Diwan of Democracy

Threatened Voices

2009-11-03T18:04:00.003+02:00

One of the core issues on Fustat during it´s 50 something months has been Egyptian bloggers, their rights and violations against them. During the same period, Global Voices among many others has been a true friend of the Egyptian bloggers,taking over the torch from the Committee to Protect Bloggers if i remember correctly, in trying to track and provide help in form of a platform, being one of the hubs in fighting censorship, protect the written word online, and those bloggers/online journalists whom constitutes 45 per cent of all media workers in prison worldwide.

Those of you who follow my twitter account, might have noticed that my interest for free speech online, and bloggers rights is stretched around the globe, and not only to Egypt and the Arab World, so it will really be interesting to follow the new Global Voices advocacy project that is being launched today - Threatened Voices - described on it´s website as:

A collaborative mapping project to build a database of bloggers who have been threatened, arrested or killed for speaking out online and to draw attention to the campaigns to free them.

.

I´m looking forward to follow how this progress, and want to wish Sami Ben Gharbia and all at Global Voices involved in this ,as well as their network of partners the very best of luck!

This will be cross posted at Fustat.

Excuse Me Your Dick Is Out

2009-05-13T15:15:00.005+03:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Excuse Me Your Dick Is Out

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

This one has nothing to do with the court verdict yesterday, banning pornographic websites in Egypt. It´s just the once regular Bush/Cheney-administration bashing,with the typical John Stewart touch.

I am almost getting nostalgic. It was so much easier to make good politial satire when the old administration was around. No further comment, just watch the clip, and enjoy!

Nahna wa al Qamar jiraán

2009-05-07T17:18:00.004+03:00

This is my contribution for the best ever Fairuz song, Nahna Wa al Qamar Jiraán, it´s a clip from the early days of the only living arabic diva, indeed the last of only a handful uniqe artists who shaped arabic music during the latter part of the 20th century, their legacy and influence will live on, for generations to come,just days ago we weré reminded of another icon in the same category, Muhammed Abdel Wahab .

The clip and the blog post is dedicated to Abu & Um Junia, both of whom played an instrumental part, in me falling in love with Fairuz´s fantastic repertoire.

All those Sunday mornings, with her, and the Rahbani brothers music on the CD-player, the most pleasant way of waking up before being treated to a full Lebanese weekend breakfast, quite the opposite of being deprived of sleep by waking up to the Red Army Choir on full wolume... believe me, i learnt it the hard way..

To Abu & Um Junia , for the very best of friendship, for more years than we wish to remember..

Also, Many thanks to Fida, and Lasto Adri for reminding me of how special this song is to me.

Pope Benedict , Abu Kufiyeh

2009-04-22T21:24:00.006+02:00

This photo was taken at the Vaticabn today, when the Pontiff recieved a Kufiyeh from a Palestinian Catholic youth group.

The ultimate symbol for Palestine on the pope´s head will certainly resonate both positively and negatively in the holy land, the importance of the Kufiyeh is perhaps overstressed by Yasser Hirbawi who owns one of the few Kufiyeh factories left in Palestine, but this Hebronite´s words is certainly not too far off:

"We are making the symbol of Palestine. This scarf is the history and the heritage of our country."

The pope will travel in the troubled holy land for a week from May 8th-15th.

Photo, courtesy of AP.

Sandstorm in Riyadh

2009-03-11T12:31:00.003+02:00

You can watch more photos on the Sandstorm in Riyadh in the Guardian and on Saudi Jeans.

Open letter to Obama urging promotion of Democratic Reform & Human Rights in the Muslim World

2009-03-11T03:26:00.005+02:00

Yesterday, 143 scholars from the U.S and abroad signed an Open Letter to President Obama, asking him to promote democratic reform and human rights in the Arab and Muslim World.

Obama coming in after eight years of Bush, with the symbolism of his victory and the new spirit of a different and if i may say so better White house,with a lot of positive capital, has never the less taken the world by surprise in terms of speed, it feels like the new administration has done more in 50 days than the former administration in half a term of office. Guantanamo is of course the most symbolic step, though i hope for more. Putting the peace process firmly on the agenda is another, though i can´t say that i´m that impressed with the administration´s less than subtle tilting toward Salam Fayyad as P.M in a new palestinian government, that is an internal matter, and the administration´s policy resembles the old one in practically every way visavi Hamas. There´s been tougher talk on Israeli settlements which is a good thing though. The Secretary of State didn´t impress me with her talk on human rights in Sharm al Sheikh, and the open letter couldn´t have come at a more appropiate time.

The list of scholars is a virtual Who´s who of Middle East analysts and democracy & human rights groups. To name but a few , Dr Anwar Ibrahim , the former Dep PM of Malaysia and current leader of the opposition, Michele Dunne, one of my favourite scholars , her colleague Nathan Brown, John Esposito my fellow Egyptian blogger and journalist Mona el Tahawy, her namesake Mona Yacoubian of the U.S peace Institute. Heavyweighters like Francis Fukuyama among many others.

It´s perhaps important to point out that three of the seven Egyptians/Egyptian/Americans who signed the petition to President Mubarak on Feb 28th, was also among the signatories to this letter, Saad Eddin Ibramin, Omar Affifi and Dina Guirgis.

I liked the fact that the letter includes parts of George Bush´s second inaugural speech as well as Condi Rice´s speech at the AUC in June 2005, and of course this line from the Obama inauguration -

“To those who cling to power through
corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side
of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

The most important part of the letter, is in my view this sample.

¨In his second inaugural address, President Bush pledged that the United States would no
longer support tyrants and would stand with those activists and reformers fighting for
democratic change. The Bush administration, however, quickly turned its back on Middle
East democracy after Islamist parties performed well in elections throughout the region.
This not only hurt the credibility of the United States, dismayed democrats and
emboldened extremists in the region, but also sent a powerful message to autocrats that they could reassert their power and crush the opposition with impunity.

In order to rebuild relations of mutual respect, it is critical that the United States be on the
right side of history regarding the human, civil, and political rights of the peoples of the
Middle East. There is no doubt that the people of the Middle East long for greater
freedom and democracy; they have proven themselves willing to fight for it. What they
need from your administration is a commitment to encourage political reform not through
wars, threats, or imposition, but through peaceful policies that reward governments that
take active and measurable steps towards genuine democratic reforms. Moreover, the US
should not hesitate to speak out in condemnation when opposition activists are unjustly
imprisoned in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, or elsewhere. When necessary, the
United States should use its considerable economic and diplomatic leverage to put
pressure on its allies in the region when they fail to meet basic standards of human rights.
We recognize that taking these steps will present both difficulties and dilemmas.
Accordingly, bold action is needed today more than ever. For too long, American policy
in the Middle East has been paralyzed by fear of Islamist parties coming to power. Some
of these fears are both legitimate and understandable; many Islamists advocate illiberal
policies. They need to do more to demonstrate their commitment to the rights of women
and religious minorities, and their willingness to tolerate dissent. However, most
mainstream Islamist groups in the region are nonviolent and respect the democratic
process.¨

The letter makes a lot of sense to me, i never believed in W Bush´s democracy promotion talk , he was always a man of lofty words on democracy and human rights, but with very little intention of actually implementing any of the lofty language in real statements or policies on the ground. The authors of this letter praises his rhetoric while critizing the actual content of tools, or lack of tools of policy. He did the talk but shied away from the walk. In my view, the Bush administration liked to talk about human rights in Egypt, when it came to people like Ayman Nour and Saad Eddin Ibrahim, whom they could symphatize with and understand, but very seldom on human and political rights when the victim happend to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood for instance. Speaking out against human rights violations, regardless of what political view the wictims of those violations should be policy, and that has not been the case since at least 2006.

I salute the 143 people who signed the letter.

The letter in it´s entirety can be found here. More can also be found at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy(CSID). Michele Dunne writes about it here.

I might say something more about it tomorrow(it´s five o clock in the morning and i badly need my sleep).

Happy Aid al Fitr and Rosh Hashannah 5769

2008-10-01T15:05:00.002+02:00

I would like to wish a happy Eid al Fitr to my Muslim readers and Happy Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish new year to my Jewish readers, today it´s 2nd Tishri 5679.

Kol sanna wa antum tayyibin and Shana Tova Umetukah (A good and sweet year).

Kahk al Aid
There is something that´s practically obligatory on all tables in Egypt on Eid al Fitr, that is Kahk. This tradition of eating Kahk on Eid al Fitr goes back about 1000 years, during the Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt, according to legend the ruler al Aziz(975-996) used to distribute Kahk to the people of the newly established city of al Qahirah(Cairo), it was also about that time that al Azhar was created as a religious institution by the Fatimids.

I would like to send 1 Kg of virtual Kahk al Aid to Sheikh Youssef al qaradawi, the highly popular and influential religious scholar, whom himself was educated at the very same institution some 980 years later, if he were to take a walk down the Memory Lane of his formative al Azhar years he would find himself passing by al Kahkeen alley, were the Kahk makers used to create their culinary masterpieces in what seems to have been a cultural high point in the City´s history, when the City was governed by the Fatimids , whom ruled over a population, most of whom belonged to another Muslim Law school. Tolerance seem to have been the name of the game, for most of the Fatimid years(al Hakim´s rule differs sharply from that pattern).

Qaradawi has been acting rather cranky and grumpy, as of late and perhaps he needs the Kahk to recover from the feverish statements he gave during the latter part of Ramadan, he obviously had some Basbousa or Konafa that made it possible to see things in a slightly different light, but in my view the issue was totally uncalled for from the outset, just because it´s fashionable with that kind of rhetoric at this particular point in time, be it from so called statesmen or religious scholar, it dosent make it right.

Happy Aíd!

This will be cross-posted at Fustat

First International Day of Democrracy

2008-09-15T14:16:00.000+02:00

Today marks the first UN International day of Democray, the decision was taken on Nov 8th 2007. It´s about time i would say.... Better late than never! I´m celebrating!

Ramadan Kareem

2008-09-02T11:06:00.002+02:00

I would like to wish my readers from Matruh to Baris, and from Palestine, Texas to Cairo, Georgia(and of course readers all over the world) a happy Ramadan!

A special greeting goes to the good people of Kota Bharu, Kelantan, and to the special one of course - Ramadan Mubarak!

Here´s a cute cartoon about Ramadan!

This will be cross posted on Fustat

New ICG policy briefing on Hizbullah

2008-05-16T05:13:00.002+03:00

As it seems that the Arab League mediators has managed to cut a deal between the government and opposition, and optimistic (too optimistic in my view) talk of the parties going to Qatar today(Friday) to try to elect a President (Michael Sulaiman).

As usual the International Crisis Group has provided us with a timely and quick up to date analysis. It´s called Lebanon: Hizbollah’s Weapons Turn Inward and i will only provide you with the link(PDF) tonight, and hopefully later on i¨ll add in my ten cents of thoughts.

Ya sitt ad Dunya , ya Beirut

2008-05-10T02:35:00.002+03:00

Majda al Roumi sings Nizar Qabbani´s poem Ya Beirut.

This will be cross-posted on Fustat.

Fouad al Farhan released

2008-04-26T14:07:00.003+03:00

The Saudi blogger Fouad al Farhan has been released, and is now at his home, according to a message that was sent to members of the Free Fouad facebook group:

Fouad Al-Farhan is free now after released from jail and he is at home with his family.

تم اليوم إطلاق سراح فؤاد الفرحان وهو الآن في بيته مع أهله

Fouad was arrested on December 10th and his been in custody for 138 days.

Overall it´s been quite a good week for bloggers in the Arab World this week, in Egypt, Muhammed al Sharqawi was released from al Marg prison, although before he was released he was questioned in another case regarding his publishisng house Malameh , and the publication of the graphic novel, Metro, written by Magdi al Shafi.
Nadia Mabrouk and Esra Abd al Fattah was also released from al Qanater´s women´s prison. In Esra´s case after she had been ordered released, something totaly ignored by the interior ministry , whom stopped the release and issued orders for her to remain in jail according to the Emergency laws. Only after her mother pleaded to President Hosni Mubarak, the First Lady and Minister of Interior Habib al Adly in the press ,she was released.

In a related matter, Cairo University student Bilal Diab was held by the university security for some hours, after he asked Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to release Esra, while Nazif was holding a speech at the University.

While i´m happy truly happy by the above mentioned releases, let´s not forget those who are still not freed , like Kareem al Beheiri and Ahmed Badawi for instance, as well as others.

This post will cross-posted at Fustat.
More later

The National, a brand new broadsheet

2008-04-17T21:35:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of this year i happend to read Tom Gara´s blog, and learned that he was leaving Cairo and was moving to Abu Dhabi to start working with a new project. It´s not everyday a major english-language newpaper launch is done in the Middle East so it caught my eye, especially because it was done with much hype and secrecy, even the name was a secret.

So i was happy to know that the former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland and his staff of 175 journalists launched the National yesterday. It happens in a very dynamic region, where expressions like ¨only the sky is the limit¨ is reality and the soundtrack defining the attitude, spirit and klondykeness of the place would be ¨Aint no Mountain high enough¨. The National will have the second largest circulation in the U.A.E with an 80 000 copies edition. Only the established Gulf News have more readers.

It´s owned by state-run Abu Dhabi Media Co, a fact that dosen´t bother Editor-in-Chief Martin Newland:

``Being owned by the government is not problematic''

I hope he´s right!

But then again i thought this part of a Bloomberg story on the National interesting:

Emirati leaders limit demands for greater representation and public debate through state handouts, said Rochdi Younsi, Middle East analyst for New York-based Eurasia Group. The average male Emirati receives benefits worth about 204,000 dirhams ($55,500) a year, according to research by Zayed University in Dubai.

``In return for distributing the wealth, the government ensures long-term popular allegiance,'' Younsi said. ``That's the basic social contract.''

It´s a very prosperous society, but not equally so for everybody, for istance approximately 500 000 construction workers who comes mainly from South Asia have an average salary of 175 USD/month compared to the average per capita income in the UAE of $2,106/month according to the Human Rights Watch report:Building Towers, Cheating Workers - Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in the
United Arab Emirates. This is of course just part of the plight of these workers - and one could argue that most of them are better of than they would have been, if they would have stayed in their respective home countries.

As Martin Newland so eloquently puts it in the about us section of the National:

"The role of The National is to reflect society, help that society evolve and, perhaps most importantly, promote the bedrock traditions and virtues that must be preserved even in times of change.”

I hope Mr Newland has the will, vision and editorial courage to make justice to his words on reflecting society as it is with it´s different shades, spots and cracks to discover the true face of the United Arab Emirates behind the facade, sweet and sour.

I like what i´ve seen so far, and like to wish Tom an Mr Newland and the rest of the staff the very best of luck, and finally i would like to point to two interesting articles the first one on Abu Dhabi - building a creative city and the second on five-star quality food for prisoners in Abu Dhabi.

New study on the Iranian blogosphere

2008-04-07T12:03:00.003+02:00

I have treated my Diwan as The Ugly Duckling for far too long. Having tried to revive it on numerous occasions.

So when the opportunity presents itself in the form of a very interesting and brand new study on the 60 000 or so blogs that constitutes one of the most dynamic and diverse blogospheres in the world, i simply can´t resist telling my patient audience about it.

The Iranian bloghosphere have intrigued me for quite some time now, even longer than my love story with blogging. It brings me great pleasure to present a 68 page long study from the same institution that gave us Global Voices, which to me is like my second home and family in a way. The study is the third in a series made by the Internet & Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harward Law School

The study is called, Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere and is written by John Kelly and Bruce Etling. It can be found here(PDF).

So Diwan of Democracy is officially back in business!

UPDATE: Mapping Iran´s Online Public is now available in Persian as well, it can be found here.

UPDATE II: In February of this year an updated map was released, and Yesterday that was supplemented with an Interactive blogosphere map.

The way the study was conducted has been subject to critique by Will Ward:

Like most people who saw John Kelly and Bruce Etling’s recent paper on mapping the Iranian blogosphere, my jaw dropped at the sheer coolness of the project and the types of connections it was making. But, given my experience with qualitative blog analysis, I was a bit skeptical of the project’s enduring value for social science researchers because it represented just a snapshot in time (i.e. the paper and data set was a one off affair that could not give an idea of trends and changes in the blogosphere) and also because in addition to mapping the connections between bloggers themselves, the researchers were mapping their own subjective descriptors and categories (labels like “secular/ expat” or Twelver Shi‘a) onto the blogosphere. There was no way for outside researchers to dispute the Kelly and Etling team’s labeling of a given blog, review or challenge the global labeling schema, nor to suggest new, potentially interesting or valuable alternative ones.

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere

On June 17th, The Internet and Democracy project at he Berkman Center for Internet and Society will present their long awaited study(at least by me)on the Arabic Blogosphere at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington D.C together with a discussion on Obama´s Cairo speech were bloggers from the Middle East will take part online. For those not in Washington, like myself, there will be a possibility to follow the event via a live webcast.

September issue of ARB on the Gulf

2007-09-19T08:48:00.000+02:00

The new Arab Reform Bulletin is out.

The articles this time around are on the Sunni armed groups in Iraq, the aftermath of the Moroccan elections, the upcoming Presidential election in Lebanon.

The most interesting part, in my view this time is the rare and very interesting focus on the Arab Peninsula and reform, one article on the upcoming Shura council elections in Oman on October 27, by Rafiah al Talei, and another on the general trends in terms of elections and reform within the Gulf States by David Mikosz where he shows that high turnout, as in most countries are related to elections that are looked upon as fair, and were the elected body is producing results. The examples of Qatar and Bahrain follow this pattern with 75-85 % turnout for the first advisory council election in Qatar 1999 and 84 % in the referendum that created the first elected parliament in 2003, the second advisory council election in 2003, only managed to galvanize a turnout of 30 % due to the fact that the outgoing body, was not viewed to have any particular influence. Bahrain had a 90 % turnout to a referendum on the national charter in 2001, when the reform elements of the charter proved less than satisfying , both the electorate and the opposition showed it´s displeasure by not turning up for the next parliamentary elections (53 % turnout).

One of the ways of ensuring that the populace feel secure about fair elections is in Mikosz view to introduce nonpartisan election commissions, the only country country however that has such a system in the Peninsula is Yemen, and Kuwait is viewed as having the most efficient election administration of the region, despite the fact that it´s administered by the Interior Ministry. My view on this, very biased by the fact that the strategy of creating a election commission was used by the Egyptian regime, as a tactic to strip the Egyptian judges of their duty to supervise and guarantee the fairness of the elections, and that the makeup of the election commission, in no way can be considered non-partisan in the Egyptian case, i am extremely reluctant to see this as something of a universal antidote to reluctant semi authoritarian democrats, who wants to refurbish themselves in the garnment of reform and democratization.

This is the articles in the September edition

Iraq: The Politics of Sunni Armed Groups
Muhammad Abu Rumman

Morocco: The Elections Are Over; Let Voter Education Begin
Asmae Otmani

Lebanon: Scenarios for the Presidential Election
Sarkis Naoum

Oman: Shura Council Elections and Aspirations for Change
Rafiah al-Talei

Arabian Peninsula: The Importance of Electoral Administration
David Mikosz

The U.S military in Iraq gets into the friendly season`s spirit

2007-09-13T15:19:00.000+02:00

Major holiday´s has always been a time for the benevolent leader in the Arab World to show mercy, and generosity, that means that every time their is a big day coming up there is also some prisoners getting out.

This of course, has been the case off and on at Thanksgiving at the White house since Lincoln, but then only in form of pardoning a turkey.

Now it seems that the American army has learned something from their allies in the region, they announced that they together with the Iraqi authorities will free around 50 to 80 prisoners/day during the lunar month of Ramadan, starting today. No one of the released prisoners will pose a security threat.

A big thank you to President Bush, General Petreaus and the commander of the prisoner operations task force Major General Douglas Stone!

Ramadan Kareem

2007-09-13T01:23:00.000+02:00

Ramadan Kareem, happy Rosh Hashana(Jewish New Year) and happy new Ethiopian Milenium to all my readers.

Marcel Khalife free concert in New York

2007-08-25T15:32:00.000+03:00

I just got the info that one of my favorite musicians, the one and ONLY Marcel Khalife is doing a free concert in New York this evening. If i lived in the big Apple - then i would leave everything, and go to the concert! I had the opportunity to see him up close twice in the last three years, the latest being in September last year, just a month or so after the pointless war. It was a very emotional concert that still is very close to my heart.

My favorite song is still Rita(mp3), based on poetry by famous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

If you have the chance to go, please do, i promise you will neither regret or forget the experience.

Bush, benchmarks and badgers

2007-07-13T04:46:00.000+03:00

The NSC interim report on the new way forward in Iraq , the surge, the war that ended four years and two months ago and what have you was released today (25 pages PDF), and the President held a speech on Iraq(full transcript). Who could have foreseen that this news would be overshadowed by an army of ugly big fellows that seems to terrorize Basra these days.. And surprise surprise, it´s not the Mahdi Army!

On a whole a hellish period for the administration with important Republican senators like Richard Lugar et al leaving the sinking ship. The House of Representatives voting for troop withdrawal by April 2008, more American soldiers killed and several major car bombs during the last week, not much to be happy about.....

But there was actually a good piece of news, the amount of Iraqi casualties has been going down, and if that´s a continuing trend, then that might actually be the best news yet.....

I´m tired and on my way to bed, just wanted to post the interim report and the speech, and then you can judge for yourself.

Alan Johnston free

2007-07-04T09:18:00.000+03:00

BBC journalist Alan Johnston was released earlier today. He was kidnapped in Gaza City on March 12th , by a group called Army of Islam. During the last days preassure has been stepped up, and just two days ago several arrests of people close to the Army of Islam was made. It seems the de facto Hamas takeover of Gaza has changed the security dynamics and that might have made the difference in this case.

I´m truly happy about Alan´s release, he´s one of the best reporters ever to have reported from the region, and he was the only western journalist to live there permanently at this point in time, to kidnap him was to rob the Gazans from getting the true story out of how bad the situation really is there in the most eloquent way possible. He´s reporting really has substantial impact.

More than 200 000 people have signed the petition to release him, and i thank everyone who has helped in whatever way during these almost four months. This is a big day for Alan, his family and the BBC.

An update will follow!

This will be cross posted on Fustat.

Relaunch of the Diwan

2007-06-22T11:32:00.000+03:00

After four months of silence it´s time to relaunch the Diwan once again. I´ve been treating the blog as an unwanted stepchild for way too long.

This blog celebrated it´s second birthday in total seclusion on April 30th, that´s no way to treat my dear lady.

I´m planning on writing here regularly from now on, so excuse me for this unintended break and enjoy reading future posts here!

Ayse Kadioglu on Hrant Dink

2007-02-17T03:33:00.000+02:00

Ayse Kadioglu has written an article in Merip about the slained Armenian-Turkish writer/journalist Hrant Dink. He was killed in Istanbul on the 19 of January 2007.

I like the end:

¨Hrant Dink lived his life like a pigeon on a bridge connecting the feelings and thoughts of Armenians in Turkey with those outside, as well as with Turks. He was a pigeon on a mission to make such bridges more than symbolic. He was shot by trench diggers, who remain powerful opponents of his mission. On the day of his funeral, however, Hrant Dink’s bridge was flooded by thousands who wanted to guard it in his name. He would have loved the sight.¨

Hrant Dink, Istanbul, Turkey, Armenians

Unhappy birthday - Guantanamo turns 5

2007-01-11T08:51:00.000+02:00

Today, Guantanamo turns five, join Amnesty Internationals campaign to make it the last birthday

You can also read the close Guantanamo Campaigners blog here to find out how you can help.

close Guantánamo, Guantánamo bay,Amnesty International, human rights, Torture, War on terror, USA

Merry Christmas to all Copts and all Orthodox Christians!

2007-01-07T00:07:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas to all Copts in Egypt, Ethiopia and in the diaspora, as well as all other Orthodox Christians around the world. Go easy on the food! No more foul, Adds and potatoes...

Copts, Coptic Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, Egypt , Ethiopia

Saddam Hussein waiting

2006-12-30T04:51:00.000+02:00

As were waiting for news about Saddams death by hanging, i can´t help thinking that it´s wrong. Of course i´m against capital punishment, but there is also several other aspects, the obvious being that every person is entitled to a fair trial, and as pointed out on several occasions, the latest by the HRW for instance, there have been several flaws in the trial proceedings. I would also have liked to see more trials against him in due time, But i also think that it´s a harsher punishment to sit and wait for 30-40 years waiting day in and day out, having time to reflect upon one´s life.

UPDATE: The BBC has confirmed that the execution has taken place.

Saddam, Iraq, Hussein, hanging

Happy aid al Adha and a happy new 2007

2006-12-30T04:49:00.000+02:00

Happy aid al Adha and a happy new year to all my readers! Let´s hope that this year´s haj will go as smoothly as planned with about 2 milion participating. The saudi auhorities has taken precautions to avoid the tragic stampede that cost 345 people their life, that occured last year. Let´s hope for the best.

Enjoy the holiday and go easy on the food!

Also a really happy new year to all of you!

Hajj, haj, Aid al Adha, Bairam, Aid Mubarak

Blogspotter Bildt new minister for Foreign Affairs in Sweden

2006-10-06T12:45:00.000+02:00

Carl Bildt, fellow blogger and blogspotter as well as former Swedish Prime Minister, has a new job. He is the minister for Foreign Affairs in the new centre-right coalition government.

After leaving the Prime Ministership, he had a string of international jobs in the Balkans, begining with the job as the EU special representative to the former yugoslavia, Co-Chairman at the Dayton Peace Conference, High Representative in Bosnia Herzegovina and as Kofi Annan´s special envoy for the Balkans.

He´s also one of the signatories of the new ICG appeal for a relaunching of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He, togheter with Jimmy Carter among others was an observer at the parliamentary elections in Palestine in late January. He´s been somewhat critical of the way Washington been handling the region since the establishment of the Hamas government:

¨And Washington seems to be lost. There has not been much of coherent and long-term policy visible there since the Hamas victory in the Palestine Authority elections in January. It’s all been reaction to events – and reactions often without much of long-term purpose.

One has not been explicitly supporting everything coming out of Israel – but neither has there been much of a serious policy effort to fend off the deterioration that, the one way or the other, was in the cards. Policy has been seriously and dangerously drifting.

And now the guns of July are blazing.¨

The swedish foreign policy is in the best possible care. Bildt will probably continue the traditional way of searching for consensus in swedish foreign policy. EU will be even more accentuated as the main forum for Sweden on the global arena. He made a point of pledging allegiance to the founding idea of the postwar european project by stating the importance of the EU in bringing about peace, reconciliation and freedom in the world.

Congratulations and the very best of luck!

Carl Bildt, ICG, blogspot, political bloggers,

Day for Darfur

2006-09-17T17:06:00.000+03:00

Today, the 17th of September, over 50 cities will hold demonstrations and vigils for the people of Darfur. In Cairo there has been activities throughout the week, culminating today on AUC´s greek campus. The whole sequel of demos today started off in London at 11 A:M and continues with demos in Addis, Nairobi, Dakar New York, Montreal, Manama, Dubai,Berlin,Paris, Stockholm, Hague ,Bishkek, Seoul and Melbourne to name but a few.

About 200 000 people have died since 2004 and 2 million are displaced.

Please join in today, and please help in raising awareness in whatever way you can.

Here is the latest ICG report and likevise the latest press statement from Amnesty International on Darfur. Both of whom are among the organizers of this worldwide campaign.

This posting will be crosspublished at Fustat

17 September 2006, Global day for Darfur, Darfur, Sudan, Amnesty International , ICG

Remembering 9/11

2006-09-11T17:11:00.000+03:00

Just a few minutes ago, the bells in New York tolled, at the exact time of the first aircraft hitting the first World Trade Center tower at 08:46 Eastern time. The names of the 2749 people who lost their lives at the World trade center is being read one after the other at ground Zero. We should all take a minute and think about them, and reflect and those onboard the four planes, and the people who lost their lives at Pentagon and in Pennsylvania and the consequenses of 9/11 worldwide that we live with everyday.

I remember that day, and how it effected me, I got a phone call from a friend after the first airplane smashed into WTC1, put on the televison set, just before the second airplane, it was unbelivable, i remained fixed to the tv set and the computer, but the feeling that came creaping was numbness, something that remained with me for almost two weeks, going on with your normal life, but living another in parallel, or rather trying to comprehend emotionally, what you somewhat grasped relatively soon intelectually. Fortunately i had no one near me, who was a victim of this mass slaughter, but not feeling and carying for the people who died, and those who would be permanently effected for life was impossible, and they all died in vain.

I have plenty to say about the political and military reactions to 9/11 and do so frequently on both of my blogs, but let´s leave that till tomorrow, today is a day of remembrence, mourning and reflection.

The photo is from today´s New York Times.

9/11 remembered, 9/11 five years on, 9/11

Israeli Chief of Staff Halutz: Close to a 100 Hizbullah fighters dead

2006-07-22T05:46:00.000+03:00

As Israeli troops gather on the lebanese border, the Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Dan Hallutz claimed on friday that close to a 100 Hizbullah fighters had died in the nine days of conflict, this stands in sharp contrast to the 20 in the last few days, GOC Northern Command Major General Udi Adam has stated. Hizbullah sources has confirmed eight dead.

The badly hit city of Tyre burried at least 86 bodies friday, in a mass funeral. The bodies were fom all over the south.

The amount of deadly cassualties are at least 340 lebanese and 33 Israelis, 15 civilians and 18 soldiers.

About 500 000 are believed to be internaly displaced, and 150 000 has sought refugee inside Syria. UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan warned that Lebanon was on it´s way to be a humanitarian disaster.

The evacuation of foreign nationals, the largest since the evacuation of the brittish forces in Dunqurque 1940 during World War II, is gearing up after a slow start, the Scandinavians, togheter with the Italians took the lead early on and has almost completed their evacuation. The US,UK and Australia has been late starters. The US, which had about 25 000 citizens in Lebanon has evacuted about 8000 as of yet. The UK ordered two war ships to evacuate their citizens to Cyprus, and the Australians has sent their team to Beirut.

Most of the 80 0000 Sri Lankan, and the 30 000 Filipino citizens are stuck in Beirut . Most of them , women working as maids in lebanese homes, don´t have choice, their employers will not let them leave, and all they can do is to stay put, and hoping for the best.

On the diplomatic front, Secretary of state is going to the Jerusalem on Sunday, and meeting Arab Foreign ministers in Rome, breaking with an old tradition of several previous administrations, in situations like this. Martyn Indyck explains, going to the Arab capitals right now, would send the wrong signals. Rice is carrying a diplomatic bomb with her as a special treat for Israel this time.

Lebanon, Israel, Hezbullah, Hizbullah, Condi Rice, Evacuation of foreigners in Lebanon, Mass funeral in Tyre, ground operation , IDF

New ICG report on Kirkuk

2006-07-18T21:20:00.000+03:00

Just 10 days after releasing their report on Muqtada as Sadr and the Nahdi army, ICG releases a report on the current situation in Kirkuk, it´s called Iraq and the Kurds, the brewing battle over Kirkuk

Iraq, Kurds, Kirkuk, International crisis group, Sectarianism, Kurdistan

Baghdad survivors, wounds of a war

2006-07-17T11:56:00.000+03:00

In a interactive feature, the talanted Farah Nosh gives us the real story behind the war, the people who have lost limbs, loved ones and the ability to lead a ¨normal life¨ in the midst of the Baghdad inferno, that is the usual rhytm of the city nowadays. The phrase ¨a picture says more than a thousand words¨ tends too be overstated at times, but this time it really show´s the power of photo journalism.

In another development, what seems like a 180 degree´s turn around, the sunni politica and religious leadership looks more and more like tilting toward´s a shift in policy on the American troop withdrawal. Amid the sectarian violence, raging and intensifying for every week, they now seem increasingly too look to the Americans for protection. The demands for the Americans to leave, has changed to a demand for a timetable. In the meantime, the shíites seems to view the process of integrating the sunnis into Iraq´s body politic with suspicion, being the principal beneficary of the new political system, they tend to view American attempts to achieve this goal as appeasement of the insurgency, at the expense of the new found democracy. Even the most critical seems eager to let the american troops stay put for the time being, as ilustrated by this comment from the Islamic party official in charge of human rights questions, Omar al Jubouri:

“The problem is that American crimes are only a hundredth of the crimes committed by the militias,” said Omar al-Jubouri, the human rights officer for the Iraqi Islamic Party, a powerful Sunni group that still considers itself the vanguard of political resistance to the Americans. “It’s like one hair compared to all the other hairs on a camel.”

“We want to tell the American people to increase the presence of the Americans here, to control the situation,”
Ed Wong and Dexter Filkins has more on this in today´s New York Times

Farah Nosh, phot journalism in Iraq, Iraq,US troops,Sectarian violence, shiíte-sunni divide, democracy, nation building

ICG report on Muqtada as Sadr

2006-07-11T13:07:00.000+03:00

International Crisis Group has just released it´s new report on Muqtada as Sadr and his Mahdi Army, the report comes at a time, when the sectarian violence is a daily routine, quickly escalating, when you thought that it couldn´t get any worse. The latest casualties was 10 people traveling in a minibus in a suburb of Baghdad, en route to Najaf with a coffin of a diceased, to bury the body in the shíite holy shrine city with the Wadi as Salam cemetry, the holiest place to bury your dead in shiíte tradition.

here follows the executive summary and recommendations. You can download the full report in PDF or as a word document.

Iraq’s Muqtada Al-Sadr: Spoiler or Stabiliser?
Middle East Report N°55
11 July 2006

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

With stepped-up U.S.-led raids against Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, Jaysh al-Mahdi, and media allegations of the militia’s responsibility for widespread and particularly horrendous sectarian killings in Baghdad on 9 July, the Shiite leader and his movement have become more central than ever. The war in Iraq radically reshuffled the country’s political deck, bringing to the fore new actors and social forces, none more surprising and enigmatic, and few as critical to Iraq’s stability, as Muqtada al-Sadr and the Sadrist movement he embodies. Largely unknown prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and bereft of resources Shiites typically must possess to assert their authority, Muqtada al-Sadr at first was dismissed as a marginal rabble-rouser, excluded from the political process and, after he flexed his muscles, decreed wanted “dead or alive” by the U.S.-led coalition. Learning the hard way, the U.S. and its allies have had to recognise the reality of the Sadrists’ strength.

Today, the Sadrists play a central part in government and parliament. The young imam enjoys a cult-like following among Shiite masses. How his forces act will be vital to the country’s future. The Sadrist movement has deep roots, and its demands reflect many justified grievances. The key is to ensure that Muqtada helps bring the Sadrists and their social base fully into the political process. For that, he will have to be treated as a legitimate, representative actor and act as one.

The most puzzling aspect of Muqtada’s ascent is that he possesses none of the more obvious criteria of political success and little that can account for the existence and resilience of his social base. Although coming from a prominent family, he is neither particularly charismatic nor a particularly adept speaker. He does not enjoy the backing of a party apparatus. He has few religious credentials. By most accounts, even his material assets are scanty: by and large, he is excluded from the financial networks controlled by the Shiite clerical class and is not truly aligned with any foreign sponsor, receiving at best limited material support from Iran. Likewise, the Sadrists are not a typical political movement. They have neither a coherent nor consistent agenda, and neither experienced nor identifiable leaders and advisers. Especially during the occupation’s first two years, the young imams that led the movement were inexperienced, displaying far more zeal than political wisdom.

For all these reasons, the Sadrists early on were dismissed as an irrelevant aberration with little purchase on the nation’s future. The coalition and its Iraqi partners considered Muqtada’s behaviour inconsistent, his judgment erratic, his discourse radical and his movement chaotic. Underestimating him proved costly; between April and August 2004, it led to deadly confrontation between his followers and coalition forces.

The origins of this miscalculation are straightforward. Heavily relying on former exiles, the U.S. built a political process from which it was easy to exclude Muqtada. It was not so easy to exclude him from his social base. Muqtada enjoyed significant popular backing and a power base in the Shiite slums of Baghdad, the city of Kufa, and the governorate of Maysan. His followers, for the most part impoverished Shiites, are remarkably determined and loyal. Muqtada secured strong legitimacy in the eyes of his constituency, far stronger in fact than that of Shiite personalities coopted by the coalition. He has become the authentic spokesman of a significant portion of traditionally disenfranchised Iraqis who, far from benefiting from the former regime’s ouster, remained marginalised from the emerging political order.

His outlook also proved appealing, as he was at the cross section of disparate, seemingly contradictory stances. He consistently denounced the occupation and displayed sympathy for the armed opposition while simultaneously participating in the political process the U.S. set up and which the armed groups combat. His movement is profoundly Shiite, but his nationalistic discourse, resistance to the occupation, hostility toward other Shiite actors (the clerical establishment in Najaf and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)) and opposition to federalism have earned him respect from some Sunni Arabs. His rejection of an autonomous southern, predominantly Shiite, state and his reluctance to compromise with the Kurds on the status of Kirkuk, together with the strength of his armed militia, Jaysh al-Mahdi, have put him at the centre of issues critical to the future of the political process: negotiations over the constitution, agreement over the status of Kurdistan, the eventual dismantling and disarming of militias and the timing of coalition forces’ withdrawal. Moreover, Muqtada has begun to acquire regional standing, having displayed surprising diplomatic skill during an early 2006 tour of neighbouring countries.

Seen by many as a spoiler, his political positioning and legitimacy in the eyes of a restless, disenfranchised population have made Muqtada a key to Iraq’s stability, and he must be treated as such. But Muqtada must do more to exercise responsible leadership himself. As sectarian tensions have grown, so too has his movement’s involvement in the dirty war that pits Sunnis against Shiites. Muqtada has maintained his calls for national unity, even in the wake of particularly vicious attacks against Shiite civilians, yet the February 2006 attack against a Shiite shrine in Samarra appears to have been a turning point. Since then, the violence has reached alarming proportions as Sadrists have indiscriminately attacked presumed Baathists and Wahhabis. Controlling his forces and putting an end to their killings is Muqtada’s principal challenge. Should he fail to meet it, he will be partly responsible for two things he ardently claims he wishes to avoid: the country’s fragmentation and an Islamic civil war.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To Muqtada al-Sadr and the Sadrist Movement:

1. Take vigorous steps to end attacks by Jaysh al-Mahdi against Sunni Arabs by:

(a) clearly and unambiguously condemning all sectarian-based killings, whether committed by Sunnis or Shiites;

(b) banning reprisal killings against former regime elements; and

(c) strengthening control over Jaysh al-Mahdi, including by taking strong disciplinary action in the event of such sectarian-based or politically-motivated killings.

2. Promote initiatives along the lines of the Mahdi institute aimed at increasing discipline among Sadrist militants, enforcing their respect for the rules of war and better defining their role and mission.

To Najaf-based Clerics:

3. Facilitate Sadr’s reestablishment in Najaf’s Holy City by:

(a) authorising the reopening of a Sadrist headquarters near Imam Ali’s shrine;

(b) encouraging Sadrists to take classes offered by the Hawza; and

(c) gradually integrating Jaysh al-Mahdi members into the city’s SCIRI-dominated security forces.

To the Iraqi Government:

4. Rapidly reform the de-Baathification program to offer credible judicial recourse against individuals accused of committing crimes under the former regime.

5. Make it clear that demobilisation of all militias remains the goal but adopt a gradualist approach toward Jaysh al-Mahdi, by:

(a) focusing for now on circumscribing its functional and geographic area of operations to protecting civilians and engaging in social activities in Sadrist strongholds, while taking strong action against any political assassinations, sectarian-based attacks or checkpoints outside Sadrist zones; and

(b) postponing any attempt at coercive disarmament until national security forces are in a position to ensure safety in Sadrist strongholds.

To the U.S. Government:

6. Support steps taken by the Iraqi government toward the Sadrists consistent with recommendations 4 and 5 above.

7. Act vigorously to end all violations by U.S. forces of the Geneva Conventions as a prerequisite to encouraging respect for the rules of war among Iraqi security forces and all paramilitary organisations.

Iraq, Muqtada as Sadr, Mahdi Army, National unity in Iraq, Iraqi government, Shiíte-sunni discord, Shia, Sadr City

A piece of good news from Iraq

2006-06-22T10:56:00.000+03:00

This is really good news!

The amount of Iraqi civilians killed by coalition forces at checkpoints, roadblocks or alongside convoys is down from one killed every day in 2005 to one killed every week so far in 2006.

¨An average of one Iraqi civilian every day was killed by coalition forces during 2005 in incidents at checkpoints or roadblocks or alongside convoys, according to statistics compiled by the United States military in Baghdad.

That high number of civilian deaths so angered fresh commanders who arrived in Iraq at the start of the year that a three-star general ordered an internal review, resulting in new guidelines.

Iraq, coalition forces, US troops, Iraqi civilian casualties

Thus far in 2006, the number of Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints, roadblocks or along convoys has dropped to an average of one per week, according to the military.

The new measures, intended to lessen the chance for violent confrontations between American troops and innocent Iraqis during the daily routines, are distinct from the high-profile criminal investigations into killings of innocent Iraqis during combat operations.

But they are part of an effort initiated by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the No. 2 American officer in Iraq, to find ways to carry out the military mission while minimizing brutal actions that wound or kill innocent Iraqis and anger and alienate the population.

The actions of American troops have earned the outrage of the new Iraqi government as well. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at what he criticized as the "regular occurrence" of violence by American troops against Iraqi civilians.¨

Read the full article here

Google news goes arabic

2006-06-17T11:34:00.000+03:00

Google news launched their arabic website this week, i wonder how long it will take before the Arab world starts saying ¨i googled that¨ and get´s used to the fact that if u can´t google it, it dosen´t exist. The Arab word, now under siege by googleization!

Google newa in arabic, google goes arab, google arabic, google news arabic

Abu Musab az Zarqawi dead

2006-06-08T10:37:00.000+03:00

Iraqi PM Nouri al Maliki has announced that Abu Musab az Zarqawi was killed on wednesday according to the BBC

Abu Musab Az Zarqawi, Iraq, al Qaeda, Jordan

Foregive me father.....

2006-05-26T00:18:00.000+03:00

Forgive me father, cause i haven´t blogged at the Diwan for a month time or so, well perhaps i can make amence by starting with the possibility of listening to the one and only transglobal diva, Natacha Atlas, her new album, mish maoul(yes it´s possible!), was released a month ago, and you can listen to it for free at the link above. Just make sure to buy it via Abu Aardwark. And one more thing, i just love the cover! Natacha goes Ofra...

Natacha Atlas, Mish maoul, Worldmusic, Arabpop, Transglobal underground

Happy Easter to all Copts in Egypt and around the Globe

2006-04-22T21:52:00.000+02:00

Happy Easter to all Copts, and other Orthodox Christians! Go easy on the food!

Easter, Copts, Orthodox Christians

Two blogs and an article

2006-04-12T18:53:00.000+02:00

The Foreign Policy has started it´s own blog, called Passport, among other things gossip about who will replace Don Rumsfeld(Armitage or Lieberman), and a story about a post written by my fellow egyptian blogger the sandmonkey, called the arab blogistans.

A second blog i would like to recommend is the new blog from the people behind the safedemocracy-club de Madrid conference, on the first aniversary of the 11 March Madrid bombings. Their first debate is about how to deal with Hamas, and Shlomo Ben Ami and Yazid Sayegh is discussing the issue. It´s called madrid11.net. On the same topic,Henry Siegman has a piece in the new issue of New York Review of books, called Hamas:The last chance for peace? , check out the blogs and the article!

Hamas,new blogs, 11madrid.net, Foreign Policy, Passport

Ciao Berlusconi, Welcome Forza Romano!

2006-04-12T02:56:00.000+02:00

The best news this day was the centre-left Olive coalition victory in Italy. Not the solid victory neccesary for the tough decisions needed to be taken, and implemented this comming period, but then again, when has Italy ever had governments with a strong mandate. What a cliffhanger, makes you think about Florida 2000 and Sweden 1973. Berlusconi ousted from office, a really good day, not only for democracy, but for press freedom as well!

Berlusconi,Prodi, Italian elections, Cliffhanger

Seymour Hersh´s new piece

2006-04-12T02:08:00.000+02:00

This is what i´m planning on reading tomorrow, Sy Hersh new article in the New Yorker. Considering the news from Teheran today, with Ahmadinejad´s birtday gift to the Iranian people, the umma and the prophet(PBUH).

This should be recommended reading for anyone interested in the continuing saga of U.S-Iranian relations. Are we going for a rerun of the isreali show in 1979 or are we in for a walk down memory lane from March and April 2003? Hopefully none of them! The best solution would be a diplomatic solution, the only possible good solution in my view. Here is something extra from me on the Hersh article.

Seymour Hersh, New Yorker, Iran, Bush,USA , Nuclear

Arab democracy on the backburner

2006-04-10T10:29:00.000+02:00

In today´s New York Times, Hassan M Fattah paints a bleak picture of the state of reform en route to democratization. It can´t be such a surprise really. Abd al Fatah himself uses the term controlled reform, which has really been the case from the outset. The Arab world embarked on the ship of controlled reform 30 years ago. It has always been one step forward, two steps back. The regime´s always willing to liberalize the ecomomies more than creating the environment for democratic societies. It has almost always been a charade of democracy. A good show with some of the best actors around, going from a single party system or absolute monarchires , to party plurslism or semi-authoritarianism if you will, the question is when will we see the glass as half full, rather than half empty, that is when willl we see semi-democratic states rather than semi-authoritarian ones?

If the Bush administration´s definition of democracy is regular and reoccuring elections, party pluralism and transparent ballot boxes, then there is a really good chance for "democracy" in the region, but that is pretty much what we have right now. Unfortunately the current administration don´t seem to keen on creating anything, but "democracy without democrats"

This is but one sample of qoutes gauging the level of democratization in the article.

"It feels like everything is going back to the bad old days, as if we never went through any changes at all," said Sulaiman al-Hattlan, editor in chief of Forbes Arabia and a prominent Saudi columnist and advocate. "Everyone is convinced now that there was no serious or genuine belief in change from the governments. It was just a reaction to pressure by the international media and the U.S."

Arab Democracy, New York Times

Mearsheimer/Walt research paper

2006-04-07T03:05:00.000+02:00

The controversial academic paper with the title, The Israeli lobby and U.S foreign policy(even the title might be viewed as provocative by some people), has been the focus of much debate,for instance, it prompted the distinguished Harward law professor Allan Dershowitz to write a 15000-word response.

I haven´t had the time to read it in it´s entirety yet, so i will not even try to comment on the paper for the time being. The Christian Science Monitor has a nice roundup of the debate though. For those of you, whose definition of a nice weekend dosen´t include reading a 83 page research paper, there is a slightly more digestible version at LRB.

Mearsheimer and Walt , Israeli lobby, US-Israeli relations

Jill Carroll released after three months

2006-03-30T16:30:00.000+02:00

The talented Cristian Science Monitor journalist, Jill Carroll who was kidnapped and held hostage in Iraq, for nearly three months has been released today. Her translator was killed in the car ambush, when she was taken hostage. Her paper has been campaigning for her release.

Jill Carroll, Iraq, Christian Science Monitor, journalists

Comment is free

2006-03-14T01:37:00.000+02:00

The Guardian is launching it´s new superblog today according to pickledpolitics.com. Rumour has it that they have about 200 bloggers that will write for the blog, among them Jeff Jarvis and Arianna Huffington. I kind of hope that hoder and Salam Pax, who already has been blogging for the Guardian ,will write as well. On my personal wishlist, i would love to see Baheyya or Abu Aardvark.

It will be interesting to follow how it evolves. You could only wish Comment is free, the very best of luck!

The Guardian, Comment is free, Blog

Kwame Anthony Appiah goes Ibn ad Dunya

2006-02-28T10:53:00.000+02:00

Mojo has an interview with Kwame Anthony Appiah about Cosmopolitanism, really interesting. I would love to read his book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. Among other things, he argues in much the same way as i do on the cartoon issue. Go read it!

Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism, Identity

Hoder in Stockholm this week

2006-02-07T17:12:00.000+02:00

The wellknown blogger, journalist and activist, Hoder is in Sweden this week. He will hold an open lecture at Stockholm University between 10-12 on Wednesday the 8th of February at JMK.

Here is the Swedish version of the invitation to the lecture:

Nu är det snart dags för årets första allmänna
föreläsning på JMK.
Gästföreläsare denna gång är Hossein "Hoder"
Derakhshan som nästa
vecka är på Sverigebesök.

Hoder, som själv brukar beskriva sig som iranskfödd
bloggare/aktivist/ journalist, är en av världens mest
inflytelserika
bloggprofiler. Han satt med i juryn för 2005 års "Best
of the Blogs",
har myntat begreppet "brobloggare" samt har, sist men
inte minst,
initierat en mängd olika demokratiprojekt och
inspirerat tusentals
iranska aktivister till att ge sig ut på nätet.

Ämnet nästa vecka är den iranska bloggosfären och hur
Internet
påverkar det politiska livet i Iran. Men man kan även
passa på att ställa frågor om exempelvis hur det är
att kombinerajournalistik &aktivism, vad som utmärker
en bra blogg och hur mankan samarbeta med andra
bloggare för att väcka uppmärksamhet. Eller
varför inte be Hoder
berätta om sitt senaste projekt: att använda Internet
till att öka förståelsen mellan iranier och israeler.

Tid: 8/2 kl 10-12
Plats: JMK-salen
Adress: Karlavägen 104(Tunnelbanestation Karlaplan)
Språk: engelska

Välkomna!

mer om Hoder finns här:
http://hoder.com/weblog

och här:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices/author/hoder/

Hoders senaste artikel:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/opinion/28Derakhshan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Hoder, Iran, Iranian Blogosphere

UBL reemerges after 13 months? - Breaking news

2006-01-19T17:31:00.000+02:00

al Jazzera has just broadcasted an audiotape in which Usama Bin Laden is claimed to have offered a long term truce(hudna) with the USA, and that al Qaida is planning new strikes on US soil. The BBC world security analyst Frank Gardner says that he is absolutely sure that this is Usama Bin Ladens voice. If this turns out to be the case, it´s the first time since December 2003, just after the American presidential elections that he appers. There has been much speculation on his silence, wheater he is dead or ill. During this time, his number two , Ayman al Zawaheri has been the front figure, and the one delievering the official messages of al Qaida. Just a few days ago, he was said to have been the high value target in the American targeted missile bombing in Waziriistan, Pakistan, just across the border from Afghanistan. According to some news agencies, Ayman al Zawaheris son in law, and the principal bombexpert in al Qaida, was among the 18 killed in the raid.

Usama Bin Laden, al Qaida

Palestinian film Paradise now wins golden globe

2006-01-17T15:34:00.000+02:00

The palestinian film Paradise now won the golden globe award for the best foreign language film. Directed by Hany Abu al Asad the film portray´s two friends from Nablus who volunteers as suicide bombers in Tel Aviv. Filmed during the tough conditions of the Intifada, facing the Palestinians in the West bank. The film has been critizised in some quarters in Israel, altough financed by the Israeli film fund, and also from militant palestinian fractions, who wanted the two characters portrayed as superheroes, rather than the complex characters in the film.

golden globes

Stampede- UPDATE

2006-01-12T18:31:00.000+02:00

It now appears to be 345 dead in the stampede, according Saudi officials. If comfirmed, this is the largest amount of cassualties since 1990, when 1426 pilgrims died in a tunnel in Mecca. Here is a timeline over earlier casualtities during the Hajj.

Hajj, Stampede

Stampede in Mina - Breaking news

2006-01-12T15:04:00.000+02:00

It seems at least 50 pilgrims has been killed in a stampede in Mina on the last day of the Hajj, during the stoning ritual. As usual the most critical passage is the massing of pilgrims on the bridge of Jamarat, and it seems this was the case today. This comes just a week after a house lodging pilgrims collapsed, killing 76. It strikes me as unbelievable that this has to be a reoccuring theme, almost on a yearly basis. If the Saudi authorities are unable to address the security issues involved, they should consider minizing the risks by reducing the number of pilgrims. They take new measures to improve the safety every year, but still this happens. It seems such a waste, losing your life, just after you´d had, what many sees as their most fulfilling experience ever.

Hajj, Stampede

Abu Hamza al Masri trial begins today

2006-01-11T10:59:00.000+02:00

Abu Hamza al Masri, the Finsbury Park radical cleric is due in court in London today on charges of incitement. Should be interesting to follow.

Hamas launches new TV-station

2006-01-10T10:45:00.000+02:00

On sunday, the new TV-station al Aqsa started broadcasting from an undisclosed location in Gaza. The station is the mouthpiece of Hamas.It will focus on themes that project the religious and sociopolitical vision of the group and their perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group is planning for the future satelite launching of the station. 18 month´s ago, the Hamas radio station in Gaza was rocketed by the Israeli army. The launching of the station comes as the Palestineans are preparing for parliamentary elections on 25th of January ,which Hamas will contest for the first time, and just five months after Israels unilateral withdrawal from the Hamas heartland of Gaza.Hamas have had quite a successful local election campaign prior to the parliamentary elections.

In another development it now seems the Jerusalemites might be able to vote. The Israeli government had threatened, not to let the palestinean voters of Jerusalem participate due to Hamas taking part.

The Israelis will go to the polls in their own parliamentary elections in late March in an election that seemed rather predictable when the Prime minister Ariel Sharon announced that he was leaving the Likud and creating a new party, Kadima(forward), aiming to win the middleground of Israeli politics. The party was the creation of Sharon and it´s supposed constituency, the silent majority, wanting a settlement of sorts, with the Palestineans, but not trusting them enough after five years of the second intifada. The bulldozer´s popularity seemed sufficient enough for Kadima to win the elections, but without Sharon in the game, it´s a different election altogheter. If violence and counter violence continues to be the norm in the prelude and during the election campaign, Bibi Nethanyahu could end up as the victor, and could start his second term in office in early spring 2006.

Hamas

Merry Christmas to all Orthodox Christians!

2006-01-06T15:36:00.000+02:00

This is my first entry in 2006. I would like to take the opportunity to wish all Orthodox Christians a merry Christmas! Of course especially to my Coptic readers in and outside of Egypt. And please go easy on the food!

Christmas

MP Gibran Tueini Killed in Bomb blast in Beirut

2005-12-12T11:53:00.000+02:00

This morning the anti-Syrian Lebanesse MP Gibran Tueni and three others was killed in a bomb blast that hit his car. Gibran Tueni was elected to office this summer. He was also the publisher of the newspaper an Nahar , mst fiercly opposed to the former syrian occupation of Lebanon. The paper´s most renowned journalist Samir Kassir was killed in a simmilar way , just days after parliament elections in June. This is just the latest in a string of murder attempts on politicians and journalists since the October 2004 attempt on Gibran Tueinis maternal uncle Marwan hamadeh, who survived a car bomb attempt on his life. The slaying of former PM and Lebanon strong man Rafiq Hariri on the 14th of February, formost among the targets, after having falled out with Damascus over the extention of President Lahoud´s term in office, contrary to the constitution. His murder lead to massive demonstrations and a movement for ending Syria´s 29 years presence in Lebanon, popularly called the Cedar revolution. But also showed the divided Lebanesse society when counter demonstrations by pro-Syrian forces was staged. The official Syrian presence ended in late April, but is believed to have some form of security apparatus left in Lebanon.
The killing comes the day after the final report of the Mehlis commission was delievered to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. It is to be discussed in the Security council on Tuesday, and will be made public subseqently. Here is the interim report(PDF) presented to the council in October. The ICG report from the 5th of December is also interesting reading.

David Cameron new Tory leader

2005-12-06T17:14:00.000+02:00

David Cameron won the tory leadership competion, winning more than double the votes than his contender David Davies. The tories have finaly elected a leader that is electable to the british public, charismatic altough inexperienced. The tory Blair perhaps. here is a little bit more facts about the man of the day in British politics, David Cameron.

David Cameron

Salam Pax blogging weekly in the Guardian

2005-12-01T20:39:00.000+02:00

Salam Pax, the man who gave the Iraqi people a voice, by blogging back and forth with his friend Raed in Jordan before and during the war, is blogging weekly in the Guardian during the Iraqi parliamentary election campaign. Today he´s trying to digest the electoral committee´s guide, and remembering the 327 different parties and their different or not so different political plattforms. But what sticks in his mind after this exercise is the fact that the coulor of the handbook,is mauve. well it´s his patriotic duty to look beyond that dreadful colour.

You can find Salam Pax at his new place

Sniff, Thanks for the book and the pacole!

Salam Pax Iraqi elections

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-23T13:02:00.000+02:00

Happy thanksgiving to my american readers!

Iron lady comes, iron lady leaves

2005-11-22T23:47:00.000+02:00

It´s quite ironic that the new leader of Germmany, Angela Merkel, enters her journey as Germany´s first Kanzlerin , exactly 15 years on the day after the departure of Margeret Thatcher. Die grosse koalition, the second time in modern post world war II history after the 1966-1969 Kiesinger government, was in my view the worst possible scenario. The 143 page document regulating the relationship and issues within the government does not bode well. It will probably only increase the apathy for politics among the German public. The unspoken question of the day is probably , for how long will the forced marriage last?

Angela Merkel

Sharon goes Ben Gurion

2005-11-21T01:23:00.000+02:00

It seems Ariel Sharon has decided to leave the likud, and create a new party. The party wil be a a centrist party, It will probably include some of the current Likud ministers like current minister of Finance Ehud Olmert and minister of Justice Livni, as well as Dan Meridor if he choses to make a comeback into politics once again. The move comes after a long split in the party, regarding the unilateral Gaza pullout and the continuing peace process. Ariel Sharon, once called the bulldozer, and known for his tough stance against the peace process. A former hawk and former ultra likudist, is actually aiming for the center in Israeli politics. In the process he´s doing something that the father of the Israeli state, David Ben Gurion made in 1965, when he decided to leave Mapai and formed the Rafi party togheter with Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres. The decision to leave Mapai was prompted by the Lavon Affair.

The Likud is likely to have an interesting month ahead, with electing a new party leader and contender for the premiership as it´s imidiate priority. Bibi Nethanyahu is probably the first choice, but others likely to run for the party leadership position is Silwan Shalom , and Uzi Landau.

On the other side of the political divide, Amir Peretz has become the darling of the media, since becoming Labour party leader in a surprise party election a week ago. This is a candidate , that has a new vision for the israeli society, under the slogan ¨another Israel¨ He will focus on closing the gap between rich and poor in Israel, as well as direct dialouge with the palestinian leadership, as opposite to Ariel Sharon´s unilateral withdrawel from the Gaza strip and some small parts of the West bank. He has also followed in Ben Gurions footsteps by first becoming the Histadrut(Israels largest trade union) chairman and then carry on to be the labour party leader.

Bibi Nethanyahu dosen´t seem to keen on changing the status quo.

So Bibi is likely to win the internal Likudpartyleadership and taking the right of center votes, Ariel Sharon going from the 1982 Ultra Likud Sharon to the Likud light of 2006, and Amir Peretz is going back to the party´s old socialist roots, suddenly there seems to be an abundance of ideological and political choices for the Israeli people in February or March of 2006. Will the israelis rise to the occasion this time around

UPDATE

Transforming the revolution ?

2005-11-14T12:12:00.000+02:00

This Independent article about transexuals in Iran. The fatwa issued in 1983 by Ayyatollah Khomeini radically changed the situation and the stigmatization of the transexuals, while this single fatwa, probably one of the most liberal fatwas ever written, perhaps togheter with a few of Grand Ayyatolah Sistanis fatwas concerning sex within the marriage.

A soundbite : Milad says "I did not want to have to wear a chador. Now I can pray in boxer shorts if I feel like it, and I never miss prayers,". But perhaps my favourite is Amin, who now happens to be a revolutinary guardist, the ultimate protectors of the revolution and it´s values. The story behind the issuing of the historic Ayyatolah Khomeini fatwa was also quite interesting.

Iran

10th anniversary of murder of Israeli PM Rabin

2005-11-04T21:32:00.000+02:00

Today it´s 10 year´s on the day since the Israeli Prime minister Yitzak Rabin was murdered by Yigal Amir, after attending a peace rally in central Tel Aviv, i remember that night like yesterday, i felt devestated, what looked so good, was not to be. Rabin had just signed Oslo 2 a few days before, and the dream of peace didn´t seem that far away. My thoughts went to my Israeli and Palestinean friends, who visited us in Sweden , and that we in turn visited just after the signing of the Oslo accords on the White house lawn in September 1993. I remember sitting glued to the tv-set at the funeral, watching Leah Rabin, and seeing the concrete legacy of the man, in the arab statesmen who participated in the funeral, among them King Hussein and Hosni Mubarak, who´d never been on a state visit to Israel.

Now it´s 10 year´s on and King Hussein and Rabin´s nemesis Hafez al Assad are both dead, as are Rabin´s partner in the peace of the braves.
Those who are left from that time, Peres the third partner has long proven not to be able to deliver on his grand words. Soon after the death of Rabin, the combined forces of Hamas suicide bombers and the rising star of the Israeli right, brother of the Entebe war hero, Bibi Nethanyahu kicked Shimon Peres, the statesman and Nobel laurete, out of office, and derailed Israel of the peacetrack.

The rest is history, but Yitzhak Rabins memory is still with us.

To read more about Yitzhak Rabin and here

Yitzhak Rabin

Shedding some light on wherabouts of black site prisons

2005-11-03T15:26:00.000+02:00

In today´s Financial Times the WaPo story that broke yesterday continues. According to Human Rights Watch , two of the Eastern European countries likely to have provided facilities are Poland and Romania. Flight records from prisoners flown out of Afghanistan suggests that. The spokesperson from Poland´s ministry of Defence denied the existence of any facilities on polish soil, and a spokeswoman for the Romanian president declined to answer. Russia,Bulgaria and Thailand issued statements denying that any kind of facilities for that purpose exists.

The European Commission stated on thursday that they will look into the matter. The Un special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Novak is also preparing an investigation on the same subject.

In an editorial in today´s NYT, the prison Puzzle, the argument goes a bit furter, it´s the new congress legislation that was passed by 90 to 9, but an attempt to block by the White house, because of ¨vague¨ language in the Geneva convention, vague in the negative sense, to much protection, in other words , to clear for Dick Cheney and ¨Scooter¨ Libby´s replacement, MR ¨Torture¨, David Addington, one of the men behind ¨the torture memo¨ in 2002. Pentagon also preferes a change back to using the pre 9/11 legislation, including applying the Geneva convention in full. The US is loosing to much of it´s moral high ground in continuing on this path. State department seems to prefer the same, so left is only the vice president and his office, and it seems that the President is willing to stake his military budget on this question. WELL ONLY THREE YEARS LEFT OF THIS MADDNESS, and i could see John McCain becoming the Republican candidate in 2008, for the sane republicans.

Ai´d Mubarak !

2005-11-02T22:29:00.000+02:00

Aíd Mubarak to all Muslims in the world !!

CIA black site prisons

2005-11-02T21:34:00.000+02:00

Read this story in today´s WaPo, It dosen´t seem to be an end to all this.

Diplomacy works with Axis of Evil ?

2005-09-19T09:47:00.000+03:00

The first real breakthrough in the stalemate between North Korea and the rest of the sixpack is the first good news, since President Bush JRs Axis of Evil speech. Of course,seing is bieliving, and having followed these talks for a while, there has been several occasions of disbelieve. It´s all in implementation of the deal. But perhaps this is the most promising sign since 9/11 of a small change in policy towards diplomacy from the Bush administration. If so, could this also be the avenue for a solution with another axis in the evil empire, Iran ?

Election explosion

2005-09-19T03:02:00.000+03:00

The German elections today turned out to be an extremly tight race between the CDU/CSU(Conservatives) and the SPD(Socialdemocrats) , with extremly low results for the two giants of German politics. The winners are probably FDP(Fre democrats-liberals), and the new splinter party from the socialdemocrats -ex comunist PDS with their strongman and socialdemocratic renegade Oscar Lafointaine. The Green Party can also play an inportant role in partaking in the negoitions for the new government. The three smaller parties is actually kingmakers this time , and this is probably the way of the future in European politics, an Israelization of german politics, by that i mean that smaller parties is playing an increasingly important role in the make or break of a government. The most likely outcome is that it will be a change of power, that Angela Merkel of the CDU-CSU will be the next Chancellor, indeed the firts woman on that post, and that CDU will hook up with the Free democrats, this is not enough though and the three scenarios taht are being discussed is Ampel, Jamaica and the Grosse Koalition, the negoitions could go on for weeks.

Coup Atempt in Mauritania

2005-08-03T12:39:00.000+03:00

Early this morning a coup atempt began in the North African state of Mauritania, while the head of state was out of the country atendending the funeral of the late Saudi King Fahd. The development and outcome of this breaking news is still very unclear and sketcy this AFP report explains the unfolding events. Altough not knowing at this stage what motives the coupmakers have, i would like to recomend this ICG report from May 2005 on Islamism in Mauritania.

what comes next ?

2005-06-29T17:09:00.000+03:00

This is the second article, written during the last days of February, when everything was still unclear.

28 February 2005

This is a big step forward, but it´s just one of many that has to follow for this to be anything but a imagesaving gesture to keep the external pressure at bay. An answer from the proud nation of Egypt to the state of the union address, that Egypt is indeed on the train of democratization. And at the same time a bone for the loyal opposition to keep them happy.

I would have preferred the first step to be the ending of the emergency laws , in place since time immemorial. The rewriting of the law regulating civil society organizations, followed by the scrapping of the political parties committee. But at least this is good start , and probably the single most significant step on the path of democratization since the decision in 1975 to accept different political trends to compete on the political arena.

If one looks at this in a optimistic way, this will create a momentum that is irrevocable, the pressure will not go away, If Ayman Nour is released in March, then perhaps the outside pressure will yield for a while, when the limelight will be on Lebanon and Syria. It´s not likely though that the opposition will end it´s demands on reform, even tough the opposition is rather week. If the Ayman Nour case doesn't resolve, the pressure will be tough on Mubarak from the outside, but one disturbing factor is that the opposition is not speaking with one voice, the issue of Ayman Nour was not touched upon in the national dialogue, even tough al Ghad was taking part in the talks, represented by it´s vice president. And the matter has not been addressed by any other party leader of the opposition parties, at the same the semiofficial press has portrayed Ayman Nour as an American agent , defaming Egypt in much the same way as with Saad Eddin Ibrahim in the summer of 2000. Perhaps this is the strategy. To discredit and split the only viable parliamentarian party, and at the same time show that the government does not cave in to American pressure, something that always seems popular with the Egyptian people.

To end on a positive note, the President stated in his speech at Menoufiyya University(Where else), said that this step comes at a time of normalization and this democratic reform goes hand in hand with a free press. If that is the case , then I can see more steps coming, the first being the scrapping of the emergency laws and the second the scrapping of the harsh laws concerning the press, both which have been highly criticized.

Referendum in Egypt

2005-06-29T15:31:00.000+03:00

This is something i wrote the same afternoon that President gave his speech at the Menoufiyya University, announcing his intention to ask Parliament to consider an ammendment of what turmed out to be article 76 in the constitution. In this way opening up for direct multicandidate elections to the presidency.

26 February 2005

In a surprise move, the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in a live appearence on Egyptian televison that he had asked the Egyptian parliament to make an amendment to the constitution to allow multiple presidential candidates to run for the presidency. The change in the constitution will be put to a referendum before the presidential election , due in September 2005.

The calls for a change in the constitution has been intensified for the last three months in what seems to be the toughest political challenge yet to the Mubarak government. After making the largest cabinet reshuffle during his 23 years tenure as president in August 2004, bringing in fresh blood , many of te new ministers closely connected to the son of the President , Gamal Mubarak, and his reformcommitte within the dominant political party, National Democratic Party (NDP). The new government led by PM Ahmad al Nazif is very much focused on economic reform , and within that framework the anouncement of a trade treaty between Egypt , USA and Israel, where the crucial part was the establishment of tax free zones, where Israeli high tech equipment should be part of the Egyptian products created soley for export. Eventough the precentage of the Israeli contribution ammounted only to 11 %, the symbolic significance of this treaty touched on the extremely delicate issue of nornalization of relations with Israel. Since the Camp David accord , Egypt has had " a cold peace " And normalization has been taboo in the political circles in Cairo, as well as among ordinary people. And now Ehud Olmert , the Israeli deputy PM sat next to Hosni Mubarak in Cairo,in what looked like a deal forced upon the egyptians without Egypt getting anything in return. This caused an uproar in the egyptian media. It did not help that Mubarak in a sudden change of heart, a week prior to the agreement announced to the world that Ariel Sharon was indeed the man with whom to make peace. Of course as the icing on the cake of the newfound "lovestory" between Egypt and Israel came the hosting of the Sharm al Sheikh summit and the subseqent return of the Egyptian Ambassador to Tel Aviv.

On a parallel domestic political track , the party license committee, headed by the speaker of the majlis ash Shura(the upper house) issued two new party licences in a month time, unparraleled in the quarter of a century it has working on these issues , it had also in the meantime scrapped al wasats third try to obtain a license. Wasat(center), a party made up from the youmnger generation , once associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and some christians as Rafiq Habib . The party has islamist leanings but not necesserally an ilamist plattform, wich of course is not allowed according to the constitution. This could prove to be a party with potential, but that is for the future. One of the parties allowed was Ayman Nours ,
Ghad(tommorow) , once the up and comming golden(boy) starlet of the new Wafd Party, untill being pushed out of the party by the new party leader. Then independent parliamentarian looking for a party , al Ghaád(tommorow) , where constitutional reform has been at the center of the party policy. Attracting a new generation of liberals , the Ghaád party is perhaps the most interesting contribution to the party politics of Egypt since the approval of the New Wafd party in 1978, because it gives an alternative to the silent mainstream of the egyptian populace, a generation fostered to be apolitical, people who have viewed the political game in apathy. All the more painful then , that the same tactics used against the new wafd in 78 is once again used to discredit the Ghaád. In the same type of misscalculation as Sadat 1978, no one seemed to have appreciated that this party could be for real, not interested of playing the roll of loyal opposition. Since getting the partylicence Ayman Nour has proven that the party intends to be a real political contender. The answer from the state was to charge him with forging 2000 names while in the proccess of applying for the party lisence. The way it was handled was also reminicsent of another case , the Social science professor of the American University in Cairo, Saad ad Din Ibrahim in June-July 2000. Ayman Nour was stripped of his parliamentarian immunity, arrested on the steps of parliament, his appartement searched, papers and commputer taken, and put in Tora prison for 45 days. He´s currently on a hunger strike since tuesday, suffering from a heartcondition and diabetes. In another development the Ghaád Party meeting held in solidarity with Ayman Nour at the five star Pyramisa hotel was disrupted by 22 men, psysically attacking three prominent members of the party. Pressure from the USA has also been an ingreedient in this, altough Mr Nour himself has asked specifically not for foreign governments to get involved. Foreign involvement in Egypts internal problems is also an issue of controversy, once again a direct paralell to The Ibrahim case. A few days ago, when the egyptian foreign minister was visiting Washington , during a press conference after his meeting with Condoleeza Rice, Minister Rice got a question if the ministers spoke about Ayman Nour during the meeting. Ms Rice expressed the american government deep concerns about the case of Mr Nour. Rice supposed to take part , later retirated from that position , indicating that she vold not go. The next day , the conference between the Arab League and the G8 countries on democratic reform, schedueled for next week was canceled.

Another interesting development is the announcement of three prominent intellectuals, that they intend to run for the presidency,among them, the highly controversial female author and doctor Nawal as Saadaáwi, the almost as controversial , abovementioned sociology Proffessor Saad Eddin Ibrahim , but perhaps the most encouraging sign is the evolving Kifaya movement, wich has staged five demonstrations since the 13th of december, the first outside the high court only had about 50 persons participating the latest had somewhere between 250 and 500. The movement has a very simple message - Kifaya(enough) , enough of Mubarak, no fifth term in office, and no to Gamal Mubarak as his succesor. The demonstration is always silent, people having stickers on their mouth and banners with Kifaya.

It will be interesting to see wich way the government will choose , if it is the path started today , or the path of old, of intimidation , obstruction and sillencing of the political opposition.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4300039.stm

Muzzling academical freedom

2005-06-09T15:14:00.000+03:00

As in practically every field of Egyptian life, the academica is controlled by the state, like politics, civil society and unions , the Universities faces restrictions by the state, be it by law, coersion or intimidation. To control the universities has been of tauntamount importance, at least since the 1952 revolution. Fostering the new generations of students is not something that is taken lightly by the state. Eventough under pressure from the state , the universities produces not only the next generation of the "lumpen inteligentia" but also a steady stream of political and religiuos motivated people , wheater islamist or leftist. Since the early seventies , the campuses have been the few playgrounds of politics, and many of the new generation of politicians of the left and islamists , started their political journey on campus.

HRW has ,as always made a thourough report of 107 pages , released today,Reading between the " Red Lines" - The Repression of Academic Freedom in Egyptian Universities. You can find The gurdian´s comment about it here

Egypt´s women wear black .... & white

2005-06-01T16:16:00.000+03:00

One week after the demonstrations on the day of the referendum on article 76, Egypt´s women are organizing two manifestions. The first was started by Heba Rauof Ezzat, political Science Professor at the Cairo University, one of the people behind the highly successful islamonline.com, and islamist feminist, who launched the initiative - Egypt wears black, on friday, by e-mail and sms. The silent vigil will take place on 1 June at 1 o clock in front of the press syndicate, just as one of the two demonstrations(the other near the shrine of freedom icon and politician, Saád Zaghloul in Mounira) that were attacked by NDP thugs, who specically targeted and sexually harassed women.
The idea is that mothers across Egypt shall wear black as a sign of mourning today. The organisation is not connected to Kifaya or any other party, according to Heba Raouf Ezzat.
There is only one demand - The resignation of Egypt´s minister of Interior, Habib al Adly.

The other initiave is taken by Kifaya member Ghada Shahbandar togheter with a housevife and a television presenter. They are starting the official white ribbon campaign at the manifestation. They have prepared 4000 ribbons for the vigil. Both initiatives has gained a lot of positive reaction in a very short space of time.

Referendum on article 76

2005-05-30T16:52:00.000+03:00

The "historical" speech on the 26th of February 2005, opening up the window of opportunity for direct multicandidate Presidential elections and the now infamous referendum on the amendment of article 76 in the constitution represents the high and low of the double election year 2005 so far. while constitutional change is one of the prerequisites for political change towards a more democratic Egypt. The amendment of article 76 has proven to be the opposite. In a state of the art Mubarakesque show, the amendment has been superbly written, full of democratic rhetoric and emptied of democratic context. An excellent piece of craft written by the most brilliant legal minds , the NDP has to offer. Once again filling the gaps of the unknown potential of democracy with as many caveats as possible. Making the potential favourite past time of the Egyptian political opposition and inteligentsia of scanning for presidential wannabies, a game of looking for a needle in a haystack.
The outcome of the referendum was a foregone conclusion in terms of numbers and is only interesting in the context of other referundums in the past and probably in the future, to gauge the political apathy of the Egyptian people, and the casual way of the Mubarak government in dealing with such a highly important question.
The significance of the day of the referendum on the 25th of May is yet to be decided. The way the regime opted to crush down on two small demonstrations is not. The projected image of Egypt as a country on the way towards democratization was dealt a blow in international political circles last wednesday. For the Egyptian People, the reality of Egypt´s stalled society and the democratic facade has been there for to long - kifayya

Sharq al Awsat launches it´s English site

2005-05-25T17:27:00.000+03:00

One of the flagships of Arab daily newspapers, the Saudibacked and London based ash Sharq al Awsat has launched it´s first issue today. Among several interesting articles , Mahmoun Fandy writes about 10 problems of the Arabs and Mona alTehawy about the Newsweek/Guantanámo story.

Suicide bomb in Arbil

2005-05-04T12:26:00.000+03:00

Fifteen months after the single most deadly attack on Iraqi soil since the war started on 22 March 2003 killing 117 in a twin attack on the two main kurdish parties headquarters in Arbil/Hewler , a new attack, causing a massive amount of casualties , at least 45 dead, and a 100 wounded hit the Kurdish city today. The attack, near the center of the city, outside a building for recruitement of the Kurdish provincial police wich seems to have doubled as an office of the leading party in Arbil , Masoud Barzanis Kurdish Democratic Party(KDP). This is the worst attack since the 28 ofFebruay in Hilla, were 111 people died. The last week has seen a rise in numbers killed, now about 200. The death toll are likely to rise, while it´s still very sketchy reports, and the amount of wounded are high.

In a seperate development the swearing in of the first democraticly elected government since the 1958 revolution was overshadowed by the fact that seven posts where left undecided, among them, key posts like defence, oil, and industry. The problem of getting the Sunni muslims onboard and the leading shíite parties insisting on not having any former baáthists in the government still makes the question of a full government hard to solve for new PM Ibrahim Jaáfari. The swearing in seasion was boycotted by the Sunni vice President al Ghawar. The Sunni are expected to get the defence portfolio, the oil ministry is still vacant, alltough the Iraqi "comeback kid" , the former Iraqi National Council leader, and the onetime prefered US choice for PM , is acting Oil Minister, while internal shiite differences is solved. The prefered candidate seems to be the US educated oil engineer, Dr Ibrahim Bahr al Uloum, who had the job for nine months until the Iyad Allawi government took office. Bahr al Uloum is the son of one of the most prominent shiíte scholars in Iraq, Mohamad Bahr al Uloum, the family has played a leading role in Iraqi religious and political affairs for generations. Al Jafaári is likely to choose Bahr al Uloum, but it seems he had promised the Fadila Party that position, altough the candidates that they put forward was rejected.

Thomas Friedman wrote from Camp Fallujah on the 18 November in NYT last year that Iraq was at the tipping point, i´m sorry to say that Iraq is nowhere near the tipping point today, than it was a week or months or a year ago. The successfull elections three months ago is actually the only good news so far,since the fall of Saddam(priceless of course) but apart from the security situation, the elerctricity, infrastructure, oilproduction, jobbopportunities, the economy, the day to day, bread and butter issues havent become the beacon of light that was prmised, most Iraqis can´t even see the tunnel that in the end will provide the light.

World Press Freedom Day

2005-05-03T19:25:00.000+03:00

Today it´s the World Press Freedom day , to honour those journalists killed or in prison i would like you to check out this website

I also would to ad a new report released today from Reporters without borders about the situation for journalists in Iraq , 56 journalists or media assistants have died and 29 has been kidnapped since the war began on 22 March 2003, that is just in 25 months, compared to other warzones in history, Vietnam 63 (1955-1975), Algeria 57 (1993-96) and the war in former Yugoslavia 49(1991-95)

This is an article about the situation in Egypt for journalists. Charges of libel has been the most common way of scarying journalists from reporting on government corruption and cronyism since the law was introduced in 1996.

Nathan Sharansky resigns

2005-05-03T04:01:00.000+03:00

The Israeli Minister for diaspora and Jerusalem , Nathan Sharansky resigned yesterday, over the lack of linking between the Gaza dissengagement plan and pressure on the Palestinians to make changes towards more democratization. The former world famous Sovjet dissident, turned politician merged his Yisrael Bi Alliyah emigrants party with Likud on the eve of Sharon vinning the election. He has been making headlines for his new book , The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror lately. George W Bush has praised the book , and said that if someone wants to understand "my foreign policy,read this book"

The Secret memo !

2005-05-03T03:12:00.000+03:00

In today´s The Times of London , a secret memorandum from 23 July 2002 reveals a meeting discussing the latest plans for war on Iraq
The secret memo reveals that the Atorney general had doubts about the laegality of the war from the start and that the Prime minister was already on board in terms of being commited to go to war. I will try to come back to the issue of the Blair and Iraq in the comming days , in the run up to elections.

W´s Arab Spring ?

2005-05-02T12:04:00.000+03:00

In the May edition of Washington monthly the issue of the Iraqi war and it´s impact on the recent trend of democratization in the Arab World is discussed. The Bush Administration´s role in pushing for democratization and supporting the string of elections in Afghanistan(not in the region, but a vital part of the Broader Middle East agenda for the administration), The Palestinian entity, Iraq, and the first municipal elections in Saudi Arabia and the upcomming parliamentary elections in Lebanon and Egypt(after the presidential elections in the same country), is credited to the administration in many parts of the political landscape in Washington, and also on many editorial pages in America.

How much credit should be given to President Bush and his administration ? And how much of this is a genuine localy rooted phenomena. My take on this is that the war initself , did create a space for a dialogue amongst leaders in the region, how to respond to this challenge. It did also galvanize some parts of the civil society to organize demonstrations against the war, like in Egypt for instane on the 23 of March 2003, when the largest demonstration since the bread riots in 1977 , as well as being anti anti-war soon turned in to being anti-Mubarak. This is also the nucleus of the Kifaya Movement, on the streets of Egypt today. In Egyptian society you could also see a trend of liberal newspapers comming , Masri al Youm is an example, where people like Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Hisham Kassem have taken Egyptian journalism to another level. Altough pro American and at least Hisham Kasem prodemocratization , americanstyle, is adressing all the important questions. Should this have happend with out the war ? Probably not on this scale.

Afghanistan is of course a succcessstory in many ways, getting rid of the Taliban regime can not be appreciated high enough. The progress for women and children is also priceless. Democratization and security is for me still big questionmarks , altough having a mediadarling like Hamid Karzai as president makes wonders at donor conferences , his hold on power outside the imidiate proximity of Kabul, and the possible resureraction of the Taliban dosent sound like progress to me.

The local and presidential elections in Palestine was in no way connected to the Bush campaign for democracy in the Arab World, the ammount of preasure that this administration has put on the Sharon government during the 50 months of the Bush White House, has always been to little to late. The good news on the Palestinian side ironically is very much due to the change in leadership caused by Mr Palestine´s unexpected death. Sooner or later the the American conception of the road map´s calling for Palestinean dismantlement of armed groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Aqsa Brigades are bound to clash with Mahmoud Abbas approach of involving the armed groups in the body politic of Palestine. For now, all eyes are on Sharon´s Gaza withdrawal, and alltough that is another tricky process, as we have seen as late as today with the minister of Diaspora, and one time high profile Sovjet dissident and today Bush´s pal and way of understanding the Middle East, by reading he´s political bestseller, Nathan Sharansky resigning does not in any way hamper the Sharon resolve to withdraw from Gaza, but it put´s focus on how fragile the whole Road map concept is. When are the final status negotiations going to begin ? If we´re lucky and optimistic , perhaps this time next year will be possible, but then we have the congress elections, etc , and Bush has already missed one timetable for a viable Palestinian State.

Saddam Hussein´s regime is gone, and that would not have been possible without the war. That is the greatest gift to the Iraqi people ever. But instead of freedom, from day one of the allied forces taking over power in Baghdad, never established control over essential parts of Iraq, by dismantling the Iraqi army they set the tone for the comming two years. Iraq´s still a queigmire , two years after the mission was supposed to be accomplished. We had the ellections , a relative success, with the only big problem being the sunnis not voting in large numbers, wére maybe on the path toward a constitution, even if i doubt that the newly elected parliament will be ready to present a draft proposal of the constitution by 15 August. The Iraqi press is by far the most diverse in the Arab world, alltough the gap between quantity and quality leaves alot to wish for.
Apart from the security situation, the reconstruction, the electricity situation, all the daily things that is needed in a functioning society and most of all the inclusion of the Sunni minority in the political and economical processes of the country don´t look a bit better , than on 9th of April when the Saddam Statue went down on Firdous Square.

Saudi Arabia has gone trough a rough time since 9/11 , their strong relationship to Washington has been in doubt. They have experienced unprecedented violence against the state. At the same time some progress have been made. The muncipal elections is just one of those. The Shiíte community´s problem has been put on the Saudi political map , and some individual brave journalists has been writing tough articles. How much of this is due to pressure from the outside ?

What looks like the most promising development in many ways , Lebanon , where the last Syrian soldier has left, just a week ago. And the road is paved for the uppcomming parliamentary elections in May, all of this would probably not have been possible, but for the tragic murder of Mr Lebanon on Valentine´s day 2005, eventough both The US administration and France played a significant role in drafting and advocating UN resolution 1494, and also when stressing that Hezballah could play a positive political and social role in the new Lebanon. The Lebanese People played the most important role , Wheather pro opposition or pro Syria, they shoved their will in demonstrations, all parties using national symbols , and stressing national unity. Showing a political matureness. Hopefully the national unity is something that will stick with the Lebanese long after the elections, showing the beacon of hope and unity 30 years after the war that coined the word for utter chaos and defragmentation of a state - Lebanonization.

Bomb blast at al Tahrir Bus station in downtown Cairo

2005-04-30T16:10:00.000+03:00

In what is still very sketchy information , a bomb was thrown from a bridge in what seems to be the al Tahrir bus station , just behind the Egyptian Museum. It seems 1 egyptian man died and four foreigners are among the wounded. This is the fourth attack in Egypt since the October 2004 bombing of the Taba Hilton during the Jewish Passover when the Sinai Peninsula are packed with Israeli tourists , and the third in central cairo. It comes just two weeks after the al Muski blast which killed 2 french citizens, an american and the 18 year old suicidebomber from Shubra al Kheima, a working class area on the outskirts of greater Cairo.