Online campaign supports detained blogger

Alexandra Sandels CAIRO: Bloggers belonging to an online forum called Arab Bloggers Union have launched a campaign to draw attention to the case of detained Brotherhood-affiliated blogger and activist Ahmed Mohsen.

Mohsen was arrested in Fayoum three weeks ago during a crackdown on members of the banned organization.

The initiative, titled “1000 Bloggers,” calls on bloggers in Egypt and across the Arab world to sign a petition for Mohsen’s release.

“Him today… it could be you tomorrow,” reads the headline of the campaign.

An outspoken anti-torture activist, Mohsen is the moderator of the blog named “eyestillopen.” He was reportedly one of the first to expose the torture case of Mohamed Gomaa Al Dahshouri, who died shortly after allegedly having been beaten at a local police station in Fayoum.

According to a report published on Ikhwanweb, Dr Ahmed Abdul Rahman at Mecca Specialized Hospital was also arrested after writing a report on the condition of the torture victim.

Furthermore, Mohsen helped arrange a press conference for the victim’s family at the Bar Association in Cairo along with members of the anti-torture movement Egyptians Against Torture. He also inspired the establishment of Freedom for Fayoum, a gathering of bloggers and human rights activists in the area.

According to Brotherhood blogger and journalist Abdel Moneim Mahmoud, Mohsen was detained on charges of belonging to a banned organization and is currently being held at Tora prison.

His detainment was recently extended another 15 days by the state security prosecution in New Cairo.

Mahmoud reiterated that Mohsen’s activism most likely played a significant role in his arrest.

“He contacted the media in Cairo and urged bloggers to write about the case. They took him because of his activism and the fact that he is a member of the Brotherhood. It’s a combination of the two,” Mahmoud told Daily News Egypt.

Mahmoud himself was arrested earlier this year and held for more than a month for “belonging to a banned organization.”

Observers, however, maintained that Mahmoud’s arrest was a direct result of his human rights activism and writings critical of the government.

At time of press only around 95 people had signed the petition in support of Mohsen, which, Mahmoud argues, is a very low number.

“The campaign hasn’t witnessed any remarkable activity although his blog was concerned with human rights issues. Other weblogs related to Mohsen haven’t posted banners calling for his release. Also, no human rights organizations have given the case any attention,” said Mahmoud.

The administrator of a liberal blog called “gemyhood” believes that not many bloggers have written about Mohsen “because his arrest was primarily linked to his membership to the Brotherhood.”

“The majority of people who have written on Mohsen’s case seem to be bloggers affiliated with the Brotherhood either way,” he told Daily News Egypt.

A memo in solidarity with detained blogger Ahmed Mohsen

A number of Egyptians and Arab bloggers launched a campaign on weblogs calling for releasing blogger Ahmed Mohsen who was detained three weeks ago among a number of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders in the governorate of Al Fayum.

The campaign, launched by the website of the Arab Bloggers Union, announced launching a memo called "1000 Bloggers" for releasing blogger Mohsen, the administrator of eyestillopen.blogspot.com. Mohsen is one of the first persons to expose the tortures exercised by the Interior Ministry in the governorate of Al Fayum.

He managed to expose to the media the crime of torturing victim Mohamed Gomaah Al Dahshouri who has been recently killed in Al Fayyum after he was tortured in a police station. Mohsen contacted various media outlets to cover the incident.

H managed also through his relations, to participated with "Egyptians Against Torture" movement to organize a press conference for the victim"s family in the bar association in Cairo to reveals the bargains that the family faced in order to withdraw the case. Also, a number of bloggers in the governorate of Al Fayum announced founding an association that includes their blogs entitled "Freedom for Al Fayyum", and posted a statement entitled "Our tongues will never be silenced", in which they said:" While bloggers are detained and freemen are tried, we will insist on exposing crimes and violations of this regime in front of the whole world". The participants in the association denounced arresting Ahmed Mohsen and called for immediately releasing him along with other prisoners of conscience in Egypt .

Mohsen managed to send a message from his prison and the association"s website posted it. He said in the message:" while journalists are harassed detained and sent to trials only because they are journalists and while leaders and members of the peaceful reformist movements like Kifaya (Enough) and Let"s Expose Them for more free and more democratic Egypt, while the freedom of speech is restricted and intellectuals are harassed, it is very natural that they arrest some one like me for my views." Blogger from Al Fayum Governate pointed out that the main reason for Arresting Mohsen was his efforts in exposing the case of Al Dahshouri"s torture to death. He was tortured in Al Fayyum police station till he died due to this savage torture. These bloggers said also that Dr Ahmed Abdul Rahman, the manager of Makka Specialized Hospital which received the torture victim after he was dismissed from the Al Fayyum Public hospital, was also arrested.

Dr. Abd Al-Rahman submitted a report to the public prosecution in which he detailed the injuries and wounds that he found in the body of the dead victim, a report that the manager of the Public hospital refused to offer. The bloggers pointed out that that the latest detentions in Al Fayyum are a settling of scores from the security services against those who backed the family of Al Dahshouri during the ordeal of his death out of torture. First created his weblog in May 2006, Mohsen"s latest blog was an objection on the deterioration of human rights situations in Egypt and in his small governorate of Al Fayyum. " Al Dahshouri was killed in cold blood after he was beaten and tortured in the police station", said Mohsen in his last weblog adding that "Blogger Abdul Rahamn Farès was arrested on the day of the Fitr Feast alng with 11 university students, some of them were detained at university gate, and some others were detained inside the university under a direct and full supervision of state security officer Marawan Mazen.

Three Faculty of Education students are still behind even after the prosecution issued a decision of releasing them. Even high school students have been detained, including Abdul Rahman Mohamed Fadloun and Mohamed Salah Mohamed Ali, both are GCE students. "To where are they steering Al Fayyum. How long will police violations and bullying of the State Security Police continue", he wondered. "Has Al Fayyum became a big prison for all its residents?, has it become a private estate for some to run according to their own whims. Has it been divided into two classes: a class of masters who whatever they want towards the class of slaves, without any accountability?". Although the New Cairo-based state security prosecution issued a decision of prolonging the jail of Mohsen and his colleagues for more fifteen, but the signatories on the memo in solidarity with him are no more than 95, still very far from the 1000 mark targeted by the campaign.

Also the campaign calling for his release hasn"t witnessed any remarkable activity although his weblog cared for human rights and freedoms issues. Other weblogs related to Mohsen haven"t posted banners calling for releasing him. Also, no human rights organization has cared for following up the case of Mohsen although colleagues of his accused the Interior Ministry of arresting him to settle scores with him because he exposed the the so called brutal tortures practiced at Al Fayum police stations.

A link toMohsen"s weblog: http://eyestillopen.blogspot.com A link to the 1000 bloggers memo http://arabictadwin.maktoobblog.com

End of the MB Blogging Spring?

Marc Lynch -abuaardvark

My recent article for Middle East Report captured a moment in which young members of the Muslim Brotherhood turned to blogging as a way to challenge the organization's status quo - openly discussing its political platform and tactical political decisions, and putting a human face on an often secretive organization. This "Brotherhood bloggers" phenomenon was controversial, sparking sharp criticism from more traditionalist Brotherhood leaders and inspiring a number of articles in the Egyptian press about impending splits and factionalization of the organization. The controversies were rising to something of a fever pitch, both within and outside the organization, no doubt fueled in part by the increasing attention being paid to it by the Egyptian and Western media. "Young Brothers in Cyperspace" concluded with this:

The bloggers of the Muslim Brothers represent a growing intellectual and political force within the movement that could, over time, help tip it in a reformist direction. But they face considerable challenges: a leadership wary of change, a regime increasingly prone to arresting troublesome Internet activists. and a salafi counter-trend that could well take the Muslim Brothers in another direction entirely. How much impact the blogging Brothers can really have remains to be seen, but at the least they represent a new dynamic in the world of Islamism and Arab politics, and offer a striking new window upon the internal life of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last week, sadly, that window appeared to be closing. In a controversial article published on al-Jazeera Talk (and, notably, not on his own blog or on an official MB website), Abd al-Monem Mahmoud ("Ana Ikhwan"), one of the leaders of the Brotherhood blogging movement, declared a mournful end to the Brotherhood blogging opening. The great mistake of the MB bloggers, Mahmoud concluded, was that they became identified with a specific ideological and political trend - which made it too easy for them to be portrayed by internal and external critics as a "faction." Blogging was supposed to be a personal thing, not a political trend, and its growth into a movement doomed the experiment. Leaders were particularly concerned about the trend since it came a time when the Brotherhood faced a harsh regime crackdown; the airing of internal disagreements helped the organization's enemies and weakened its public image. A number of senior leaders rebuked the blogging Brothers, both publicly and privately, urging them to come to their elders to discuss their concerns rather than just posting them online for all to see. Finally, argues Mahmoud, the recklessness of a few of the youth (especially the "Islam Offline" episode, where some young bloggers posted a parody site of the official Brotherhood website in protest over its editorial decisions) triggered a harsh backlash throughout the senior ranks. The organization's leaders, he hints, decided that the time had come for discipline to replace openness.

Mahmoud concludes that it will not be easy for the Brotherhood youth to continue using blogs to push the movement to greater openness under these conditions. That would be a shame. I, and many of the youth themselves, had seen the blogging phenomenon as a healthy trend which could over time reshape the internal politics of the organization and strengthen the reformist trend. The disciplining of these youth will likely strengthen the hand of critics of the organization, and remove one of the hopeful signs about where it's going. (Recall that in my Foreign Policy memo to the Brotherhood, and in my meetings in Cairo, I had encouraged Akef and other Brotherhood leaders to nurture and tolerate the bloggers as a signal of the movement's ability to handle internal debate and criticism. Oh well.)

Despite Mahmoud's current pessimism, I still think that this is possible down the road - if these creative and energetic youth activists can find ways to reassure their elders that their blogging helps the organization in the long term more than it hurts it in the short term. I expect that the "campaign" style blogs will continue (the ones working on behalf of imprisoned Brotherhood leaders, for instance), but that for now the ones discussing internal Brotherhood affairs will go dark. For now, the Brotherhood blogging experiment which seemed so hopeful just months ago seems to have hit a much rougher patch. But is that forever, or just for now? It's hard to imagine the bloggers just letting it go over the long term, given their technophilia and their political energy and the taste of public engagement which they've now had. I'm somewhat reassured by the fascinating cross-blog dialogue overthe role of women in the Muslim Brotherhood which continues in spite of the current troubles.