Unrepresentative Sample

The media , at least the the official media is insisting that online activists and bloggers do not represent the Egyptian people except a very small segment , according to them we are considered privileged kids who are aliens to woes of the Egyptian people who do not trust us !! The official media claims we are nothing except meddling kids that are nothing compared to the mighty Mubarak regime

Anyhow if we are so insignificant why is the regime so freaked out from us , from what we write and from our tiny protests ?? 

I do believe we have reached as bloggers and activists with little clicks to the rest of their follow Egyptians before the world in a way that regime has never achieved nor will achieve. The best proof on this are : 6th April strike, ElBaradei campaign and Khalid Said Murder. I think we have managed whether as online activists , bloggers and Facebook Wall participants to replace a media that is scared to cross the line.

We are not unrepresentative sample on the contrary , the regime and its followers are the unrepresentative sample of the Egyptian people.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Democracy,Human rights,Geek,Politics,National,Media,Mideast,Middle East,activism,bloggers,blogging

Amen : A Friday Prayer

Dr. Nabil Farouk has written the best prayer we should all repeat in our prayers to God especially on Friday. "In fact in every moment"

It is a prayer to God Almighty to avenge those who killed Khalid Said and those who helped them with their silence and lies. It is beautiful and I believe it suits not only Khalid Said case but many cases in Egypt. Of course God does not order us to pray only but rather to act , let's try , act and pray.

Here is the prayer in Arabic :

اللهم أرِ قتلة ضحية الإسكندرية «خالد سعيد» مكروهاً في كل عزيز لديهم، وأرِ كل من ساعدهم بالكذب والتلفيق والتزوير والتدليس والبهتان، أو حتي بالسكوت، خزي الدنيا والآخرة.. اللهم أظهر الحق وأزهق الباطل، اللهم أرهم آياتك في أنفسهم، لعل سواهم يتعظون ويدركون.. اللهم أنت الحق العدل والمنتقم الجبار، الذي يمهل ولا يهمل.. اللهم قد أمهلتهم طويلاً، حتي طغوا وتجبروا كفرعون.. اللهم فأرهم آياتك وانصرنا، فأنت خير الناصرين

Say Amen and act.

Technorati Tags: Citizen journalism,Democracy,Follow Up,Human rights,media,national,politics,Khalid Said,Prayers,Nabil Farouk,Islam,Religion,Friday,Mideast,middle east

What An Expensive Treasure !!??

Styletreasure.com positions itself as Egypt's first online boutique with original Egyptian style and the ability to order online and pay either upon delivery or by credit card.

As you can see , it is a women online shopping site with beautiful designs inspired mostly by our forgotten folklore but unfortunately  with ugly prices. I like lots of things there but I think they are too expensive.

I think those designers who are proud to be the first original Egyptian fashion designers should not position themselves as A class designers because in the end that class mostly does not wear Egyptian made. I would like to remind those designers with Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. They will not be famous abroad by targeting the A Class only I am afraid. Of course I understand these designers mostly from women do not have enough resources to have mass production but it is just sad that many Egyptians do no know about Style treasure and even if they do ,they can't afford it !!!

Technorati Tags: Citize journalism,Egypt,national,arts,culture,economy,geek,Mideast,Middle East,Style,Style treasure,Online Shopping,e-commerce,Design

ElBaradei Speaks To El Pais And Ibrahim Eissa

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei spoke to Spanish El Pais about Egypt and his quest to Democracy. Here is the English translation of the interview.

He also sat with Ibrahim Eissa and had a very long interview that was published on three parts , it is very long and interesting. I hope that Ibrahim Eissa has recorded it in video.  Here is the interview :  Part One , part two and part three. Eissa's interview of course needs a separate post so we can read it thoroughly.

It is expected that after his return from London Dr. ElBaradei will continue his local tours starting with Alexandria which is on fire , a real fire by all measures then he will head insh Allah to Upper Egypt.

I still bet on Dr. ElBaradei despite all the criticism he got lately , I respect the fact that he is trying to change a 7000 years old mindset in Egypt , I do not want leaders now but rather the people to get up and demand their rights just like the rest of the world. I know many people are looking for the charismatic man from the army , yes from the army let's be honest together we all know many people are waiting the army to move but guess what the country is going from bad to worse to worst and the army has not moved yet so what we are waiting for !!

Again we will not lose something if we support ElBaradei. As soon as we changed those bloody constitutional articles we can choose Mr. X to rule instead of Mubarak not even him , it is not about presidency but rather our future.

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,Politics,Media,Follow Up,National,ElBaradei,Spain,Europe,Democracy,El Pais,Mideast,Middle East,Interviews,Ibrahim Eissa

Follow Up : LDS Church Denis , Prosecutor office Does not Know Anything And S.S Deported the Group

I received an email from the LDS Church PR department denying any relation with regarding that Mormon group in Upper Egypt , this is what the LDS Church said :

     The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today categorically denied a report in an Egyptian newspaper over the weekend that a group of American Mormons were arrested in Luxor for proselytizing or preaching Mormon doctrine. The report was carried outside Egypt by The Press Trust of India.
The Church has carefully checked with several sources to investigate the claim, including the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, and other in-country sources. There is no record of such an incident.
The Church emphasized today that students representing the Church’s Brigham Young University, and any other members representing the Church, are strictly prohibited from proselytizing in countries where it would contravene local law. Spokeswoman Kim Farah in Salt Lake City said that the Church respected all other faiths and the laws that apply in each individual country.“This reported incident simply did not happen,” she said.

So according to the LDS church this incident simply has not happened but unfortunately for the Egyptian Press it has happened. Al Shorouk newspaper has just published a report about  the incident with very interesting details despite they did not give names.

According to Al Shorouk group has been deported and that the American embassy finished all the papers for that group to leave the country  after being informed by the interior ministry of the incident. So unlike the LDS Church the American Embassy according to Al Shorouk which is reputable newspaper in Egypt says the incident took place. If you think that this is interesting then you must wait for the coming because it is even more interesting.

According to the newspaper's source in the American embassy no information will be revealed about the identity of those involved in the incident because of the American law confidentiality !!! I believe the incident happened outside the United States !!

Neither the general prosecution office in Luxor nor the State security prosecution office were reported about the incident in the first which means officially it did not take place BUT the State security according to the newspaper was involved in the matter and deported the group with the help of the American embassy as fast as it could.

So officially this incident did not take place but off the record there seems to be something has happened in Upper Egypt , people there do not know Mormonism in general so why it is brought up !!?? There is no smoke without fire. May be this was a Mormon missionary from a sect that does not follow the main LDS Church 

Technorati Tags: Citizen Journalism,Egypt,America,Follow Up,Society,religion,Mormonism,LDS Church,Minorities,Media,Mideast,Middle East,Upper Egypt

Mormonism does Not Find Big Love in Egypt

Mormonism is still causing controversy in its own way in the United States since the days of Joseph Smith. From polygamy to the presidential candidate to powerful lobbying to Freemasonic relations and conspiracy theories to their own sets of believes , all that made the Church a constant
Despite having a church in Maadi and organized congregation for American Mormon expats and Egyptians who joined the church abroad since 1974 , Egypt does not recognize Mormonism. In 2000 President Mubarak met LED leaders promised them to recognize Mormonism if other Christian sects recognize them , of course this is a polite apology because the other Christian sects led by the St. Mark Orthodox Church consider Mormonism as heresy. Of course according to law it is legal to perform missionary and preaching in Egypt in the first place.
Egyptians do not know Mormons or Mormonism in general but they will hear more about them after the arrest of a Mormon group preaching people in Sohag and Luxor governorates in Upper Egypt to join Mormonism. That group was headed by American writer and took Abydos temple as a center for their activities , they aroused suspicion with their strange prayers that mixed between ancient Egyptian prayers and Coptic prayers.

Spies are Falling Down

I think you have heard that Poland arrested one of the suspects in the Mabhouh's murder in another big flop for the Mossad and Israel in general right after the Gaza flotilla attack scandal. 

Der Spiegel reported that the Polish authorities at the request of Germany arrested an Israeli suspect connected to the Mabhouh's assassination at Warsaw airport. According to the report he was traveling through Warsaw airport under the name "Uri Brodsky".

"Brodsky" was allegedly used  a German passport with the name of Michael Bodenheimer.There is a political tension between Poland, Germany and Israel as later asked Poland not to extradite Brodsky. Strangely Dubai was no where in this short film which has not finished yet.

We leave spies who kill and move to spies who rape. Do You remember Andrew Warren ?? The CIA superstar who headed the CIA station in Algeria and raped couple of women there !!?? Warren who was very interesting subject to the Egyptian media due to his work in Cairo before Algiers made headlines in the last couple of weeks. Warren was arrested after a big show , a show from his side and from the FBI's side to track him down. The man was flashing himself in front of his neighbor and the FBI had to be subdued…etc a crazy black comedy that reminds me with Coen brothers' Burn after read.

Despite Warren's claims that he was set up by the Algerian regime, he has pleaded guilty from two days ago for raping two Algerian women during his work , the sentence is scheduled for September 9,2010. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison , a $250,000 fine and a lifetime supervised release. He will also be registered as sex offender after his release.Of course I expect that he can die in jail to protect the agency. 

Now Debbie Reynolds of Neocons believe that he was spying for Islam , after reading her rant I believe she is the one on drugs !!??

Technorati Tags: America,Arab,spy,Politics,follow up,Europe,National security,Regional,Mossad,Israel,Dubai,Gulf,Mabhouh,Poland,Germany,Andrew Warren,Mideast,Middle East,episonage,CIA