Abdel Mon'em Mahmoud in an interview with Ikhwan Web

Asmaa Shehata, Ikhwanweb - Cairo, Egypt

Abdel Mon'em Mahmoud; a famous name in blogosphere, and he was the first among young men in Muslim Brotherhood … this encouraged the security forces to arrest him and cook a lame excuse for arresting him along with other brethrens however, the general prosecutor agreed to release him after pressures and protests from bloggers and human rights institutions. This decree surprised "Mon'em"….this is an interview with him about detainment:

First, how were you arrested?

I was surprised at 1 o'clock AM that security forces broke into my home without any permission or orders and when I asked about the reasons they did not reply. I was tried before Shubra prosecution in an illegitimate way since I am from Alexandria so I should be tried there or at last in any prosecution there. They accused me as usual with the charge of belonging to the outlawed MB and another charge which is leading the media activities of MB and that I co-ordinate with foreign institutions and that's why they arrested me.

What about the decree of releasing you, how did you receive it?

In fact, I never imagined this decree especially that I spent very short time in detainment if compared to other times that lasted for six months. In the day of release, coincidently, I was telling my wish to one of my brethrens that I want to move to Al-Mazr'ah prison he replied: "and to be released"! Suddenly, the decree of release was issued and I think these was attributed to the pressures practiced by bloggers and human rights institutions who responded effectively with my issue as a blogger and so we should not undermine the pressures practiced by human rights institutions or youth because they can act as lobbies against regime. I don't expect actually a long period of freedom as the state security officer told me before release, he tried to recruit me to work with them and acquaint them about everything about MB especially in media however I told him: You are a state security Officer and I am a brethren, there is no kind of connectedness between you and me

How was your day behind the bars?

First let me describe to you the place where we were detained before telling how I spent my days, this was the first time to sit with criminals in one place since we are political prisoners. The prison included 1900 prisoners although it can hardly admit 700, The one cell included 21 prisoners and it was a very small one not to speak of course about diseases and microbes that spread there starting from dermatosis and AIDS, moreover there was no health care for prisoners and when we are asked why do you place us there, they reply: in order to bother you because you are like criminals and you should bear this situation!! About our day, we used to spent in praying and remembering Allah beside intellectual debates, yet all the students who were detained with us could not study in this atmosphere because where were abused from criminals until they displaced them to the prison of Maz'rat Tura and we were left with criminals refusing to transfer us with the students

After being detained because of your blog "Ana Ikhwan", how do you see the future of blogging in Egypt?

Although blogging started very late in Egypt yet it became prominent as an opposing movement against the regime especially within the atmosphere of quelling for freedoms and the biased mass media that did not leave any room for youth to express their opinions and their opposition and as a result some cultures youth started to use bloggs to express their affiliations and expose the regime and what it does. I investigated for two hours about MB's bloggs and how do they work and who supervises them. Blogs are capable of mimicking great and small mass media and to prove itself whether for MB or not

How do you evaluate the experience of blogs for young men in MB?

At the beginning it started on a small area may be "Ana Ikwan" was the first one for experiencing the blogosphere.. I can divide the experience on three levelsThe first was related to personal blogs for some young men in MB they tried to express them, the second stage was related to relating the true facts that are not displayed by mass media and some times distorted about MB especially after the events of Al-Azhar, the other level was related to trying MB figures at martial courts so blogs appeared to tell about the families of the detained people and to clarify facts about the issue so the idea of anti- martial courts blogs appeared to tell about the human crisis for MB so every one started to set a blog for expressing his/her dreams and hopes regardless of belongings.We displayed the human aspect for MB in order to make people look at us as brave youth who declare their affiliation to MB especially after knowing that mass media depicts MB as underground entity so we surprised them by displaying our viewpoints that even can contradict with that of MB itself without any fears , so we depicted the human society of MB that hides behind statements and decisions within the organization