Egypt « Grey Wool Knickers

April 5, 2009

Links for April 3rd through April 5th

Filed under: links — Tags: apartheid, bikes, cars, design, Egypt, G20, humor, Israel, Judaism, jury, labor, Lieberman, Ni`lin, PeaceProcess, police, security, strikes, transportation, UltraOrthodox, violence, WardChurchill, WestBank, Zionism — admin @ 11:23 pm

These are my links for April 3rd through April 5th:

Palestinian teen in critical condition after being shot in head by Israeli forces – International Middle East Media Center – Less than lethal?
The Costs of Owning a Car – Wheels Blog – NYTimes.com – Nearly $9,000/year for a car vs. less than $400/year for a bike
Police ‘assaulted’ bystander who died during G20 protests | World news | The Observer
Notes: An evening with strike leaders at 3arabawy – Hossam elHamalawy reports from a meeting of labor activists in Egypt
Juror Bethany Newill talks about the Ward Churchill trial – Great interview with one of the jurors in the Ward Churchill case which, among other things, contradicts all this bunk about how the jury was sending a message to Churchill by rewarding him only $1 in financial rewards. Thanks to Max Forte for the link.
Ward Churchill’s Court Victory: Benjamin Whitmer, Eric Verlo, Michael Roberts, and Juror Bethany Newill « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY – I don’t know where Max Forte finds all the time to read all this material about Ward Churchill’s case in addition to crafting an excellent summary, but I thank him for this wonderful piece
Palestine’s Island Paradise, Now With a Word from its Creator – A beautiful map of “The Archipelago of Eastern Palestine”
The Angry Arabs’ comments section: Jewish Taliban – “Two female ministers in Israel’s new right-wing government have already lost their cabinet posts – at least in certain ultra-orthodox Jewish newspapers.”
‘Just World News’ with Helena Cobban: Lieberman: No more ‘Israbluff’ – “Let each nation and group of nations pursue its own interests calmly and in a focused way and without participating any more in the mendacious edifice that the “peace process” has become ever since the solid principles of Madrid were transformed into the hocus-pocus of Oslo.”
The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks – A blog entirely dedicated to one of my all-time greatest typographical pet peeves

Comments (238)

April 3, 2009

Links for March 23rd through April 3rd

Filed under: links — Tags: academy, AgriBusiness, agriculture, anarchism, anarchists, apartheid, AUC, Bahai, blogging, cars, Catepillar, detainees, douchebags, education, Egypt, executions, experts, FarmersMarkets, food, France, G20, genocide, Google, India, InformalEconomy, interstices, Iraq, Israel, labor, Madoff, maps, media, Ni`lin, Palestine, police, psychogeography, queer, racism, SanFrancisco, security, settlements, squatting, SriLanka, Tamil, theDepression, theEconomy, thuggery, torture, TristanAnderson, Turkey, UK, war, WestBank, witchHunt, youth, Zionism, القدس — admin @ 12:52 pm

These are my links for March 23rd through April 3rd:

ZNet – Cowardice Pays: Reflections on Academic Abdication and a Paul Krugman Lecture in Iowa City – Excellent piece criticizing the defeatist attitudes of even the most “lefty” of mainstream academic pundits and their professorial minions Annotated link
NDP admits involvement in anti-Bahai’s sectarian arson at 3arabawy
Op-Ed Columnist – Learning How to Think – NYTimes.com – I usually detest Kristof, but this was actually quite good. A scientific study skewering experts and pundits (like Kristof).
Settlers Attack Israeli Police Disguised as Arabs – Kfar Sava Magistrates Court, a local court, criticized the police for putting officers’ lives in danger.
Gays sentenced to death in Iraq, executions to begin next week – “According to Ali Hili of Iraqi-LGBT, the Iraqi authorities plan to start executing them in batches of 20 from this week.”
Arundhati Roy: This is not a war on terror. It is a racist war on all Tamils
Officer, dog square off against Modesto mob of 60 – I’ve spent most of my life trying to undermine the logic of “law and order”, but as much as I hate cops, I’m no fan of armed thugs, no matter what uniform they wear. As the state begins to lose its grip on its traditional monopoly on the use of violence, I think it behooves us to consider what we will put in its place.
not harmless he: Robbing the rich to give to the incredibly rich – “Madoff is just one in a thousand sketchy-ass rich dudes, who take people’s money. the big difference here is that he stole from other rich people.”
French workers detain four Caterpillar executives – Europe, World – The Independent – “Locking up managers is becoming a common practice in France when mass lay offs are announced, with police apparently reluctant to intervene to avoid violence.”
Daily News Egypt – Bloggers speak of time in detention
Five held over suspected plot to disrupt G20 summit with explosives stunt | World news | guardian.co.uk – “It’s political, it relates to political organisations, it’s not extreme but it’s a different political view. It leads to motives and things like that.” Scottland Yard is clearly populated by morons.
«المصرى اليوم» تكشف: الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة تعاقدت مع «البنتاجون» لتقديم معلومات سرية عن مصر – Arabic version of the Al-Masry Al-Youm article detailing yet another of the many public secrets that bureaucrats the Obama administration are making less secret these days: that the US military is funding defense-related research through its educational institutions abroad.
London cops reach new heights of anti-terror poster stupidity – Boing Boing – Essentially, this redefines “suspicious” as anything outside of the direct experience of the most frightened, ignorant and foolish people in any neighborhood.
American University in Cairo Signed Contract with the Pentagon to Provide Confidential Information about Egypt-Almasry Alyoum – Evidence of what everyone already know
We predict a riot: Meet the anarchists plotting to overthrow capitalism – Home News, UK – The Independent – For a sensationalist piece about anarchist direct-action activists, it could be worse.
Teacher Dude’s Grill and BBQ: What on (Google) earth is Teacher Dude doing? – Teacher Dude blogs (on Google-owned Blogspot) about photographing the Google Maps Street View Car photographing him
Daily News Egypt – Egyptian blogger released after 49 days without charge
Jami Tarn: Smearing Tristan Anderson – Debra Saunders’ piece of tripe trashing Tristan Anderson has been circulating across the blogosphere and has apparently been reprinted in every small-town POS daily with an editorial board that has an axe to grind with direct-action activists (“tree-huggers” in idiot parlance). “Jami Tarn” delivers a good retort. Annotated link
Ward Churchill v. “The Good Americans”: How Churchill’s Critics Made His Case « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY –
Homesteaders in the Hood – I doubt that there will be much success in legislating squatter’s rights or homesteading laws, nor do I think there’s much use in using our energies to work towards this. The State and the market created this problem, so why should we wait for them to legitimate our means of coping with it?
Anti-teenager “pink lights to show up acne” :: Dan Lockton – Why does Britain hate it’s youth so much?
The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone – A long but very informative piece about the “global economic crisis.”
Dissident Voice : Turkey’s Fallout with Israel Deals Blow to Settlers – Turkey agrees to allow Palestinian families access to Ottoman archives that show that Jesish land deeds were forged
Rod Dreher: Food safety shouldn’t kill farmers markets | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Columnists: Rod Dreher – USDA is seeking to mandate electronic tracking of livestock through chip implants for producers of all sizes as a “food safety” measure. Unfortunately, the large agri-business firms who have created the food safety problems in the first place are the only ones who can afford to comply with the mandate, while small farmers will be pushed out of business.
What Big Agra firm owns your favorite Nature-y brand?
Parents of injured American peace activist demand justice from Israel | World news | guardian.co.uk – Aside from the obligatory reiteration of the IOF line at the end of the article and the lack of any mention of the violence going on in the immediate vicinity of the press conference (see previous bookmark), this is a decent article
Israeli police violently prevent cultural festival in occupied East Jerusalem, several arested | International Solidarity Movement Palestine
Israeli troops shut down press conference with injured American’s parents
As projects grind to a halt, home sites turn to wasteland – Los Angeles Times – We’ve got this kind of theft and squatting in the desert community where I’m living, but it’s an active construction site. I don’t find the bonfires particularly scary, but the acrid smoke from the plastic they burn for fuel makes me ill.

Comments (32)

March 13, 2009

Links for March 9th through March 13th

Filed under: links — Tags: 'merica, AUC, CIA, Egypt, Gaza, humor, NDP, Obama, Palestine, Rizk, security, theEconomy, white_man's_burden, بلطجية, صمود — admin @ 8:45 pm

These are my links for March 9th through March 13th:

This Palestinian Life – a film by Philip Rizk –
CIA Awkwardly Debriefs Obama On Creation Of Crack Cocaine | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source –
MediaBard: I’m OK, You’re OK – “Hate to say it, but I don’t think we are quite the tireless, fearless never-quitters we pump ourselves up to be.”
The AUC Gestapo at 3arabawy – Hossam elHamalawy on former head of State Security in charge of AUC security.
The White Man’s Burden at 3arabawy – Predictable

Comments (30)

March 8, 2009

Links for March 4th through March 8th

Filed under: links — Tags: activism, bikes, blockade, Critical_Mass, detainees, Egypt, feminism, ferry, Gaza, Greece, Iran, Khomeini, Konstantina_Kuneva, labor, Mamdouh_Ismail, NDP, NYC, police, Rizk, security, Talat_Mustafa, فساد — admin @ 11:43 pm

These are my links for March 4th through March 8th:

March 3 1979 in Iran: Stop the Bomb – “Already in 1978 the Iranian woman, Atoussa H., wrote to Michel Foucault, a fan of Khomeini: ‘It seems that for the leftist movement in the West, which lacks humanism, Islam is desirable… for other peoples.’” Annotated link
Police Officer Who Shoved a Bicyclist Is Off the Job – NYTimes.com –
On the Greek Riots › My Kuneva – A poetic expression of the roots of class rage
the veil of normalization « tabulagaza – “I realized today that i too had forgotten Gaza. In these past days in the elation of freedom i forgot why i had marched, i forgot why i am- to live for the other. That other is still as is, kept from life and the gatekeeper retains her position at the gate and the world looks on.” Annotated link
For many, doomed ferry symbolizes Egypt’s corruption – Los Angeles Times – “The ferry case is a grim glimpse into Egypt’s starkly different worlds: one of migrants who work in Saudi Arabia and return home on rickety boats with money for their families, the other of elusive millionaires and billionaires with ties to the judicial system and ruling National Democratic Party, which sit atop a nation racked by inflation, labor unrest and poor healthcare and education.” Annotated link

Comments (0)

March 3, 2009

Links for March 1st through March 2nd

Filed under: links — Tags: activism, Arabic, armed_struggle, arson, AUC, Barghouti, blockade, cars, Crabgrass, Egypt, Gaza, India, internet, Israel, national_liberation, Netanyahu, no_tag, non-violence, Palestine, satyagraha, security, settlements, sex, SocialNetworking, students, surveillance, theDepression, theEconomy, WestBank, Wikipedia — admin @ 1:01 am

These are my links for March 1st through March 2nd:

Israel/Gaza: Donors Should Press Israel to End Blockade | Human Rights Watch – In the weeks since heavy fighting ceased on January 18, Israel has arbitrarily refused entry to items like chickpeas, macaroni, wheat flour, notebooks for students, freezer appliances, generators and water pumps, and cooking gas, OCHA said. Annotated link
Are Palestinians Allowed to Resist? (Part II/II) – Second part, with a greater focus on the comparisons with the case of India. Annotated link
Are Palestinians Allowed to Resist? (Part I/II) – A great piece analyzing armed vs. non-violent struggle in Palestine, using the case of India and Ghandi’s satygraha as a point of comparison/contrast. The piece is more focused than I would like on national liberation rather than liberation writ large, but it is instructive nevertheless. Annotated link
About Crabgrass – All About Crabgrass – Groups – riseup.net – This is a great tool for groups of people trying to collaborate on social justice projects in cases where face-to-face meetings can be difficult to arrange. Please sign up and get in touch. Annotated link
EGYPT: New curbs on Internet cafe users | Menassat – Apparently you have to have a cell phone to use the internet in Egypt
وضع جنسي – ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة – An Arabic Wikipedia article on sexual positions
ei: Israel lurches into fascism –
Michael Hudson: The Language of Looting – Michael Hudson harkens back to classical liberal economics to unpack current usage of words like “nationalize” and “socialize”.
Mustafa Barghouthi: The Return of Benjamin Netanyahu – “Furthermore, it is not only the settlements which constitute the occupation. By themselves, the settlers consume only 3% of the West Bank
Bloomberg.com: Arsonists Torch Berlin Porsches, BMWs on Economic Woe – “While youths in Athens protest by throwing Molotov cocktails, in Paris by toppling barricades, and in Budapest by hurling eggs at politicians, protesters in Berlin rage at their economic plight by targeting the most expensive cars—symbols of German wealth and power” (Thanks Angry Arab)
Petition on Tuition: AUC Students Plan Strike – These are some ambitious demands

Comments (23)

February 27, 2009

Links for February 25th through February 27th

Filed under: links — Tags: Cairo, carbon, Egypt, EmergencyLaw, energy, environment, Gaza, geography, humor, Israel, linguistics, maps, MiddleEast, Mubarak, NOLA, Palestine, pollution, protests, sprawl, theEconomy, traffic, urbanStudies, violence, war, Zionism, إنتفاضة, تضامن — admin @ 4:06 am

These are my links for February 25th through February 27th:

362 – Greek To Me: Mapping Mutual Incomprehension « Strange Maps – An interesting mapping of which languages are the quintessential index of gobbledygook in other languages. Interestingly, no one seems to think of English as being beyond comprehension. Hat tip to arabist.net
Guest Op-Ed: Israelis Misused Weapons in Gaza to Target Civilians – More details (as if we needed them) of how evil Israel is
10,000 Days – Hosni Mubarak has been ruling Egypt for 10,000 Days
Julian Glover: A collapsing carbon market makes mega-pollution cheap | Comment is free | The Guardian – Why carbon trading systems don't work (thanks to The Oil Drum)
Tangible Common Equity for Beginners « The Baseline Scenario – Confused about all this "preferred" versus "common" stock stuff with Citigroup? This article does a pretty good job of explaining it. Thanks to Andrew Leonard at HTWW for the link.
Traffic Week: On Automotive Darwinism « – The Arab Media Shack is posting a series of articles about traffic in Cairo (one of my favorite subjects). I don't agree completely with this one, but it has some interesting points. Be sure to read the comments (not just mine).
ei: New Orleans intifada – "New Orleans' immigrant communities are often ignored or under-represented. But through grassroots organizing, legal action and political lobbying, Asian and Latino organizations in the city have won some important victories. Activists from New Orleans' Arab population — which is largely Palestinian — have expressed hope that they can follow these examples."
Lessons in Geography (Dennis Ross Edition) – Apparently Egyptians aren't the only ones who can't seem to figure out which continent they're on.

Comments (73)

February 24, 2009

Links for February 23rd through February 24th

Filed under: links — Tags: baubles, conspiracy, Egypt, El-HusseinExplosion, EmergencyLaw, GreenScare, Iran, money, queer, security, terrorism, theDepression, theEconomy, violence — admin @ 9:01 pm

These are my links for February 23rd through February 24th:

Lebanon news – NOW Lebanon :: If not now, when -Out in force – "The event, the first of its kind in the Arab world according to the organizers, was staged by the Beirut-based Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer (LGBTIQ) support organization Helem, and also featured representatives from Lebanese rights groups Kafa, KAFA, TYMAT and SIDC." (Thanks Sursock)
Three held over Cairo bombing as conspiracy theories circulate – Jack Shenker with some solid reporting on Cairo bombing and the suspicions surrounding it
Americans reach for small luxuries amid sour economy – USATODAY.com – This is the message from USA Today: don't fret about filthy rich, corrupt bankers getting off scot-free while your retirement vanishes into thin air, don't make common cause with folks in the same situation and share skills and resources outside of the market, don't concern yourself with working toward a fundamentally different system of value in the world, just buy a few baubles, take a bubble bath and eat some bonbons and everything will be OK.
Rantings of a Sandmonkey » Egypt arrests 14 suspects, 1 Iranian, 3 pakis –
FBI Arrests 4 Activists as "Terrorists" for Chalking Slogans, Leafleting and Protesting | GreenIsTheNewRed.com – Lest we begin to think that anti-terrorism legislation is a great way to bring an end martial law

Comments (22)

February 23, 2009

Links for February 23rd

Filed under: links — Tags: antiquities, AUC, education, Egypt, El-HusseinExplosion, Gaza, labor, MiddleEast, SaudiArabia, students, terrorism, theEconomy, tourism — admin @ 2:01 pm

These are my links for February 23rd from 12:22 to 13:45:

Reform in Saudi Arabia | Tiptoeing towards reform | The Economist – The Economist on changes afoot in the kingdom of the two holy shrines, and an Ikea outlet (thanks to Angry Arab for the jab)
Faculty shortages leads to registration nightmares | AUC Caravan – AUC spends all this money to move out to the desert, ostensibly so that it will have more space for an expanding student body, but now it has no money to pay enough teachers to instruct the students. That's AUC for you.
Janitors dine on litter, while thousands for student free food went unused | AUC Caravan – The AUC Caravan keeps up its solid reporting
Khan al-Khalili: Neo-Terrorism and the Gaza Effect? – "I'd also guess that the bombing came in response to the Egyptian government's tacit support for the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza in December and January. The radicals had been repressed, penetrated, tapped, imprisoned, watched. They had made deals. There hadn't been a bombing in Cairo for some time. But my guess is that for a few of them, Gaza was a deal breaker." I like Juan Cole better when he doesn't guess.
Daily News Egypt – STUDENT PROTEST DEMANDS END TO SECURITY PRESENCE ON CAMPUS – Sarah Carr reports: “For the first time the Muslim Brotherhood has taken part in a protest where demonstrators were holding up pictures of Gamal Abdel Nasser — who imprisoned and killed MB members — and called for the removal of [President] Hosni Mubarak and his government,” the commentator said. “This was previously a red line for the MB — it’s the first time it happens.”
Can Egypt bring Cleopatra’s palace back to life? – "The water down there isn't just difficult to see through, it's poisonous. And the designs put forward at the moment are for an underwater Disneyland, not a place where people will learn about heritage. If these corporate sponsors want to build a sunken theme park then fine, but don't try and pass it off as a serious archaeological endeavour."

Comments (0)

On conspiracy theories—عن نظريات المؤامرة

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: conspiracy, Egypt, El-HusseinExplosion — admin @ 11:10 am

I should clarify that the suggestion articulated in my previous post that the regime may have had some hand in yesterday’s bombing is total conjecture, suspicious though it is that it falls on the same day that one of Cairo’s newest dailies, El-Shorouk carried the (perhaps-premature) headline “Repeal of Emergency Law in March” prominently on its front page. The fact remains that the regional landscape is changing significantly with Isreal firmly entrenched in a reactionary—nay, fascist—collective mindset (with notable exceptions, of course), the historic role of the PLO hobbled by an increasingly-illegitimate Fatah, the fitful rise of Hamas, a new American administration still playing it close to the chest and the reconfiguration of local, regional and international powers through a combination of movement-from-below and global economic pressures. Senescent though the Mubarak regime may be, it is not unaware of the shifting sands beneath its feet. It is to be expected that it will seem to relent in certain areas where it can afford to take a limited loss (as in the release of Ayman Nour) in exchange for a better relationship with those reconfigured powers. But, for the time being at least, the regime clearly feels uncomfortable with giving up its power to detain and torture arbitrarily under the Emergency Law. Perhaps when those sands have stopped shifting—when it is possible to identify with some certainty who it is necessary to label as a terrorist—maybe then the regime will be willing to replace the Emergency Law with a more limited, but equally oppressive, Anti-Terrorism Law. That the regime has a history of using false-flag terrorism toward such ends provokes the conspiratorial sensibilities of many Egyptians, as well as this American.

Comments (9)

February 22, 2009

Explosion at Hussein Mosque in Cairo—إنفجار عند جامع الحسين بالقاهرة

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: Egypt, El-HusseinExplosion, EmergencyLaw, Rizk — admin @ 9:57 pm

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Photo from AP

As several people have noted, this comes at a very suspicious time, considering that the extension of the State of Emergency (in place since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, with a brief break during Sadat’s presidency) was just about to be considered once again. Mubarak’s government has been promising for years to come forth with an anti-terrorism law to replace martial law, which would at least give citizens some protection under Egypt’s constitution. The regime is currently able to invoke the Emergency Law to do whatever it wants, which is what readers here will recognize in the abuction of Philip Rizk and Diaa Gad, among many others. With the changes afoot in US and Israeli administrations—along with increasingly vocal, powerful and interconnected resistance groups, domestically and across the border in Gaza—it seems the aging Mubarak regime is getting nervous and finds little option to maintain its grip on power but to resort to a strategy of tension. I think the recent release of celebrated political prisoner Ayman Nour should be considered as evidence of the panic roiling the upper echelons of this dictatorship. For developing news on this event, check this delicious feed.

Comments (11)

February 21, 2009

Links for February 21st from 14:18 to 16:22

Filed under: links — Tags: AlQaeda, Arabic, AUC, BinLaden, cinema, detainees, Egypt, energy, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, media, Palestine, police, scienceMagic — admin @ 5:04 pm

These are my links for February 21st from 14:18 to 16:22:

Free the Prisoners for Gaza – Website for the remaining Gaza solidarity prisoners
Al-Haraka Critiques the US Arabic Teaching System « –
Energy Security Challenges for Israel Following the Gaza War – A review of the geological and political difficulties Israel faces in attending to its energy security (thanks Angry Arab)
ei: Film review: "Waltz with Bashir" – "To say that Palestinians are absent in Waltz with Bashir, to say that it is a film that deals not with Palestinians but with Israelis who served in Lebanon, only barely begins to describe the violence that this film commits against Palestinians."
Haidar: Bin Laden is not, either, Hiding Out in Shiite Parachinar – A handy rebuttal to the nut-job "bio-geographers" of UCLA.

Comments (8)

Links for February 17th through February 21st

Filed under: links — Tags: agriculture, apartheid, CIA, Economy, Egypt, GlobalWarming, internet, Israel, labor, Mexico, Obama, Palestine, PeaceProcess, ResourceWars, shoes, SocialNetworking, solidarity, the, theDepression, theEconomy, urbanGardening, YisraelBeiteinu, Zionism — admin @ 2:07 pm

These are my links for February 17th through February 21st:

Recession grows interest in seeds, vegetable gardening – USATODAY.com –
Fix-It Nation: In Tough Times, Tailors and Cobblers Thrive – TIME – Don't throw all your shoes at your nearest available statesman! Some of those still have some life in them
Mashahed, "Egyptian Workers Strike against Fertilizer Export to Israel" – English translation of a short piece about Egyptian workers striking against a company that was exporting fertilizer to Israel
Right Wing Sweeps Israel – Juan Cole on the death of the two-state solution
State of the Internet: Top Technorati Searches, Feb. 9, 2009 – Juan Cole attempts to parse the top Technorati searches.
Missing Mexican island fuels mystery – "a force of nature (able to sink an island) does not take place without anyone noticing, and much less so when it is sitting in an area with more than 22 billion barrels of oil reserves."

Comments (0)

February 13, 2009

Links for February 10th through February 13th

Filed under: links — Tags: 6FebProGazaMarch, detainees, Egypt, Facebook, fascism, Gaza, Google, Israel, Lieberman, NewYorkTimes, Obama, rendition, Rizk, SocialNetworking, surveillance, torture, web2.0, YisraelBeiteinu — admin @ 8:07 pm

These are my links for February 10th through February 13th:

How the left elevated Lieberman – Haaretz – Israel News – An interesting analysis of the growth of fascism—neither left nor right—in Israel. It is also notable for being one of the few articles to mention (if only obliquely) that Lieberman’s campaign slogan of “no citizenship without loyalty” applies equally well to Haredi Jews as to the Israeli Arabs that are widely understood to be his target.
Obama fails his first test on civil liberties and accountability — resoundingly and disgracefully – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com – This sort of thing makes me worried about the future of the crow as a species, what with the millions of Obama supporters who will now be eating them.
With friends like these … Tom Hodgkinson on the politics of the people behind Facebook | Technology | The Guardian – Facebook sucks…but friend me!
Randall Amster: A Googlement Above the People, Around the People, and Ahead of the People – A humorous critical examination of Google’s growing omniscience
Van Spirits Away Protester in Egypt, Signaling Crackdown on Criticism Over Gaza – NYTimes.com – The New York Times does something right: “What is the secret behind the interest of The New York Times in Philip? Are you working for human rights organizations?” This from an Egyptian General

Comments (4)

February 8, 2009

Demonstration at AUC to Free Philip Rizk—مظاهر في الجامعة الأمريكية لإطلاق سراح فيليب رزق

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: AUC, detainees, Egypt, Gaza, PhilipRizk, photos, police, torture — admin @ 7:50 pm

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This afternoon, AUC students—not generally a very politically-active lot—and a number of faculty came out in support of one of their own. (more…)

Comments (8)

The Kidnapping of Philip Rizk—إختطاف فيليب رزق

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: Egypt, Gaza, Palestine, police, Rizk — admin @ 7:35 am

[singlepic id=958 w=267 h=300 float=center]

Sarah Carr has written an excellent eyewitness account and brief analysis of the kidapping of Philip Rizk, a German-Egyptian AUC graduate student in the Middle East Studies program. He was abducted by state security forces (أمن الدولة) coming home from a march to Qalubiyya. I generally would have just added this link to my usual Delicious feed, but I think this article deserves special attention for its effectiveness in pointing out the sickness of the Egyptian state. At the same time, I want to be careful not to overstate the importance of the lack in the myriad Egyptian security forces of what has come to be know as “professionalism”. I remain unconvinced that a “professional” police or military force, operating under “the rule of law” is a substantial improvement over an “unprofessional” one. At least in the case of the latter, we can more easily discern the true face of power without the mask of a civilized demeanor. It is for the same reason that Arab members of Israel’s Knesset have in some sense looked optimistically at the swing to the right in the legislative body, saying “the mask will fall and the real face [of Israeli democracy] will be revealed”.

If you are one of those people with the right connections (وسطة), please feel free to bring them to bear to help secure Philip’s release.

To stay abreast of news on Philip’s case, you can follow Hossam ElHamalawy’s Delicious feed on the subject.

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