But of course you would never read about it in Jeune Afrique, whose cover last week was a special on Dracula Ben Ali’s wonderful plans for the next decade.
Cairo – London – Paris – Seol – Athens – Chicago – New York – Montreal
and now…..
Toronto
Hand off our Judges!
Free our Detainees!!
Democracy & Justice Now!!!The demo will be in front of the Egypt Air Office on the 25th of May (apparently this is the only official office there)
For more information please contact the Toronto Egyptian Solidarity Campaign at torontoesc@yahoo.ca
Between this and the events of the 25th, Al Jazeera is going to have a heavy anti-Mubarak day!
I will be here until the end of July and hopefully will some interesting stuff to write about Morocco on the blog, as well as in those places that actually pay me.
So what about Egypt, where all hell is breaking out? Well, first of all, don’t hold your breath for another July revolution. Secondly, I will be keeping an eye on what’s happening there through the magic of the internet. And most importantly, I am getting info from people who are there, and there will within a few days be posts by some newcomers to the blog who are in Cairo. They will be introduced in time.
In the meantime, those of you who care about Egypt should check out some of solidarity demos around the world taking place on 25 May.
For those of you who don’t, you can always look forward to more stuff on the Maghreb on this blog.
The Canadian Egyptians Group for Democracy will be organising the Demo on May 25th in front of the Egyptian Consulate in 1 Place Ville Marie at Noon (12PM)
for more information please contact Samer Atallah on atallaz@aucegypt.edu
Let the Show grow Bigger!
Salam,
—
Ahmed Zahran
elkhan-elmasry.blogspot.com
Why do people still take Ahmed Nazif seriously? I’ve interviewed him several times and even did a long profile of him when he was a very competent minister of Comms and IT, but the statements he has been making since he’s become PM are just offensive:
“It doesn’t take a month or two or six. It will take years… We have the time. We are not in a hurry,” he told reporters before the opening of a World Economic Forum meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
. . .
“Once the process starts, things happen. You see Islamists for example gaining in parliament here, in Palestine, in Iraq, so we start recalculating what’s going on,” he said.
“You need to recalculate, you need to revisit some of your assumptions, to make sure you are really on the right track but in the end I don’t think there is any way to go back on this.”
He played down the recent demonstrations in Cairo and other towns as the work of “special interest groups.”
Incidentally, does Nazif really mean it when he says he wants to stop the Muslim Brotherhood’s elected MPs to form a block in parliament?
Nazif told Reuters in an interview: “Islamists who say they belong to an illegal organisation have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party… We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening.”
He said the government could not take way the right of individual citizens from running for parliament but members of the Brotherhood were different. “We have a secret organisation represented in parliament. They are not individuals,” he said.
The prime minister’s remarks were another indication the Egyptian government is having second thoughts about some of the concessions it made to the political opposition last year when it was under U.S. pressure to loosen up the political system.
I was talking to Hisham Kassem, the publisher of Al Masri Al Youm, the other day about how so many of these super-duper “reformist” ministers have had their field of actions greatly narrowed by the presidency, and in some cases have gone from being quite respected figures to yet another set of regime sycophants. He said, “After Mubarak is gone, people will look at them and say, ‘he was one of Mubarak’s men.'” The time is running out on the present regime, super-duper reformist ministers. You better start thinking about your future careers and how history will remember you.
A closer look at the situation in Sinai may point to another ominous possibility behind the surge in radicalism. Relations between Cairo and the resident Bedouin tribes of the Sinai Peninsula have historically been marked by tension for many reasons. There is evidence, however, that the friction between the state and certain tribes is growing. This growing friction, coupled with the spread of extremist ideology, is a cause for alarm because it suggests that Egypt is in the early throes of an insurgency driven by deep-seated grievances and shaped by a mixture of Arab tribalism and radical Islamism unique to Sinai. Cairo has yet to provide credible evidence supporting its theory of possible al-Qaeda involvement in any of the Sinai attacks. This is another clue suggesting the indigenous character of the extremist activity.
In varying degrees, Sinai Bedouins represent an oppressed and impoverished segment of Egyptian society. Led by Nasser Khamis el-Mallahi, the el-Mallahi tribe is among the poorest in the region. One source of popular resentment toward the state is that much of the severely disadvantaged region has benefited little from the local tourist industry. This is especially true for the tribes that reside in northern Sinai near al-Arish, including the el-Mallahi. Local tribes also resent Cairo’s political interference in local affairs. In contrast, southern tribes have benefited somewhat from robust investments in the tourist sector and social welfare projects. This translates into a more positive attitude toward the state (al-Ahram, November 2, 2005).
There has been a lot of hand-wringing in the Egyptian press lately over the way the state has failed to develop the Sinai and include Bedouins in the country’s development. I took these notes in early May from the editorial pages in Al Ahram:
“We have abandoned Sinai to the drug traffickers and the terrorists,” lamented Abdel Mo’ti Mohammed in a column that called for making the development of Sinai a top priority. “We should help three million Egyptians from across the nation to settle in Sinai and providen them with all the facilities to reclaim land and live a dignified life and so that they can form a community that can thwart attempts to disturb regional stability. We should also organize a conference to discuss the problems of Bedouins and offer the facilities they need to develop a sense of being part of Egypt.”
Salama Ahmed Salama, arguably Egypt’s best columnist, wrote that “to say the attacks were the work of extremists would be narrow-minded. The staunchest allies of terrorists are lack of genuine development in the Sinai communities and the neglect of the interests of local tribes, which are considered a burden on security and social welfare. Religious extremism is not the only motive for acts of terrorism. Social and political factors have their part in shaping the terrorist mentality. We will not win the war on terror until government oppression stops.”
There’s been a lot of similar stuff elsewhere, blaming the government for the Bedouins’ isolation. But seeing this being admitted in Al Ahram is different. Abdel Mo’ti Mohammed generally toes the government line. His suggestion of a mass colonization of Sinai would probably provoke, rather than defuse, any “Bedouin insurgency.” More to the point is Salama’s explanation that, more than other Egyptians, the Bedouins have been left behind by a government that has failed in developing the country. It’s not only that the Bedouins are marginalized economically, they have also little political representation in Cairo and tend to be ruled by governors from “mainland Egypt” who have little affinity for Bedouin culture. Does anyone remember how a few years ago the governor of South Sinai, I think, wanted to ban smoking in public places?
Anyway, in the idea of a Bedouin insurgency — which I’m still not sold on at all — there’s obviously interesting parallels here not only with Afghanistan and Pakistan’s frontier provinces, but in a way also with the current Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Some of these tribal confederations (such as the Awlad Ali) in Northern Sinai extend all the way out to Iraq and elsewhere in the Mashreq. They could be getting some ideas, at least be radicalized with a form of Bedouin militancy and Jihadi Islamism. If so, it’s probably early enough to nip it in the bud, even if it has any chance to spread, which I doubt.
What is certain is that fi mushkila fil Sina (there’s a problem in the Sinai), and it doesn’t look like it’s being fixed in other means than the usual security ones.
(Thanks to Brian Ulrich for the link.)
Update: Seneferu thinks the whole Bedouin insurgency scenario is stupid. I tend to agree. But the presence of an Al Qaeda affiliate in Sinai, and it receiving some degree of protection from local tribes, could very well be linked to the dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs there. Terrorism a la Al Qaeda is not just fueled by ideas, but also by circumstances.
Here I sit at the beginning of my 3rd round of fifteen days in prison; my thoughts lingering between the principles that I stand for which brought me here, and the life that was mine and which I left behind. I try not to think too much about the pain my arrest created in the hearts of loved ones, my parents in particular, who have suffered the most from this ordeal. The thought of my mother weeping, and worst of all the tears I see in my father’s eyes as he forces a smile on his face during their weekly visit, is far more painful than anything I have ever experienced. My fear for them supercedes the pain and panic of my arrest: when I was simply kidnapped from the street, lifted from the ground by thugs, my feet in the air, my face few centimeters from the asphalt, while those (a dozen) carrying me away pushing and punching and swearing at me before starting to search me, blindfold me, tie my hands behind my back, finally dumping me into a security truck.
Via The Skeptic.