One Arab World

Government paperwork; everything from Power of Attorneys to Titles, Leases, and Agreements. I would guess half a gigs worth; my pda could handle this.

I address this very short letter to you and to all the honorable and free people in the world, to all the representatives of the free people and those whose consciences refuse oppression, injustice, false accusations and merciless murder.

My letter is very short due to the circumstances out of my control restricting my freedom and depriving me of my human rights, the foremost of which is the right to write, express and reject the injustice and suffering I am subjected to!!

The day my freedom was taken away in January 2005, your great efforts -after God and combined with the efforts of my supporters- played a crucial role in my release. The first faces I saw -an honor to me- were the faces of a delegation of European male and female parliament representatives. Your visit to me during my imprisonment is not only reason for breaking the doors of this prison and my temporary release, it also gave me the possibility of exercising my right in running for the first presidential election. I was imprisoned to prevent me from running for the election in January 2005. With God's grace and the enthusiasm of the reformists I was able to come in second to the president and be the only competitor to him and his son despite the rigging and all forms of injustice, defamation and changing the results. I also paid an extra price when my constituency's election results were rigged thus causing me to lose my permanent seat in the parliament due to blatant rigging. Some of you were in Cairo and witnessed a part of the tragedy.

Today I pay a new and high price as punishment for having run for the presidential election. I am also being prevented from continuing the democratic reform path in Egypt so that the current regime can strengthen its presence by claiming there is no alternative for it other than fundamentalism and terrorism, thus forcing people inside and outside Egypt to accept its presence.

Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, I do not pay this price alone. My children, family, party, my whole generation and all the reformists in this country pay the price, too. I lost my freedom, my work as a lawyer, journalist and chairman of the first and only civil political party to be established in a quarter of a century, the duration of Mubarak's rule. I am threatened of remaining in prison for five years and prevented from exercising my political rights for another five years to guarantee that Egypt is inherited by Mubarak's son, as well as making me an example to anyone who thinks of breaking the power monopoly not only in Egypt but in the Arab world!!

I call upon you to exert every effort to defend my fair case not for my sake, nor for the sake of my children or my party that is being destroyed, my human rights which are violated in this prison every morning, or my life which illness, injustice and oppression are eating away at. I ask you to defend my fair case to keep hope alive for the coming generations which we do not want to lose hope. It is for these generations that I call upon you to exert every effort to defend my fair case and to visit me in prison to witness the truth which the Egyptian regime is very good at concealing and telling lies to prove the opposite. Free people of the world. I am dying alone for a principle, for my country and for freedom.

Please raise my voice before my spirit departs this world.

- Ayman Nour

Help get this out and sign this. Also check this and this out.

- Karim Elsahy

I’ve been traveling and largely away from a connection for about a week or so. I managed to rack up about a thousand emails that I’m not even close to getting back to. Most of the emails are about Alaa getting arrested which I still don’t know much about.

I am in Egypt now and will be living here for a while. Now I will finally be able to do some things I’ve been wanting to do for a while.

Once things settle a bit (a couple of more days) I’ll resume regular blogging and I’ve got a ton of exciting things I’m working on that I cant wait to share with you all.

In the mean time, if you haven’t already, link it up.

Peace.

- Karim Elsahy

Egypt extends its emergency laws

Egypt has extended controversial emergency laws giving the security forces broad powers to arrest and detain people without charge.

Parliament agreed another two years of the legislation on Sunday. It had been in place since President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

The “Emergency Laws” an Egyptian version of the Patriot Act on steroids are what some claim to be what stands between us and the terrorists and what others claim to be the main source of breading terrorists.

Very little in the actual law is very shocking in this day and age of global terrorism (albeit it was implemented before it was internationally acceptable to impede basic rights in the pursuit of security). It is the implementation that is hair rising. The Emergency Laws are what everyone in the Egyptian Security Apparatus, from the Interior Minister on down, hides behind and justifies their actions with.

The “far right” everywhere have a strategic tendency to push draconian measures the population would normally shun during times of panic that typically ensue acts of terrorism. After Sinai this was inevitable.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif (not that he is even that far right) said the law was vital after recent bomb attacks.

That isn’t the case in point though. This is:

But opposition groups said the law failed to combat terrorism and was used to violate the rights of Egyptians.

Yeah right.

And the fact that someone like me that would typically be venomly opposed to the extension of laws like these and the inevitable trampling of rights that would follow isn’t quite sure this is a bad idea. For starters the claim above that this has failed to combat terrorism is ridicules. Of course it did; it did better than any other idea I’ve heard of.

"They use (the legislation) to silence and oppress the opposition," deputy of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Habib, said.

One thing I would like see happen though is some kind of awareness campaign by a NGO to start monitoring the implementation and getting the security app to start doing things by the book (which is thick enough as is).

So let me know; the chicken or the egg…. Which way should we go.

-Karim Elsahy 

I am moving back to Egypt on the 10^th to spend the majority of my time there, at least for the next 6-12 months.

The past few weeks have been unusually hectic, Somehow I managed to slip into a routine 18 hour work day (as opposed to 12) so my apologies for the lack of posts.

Posting will resume shortly though so thank you for bearing with.

Peace. 

-Karim Elsahy

I came across these pictures my sly wife snapped of me last summer on Egypt’s Mediterranean Coast; a setting to make even my island friends (Bahamas) jealous.

I’ll be in Cairo the day after tomorrow, and though time is really going to be tight for me this trip you know the drill. 0101192244.

Light posting next couple of weeks.

Peace.

-Karim Elsahy

The Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies of Cairo, will be holding a demonstration in front of the White House on Saturday, March 25, 2006, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., together with Freedom House to demand the release of jailed Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour. The organizations will be joined by members of the European Parliament and human rights activists from the Middle East, the United States and Europe.

Ayman Nour, currently imprisoned on what many claim are trumped-up charges, is a prominent figure in the Egyptian civil opposition movement. In the last presidential election, he ran against President Mubarak and came in second. He was thrown in prison by the Egyptian government immediately after the elections.

The Egyptian government has a long history of censoring political speech and imprisoning, on what are frequently claimed to be false charges, those who express opposition to President Mubarak’s regime. In many cases, members of the judiciary appear to closely endorse the government’s goals. The judge who sentenced Mr. Nour to five years imprisonment, Adel Abdel Salam Gom’a, is the same judge who previously sentenced Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the prominent democracy and human rights activist, to prison on similar charges. Mr. Gom’a is known among Egyptian human rights activists as the “regime’s judge.”

Freedom House and the Ibn Khaldun Center invite the media and all who wish to stand in defense of human rights, democracy, and reform in the Middle East to join the demonstration. The groups will urge President Bush’s administration to continue to pressure the Egyptian regime to release Ayman Nour and cease its persecution of Egyptian advocates of democracy and reform.

For more information, please contact the demonstration coordinators:

Magdi Khalil 202 725 3091
Anna Mahjar Barducci 202 701 7661

I am going to try my best to be there (I could have done with a little more notice and I’ll bet many more could have as well; my guess 50-100 people unless the hippies cant find another one and take up the cause as well) but if I do make it I’ll blog it for you.

Also don’t forget to sign the petition. Regardless of how good a presidential candidate you feel Nour may be he is a patriot. His current situation was not just a possibility to his actions last September; it was a guarantee, and he did it for his country which is much, much more than I can say for most of the rest of our legalized bandits.

-Karim Elsahy

I figured I would check out what all the hype was about and I wasn’t disappointed. An excellent look at some of the most notoriously covered up aspects of the modern Egyptian society. Incredibly observant you get the feeling that there is no way one person could have such an intimate understanding of some of the various hushed up aspects of our particular social order; the whore, the homosexual, the politician, the dirty old man, the terrorist and most importantly their proximity both spatially and metaphysically.

My favorite quote? As the rich and ignorant businessman explains to his wife that he is running for Maglis El Shaab (Parliament);

“Do you understand what this means? If I get elected I could do business in the millions!”

The parallels drawn throughout the book are very loosely veiled making this book doubly interesting for Egyptians or people with a good understanding of the real connection. Though the translation was impeccable and really brings out the message while retaining the subtlety I can’t wait to read the original; not to mention watching the film.

You can buy it from Amazon here. Enjoy.

-Karim Elsahy

Results are in and crystal clear. Ayman Nour is 2005’s “Egyptian of the Year”. If only he could have mustered the 21% he won here last September.

Ayman Nour

Egyptian of the Year 2005 

Here are a couple of posts about him

In Egypt we take our hero’s and through them in jail. Or maybe he is our hero because had the nuts to risk it. If so I’m sure he will consider his 5 year stint a small price to pay for this prize.

As insight commenter AlienKain says of him,

“As if Ayman Nour would be any better, the guy is a flunkie who cant run his own party let alone a country.”

To that I say that sadly in a society that has become so accustomed to dealing with and bearing autocracy on every level it will be very had to establish anything else as it will always be perceived as weakness.

Tying in second place with 9% each is The Egyptian Soccer Team, Noha El-Zeini, and Kefaya

In third with 8%; Nagib Sawiris, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, and The Egyptian Judges.

Tip your hats ladies and gentlemen.

Egyptian of the Century up next.

 -Karim Elsahy