Tag: egypt

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

New LE1 Coins

I read a while ago somewhere that the govt was planning to issue these new 50 Piasters and LE1 coins to replace the paper money notes circulating in the market. I’ve just come accross the LE1 coin yesterday, with King Tut’s face on it.
I tried taking a pic of those coins with my mob phone, but quality isn’t good.

NEW LE1 Coins

I’m curious to know what fellow Egyptians and Cairo Arabists think of those coins? Do you like them?
I mean, I’m kinda conflicted… The paper money notes circulating in the market have tended to be FILTHY. The Central Bank doesn’t recycle them as fast as they should. So I guess coins are better in that regards. But at the same time coins are not easy to carry around in wallets. Gotta buy a purse for them or something?.. Donno.. what do you think..?

Oh, and has anybody seen the 50 PT coins? I haven’t seen those yet. Pitch us a pic if you have one.

Former Egyptian diplomat in Israel assaulted by his brother

The former head of the Egyptian consulate in Eilat was almost killed by his younger brother three weeks ago, according to Al-Masr Al-Youm, after the latter accused him of “treason” and being an “infidel” for assuming a diplomatic post in Israel.

The paper ran an interview with Consul Hassan Eissa, 70, who said his one-year-younger brother, Ali, is religious and related by marriage to Sheikh Omar Abdel Kafi. Ali, who’s apparently some company manager, accused his diplomat brother on a number of occasions of being an “infidel” for accepting to represent Mubarak’s regime in Israel. Finally Ali tried to overrun him by his car in front of the Shooting Club in Dokki three weeks ago.

Golia: Making resistance work

Maria Golia, author of Cairo: City of Sand, wonders in this latest dispatch why two years of street protests have achieved so little and rallied so few — a question on many of our minds.

Egyptians surely rank amongst the most patient and non-confrontational of peoples. But every now and then they get fed up and explode. It happened in 1952 as a result of colonial tensions coupled with the inaction of an opulent monarchy. While King Farouk feted his son’s birthday, enraged mobs stormed the streets of downtown Cairo, laying them to waste. It happened again in 1977, when Sadat raised the price of bread, misjudging his grip on a disillusioned populace, triggering nationwide riots that forced him to back down. When will it happen again?

Continue reading Golia: Making resistance work

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