Tag: Human rights

Islamist detainees

I bumped tonight into an Islamist lawyer I know who is a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. We chatted about several issues including Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri’s latest video, current political situation, and more importantly (for me) the issue of Islamist political detainees–those terror suspects who’ve been languishing in Egypt’s Gulags since the 1990s without trial.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry never gave figures for the number of prisoners and detainees. The figures for detainees in the 1990s, put by rights watchdogs, have drastically varied. EOHR puts it at 22,000. I heard other figures that went up to 40,000.

Last March, EOHR put the number of detainees at something between 16,000 and 18,000, due to the release of thousands of Gamaa Islamiya detainees with their renunciation of violence.

The Islamist lawyer I met tonight said there are currently from 5,000 to 6,000 Islamist detainees in prisons. According to him, the Gamaa’s detainees are roughly 600 only, while those of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad number 2,000, and the rest are a mixture of salafis, Sinai bombers’ suspects and a random bunch.

Of course I have no means to verify this independently.

Recommended Book:
Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam

Dr. Essam to be released

Finally Dr. Essam el-Erian is to be released, after he was detained during the pro-democracy demos last May.

Dr. Essam is someone I and many other secularists have so much appreciation for. He is a respectable citizen and a principled politician who should not have been taken away from his family and work, for demonstrating in support of Egypt’s judiciary, and thrown to the Tora dungeons.

Dr. Essam is one of the main forces in the Muslim Brotherhood that has been pushing the group towards moderation and endorsing democracy as the means to governance. The regular crackdowns the govt conducts against him and his colleagues only serves the cause of extremism and strengthens salafi factions in the group. I’m glad he is getting out.

Mabrouk ya doctor!

David, Girgis and Hussein… A Horror Film

I received this ad in my inbox about a play to be performed next week.

Horror is the word. Every person has his or her horror, and in our performance we speak out ours: Sectarian violence in Egypt. What if? The one-way street, where you meet nothing but the word…HORROR.

We invite you all to share us the horror by watching our performance, presented within the Independent Theatre Festival.

David, Girgis and Hussein…A Horror Film
Written by: Yasser Allam
Directed by: Sobhy el-Haggar
Maqha 87 Troupe

Sunday, 20th of August
On the Town House stage
At 09:00 pm

NB: To whom it may concern: this performance in the festival will not be the last; we wish to perform the play anywhere and everywhere, with or without money, lest anyone should not share the horror.

Call or email us:
+2 010-286-5169, yasseryallam -at- yahoo -dot- com

هــاااااااااااااااااااااع… مين هناك؟

I’ve uploaded miscellaneous pix taken in 2005, 2006, by photographer Nasser Nouri of Mubarak’s security forces during pro-democracy demos and parliamentary elections.

You can find the pix here.

Good job ya Nasser…

Arab human rights round up

If you are not on the list already, I strongly recommend you join the e-newsletter put together by my friend Gamal 3eid’s HRinfo. It’s a very useful resource for journalists and rights activists, providing a weekly updated round up of human rights news in the Arab World.

Just follow the hyperlink to the NEWSLETTER, and sign up for free by entering your name, email address and country.

Keep up the good work ya Gamal…