THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 86, May 15, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DISSIDENT WATCH: ABDUL KARIM NABIL SULAYMAN
By Jeffrey Azarva
EGYPT: POLITICAL REGIME & POLITICAL OPPOSITION -- DICTATORSHIP, POLITICAL DISSENT, & GOVERNMENT
SUPPRESSION OF DISSENT -- THE EGYPTIAN POLITICAL REGIME AS ONE OF THE WORST SUPPRESSORS OF FREEDOM OF
EXPRESSION ON THE INTERNET -- THE CASE OF ABDUL KARIM NABIL SULAYMAN
FULL STORY:
On November 6, 2006, Egyptian security forces in Alexandria arrested 22-year-old Abdul Karim Nabil Sulayman, better known
by his pen name Karim Amir, for posting articles critical of the Egyptian state and the religion of Islam on a personal blog. His
arrest occurred the same day Reporters without Borders added Egypt to its "worst suppressors of Internet expression" list. [1]
Amir has a long history of defiance. After he wrote about Christian-Muslim strife in Alexandria in October, 2005, police
stormed his house, confiscated documents, and detained him for eighteen days. [2] Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious
institution for Sunni religious scholarship in the Arab world, expelled him for secularism and filed a complaint with the Public
Prosecutor's Office when, in March 2006, he questioned some religious teachings and suggested that the regime of Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak was destined for "the dustbin of history." [3]
Although Egypt's cyber-dissidents number only in the low thousands, the Egyptian blogosphere is gaining ground as
Egyptians seek photos and news accounts absent from the state-run media. But, as online forums become infused with
politics, they have drawn the government's ire. Some groups use websites to mobilize anti-government rallies. In May, 2006,
Mubarak warned, "If they [the bloggers] think what they are doing is an expression of their freedom, they should remember
who gave them this chance." [4]
He did not wait long to crack down. Police attacked peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Cairo later that month, arresting
six bloggers, including 24-year-old Muhammad al-Sharqawi, previously featured on this page. [5] The next month, a state court
upheld a government decision to shut down any website threatening national security. [6]
Though Amir's plight is not unique — the Egyptian regime has held other prisoners of conscience indefinitely under its
emergency law — it marks a new phase in Mubarak's attack on free expression. Amir is the first blogger snatched from his home
solely for his ideas. Earlier arrests focused on participants in street protests.
As Mubarak accelerates his campaign against the blogosphere, there is little cause for optimism. One blogger, Hissam
el-Hamalawi, believes the situation "will get worse. We will witness more crackdowns on bloggers." [7] Despite such concerns,
Washington has yet to weigh in. Given the pace of Egypt's repression, it will soon not matter.
NOTES:
[1] Reuters, Nov. 7, 2006.
[2] Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo), Nov. 17-23, 2005.
[3] Al-Quds al-Arabi (London), Nov. 11, 2006; The Daily Star Egypt (Cairo), Nov. 7, 2006.
[4] Al-Jumhuriya (Cairo), May 30, 2006.
[5] Jeffrey Azarva, "Dissident Watch: Muhammad al-Sharqawi", Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2006, p. 96.
[6] The Daily Star Egypt, Nov. 9, 2006.
[7] Ibid.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY & OTHER POLITICAL REGIMES
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Fundamental Character & Essential Ingredients
Constitutionalism: The First Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Dictatorship: The Opposite of Constitutionalism
Representative Democracy: The Second Essential Ingredient
of Modern Constitutional Democracy
Direct Democracy & Representative Democracy
Political Culture & Modern Constitutional Democracy
Modern Constitutional Democracy:
Summary & Conclusion
Jeffrey Azarva is a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.
The foregoing article by Jeffrey Azarva was originally published in the Middle East Quarterly, Spring, 2007, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a
think tank which seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include
fighting radical Islam, working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S.
efforts to promote constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle
East, more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 15, 2007
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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