Al-Jazeera English website interviews Philip Rizk, Khaled Hamza and I on media and activism in Egypt…
I’ll never get tired of repeating this: In a dictatorship, independent journalism by default becomes a form of activism, and the spread of information is essentially an act of agitation.
Nyahahahah.. the cowards… So, during the evening Palestine protest in Ramses, whenever the Socialists chanted “down with Mubarak,” followed by young MBs, you can see in the video MB organizers waving “No” trying to suppress the chants and change them… Some of their members might have chanted in the morning “Down with Mubarak,” but the group’s main leadership remains timid, coward, and compromising till the end vis a vis the regime…
I can almost swear this is the first time I hear the Muslim Brothers chanting publicly, “Down with Mubarak!”
A sign bearing the Muslim Brotherhood logo, hanging from the window of the group’s former headquarters, 1 Souq el-Tawfiqiya street. Ironically, the building now houses the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, two leftist NGOs.
Give me a fucking break! I can’t take this bullshit anymore. Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!
Mubarak’s grandson died? I’m heartbroken, but to declare three days of mourning at the State TV and private satellite channels, stop broadcasting films and songs, and just keep playing religious tunes and Quran on private and public radio channels?!! That’s just too much..! Oh, and not only that, the Muslim Brothers, Ayman Nour and the opposition were also quick to send condolences and express their devastation over hearing the news of the tragic event. Film screenings are canceled and the Cairo Opera House is in “chaos.”
Excuse me, Who is Mohamed Alaa Mubarak? A government official? A national hero? Who is he to put the state on hold for three days?
Why didn’t we have this national mourning when the kids in Duweiqa died? Everyday there are children who die in Gaza because of Mubarak’s insistence on strangling the strip by closing the Rafah crossing, No national mourning for that? What about the Mahalla children who were abused by Mubarak’s police in April 2008- No mourning for them?! What about those children who get whipped by Mubarak’s police in custody, no mourning for them?! No national mourning for the Shaha kid tortured by the police by electric shocks to death?!
Hypocrites!
UPDATE: Read those two postings by Ishtraky Thawry and Gaber…
Police has renewed its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, rounding up senior organizers in several provinces, including Ali Abdel Fattah of Alexandria…
Abdul Rahman tweeting, while Carlos watching in the background, Nasr City…
Ikwan Web editor and friend Khaled Hamza was banned yesterday from traveling to Britain… Khaled told me over the phone he was stopped by State Security Police on his way to board a British Airways flight to London. His passport was already stamped with the exit visa, but his name was called over the microphone on his way to board the plane. SS took his passport and the exit stamp was canceled, without giving any reasons…
I asked the labor leaders present in the meeting yesterday whether anything was planned in their workplaces on the 6th of April. The answer was no… In other words, no strikes planned in Ghazl el-Mahalla, nothing in the Steel Mills, no plans for the Railways, and I can go on…
Some of the labor leaders will take part in the noon protest planned on that day in front the state-backed General Federation of Trade Unions building, and some of them will bring “symbolic” delegations from their factories.
Meaning, there is no general strike…
Re: The Muslim Brotherhood’s “endorsement” of the strike:
The group’s brief statement was even vaguer and weaker than the ones they issued last year on the 6th of April and 4th of May. At least three MB sources I spoke with confirmed the group is NOT taking to the streets–something that comes as no surprise for any observer of the group’s continuous retreat vis a vis the regime since the start of the 2006 crackdown.
Yet, the group’s leadership is coming under strong pressure from their youth “to do something.” Last week a young MB media activist visited me in my home coz he wanted some help with some Web2.0 stuff. Our meeting was interrupted by a phone call he received from a journalist who wanted to interview him. While I couldn’t hear what the questions were, I sat there for at least 15 minutes listening to the young MB hammering on the phone the group’s Guidance Bureau with severe criticism, demanding they state clearly a position vis a vis Mubarak, to mobilize “more strongly” against the regime, to campaign more militantly about this or that, to engage the current strike wave and, and, and, and… This criticism is not limited to my young friend, and the divisions are public and have been the subject of sensationalist coverage by the local press and blogs.
In all cases, and contrary to what some might think, I believe the group has never been in that shaky position with its internal rifts and security crackdowns since the mid 1990s, if not the mid 1960s. And the cliche about the MBs being an iron-fist, highly disciplined organization with its Supreme Guide assuming a quasi-holy status is very much untrue..
Faced with the 6th of April “strike call”, the MB leadership has decided to play it safe again. They issued a vague “endorsement” statement to appease their base cadres, will allow their students to demonstrate on the campuses, while refraining from any agitation in the streets or the workplaces…
I forgot to mention also that Adel el-Badri’s Free Union of Egypt’s Workers has endorsed the “general strike”… The Union will be mobilizing that day with its full force, i.e.: Adel el-Badri and his fax machine.
So to sum up… Let’s not get driven by virtual reality again, and remain on the ground… The 6th of April will NOT be a general strike… It will be a day of protests, a day of rage.. There will be protests in Cairo, Helwan and other universities, downtown Cairo and events organized by the political parties in the provinces… Let’s try to make it a successful day…
Hypocrisy and political opportunism duet featuring the NDP and the MBs…
Last Monday the authorization had to be renewed , for the NDP bad luck there were couple of opposition members who objected the renewal and dared to discuss the taboo. Already we are not in war and we are in the middle of a terrible financial crisis we have the right to know how each penny in our budget is allocated.
Not so shocking the MB members stood with Mubarak and voted for the renewal that will be valid till 2012 !!
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist from Cairo
hossam [at] arabawy [dot] org
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