The Wardman Wire

I have been intending to post about Egyptian Sandmonkey blog for a couple of weeks, which went off the air at the start of May, due to the worsening position of civil liberties in Egypt:

Our security situation is dire, and not only in Egypt, but rather all across the middle-east. Bloggers have been intimidated by the authorities in Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, just to name a few. It seems like the period of hope and reform that the bloggers of those countries have pushed for and represented in the past 2 years is now coming to an end, with the authorities more and more focused and intent on shutting us up, using everything from intimidation to imprisonment. And we have no defenders, no one to protect us, or champion our causes or lobby for our rights and safety.

For several years, the Sandmonkey Blog covered Egyptian politics and repression - repeatedly and in detail but was equally critical of the people themselves for letting it happen:

One has to wonder at some point the futulity of being a keyboard warrior in a country where nothing seems to matter to its people anymore. Link

Mohammed Cartoons

You will remember the “Mohammed Cartoons” controversy, but may have forgotten that - after the cartoons were published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper - a group of Danish Imams toured the Middle East with a dossier of questionable evidence to ask for support from religious and political leaders. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference published an official communiqué in support.

“This Campaign is in the Altogether”

Sandmonkey was the blog which said “this King is in the Altogether” to this campaign by pointing out that the Mohammed Cartoons had already been republished in an Egyptian Newspaper (local copy 400k)with hardly a peep of reaction:

“Freedom For Egyptians (ed note: Blog no longer online)” reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn’t a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it’s helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah. Looking around in my house I found the copy of the newspaper, so I decided to scan it and present to all of you to see.”

To quote Wikipedia:

In 2005, the Muhammad cartoons controversy received only minor media attention outside of Denmark. Six of the cartoons were first reprinted by the Egyptian newspaper El Fagr on October 17, 2005, along with an article strongly denouncing them, but publication did not provoke any condemnations or other reactions from religious or government authorities.

Wrapping-up

Several things need to come from this:

• We need to keep supporting the blogosphere in countries where Freedom of Speech is under threat - including Egypt.
• We need to keep pushing for freedom of speech and feedom of debate.
• We need to wish Sandmonkey all the best, and thank him for his good work.
• For the Mohammed Cartoons controversy, we need to remember that no national British Newspaper was willing to publish the material that was necessary for a proper debate.

I note that the second anniversary of the Motoon controversy is due this September. Who is planning what to make sure that we do not forget?