Arab News Blog

Pic of IslamOnline strikers from Flickr user Ahmed Abd El-fatah

Over the last few days, Egyptian media circles have been up in arms about a strike at IslamOnline.net, the portal about Islam, Islamists and politics in the Muslim world. The chief meme being put out by employees and their supporters is that the “moderate” brand of Islam the site had promoted is being pushed out. A new board has come in at the Islamic Message Society of Qatar, which owns the site. Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, the board chairman and founder, is said to be considering resigning. The new board wants to take the site in a more Salafist direction — for instance, board members objected to mentions of Valentine’s Day on the site. All of this info, of course, comes from the strikers so we have to take their word for it, the board is staying mum.

Now, I’ve always been irked at people describing Qaradawi as a moderate. But IslamOnline, which is not always necessarily so moderate, did put out an excellent media product and fascinating debates about Islamists, notably the Egyptian Muslim Brothers (I suspect that more than a few Brothers work at IslamOnline). I notably remember reading there the most trenchant critique of the Brothers’ political party program there, by a leading member of the group. It also has very wide discussion of social and personal problems from an Islamic perspective. Overall, while it wasn’t my proverbial cup of tea, it was possibly the most professional new media publication in Egypt, and certainly more “moderate” than Qatari wahhabis (they’re not much talked about, but are just as bad as their Saudi counterpart).

The strike thus far has featured a huge sit-in at the Sixth October City office of the site, which was broadcast live online, and vigils. And it’s very much the talk of the Egyptian Twittosphere.

There’s been some good reporting on this, here are a few links:

Islam On-Strike | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Going Off-line | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Daily News Egypt – Full Article (DNE: I thus punish you for not putting the headline of articles in the title of the page.) 

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Since the return of Mohamed ElBaradei to Egypt, the official government press has either ignored him completely (see this daily roundup at Al-Masry al-Youm of a day in which the government press ignored him and the independent and opposition papers led with him), or else they have been making fun of him, even in one case basically saying he won’t give interviews with the government press because his wife won’t let him (that’s an English language blogger’s summary; the link was to Al-Gumhuriyya’s home page a day or two ago, and today the link goes to today’s homepage; I poked around briefly without finding the story but it may be archived somewhere on the site). Do they think branding him as henpecked (his wife’s a professional in her own right) will dilute his support?

I’m not surprised, but in the age of the Internet, satellite television, and independent newspapers in Egypt, it seems that the pettiness shown by the state media ought to seem fairly glaring even to Mubarak’s staunch supporters. The fellahin may not know about ElBaradei’s return, but they aren’t his constituency. Does the state press think their ignoring him will make him go away? Does it think making fun of him will make people see him as a clown, a man of whom the state media was itself enormously proud when he was head of the IAEA and one of the most recognizable Egyptians in the Western world (after Mubarak, and of course Zahi Hawass, who is on one of your cable TV channels in his Indiana Jones hat right now)?

It just seems like something out of the pre-Internet era, the pre-satellite TV era, that distant time nearly 30 years ago when the local state media was the only media and Husni Mubarak was President of Egypt.

Oh.

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From Al-Masry al-Youm English, on the Facebook competition:

While Mohamed ElBaradei has yet to announce whether he will run in the 2011 presidential election, Facebook fans already see him as their favorite candidate for the presidency. Over 100,000 Facebook members have joined a group endorsing ElBaradei for presidency.

Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak are also promoting their candidate through their own Facebook groups.

One such group is named “Friends of President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak” and has 1582 members so far. Another group called “The First Association for the Nomination of President Mubarak” has 528 members. The group says its main objective is to “support the great President and hero Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s son who sacrificed for his country and shared with us our moments of happiness and sadness.”

A third group, with 418 members, called “Hosni Mubarak”, feature the president’s resume along with some photos on their Facebook page. Another 320-member group called “The Fans of President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak,” warns against any insults on their page, saying “the group is monitored by security bodies.”

Youth belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party have also set up a group called “Fans and Supporters of Gamal Mubarak.” The group has 6977 members so far.

I know, Facebook doesn’t count, and the government makes the rules and counts the votes. And Al-Masry al-Youm is an independent newspaper. Still, an interesting note. Also, a tip: “the group is monitored by security bodies” does not make me want to join that particular Facebook group. How about you?

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The two men who have both indicated coyly they might run for President of Egypt under certain circumstances, Mohamed ElBaradei and ‘Amr Moussa, have met to discuss “the internal political issue” in Egypt as well as nuclear issues. (If, in the publicity of the last few days, you have forgotten this, ElBaradei used to know something about that subject.) Moussa is still Secretary-General of the Arab League.

ElBaradei, meanwhile, has been giving television interviews. Here’s a summary of one of them in English. Some of the quotes chosen by Al-Masry al-Youm English:

“I’m willing to run against anyone in upcoming presidential elections if the public wants me to,” former International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said on Sunday during an interview on a popular television talk show.

“I’m no savior, but you can help me transform the authoritarian system–by which we’ve been ruled for 7000 years–into a democratic system,” he said. “I would wager that about 99 percent of the people are desirous of this change.”

“We must change from a people who are told what to do into a people who can present their political, social and economic demands in an appropriate manner,” he said.

ElBaradei went on to thank President Hosni Mubarak for ordering the opening of the Cairo International Airport’s VIP arrival hall for his reception last Friday.

A couple of thoughts here: if you’re really going for 99% of the vote, you probably lost the Wafd by saying the country’s been authoritarian for 7000 years. (What about the years of Zahglul and Nahhas? We may not think they were democratic, but the Wafd likes to.) I’m not sure the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to board this bus either.

I will try to find and watch the interview in Arabic. I’m curious if the remark about Mubarak opening the VIP Arrival Hall to him at the airport was sardonic or not. The VIP Arrival Hall, I believe (not being a VIP), is separate from where his supporters were waiting and might have been a way of keeping interaction down.

If you haven’t already seen it, The Arabist’s piece over the weekend on “What Does ElBaradei Want?” is a useful analysis. He suggests ElBaradei and many of his supporters see his role not as a candidate who is likely to be allowed to run, let alone win, but as a symbol and a voice for the opposition and for rallying calls for change. If that’s his goal he has a lot more chance of success, I think, than if he expects to run and win.

And that picture with ‘Amr Moussa above is also a reminder that even some highly prominent Egyptians who got where they are through the Mubarak regime are becoming critical of the inevitability of a Mubarak dynasty. And it suggests ElBaradei is willing to tap into the establishment as well as the opposition.

It would be interesting to know what the senior officer corps thinks of all this. Impossible to find out, but interesting to know.

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Tomorrow’s the big day: the second coming of Mohamed ElBaradei to Egypt. Although some in the opposition would rather he part the Red Sea and walk across, he’s flying in to Cairo airport.

I guess my previous blog posts on the Mohamed ElBaradei phenomenon have made clear that while I have no doubts the man has more qualifications to run Egypt than Gamal Mubarak does (a lot of senior diplomats and scholars could), I fail to see how, structurally and under the Constitution that only Husni Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party can amend, he can even stand as a candidate, let alone win. Perhaps there is going to be a huge spontaneous excitement once he gets off the plane, but remember, the man hasn’t lived in Egypt in ages; he probably knows his way around Vienna better than parts of Cairo. And the regime still gets to shuffle and deal the cards.

On the other hand, I suppose there is a lot of excitement among the opposition, since for the first time there seems to be a possible figure that many could see as a legitimate President who neither wears a uniform nor is named Mubarak. And for all Egypt’s flaws, he’s not going to have to worry about the kind of welcome Benigno Aquino got on returning to the Philippines, where he never made it off the tarmac alive. If the government wants to neutralize ElBaradei, it will find some scandal to tar him with or simply make organizing impossible.

Al-Masry al-Youm’s English website has an analysis piece by Ashraf Khalil that includes the following:

Decades from now, 19 February, 2010 may just be looked back upon as B-Day. Mothers will tell their children of the blessed day when Mohamed ElBaradei returned, like a conquering hero, to personally reshape Egypt into a functioning democracy.

Or maybe not.

All possibilities seem to be in play as ElBaradei returns to Egypt this Friday amid an atmosphere bordering in some circles on the hysterical. Rumors have percolated for days about a mass welcoming committee being planned for the former International Atomic Energy Association chief when he arrives at Cairo International Airport Friday afternoon.

“We’re all going. Everybody is going,” said George Ishak, one of the founders of the Kefaya pro-democracy movement, who has been one of ElBaradei’s most high-profile advocates ever since the longtime expatriate first floated the idea last year of running for president in the 2011 elections. “I don’t want to make any predictions on numbers, but it’s going to be big,” Ishak added.

As the anticipation grows, the most pressing questions have become: How many people will attempt to greet ElBaradei at the airport? And what will Egyptian security forces do about it? After all, a gathering of people happy to see ElBaradei back in Egypt could easily be construed as an anti-government protest rally.

“If the government uses force, it will backfire,” said Cairo University political science professor Hassan Nafaa, who issued an open call earlier this week in Al-Masry Al-Youm for a massive airport turnout. “I don’t know how the government will react. But they certainly won’t be very happy to see a warm welcome from the Egyptian public.”

Bear in mind that ElBaradei keeps reiterating that he doesn’t want to be President (and then expressing his conditions for accepting). He (or his supporters) also have a slick campaign weebsite. I also wonder if the various opposition groups talking about him aren’t enthusiastic about their own imagined ElBaradeis, rather than the real flesh-and-blood man. Some people — Ruhollah Khomeini was the classic regional case — can play various factions by letting each think that he represents them when he really represents his own interest, but is ElBaradei such a man? (The original suggestion of ElBaradei came from the youth wing of the Wafd Party. The Wafd and Kefaya founder George Ishak, quoted above, are poles apart in all but their anybody-but-Gamal positions.)

Well, at least it will be something a bit different to watch. I hope I’m being too cynical here, but I rather doubt that I am.

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A piece in Al-Masry al-Youm (English) on the last days of the Egyptian pork industry, as we approach the first anniversary of the great pig cull of 2009. In a few weeks, the country’s biggest pork processor will run out of its stock of frozen meat, and with the herds virtually eliminated, the industry is dying.

As the story notes, though the pig farmers themselves received financial compensation for the culled pigs, the others who made their living off pigs, from the zabbalin trash collectors to the meat packers and processors, were not so lucky.

And of course, as the names of the various pork processors quoted in the story make clear, this was a Christian industry and the Coptic population has been hit hardest by it, since the Muslim majority do not eat pork.

And Egypt had many cases of Swine Flu anyway, none of it apparently vectored through swine.

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Al Masry al Youm/ here

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As part of the 50th Anniversary of the Aswan High Dam the Egyptian media has been writing a lot about the period. Here’s an interesting interview in Al-Masry Al-Youm’s English pages with a Nubian displaced by the High Dam, remembering the lost villages of Nubia and showing distinctly mixed views of Nasser.

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