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May 18, 2008
La Cache Qui Rit: Egypt's Facebook Protest Met With Facebreak
The Washington Post tells of the attempt to use Facebook to organize a protest strike in Egypt, and the successful efforts of the government to beat it to the punch by, well, beating and punching its chief organizer, after disrupting and threatening the organizing. "Security forces beat him from 1 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday, stripping him naked, slapping him, dragging him across the floor tied to a rope and threatening to rape him, Maher said. They demanded passwords to the Facebook groups, although the groups do not require passwords, and the real names of those who had registered, he said."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at May 18, 2008 07:38 PM
Filed Under: Political Development
, Society & Culture
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Comments
When Tariq Ramadan visited Egypt a few years ago (carrying a Swiss passport) the security officials, realizing he had some diplomatic backing from the Swiss, decided not to beat him. Instead, they held him in a chair while taking an Egyptian man and beating him in front of Tariq.
Wonderful humane people, I think that's why Bush praises them for their 'diversity' and humanity. No doubt, the Muslim Brotherhood may not be ready to rule humanely - the Copts, in particular, would argue against any 'Islamic government' - but equally, supporting Mubarak and secular dictators of his ilk (ben Ali in Tunisia comes to mind) are not doing Bush's claims of supporting democracy in the Muslim world any credit.
Posted by: dawud at May 18, 2008 08:52 PM
See also Abu Aardvark's recent article, "Assessing the MB 'firewall'" :
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2008/05/assessing-the-m.html
Posted by: dawud at May 18, 2008 08:54 PM
Oh, that's just birthday pangs of a New Middle East.
Posted by: alle at May 20, 2008 09:48 AM
Why do dictators get so old?
Posted by: Klaus ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.aqoul.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 20, 2008 02:50 PM
