - liberal Egyptians struggle to be heard! Let Our Bloggers Go!

I wrote a post on the 24^thabout an Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to prison for criticizing the power structure in Egypt. Abdel Kareem Suleiman was imprisoned for 4 years after al-Azhar University filed a complaint about 8 articles he posted on his blog karam903 back in 2004. Suleiman was found guilty of promoting extremist thought after calling President Mubarak a dictatorial Pharaoh.

The latest news from Egypt is even more disturbing as bloggers there are coming under increased scrutiny by the government. Blogs in Egypt have essentially grown into an alternative media outlet for religious and social minorities whose issues can never be brought forward via traditional media. Suleiman and others utilized the blog venue to inform the world of issues inside Egypt that they found important and had no other way of distributing.

Egyptian society is dominated by ultra-conservative views and the people in power are reluctant and often oppressive in their acts in dealing with more liberal trends. Topics like Anti-Christian discrimination are not deemed acceptable in the Egyptian media and these bloggers have been the first to bring such issues to the forefront.

Fellow bloggers and human rights organizations have condemned Suleiman's conviction as they fear the conviction sets a dangerous precedent. There are over 5,000 blogs in Egypt, and many fear the intensified persecution of free thinking bloggers. A news story from Yahoo! yesterday provided us with the following quote:

Since Suleiman's arrest, said fellow blogger Wael Abbas, 32, Egypt's blogosphere has changed. “I cannot say I am not afraid,” he told Reuters. “With this government one has to expect the worst.”

Torture - Bloggers broke a major story back in November when they posted video footage of an Egyptian bus driver being sodomized and tortured at what appeared to be a police station. More torture video and pictures have aired since, and Abba posted a clip showing a man in police uniform beating and insulting two civilians. The post was viewed 26,000 times on Abbas blog.

The government denies continued allegations by the bloggers about civilian torture, sexual harassment, rights deprivation and one story of mass sexual harassment of women in downtown Cairo by scores of young men. Abbas wrote in his blog that the time for government control over everything is coming to an end.

Hala Botros, a female blogger who writes about Anti-Christian discrimination, says that she and other religious conservatives do not agree with Suleiman, but that he is entitled to express his views. Bostros has also been persecuted by security authorities for reporting on sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians.

“They beat up my father at night on the street and told him: 'This is a gift from your daughter',” she said. “I was summoned to the police during the night and they treated me roughly. I was kept in solitary confinement for hours.”

One has to get the feeling that the once stable Egyptian state is coming apart to some extent. Suppression of civil freedoms is such an ugly indicator of powers struggling with their own validity. The defensive and hostile nature of these relatively inane blog posts should demonstrate to the world just how volatile our world can become. I am attaching a screen shot of the Abbas blog front page. Please be advised that some of the images are graphic and not for young people. The blog site is written in Arabic, so I could not specifically translate. Perhaps someone out there can help us in comments.