Protest Egypt’s Crackdown on Bloggers

There is unrest in the Egyptian blogosphere today, and deservedly so Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron fist since 1981. That is when Emergency Laws went into effect in order to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood for the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The emergency laws are still in effect and Egyptians don’t have many of the freedoms that we take for granted.

Fifty judges protested against the Egyptian government with the goal of obtaining independence from Mubarak’s regime. The judges are angry that the Mubarak regime allegedly forced them into giving their seal of approval to what they believe were fraudulent elections last year. Egyptian police responded to the judges's peaceful protests by beating one of the judges and arresting 15 of his supporters. A small protest movement developed as a result of this and Last week the government responded by arresting 49 activists, including a blogger named Malek. Today the Egyptian government arrested Alaa Ahmed Seif el Islam and another 11 others for their support of the judges protests. I haven't read Alaa's blog before–it is in Arabic, but I do read the blogs of the Egyptian Sandmonkey and The Big Pharaoh and they seem very alarmed by this turn of events. This is from the Sandmonkey

Alaa, blogger, co-founder of the egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and democracy activist, got arrested today during a protest to support the Judiciary's branch fight for independence. He, and about 10 others, were rounded up in the street, beaten up and thrown in a police car. Amongst those who got arrested were at least 3 girls, and the police beat up at least another 2 girls as well.

The way it worked, the police made sure to press the demonstartors close to the egyptian musem, where they cordoned them and wouldn't let them leave, while continiously hurling insults at them. The demonstartors tried to get the police to let them go for half an hour, but no avail. The Police cordon then opend where a group of plainly dressed police officers and thugs rushed in and started beating up the demonstartors and dragging them on the asphalt till they threw them in the police vehicles. The Police also made sure that none of the satalite news channels would be able to get video footage of what they did by not allowing the press to come close and keeping them away the entire time.

The Sandmonkey continued:

As you can read here Alaa has been arrested , and the situation is turning bleaker by the minute. Given what the egyptian police is like , and how they wanted to hurt Alaa for quite a while now, I don't think it's wise to wait until they decide what THEY want to do with him. The fight should start immedietly.

The contact information for the Egyptian embassy is below:
The Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt
3521 International Ct. NW
Washington DC 20008
Phone (202) 895 5400
Fax (202) 244 5131
(202) 244 4319
Email: embassy@egyptembdc.org

E-mail them, send them letters, harrass them. The last time you did that we got Abdel Karim released. I am not joking when I tell you that I had information from a source inside that this is the only reason they released him. Too much pressure by the average american and european. The egyptian government is cowardly, they will sucumb to pressure. Tell them that you find his detainment and arrest unacceptable. That you will not set foot in this country, and will tell every friend of yours never to visit Egypt, unless Alaa and the other detainees are released immedietly. That a government that throws people in jail for freedom of speech is not one that will get your money. Tell everyone you know and spread the word. In the words of Tigerhawk: Release the Hounds.

I think this is about to get big. Reporters Without Borders are about to get involved on Alaa's behalf.