Category Archives: Blog

Naming the Egyptian revolution

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“Tahrir Square” participants in the recent events in Egypt expressed annoyance when some news organizations referred to them as ‘protests’ (or unrest, riots/rioting, revolt, uprising, intifadah …) rather than as a ‘revolution’Some news organizations used ‘Lotus’ to refer to the Egyptian events. The following list of references to the events is from various Arabic sources:

Ahram

(Facebook Revolution) ثورة الفيس بووك

(January 25 Revolution)ثورة ٢٥ يناير

(Youth Revolution)ثورة الشباب

(January 25 Youth Revolution)ثورة شباب ٢٥ يناير

(Facebook”ean” Revolution)ثورة فيس بوكية

(Egypt’s Revolution)ثورة مصر

Masri Alyom

(Youth Revolution)ثورة الشباب

(Anger Revolution)ثورة الغضب

(25 January Martyrs’ Revolution)ثورة الشهداء ٢٥ يناير

al-Shruruq

(Dignity Revolution)ثورة الكرامة

(Egyptian Citizens’ Revolution)ثورة المواطنين المصريين

al-Jazeera

(Egypt’s Revolution)ثورة مصر

(Egyptian’s Revolution)ثورة المصريين

(Youth’s Revolution)ثورة الشباب

(Egyptian People’s Revolution)ثورة الشعب المصري

al-Sharq Al-Awsat

(Youth’s Revolution)ثورة الشباب

(Revolution of the Young)ثورة شبابية

(Egypt’s Revolution)ثورة مصر

(Lotus Revolution)ثورة اللوتس

al-Nahar

(Egypt’s Revolution)ثورة مصر

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BBC Arabic

(Revolution with a laugh) الثورة الضاحكة

A short documentary: حس الفكاهة في الثورة المصرية

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CHECK Also:

*Saad Eddin Ibrahim: Mubarak’s Interests Are Not America’s – Wall Street Journal Online (Feb 8, 2011) … But the children of the Lotus Revolution, with the help of Twitter and Facebook, have revealed the pharaoh’s nakedness to the world … [Mr. Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy advocate and sociologist, is currently a visiting professor at Drew University. From 2000-2003 he was Egypt’s best-known political prisoner.]

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*Vote on what to call the Egyptian Revolution [Dialy KOS]

*hashtags.org/Jan25

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(CBSNews)

Complete Coverage: Anger in the Arab World

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The Egyptian revolution dominated Twitter this year [2011]

FOREIGN POLICY BLOG, December 5, 2011

According to Twitter, the top hashtag on the microblogging site was not #justinbieber or even Charlie Sheen’s bizarre, mid-meltdown reference to #tigerblood (second place) but #egypt, which users used to categorize tweets related to Egypt’s revolution. #jan25 — a reference to the start of the Egyptian uprising — was the eighth-most-popular hashtag, while Cairo and Egypt were the two most-referenced cities and countries and Hosni Mubarak’s resignation was the most-discussed world news event (besting the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, mind you).

In 2011, #egypt, #jan25, and #japan (used during the country’s earthquake and tsunami in March) all appeared among the top eight hashtags. Last year, by contrast, no news event appeared in the top eight.

The year-end results may also speak to the outsized role Twitter played in Egypt relative to other Arab Spring countries (and, perhaps, the outsized international interest in the Egyptian revolution relative to other uprisings). The Guardian‘s Peter Beaumont writes that Egypt had “a far more mature and extensive social media environment” before its uprising than Tunisia did before its revolution, and the Egyptian protests went on to forge microblogging celebrities like @Ghonim and @Sandmonkey.  A survey by the Dubai School of Government in March estimated that Egypt had the largest number of active Twitter users in absolute terms of any Arab Spring country, though over half were concentrated in Cairo. While Mubarak blocked the Internet for a spell as his government wobbled (Google worked with Twitter to enable Egyptians to tweet with the #egypt hashtag via voicemail).

A study by the Project on Information Technology and Political Islam in September found that in the week before Mubarak stepped down, the number of tweets in Egypt and around the world about the political developments in the country jumped from 2,300 a day to a staggering 230,000 a day.

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Egyptian Revolution الثورة الشعبية المصرية

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Egyptian Revolution

الثورة الشعبية المصرية

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BLOG & MORE by Sawt al-Niswa

The Niswa (women) are feminist writers, artists and activists working towards changing  their realities by taking the initiative to build a space representing and reflecting on the social, political and intellectual experiences of women living in the Arab region.

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تعمل على “صوت النسوة” مجموعة من الكاتبات والفنانات والناشطات النسويات اللواتي يرغبن في المساهمة في عملية تحويل افكارهن النسوية الى واقع. النسوة وراء الموقع مبادرات في خلق مساحة تعبر وتعكس التجارب الفكرية والاجتماعية التي تختبرها نساء العالم العربي

Bon Jovi – No Apologies

Bon Jovi dedicating song to Egyptian Revolutionaries – No Apologies –

Egyptian Revolution 2011 يناير الثورة المصرية في يوم الغضب

egyptflag

Egyptian Revolution 25/1/ 2011

يناير الثورة المصرية في يوم الغضب

Egypt’s Last Pharaoh? The Rise and Fall of Hosni Mubarak

BLOG

Egyptian Chronicles

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A Facebook for the Egyptian revolution:

كلنا خالد سعيد

We are all Khaled Said

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On Jan. 26, the day after protests erupted that eventually forced Mr. Mubarak from office, Egypt’s government-run newspaper Al Ahram, one of the Arab world’s oldest newspapers,  had a banner headline about a protest — in Lebanon.  The headline reads: “Wide Protests and Disturbances in Lebanon.” !!!

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HyperCities Egypt: Voices from Cairo through Social Media

HyperCities’ project for mapping tweets sent by protesters in Cairo during the Egyptian revolution. “HyperCities Egypt: Voices from Cairo through Social Media,” tracks tweets since January 30, and continues to collect tweets sent from within Cairo that mention hashtags relevant to the protests, such as #jan25 or #egypt.

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Egyptian Revolution: a view from the inside

Cairo resident, Safa H. Ashoub provides an illuminating account of the days leading up to the ousting of President Mubarak.

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Novelist and best-selling writer Alaa Aswany has a great deal to say about one of the most pressing questions on everybody’s mind and is not afraid to speak out and to use his international fame to back calls for political change: Who will be the next president of Egypt, and how will he be elected? In a new collection of his weekly newspaper columns previously published in Arabic, “On the State of Egypt,” he explores Western fears of Islam and Arabs and broach subjects like the hijab full-face covering, false religiosity and preachers who hypocritically buttress tyrannical regimes. He discusses the moral ambiguity of appointed politicians, the suitability of democratic reforms in a Muslim society, and the inherent contradiction in the actions of the religiously observant policeman who tortures or the man who harasses women. He was out with protestors from the first day of the revolution and witnessed first-hand the state’s brutal response. On Jan. 28, he saw two young men killed by snipers near Tahrir Square. After Egypt’s 18-day revolution, Mr. Aswany’s weekly columns have become regular features in the top-selling daily al-Masri al-Youm. And, in a March 2 guest appearance on a late night talk show on the ONTV private satellite television channel, he faced Ahmed Shafik, the prime minister appointed by Mr. Mubarak on Jan. 29, and told him to resign. “When you were a minister in Hosni Mubarak’s cabinet, haven’t you heard that state security practiced torture?” Mr. Aswany asked him pointedly. “The prime minister should be concerned with trying the people who killed the martyrs, more than presenting candy and chocolates” — a reference to a moment when Mr. Shafik, trying to show good will, had offered to pass out candy to protesters outside Parliament.

When Mr. Aswany woke up the next morning, Mr. Shafik had submitted his resignation.

Mr. Aswany has always been dismissive of the idea that democracy would usher Islamists into power.

The strongest party in Egypt “is the party of Facebook,” he told another literary and political salon on Jan. 27.

“That is a real party, which has allowed a group of youth to get 400,000 people on the streets. No other party, including the Muslim Brotherhood, has succeeded in doing that.”

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اللجان الشعبية للدفاع عن الثورة المصرية

شهداء ثورة مصر 2011

Egypt: Revolution at Hand?

BLOG / By Denis J. Sullivan and Kimberly Jones

Egypt is undergoing a major social and political transformation—perhaps even of a revolutionary nature. This process, characterized by mass, popular protests (largely nonviolent) has been cause for much speculation and collective head-scratching by those watching from the sidelines. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets in the last several days calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and his government, dominated by his National Democratic Party. Journalists and regional analysts have raised several excellent questions, for which there are frequently a lack of definitive answers. Here are our own observations.

The “new” government — The reconstitution of President Mubarak’s government is too little too late. Vice President (and former spy chief) Omar Suleiman is an interesting choice because he is palatable to the military (far more so than the once heir apparent son of a Mubarak — Gamal) and offers some Egyptians stability. Egyptians’ real need for stability should not be overlooked in contrast to the perceived need for radical regime change. However, he is a Mubarak appointee, and his human rights record leaves much to be desired.

The Muslim Brotherhood — The MB have largely been on the sidelines, and many have wondered why. Did they miss the revolutionary boat as it left the dock for Tahrir Square, or did they strategically decide to let the protests take their course without their leadership or organizational savvy? Without the Brotherhood at the helm, the Egyptian government (and those who support them) has been prevented from raising the specter of an (other) Islamist government in the region. Key, however, is that the MB is still Egypt’s largest organized opposition movement, and although they have suffered from their own internal divisions, they remain popular and populist in orientation. They may not (by their own choice) dominate a future Egyptian executive, but they could certainly command a significant block in parliament.

The next government — Former presidential contender Ayman Nour and former International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohammed El-Baredei are the oft-mentioned non-Mubarak contenders. Both have positives and negatives, and either would be a gigantic improvement over Mubarak. Nour has not been heard much and he is unlikely to be a contender anymore. El-Baredei has far greater visibility, literally, in the streets of Cairo as well as internationally.

Looters — Egyptians of all classes, all socio-economic walks of life, are on the streets as we write; they are protecting their families and their personal property with whatever “weapons” they have — golf clubs, sticks, pistols. The looters? They are largely seen as government “thugs”; indeed, many reports confirm that many are undercover police, the mukhabaraat.

Human rights — The Egyptian people are being beaten and killed while clamoring to have their rights respected. This uprising should serve as a lesson for those who try to portray human rights as Western and Arabs and Muslims as undemocratic. These rights must be understood within each country’s historical, social, and political context. Key is that there is a connection between security and stability and respect for human rights, and understanding, at the same time that real democracy is not Cup-a-Soup — it’s not a quickly assembled short-list of ingredients but a lengthy and difficult process.

The role of the United States — The U.S. is finally calling out the Mubarak government for what it is — although in much more diplomatic terms than many Egyptians are using. It’s putting its democratic and human rights rhetoric where its foreign assistance reality is — on the table. While in some respects this is also too little too late, it is a welcome shift in policy which is better late than never given our strategic relationship with Egypt and its neighbors.

Egypt’s future — Mubarak’s refusal to abdicate thus far is not terribly surprising but also worrying, and it is difficult to imagine the maintenance of his much weakened presidency into the future. Notably, the longer he stays in power the more unstable the state becomes, which worries some neighbors and allies. Key, however, is that Egypt’s stability has been a well-crafted illusion maintained through an authoritarian and repressive executive and hegemonic party politics. Pulling down the curtain on this decades-long effort can bode well for both internal Egyptian politics and regional relations, eventually resulting in a truly democratic Egypt that is genuinely stable.

The Muslim Brotherhood is not the Islamist boogeyman that some have made it out to be. They are a pragmatic, socio-political movement, albeit one with an Islamist agenda. The organization is very unlikely to make a radical play for power, and further destabilize the situation, but it should remain a key actor in Egyptian politics in the near-term.

At the end of the day (or the revolution), Egypt’s future lies in the hands of ordinary Egyptians. This is the first time in a very long time that Egyptians have not only had a voice, but made their voices heard. It is up to the world, and more importantly, the government of Egypt to listen.