Sad Day for the Arab Blogosphere [UPDATED]
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt’s first prosecution of a blogger. The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak. Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.
On a more local front, I got this email a few hours ago:
Hey Roba,
Just wanted to draw your attention to that my blog is now removed from JB based on my request; after contacting administration they told me that Khader’s blog isn’t to be re-enlisted, apparently they allowed Abu Shreek to be back, nevertheless, once Abu Shreek realized that Khader isn’t with him he refused to be re-enlisted, I asked administration to remove me from JB and so they did. I also asked them to at least announce that but they refused saying that “they see no benefit from doing so!”, therefore, I started contacting people that I appreciate and those who showed concern in the matter of censorship to share the last updates with.
best,
Omar
http://me-in-jordan.blogspot.com/
Elaboration: The most beautiful thing about blogging is that it empowers voices, and the reason I have decided to blog Omar’s email is because I believe that people have the right to know whats happening, and because the bloggers mentioned above also deserve to have their readers aware of the fact that they are no longer on the aggregator.
(31)
Q
February 23, 2007 @ 9:10 am
It is indeed very sad….Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever be truly free from restraints placed on us by society, religion, and politics….
Moey
February 23, 2007 @ 10:17 am
when will Arabs learn
Seema
February 23, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Jordan Blog is free too to decide who they wish to include or not. this is their project an they can do with it whatever they please. it’s their RIGHT too to decide how they run THEIR website. my 2 cents.
Jad
February 23, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
It seems to be the trend to campaign even if you don’t have a reason to.
Business as Usual
February 23, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
Jad definitely has a point.
What is the big deal with some people contacting the administrators of some aggregators and ordering them to remove some websites of their blogrolls?
What is the big with calling up the people who ran JordanPlanet to the 8th circle every now and then, just to check, until the whole thing shuts down ?!
Seriously can we focus on stuff that really matters ?
(Any suggestions, Jad? )
Hat tip: Hamede (http://abdelstarhamede.maktoobblog.com/)
Ayyob
February 23, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
thats arabs…cant live with them…cant live without them.
seriously
HeiGou
February 24, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
Ayyob:”thats arabs…cant live with them…cant live without them.
seriously”
Well you might not be able to live without them, but we haven’t tried. At least not for a long time. In retrospect the period between the Fall of Grenada and mass immigration after 1945 is looking better and better.
I feel bad for Nabil, but on the other hand, all that is keeping the Muslim Brotherhood out of power is Mubarak and his Electric Light Orchestra or whatever they are calling the البوليس السياسى these days. When the choice is between a corrupt dictatorship and some theocratic fascists who do you pick? There does not seem to be any third option.
Personally I am coming around to a complex answer - the theocratic fascists for everyone without a large Christian minority. So it would be Mubarak and his merry men for Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood for Jordan. Sorry about that.
Abed Hamdan
February 24, 2007 @ 9:46 pm
yeah, I agree with “JAD” & “business as usual”
people are making big deal out of nothing…they’re taking blogging and aggregator too serious…
adel
February 27, 2007 @ 3:35 pm
count me in please!