The Skeptic الشكاك

13 American Democracy

I originally posted this a few days after the 2004 election in the United States, but it’s still true today:

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
?H.L. Mencken, journalist and satirist (1880 – 1956)

This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it?that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
?Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, November 1971

[tags]Bush, United States[/tags]

12 Alexandrian Blogger Released

Abd al-Karim has been released.

[tags]Egypt, human rights, Alexandria, abdolkarim[/tags]

11 Alexandrian Blogger Detained

Visited Alexandria the night before last to look into the case of Abd al-Karim Suleiman. Here’s what I’ve been able to gather so far, with some ramblings attached:

At 3 a.m. on October 26, plainclothes security agents arrested Abd al-Karim Suleiman from his home in the Muharram Bek district of Alexandria, which had been the site of deadly sectarian clashes over the two previous weeks. The security agents, who produced no warrant, searched Suleiman?s house and confiscated printed copies of his online writings. Suleiman, who studies Islamic jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, has published blog posts and articles against honor crimes, the imposition of the niqab (full veil), female genital mutilation, and against the Egyptian government. He became active in the Kifayah movement in August 2005. On October 22, when rioters in Suleiman?s neighborhood clashed with police, Suleiman posted an account of the riots, criticizing the rioters and Islam. Days later, his family says, Abd al-Karim was attacked and beaten up by young neighborhood men. Suleiman?s brother, Abd al-Hady, believes Alexandria Security was operating on a tip from neighborhood youths.

Repeated attempts by family members and Alexandrian human rights lawyer Mohammed Khaled Al-Tunsi to get more information on Suleiman?s case from Alexandria Security have met with no success. On Nov. 6, security agents returned to Suleiman?s house and told his family that he was being held in an unspecified detention center for political prisoners. They did not specify on what charges he was being held. On Nov. 8, Al-Tunsi again telephoned contacts in Alexandria Security to inquire about the case. His contacts said they would get back to him, but as of 11 p.m. on Nov. 8, they had not.

Since Security agents visited the Suleiman house a second time, the Suleiman family have been less willing to talk about the case. (We ? bloggers Mohammed Morsi and Malek Moustafa, lawyer Al-Tunsi, and I ? spent most of last night trying to cajole them into talking. Al-Tunsi had some success with the mother, but she added nothing new to what she had already said. We set an appointment with Abd al-Karim?s older brother for 11 p.m., but he never showed up, though his mother said he had left the house at 10:45 p.m.)

Suleiman is either unlawfully detained or has been detained under the Emergency Law. Had Suleiman been lawfully arrested for violating the Penal Code, police from the Muharram Bek precinct would have made the arrest. They would be required to transfer him to the prosecutor within 24 hours. The prosecutor would then interrogate him and request a court date.

Alexandria Security now has two options: They can either detain Suleiman under the provisions of the Emergency Law that allow detention without charge of individuals deemed to be a threat to public order, or they can charge him with defaming religion or
exciting sectarian strife under the terms of Article 98F of the Penal Code (Law no. 29 of 1982 allows for sentences of between six months and five years or fines of between LE500 and LE1000 for ?exploiting and using religion in advocating and propagating by talk or in
writing, or by any other method, extremist thoughts with the aim of instigating sedition and division or holding in contempt or disdain any of the ?heavenly religions? [i.e. Islam, Christianity, or Judaism] or the sects belonging thereto, or prejudicing national unity or social peace?). Suleiman?s defenders grant that his October 22 post held Islam in contempt and, given the background of sectarian strife in Alexandria, could be read as ?prejudicing national unity and social strife.?

The latter option would play better in Egypt, where the Emergency Law is unpopular and Islam is popular, but would risk turning him into a cause celebre abroad, particularly among religious conservatives in the United States. Detaining Abd al-Karim under the terms of the Emergency Law carries its own risks: In his campaign for reelection this summer, President Hosni Mubarak promised to suspend the Emergency Law in favor of a counterterrorism law and to pass legislation reinforcing citizens? right to a fair and speedy trail. Invoking the Emergency Law, particularly in such a high-profile case so soon after the election, would give lie to these promises of reform and would also surely raise eyebrows abroad.

Nowhere did Suleiman call for violence against Muslims. Nor did any such violence follow his post. There is little to suggest that his blog was widely read in Muharram Bek, a working-class neighborhood where economic constraints make Internet use rare. Suleiman himself does not own a computer and maintained his blog from a local Internet cafe. Suleiman was not responsible for the violence in his neighborhood, nor will his detention solve the problems that led to it.

The question of the legality of Suleiman?s detention aside, Egyptian officials conducting a cost-benefit analysis of Suleiman?s continued detention must conclude that it?s not worth it. His detention has already attracted significant attention from local and international
human rights groups and media. Particularly on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society, where Egypt has the opportunity to present itself as a regional leader in attempts to foster an information society, Suleiman?s case has the potential to cause more trouble for the government than it?s worth.

[tags]Egypt, blogger, Alexandria, human rights, abdolkarim[/tags]

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