The Skeptic الشكاك

167 Blogging from Beirut

I can’t believe this place is only an hour’s flight away from Cairo. I’ve spent most of my time here ensconced in a hotel conference room, but I like what I’ve seen of the city so far. Everything people say about this place is true: it’s under construction, some buildings are still pockmarked from civil-war shrapnel, the food is wonderful, the rooftop terraces are lined with bougainvillea and grape vines, and even the mothers of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Egyptian boys who disappeared into Syrian prisons 20 years ago wear fashionable sunglasses to the sit-in protest in front of the U.N. House. I constantly feel underdressed.

Mornings are devoted to internal meetings for work. There’s a convention of Middle Eastern police officers in the open conference room next to ours. I try not to eavesdrop as I come in and out. Impressive people come to talk to us in the afternoons. The meetings have been interesting, but are, sadly, off the record. Evenings have been filled with work dinners. So far, I haven’t seen anyone who looks anything like Haifa. A lot more skin and pleather than in Cairo, but makeup and pleather do not a Haifa make. I’m clearly hanging out in the wrong places (like sterile conference rooms next to cop conventions).

The verdict against Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the Egyptian opposition weekly Ad-Dostour, caught me off guard last evening. I remember sitting with a friend on a sidewalk cafe in Cairo just a few nights ago, watching the World Cup and explaining Ad-Dostour to a foreign correspondent who was marvelling that the paper hadn’t been shut down yet. Reading the story that got him in trouble—reporting a lawsuit against the President, the First Family, and a slew of NDP big guns—I actually suspect that he planted the lawsuit to be able to report it. It’s an old trick. But if true, so what? In this press environment, you do what you have to do to say what you want to say. And, as this verdict proves, such elaborate ruses won’t stop the government—sorry, the patriotic “ordinary citizens” of the village of Aya Makan who are so outraged at any slander against The President of the Republic—from locking you up. Sure, Mubarak promised two years ago to stop locking journalists up for what they write. But who’s he to stand between the patriotic Ordinary Citizens and a journalist?

Update: Ran into Alaa last night. He tells me, based on some inside information from his father, that Eissa had nothing to do with the lawsuit beyond reporting it.
[tags]Beirut, Lebanon, Egypt, Ibrahim Eissa[/tags]

166 For the Love of Porn and Zawahiri

Cairo Cab Annals
I’m weary of being preached at. I spent last evening speaking with “an admirer” (not a member, mind you) of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was, as all the Brothers I’ve met have been, very nice, highly educated, very intelligent, and very politically savvy. I was slowly working the conversation round to the substantive matters, exchanging pleasantries, thanking him profusely for his time, when he refreshingly asked me to cut the bullshit—though not in those words, of course.

The wearying bit came at the end of the conversation, when he spent an hour expounding on the universal perfection of the Islamic system. Broadly speaking, I don’t disagree. We diverge on the details. I think a lot of what’s sunna is silly (does God care if you shave your chest and your pubes? I suspect not, but what do I know? Maybe the joke’s on me). I do, however, think the world would be a better place if everyone behaved as good Muslims are supposed to behave—regardless of what religion, if any, they profess to follow. Early to bed, early to rise, sober, scholarly, humble, hard-working, kind to all, faithful in love: what’s not to like? But this made it all the more tiresome. There’s nothing worse than having someone try to convince you of something you already believe. And all this talk was reminding me that the Brothers are, duh, enthusiastic first about Islam, and second about free speech, democracy, and the rest. Still, I left the meeting feeling good about the encounter, though a little uncomfortable from the glares from the State Security guy sitting out front. I’ve been seeing this guy around lots lately. I wonder if he finds my life as boring as I sometimes do.

I found a cab around the corner. “God will forgive anything you do if you pray five times a day,” the driver told me. Several times. I was surprised. He didn’t look like a particularly religious man. He looked, in fact, like he was banking on this forgiveness for all manner of daily behavior.

I tried to change the topic to the neighborhood where he lives. Ain Shams. “Not far from where Zawahiri is from,” he said proudly. Did I know Zawahiri?

“Yes, Ayman. Doctor Ayman,” I said, laughing. “I don’t know him personally, but I’ve seen him on TV.”

“Yes, he was a doctor, a very big doctor, a most excellent doctor!”

My mobile phone rang. It was a friend of mine, a female journalist, wanting to know why I was late. The driver expressed admiration for the phone and wanted to know how much it cost and whether it had a camera and everything. It does. I was concerned that all this talk about my fancy new mobile was working around to some outrageous price for the cab ride, so I tried to change the topic to his mobile. He showed it to me.

“What a great phone! But, ahh, too bad, no camera,” I said.

“Naw, it’s alright, people just use those cellphone cameras to take dirty pictures of women and post them on the Internet.”

“Do they?”

“Yes! Too many people are doing this today. Do you like to watch pornos?”

“Do I like to watch pornos?”

“Yes, have you ever seen a porno movie? Do you like them?”

“Uh, yes, I’ve seen them a few times, but I don’t like them very much. I prefer the real thing.”

“Yes, of course, the natural thing. Do you make porno movies?”

“Do I make porno movies?”

“Yes, do you make movies of sex?”

“No.”

“Good. Because if you did I would be very angry with you. So many people are making porno movies now. It’s forbidden in Islam. But not in Christianity or Judaism or any other religion. They’re all making tons of porno movies.”

“I’m pretty sure making pornos is forbidden in Christianity and Judaism. How do you know this?”

“Too many people are watching pornos now. They’re all over the Internet.”

“No!”

“Yes, by God. So many people are watching them on the Internet.”

“Unbelievable! Um, this is where I get out. A thousand thanks. A thousand blessings of peace upon you. I’m very grateful. Bye.”

“Are you going to meet your girlfriend?”

“No, a female colleague from work.”

“Not a girlfriend?” He seemed disappointed. The evening call to prayer was sounding. “Go pray instead of meeting this girlfriend of yours.”

“Are you going to pray now? There’s a mosque right there.”

“Yes, I’m just going to drive up the road a bit, and pray over there.”

[tags]Egypt, porn, Islam[/tags]

165 Sudan Suspends U.N. Darfur Work

I can understand why the government is upset, but punishing its people for its annoyance is not an OK response. No wonder the rebels want to be free of these thugs.

[tags]Sudan, Darfur[/tags]

164 Tunisian Museum of Human Rights

Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia has put together a nice Flash animation based on photographs I took on my last trip to Tunisia. If you’re outside of Tunisia, you can see what he did here (if you’re in Tunisia, you’ll first need to figure out how to get around the government’s attempts to censor the site).

The photos are of Abdallah Zouari’s Museum of Human Rights. Zouari, a former journalist for al-Fajr, the newspaper of the banned al-Nahdha Party, spent 11 years as a political prisoner. Since his release in 2002, he has lived under “Administrative Control” in southern Tunisia, though his wife and children live in Tunis, roughly 500 miles away. The house is under constant surveillance, and visitors and neighbors are subject to police harrassment.

While you’re on ???? , stop, have a look around, and join me in thanking Sami for his work.

[tags]Tunisia, Tunisie, Zouari, human rights[/tags]

163 Sufi Dancer

Enlarge

[tags]Egypt, sufism, dance, religion, sufi, islam[/tags]

162 Alaa Is Free

I just spoke with him. He’s free and fine, though tired after a very rough night. It was so good to hear his voice again.

A mass SMS suggesting that plainclothes police beat Alaa and subjected him to stress and duress tactics including being forced to stand for long periods and deprived of sleep turned out to be misleading. Manal, his wife, told me by phone that the police were not beating Alaa or forcing him, individually, to remain standing. He was held in a very small, crowded cell with run-of-the-mill hoodlums. It was hot and tense and there was no room to sit. There was a lot of pushing and fighting in the cell. His cell-mates were the ones pushing and hitting him. Or that’s what Manal took from her very quick visit. It’ll be interesting to read Alaa’s own account on Manalaa.net.
By the way, it looks like it’s ??? ??????

Sorry for the tantrum. Just hot, sticky, stressed, and tired. ?Thanks to all who wrote in with kind words and protests. I deleted the post headlined ??? ??????
[tags]egypt, alaa, freealaa[/tags]

160 Case Closed, Sort of

I was sitting in the offices of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights this afternoon when human rights lawyers started calling with news that all the detainees from State Security Case 415 would be released… except Mohamed al-Sharqawi and Karim al-Sha’er, whose detention State Security renewed for another 15 days. Still, the mood at EOHR was jubilant. Al-Sharqawi and al-Sha’er, the consensus was, would be released sooner than 15 days, and may be held only as collateral to keep the recently released protesters cool when they hit the streets this weekend or early next week.

That evening, I ran into Ahmed ad-Droubi and Faisal as I was rushing out of Cafe al-Horreya to watch some sufi dancing with a friend visiting from Montreal. They were also in a celebratory mood and reported that a crowd of Alaa’s friends had gathered outside the Giza offices of State Security to greet Alaa when he gets out… and to put a bit of pressure on the prosecutors to release him sooner.

It will be a weekend of celebrations.

“What’s next?” 2alb Sayed asks. Here’s my suggestion: First, celebrations. Then, when everyone’s in a good foul, hangover-induced mood, some attention to the members of the Muslim Brotherhood still in detention. A close observer of the Brothers and I did the math the other night: Almost 1,000 Brothers arrested since March 3. Many of them have been released, but that would still leave hundreds in detention. And these people don’t have faces or names outside the Brotherhood. Not in the same way the Kifaya protesters did.

[tags]Egypt, alaa, protests, Kifaya, Muslim Brotherhood[/tags]

159 Alaa Freed!

Alaa Seif al-Islam Abd al-Fattah had his appointment with the Heliopolis State Security Prosecutor today and was told he was, legally speaking, a free man. Alaa will spend the night in prison, then spend tomorrow touring police stations and Lazoghly, the Interior Ministry’s main building, before being released.

Congratulations to Manal, and thanks to everyone who helped campaign for his release!

[tags]Egypt, Alaa, freealaa[/tags]

158 Ethiopia Blocks Blogs

Ethan’s been trying to raise a ruckus about this for weeks. It’s time he had some help. If you blog, or better still, if you can get your writings published in a newspaper or broadcast on the air, please take this issue up. Particularly if you’re an Egyptian or a Tunisian blogger. It’d be a nice way of extending the same support you’ve seen from abroad to others.
[tags]Ethiopia, blogs, censorship[/tags]

157 Cracks within the Security Services?

It’s been a busy couple of days interviewing guys who just got of jail. I’m still trying to digest everything I’ve heard. But one thing keeps nagging me, and I’m pretty sure it will never find its way into anything I do professionally: the sympathetic attitude the detainees say their captors showed. Basic Egyptian decency? Something more? I keep hearing that the police said they agreed with the protesters, that the state of the country was a disgrace, that the crackdown bespoke weakness and confusion on the government’s part, that it’s impossible to make a living on a cop’s wages without being a thief.

And this other detail also nags: Every time the detained protesters appeared before the niyaba—the “standing” prosecuting judge—they repeated their standard response, that they would refuse to respond to the charges because they were being prosecuted under unconstutional laws in an unconstitutional system established by executive order. The interrogators didn’t press the point. Instead they had civilized conversations about the rise of leftist politics in Latin America, about the situation in Egypt, alternatives to the Mubarak regime, and so on. Maybe it was a clever interrogation technique. If the activist won’t answer the charges against him, at least the prosecutor can learn everything about him and his beliefs. Reminds me a bit of similar conversations Breyten Breytenbach describes in The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. But the image of the prosecutor and the political prisoner having intellectual discussions about Latin American politics won’t leave my head.

To hear them tell it, the detainees spent most of their time in prison protesting: protesting the conditions they were in, protesting the presence of drugs and weapons in the prison, protesting the beating of Al-Sharqawi and Sha’er. It’s a wonder they weren’t released earlier. You’d think the prison system would have spat them out early to be rid of the headache. And I was struck by their success. At one point, the prosecutors came down to the prison to look into the charges, sending the jailors into a frenzied attempt to clean up the problems before their arrival. In the end, the detainees got most of what they wanted: to be out of solitary confinement, to be in a separate section, away from the violent criminals, to have more time for fresh air (not that everything’s lovely in prison now—visitors to Torah prison report that Al-Sharqawi still hasn’t been transferred to the hospital for treatment and that his health is deteriorating).

And then there was Mahmoud Mekky‘s article in Al-Dostour saying he’d had phone calls from prosecuting judges saying they were ashamed of having to handle these cases. And friends far removed from the activist circles tell me about State Security prosecutors privately expressing misgivings about their jobs.

I don’t want to make to much of this. I don’t doubt that plenty of State Security agents have no qualms about beating up anyone, particularly people who can’t really fight back. But I’ve been hearing rumors of discontent within the Security Services for some time. Previously, the rumored grumbling ran, SSI agents were lionized for hunting Israeli spies. New realities (a term of art) have made that a less sexy occupation. Then SSI agents were lionized for hunting down the terrorists who disapproved of all this fraternizing with the enemy. The decimation (remember, these are old rumors) of the armed Islamist movement in Egypt put an end to that, and left SSI as presidential thugs. Times were tough for guys recruited into what they thought was an elite unit…or that was the rumor. Too bad it wouldn’t pass journalistic muster.

Thing is, now I’m hearing about grumblings within the security apparatus from lots of directions. Cause for optimism? Well, sort of. Some people say last month’s crackdown, then abrupt change of course, was a sign of the government’s confusion and weakness. One learned friend keeps telling me that the problem is that the members of the New Guard don’t have experience in politics, that the Old Guard might have been thoroughly corrupt, but they at least new how to maintain control. The Old Guard, he says, would have quietly settled this problem with the judges long before it got to this point.

Every day it feels more like we’re approaching a crucial moment in Egypt’s history. I hope everyone involved will tread carefully as it approaches.

[tags]Egypt[/tags]

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