E-government in KSA and elsewhere

alarabiya.net, Saudi Arabia leader nation in e-readiness: U.N. report, 3 Aug 2012 "Saudi Arabia has joined Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in the elite club of 21 nations holding crucial components of e-readiness for effective e-government and various e-services in public and private sectors, according to U.N. study released in Riyadh on Thursday." The survey should be on the UN Public E-Government Survey website, but the August edition doesn't seem to be available at present.

Egypt: Egyptians Give Advice to Syrians

Egypt: Egyptians Give Advice to Syrians · Global Voices: "Egyptians are dishing out advice to Syrians - on Twitter. Under a dedicated hash tag, the advice ranges from “do not take photographs with tanks” to “take advice from someone else.”"

Egyptian Brotherhood

AP/Guardian, Egypt's Brotherhood treads carefully after victory, 10 Jan 2012, 

"The Freedom and Justice party's political manifesto, posted on the group's website, does not speak of the prohibition of alcohol and the segregation of the sexes, but there is enough there to suggest it may just be a matter of time .

" ... It [the manifesto] also says it will create a network of Internet sites that "bolsters constructive culture, and the social and religious values of Arab and Islamic societies.""

Egyptian protests

Guardian, Middle East Blog, Egypt violence - Monday 10 October as it happened

The Atlantic, Egypt's Anti-Christian Violence: How Things Got So Bad, 12 Oct 2011 "The specific rights and wrongs of this disturbing episode will be litigated on Twitter, Facebook, and Egypt's lively talk shows, but largely to no real good or progress."

AhramOnline, Outrage over state TV's misinformation and anti-Coptic incitement, 12 Oct 2011

almasryalyoum.com, Video exposes military abuse of Coptic protester, 12 Oct 2011

"Egypt's communications 'kill switch'"

Dan Gillmor, Salon.com, Egypt's communications 'kill switch', 28 Jan 2011 "The Egyptian government's move to shut down Internet access, among other communications, amid the escalating protests is nearly unprecedented—and it foretells a future, unless we work hard to prevent it, of centralized information control. And before we Americans get smug about our freedoms in the information sphere, we should recognize that what Egypt is doing is exactly what authoritarians in our own government want the ability to do here."

كلنا خالد سعيد

ElShaheeed on Facebook (We are all Khalid Saeed):

كلنا خالد سعيد

Photo galleries and images from the protests, together with campaigning materials. Samples below:

Twitter and Facebook Impact

Philadelphia Inquirer, Arab world shaken by power of Twitter and Facebook, 27 Jan 2011: "Behind the scenes rages a struggle for media control. Government blocks or muddles Twitter and cell-phone use; tech-savvy protesters find workarounds that get out the message. Facebook pages, Twitter tweets, and YouTube posts appear and are taken down. (Twitter confirmed it had been blocked in Egypt. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told CNET on Wednesday that Egypt had not blocked Facebook.)

"It would be misleading to overstress the impact of media. Mona el-Ghobashy, assistant professor of political science at Barnard College, says: 'The prospects for Tunisia-style reform in Egypt are dim. The Egyptian government is well-versed in managing and containing even large-scale protests, and has been doing so for decades.'

"On the other hand, says Entelis, 'no one saw this coming in Tunisia, either. The main thing is, the unthinkable first step has happened.'""

Similar points have been made elsewhere. Watch this space.

'Anonymous' hackers threaten Egyptian government'

AFP: 'Anonymous' hackers threaten Egyptian government, 27 Jan 2011: "The group of hackers known as 'Anonymous', which attacked Tunisian government websites this month, has warned the Egyptian government of reprisals if it blocks Internet access for protestors."

Inside Egypt's Facebook Revolt

Mike Giglio, Daily Beast/Newsweek, Inside Egypt's Facebook Revolt, 27 Jan 2011: "After this week’s Friday prayers, which are always heavily attended, people will be asked to take to the streets anew. On one of the protest’s main Facebook pages, more than 43,000 people have already signed up for the event, which was posted Wednesday. “A lot of organizers are arrested,” says “ElShaheeed,” the page’s anonymous administrator. “We are hoping it will virally spread, and people will assume responsibility [by spreading the word] in their mosques and churches.”

""Post-prayer protests have been effective in Egypt for years. “It’s incredibly smart, because they can’t close off the mosques,” says Joshua Stacher, a Middle East specialist at Kent State who lived in Cairo for almost a decade. “They don’t know who’s showing up to pray and who’s showing up to protest.”""

The article refers to the following Facebook page:

جمعة الغضب للثورة على الفساد والظلم والبطالة والتعذيب

which looks like this:

Looks like Friday will be a busy day.

aQ "internet generation"

Abdulsattar Hatitah, Asharq Alawsat, Is Al Qaeda's "internet generation" their most dangerous?, 15 Jan 2011: "The chief theorist of the Egyptian al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah (Egyptian Islamic Group or EIG), Dr. Najih Ibrahim, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Al Qaeda's "internet generation" who draw on jihadist ideology via websites affiliated to the Al Qaeda organization are more dangerous than the previous generation of jihadists who are affiliated to Islamist groups and armed movements. He stressed that while the previous generation of jihadists could be controlled and guided, the new generation who draw on jihadist ideology from the internet cannot be controlled or guided in the same way."

Kareem Amer Finally Released

allAfrica.com: Egypt: Blogger Kareem Amer Finally Released, 17 Nov 2010: "Reporters Without Borders hails the release of Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, the blogger known as Kareem Amer. He was finally set free on the evening of 15 November, 10 days after completing a four-year jail sentence, and is now reunited with his family. He has decided for the time being to make no statement."

ikhwanbook

BBC News - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood launches 'Islamic Facebook', 24 Aug 2010

I blogged on this a few weeks back - interesting that it is now getting some more mainstream coverage

Social networking media

Mona Eltahawy, washingtonpost.com, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the new tools of protest in the Arab world, 7 Aug 2010 "Khaled Said is not the first Egyptian whom police allegedly beat to death. But his death has sparked a virtual revolution that is affecting Egypt's tightly controlled society."

Amr Khaled

New and noted: informaworld.com: Aaron Rock, 'Amr Khaled: From Da'wa to Political and Religious Leadership', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 37, Issue 1 April 2010 , pages 15 - 37

I've just received this, so haven't read it fully yet. It contains a number of references to the role of the Internet in relation to religious and political authority, so will be relevant to regular readers of this blog.

'Cyber infidelity in Egypt’s virtual world'

Ingrid Wassmann, Cyber infidelity in Egypt’s virtual world, Arab Media & Society, Issue 10, Spring 2010 "The popularity of the Internet and other digital technologies is on the rise in Egypt, causing some critics to question whether the digital revolution will lead to a sexual revolution in the traditionally conservative Egyptian society.

"Ghada Lotfi, a training consultant at The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, is convinced that there is indeed a connection between the use of cyber technology, infidelity and the rate of divorce in Egypt. “Of course, of course, they are all related,” said Lofti, pointing out though that there are still no official statistics to support this correlation. “We receive many complaints from women who want a divorce because their husbands are meeting other women in chat rooms and cheating on their wives.”"

Very useful article in a controversial area

Egypt

BBC News, Egypt's homosexuals find home in cyberspace, 26 Apr 2010

Egypt: cybercrime workshop

George Haddad, globalarabnetwork.com, Egypt: Workshop on fight against cyber-crime, 29 Mar 2010 "An announcement said the two-day seminar, to be held on 30 and 31 March 2010 in Cairo, Egypt, will gather 245 participants nominated by the respective ministry or national authority of the beneficiary country. It will present the phenomenon of cybercrime, discuss the legal framework, and focus on responsibilities of the law enforcement agencies and Internet service providers."

Islam Online "on-strike" [update]

Comprehensive coverage of this from Eman AbdElRahman, Global Voices Online, Egypt: IslamOnline Employees Strike, 16 Mar 2010 "It is worth mentioning that this strike may be the first instance in which strikers use new media efficiently and effectively to draw all the attention needed to support their cause, from continuous Twitter updates to Live streaming."

There's a Facebook group: IslamOnline Supporters



Also see:

Ashraf Khalil, almasryalyoum.com, Islam On-Strike, 15 Mar 2010

"Hundreds of employees of the widely read Islamic news website Islam Online walked off their jobs Monday afternoon, plunging the organization into chaos and calling its future into question. As of Monday evening, several dozen employees were staging an angry sit-in at the website’s main office in 6th of October City.

"The dispute, according to current and former employees, stems from long-simmering tensions between the website’s Cairo newsroom and a new board of directors based in Qatar. Striking employee Fathi Abu Hatab said the site’s new directors had been interfering in editorial content and seeking to alter the moderate tone and diversity of that content, which he says are the site’s signatures."

Also see Joseph Mayton, bikyamasr.com, Islam Online in crisis as administration threatens to fire journalists, 15 Mar 2010 "Prominent Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawy, who is technically the owner of Islam Online, has been out of touch during the ordeal. Employees attempted to get in touch with him, but to no avail. HMLC said that the sheikh “had promised the workers all of their rights and the continuation of the Cairo branch or he would resign, but it seems the Qatari side has taken advantage of Qaradawy’s health and his trip to Saudi Arabia.”

"The law center said this was an attempt to take advantage of the situation while he is away.

"This left the Egyptian blogosphere up in arms over the development, which has been updating the situation constantly. According to reports, the new administration wants a more “conservative approach” to what has long been considered one of the few voices for moderate Islamic perspectives online in both English and Arabic."

One senses that a question to 'Ask the Scholar' on industrial action may be appropriate at this juncture. I will continue to follow this dispute and its ramifications.

Facebook 'fatwa' update

MEMRI, Egyptian Clerics Debate Permissibility of Using Facebook and Other Websites; Columnist Diana Mukkaled Responds: 'Social Networking Sites and Blogs Have Helped to Break Down Barriers and Produce Innovations', 1 Mar 2010 "In early February 2010, the Qatari daily Al-Raya reported that the Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee had issued a ruling against Facebook, stating that anyone entering this site was committing an offense against the shari'a. According to the daily, the fatwa was based on a report by Egypt's National Center for Social and Criminological Studies, which claimed that Facebook is a major cause for divorce in the Muslim world. The study contended that one out of every five cases of divorce is caused by one of the spouses having an online affair via Facebook. According to a report on the Al-Arabiya website, the fatwa was issued by a former head of the Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee, Sheikh 'Abd Al-Hamid Al-Atrash, who said that entering Facebook is forbidden in light of the immorality rampant among the youth, and because this site is used to destroy families and homes, and anybody who enters it is a sinner." see full report for references and detail on this previously blogged story

Egypt presidential election: ElBaredi campaign

almasryalyoum.com, Egypt's presidential election takes to Facebook, 28 Feb 2010 "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."



Elbaradei for Presidency of Egypt_ 2011 البرادعى رئيسا