Bloggers arrested in Naga Hammadi
Just a quick note to relay the arrest of 18 bloggers arrested in the Upper Egyptian province of Nagga Hammadi, where sectarian clashes and the murder of six persons affiliated with the local bishop (who had been targeted for assassination).
Security had said they would be held until after the departure of a delegation by Sheikh al-Azhar in the afternoon, but still no news from them.
Press release below.
ECESR: Young Activists Arrested
Friday January 15, 2010 read more »
Articles and more
Just a quick note to link to two new articles by yours truly:
✩ A look at Muhammad ElBaradei’s entrance in the Egyptian presidential succession crisis, over at the new issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin: read more »
Links for Jan.10.10 to Jan.11.10
Marshallplanism
Poster for the Marshall Plan
A few years ago I was contacted by a young researcher by the State Department’s Policy and Planning bureau, which is a kind of internal think tank. The researcher had written a book about the Marshall Plan’s success in postwar Europe, and was now conducting research into the possibility of implementing a Marshall Plan for the Middle East. When he explained this to me, I had to resist the urge to walk away or yell at him (it helped he was quite smart and well-informed). read more »
Moufid Shehab and Egypt’s Gaza Hysteria
The Egypt-Gaza border, by Flickr user Piersonr read more »
The labourer
My review of Hamdi Abu Golayyel’s newly translated novel just came out in The Review.
A Dog with No Tail is his second book, after Thieves in Retirement, and it won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature last year, given out by AUC Press (part of the award is to be translated and published by the press). read more »
The Nag Hammadi massacre
I should be on al-Jazeera English around 1pm GMT to talk about the attack on a church in Nag Hammadi, in Upper Egypt, which claimed six lives. The attack was retaliation on the Coptic community after a Copt (from a different area) raped a young Muslim girl in November. It appears to have been led by a man who had publicly sworn to take revenge against the local bishop (who had nothing to do with the rape), but had not been arrested by security (the bishop says he was protected by local ruling party figures). The Coptic community in Nag Hammadi is now protesting lax security and the hostility they’ve felt since the rape.
I recommend keeping up with al-Masri al-Youm which has some excellent reporting from the scene: read more »
Links for Jan.06.10 to Jan.07.10
✪ Video: Egyptian police clash with Gaza aid convoy | guardian.co.uk | Another good video about clashes between Viva Palestina and Egyptian security.
✪ Rebuilding Afghanistan « London Review Blog | Narcotecture = Drug-financed ugly houses in Kabul.
✪ Israeli television confrontation is ‘a metaphor of the moral crisis in which Zionism is found today’ | Fascinating video argument – must watch. read more »
Clashes at Rafah
Following up on the previous post about the standoff between pro-Palestinian activists from the Viva Palestina convoy and Egyptian security, the situation has escalated at the border with Palestinians clashing with Egyptian border guards, one of whom has been reported killed (the second in a week I think.) This is a bad development, for both sides, and Hamas is clearly flexing its muscle after the construction of the wall and the treatment of the solidarity campaigns. I wonder if Egypt has thought through pushing the Gazans against the wall (so to speak.)
Below is a report from Al Jazeera English. read more »
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