Real Arab Solidarity

There is real Arab solidarity between Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Yemenis, Syrians, Bahrainis... etc. and it's beautiful.

It is a genuine feeling of togetherness between oppressed people who are longing for freedom and dignity.

I felt it today and it touched my heart.

Thanks Pope Shenouda

Pope Shenouda made a very clear and commendable statement about his hopes for a democratic and civil Egyptian state. This is the kind of voice we need to hear more of not the religious state bullshit that is coming out of the Muslim Brotherhood and the salafis. Thank you.

Gaddafi will be removed soon

The NATO intervention in Libya does not enjoy the support of everyone in the Middle East or in the west, but it had to be done to stop Gaddafi from committing a massacre against Libyan civilians.

Nobody wants a prolonged war in Libya which could mean that the western foreign powers are pushing for the desired swift conclusion.

The military operation started with enforcing the no-fly-zone then it moved on to hitting Gaddafi's armoured columns in a switch to what some called the no-drive-zone.

Today the rebels managed to make major gains backed by the NATO attacks and regained Ajdabya, Breiga, Ras Lanouf, Bin Jawwad and are now hoping to capture Gaddafi's tribal stronghold, Sirte.

It is almost certain that foreign special forces are helping the rebels using a technique employed in places like Afghanistan, where a small team of 6 or 7 special forces soldiers would lead the rag tag rebel fighters and turn them into a formidable fighting force capable of taking on the Gaddafi troops.

It will be over soon, I think.

حرية العقيدة

حرية العقيدة عندنا تصور على أنها حرية الإيمان بالإسلام، وهي مكفولة في اتجاه واحد فقط

فرج فودة

ولد عام 1945 واغتيل على يد اثنين من أعضاء الجماعة الإسلامية عام 1992

Mohsen saw 9/11 coming

"Is there any Egyptian atheist association of any shape or form?", I was asking myself. I found this page on wikipedia which had an interesting paragraph:

There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction on the basis of apostasy (this occurs only if a citizen takes the step of suing the person engaging in apostasy, not automatically by the general prosecutor). In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam in four of his books.

Remember who this guy is? He is Salaheddin Mohsen, who was arrested in March 2000 after privately publishing copies of his book, Shivers of Enlightenment, in which he expounded his anti-religious views.

Anyway, he was tried and found guilty, but was only given a six-month suspended jail sentence, so he opted to keep his mouth shut, because with a suspended sentence over your head, you can be immediately imprisoned for any similar future offence.

He described the Koran as a book of ignorance and blamed Islam for underdevelopment in Muslim countries.

Okay I understand that some may find these words offensive, but just remember what 19 dickheads did in the name of Islam in September of the following year? It might have been a good idea to let the guy express himslef (instead of trying him) and listen to what he had to say. Maybe... just maybe he had a point or two to make?

Genuis

This was the first piece of news that put a smile on my face for a long time.

A letter by Albert Einstein was sold in a London auction for over 400,000 dollars.

The letter illustrates Einstein's views on religions.

It was a letter he wrote to a friend in very simple and straight forward words.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.

Einstein, who was Jewish and had declined an offer to be Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's favoured people.

For me the Jewish religion, like all others, is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

The sooner religion followers realize this the better for the whole world. It is sad that billions of people still follow blindly their religious leaders despite the fact that anyone who spends his life studying theology is neither intelligent nor slightly interesting.

Evel Knievel RIP

One of my childhood heros.

Kareem Soliman

Almost a year ago, to be precise on the 7th of November 2006, the young Egyptian blogger Kareem Soliman was imprisoned. For almost a year now he has been suffering from a gross miscarriage of justice. He is an innocent man jailed for expressing his views on a blog.

Mahalla Strikes Again

To pay a factory worker less than two dollars a day is obscene, to put it politely.

It is not surprizing then that the Mahalla workers decided to strike again.

If the government thought that the workers will happily carry on working, then the whole cabinet must be suffering from a serious mental breakdown. I wish them a quick recovery.

These simple workers will go down as heros in the history of the Egyptian labour movement and they are making all opposition activists, groups and parties look like pussies.

Kicking Fundi Ass

I found this gem on youtube. The secular Egyptian writer Sayed Al Qemni kicking Fundi ass on Al Jazeera. He absolutely obliterated a guy from Al Gamaa Al Islamiya live on Bin Laden TV. Watch it and tell me what you think...

Farag Fouda

During the month of June, 15 years ago two members of Al Gamaa Al Islameya murdered the great Egyptian secular thinker Farag Fouda. He died for the secular values that he believed in. The jihadi fundamentalists could not silence this brave man and did not have enough brains to challenge his thought and engage in a civilized debate with him. Fouda kicked their fundi ass like noone ever did he exposed their ignorance and stupidity so they killed him and as horrible as that may sound,I admit that since the day Farag Fouda was killed, I never sympathized with Islamists who are tortured or killed in Egyptian jails or in Guantanamo or wherever. They are just getting a taste of their own medicine.

Tony Blair Resigns

Tony B-liar announced his resignation today after only ten years in power... and no he's not dead yet.

He did alot for his country, but fucked up big time by going along with the invasion of Iraq. Still it is refreshing and fascinating for me as an Egyptian and an Arab to see a democraticlly elected head of state actually resigning... wow.

And he's not promoting his son to succeed him. Unbelievable.

Justice For Kareem

As both regular readers of this blog know, the jailing of the young Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is really pissing me off.

On Monday, the appeals court upheld the four-year prison sentence given to Kareem for criticizing Al-Azhar and Egypt's president.

This is just so unfair and it exposes the level of retardedness and bullshit that's around.

Holy Shit

Al-Azhar is a loose cannon. After successfully jailing Kareem Amer, they are now going after the novelist Nawal El Saadawi.

Al Azhar is threatening legal action against Saadawi, accusing her of insulting religions. Saadawi is 75 years old and has published more than 40 books that have been translated into dozens of languages, yet these cunts want to jail her, so she rightly decided to leave Egypt. I don't blame her.

Saadawi said that she was fed up with the complacency and cowardice of Egyptian intellectuals and their unwillingness to stand up to intimidation. She is right. Egyptian so called "intellectuals" are pussies and just as bad as the Azhar assholes who want to jail Saadawi.

Now this is the really weird part. Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi (the Sheikh of Al Azhar) will be visiting Pope Benedict in the Vatican this month.

Islamists have condemned Tantawi's planned visit because the Pope was accused last year of insulting Islam. Tantawi's critics say that if he meets the Pope then he condones the Pope's insults to Islam. Who knows, maybe they will take legal action against Tantawi.

There is a bit of a contradiction here. How can Tantawi call for Saadawi to be jailed for insulting Islam and then go visit the Pope, who is also accused by Islamists of insulting Islam? A bit of double standards? maybe, but personally, I am not surprized that Tantawi and the Pope want to meet, after all these two guys have alot in common, they are both fascists.

I have a very good solution for all this shit. I think that The Pope, Tantawi and all the other Azhar guys who want to sue Saadawi, should participate in the Beijing Olympics next year.

They should take part in the javelin throw competitions, as targets.

Wow!

Check out this interview by Queen Rania.

She said that:

Islam neither requires one to be practising, nor to dress in one way or another, so imposing the veil on a woman is contrary to the principles of Islam.

She is a breath of fresh air in a region full of bullshitters.

Thanks your majesty :)

And she is a hottie too.

Bill Gates Kicks Saudi Ass

Bill Gates cited Saudi Arabia as an example of why he believes limiting the rights of women can hinder economic growth.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the co-founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp. described speaking to a segregated audience at a recent business seminar in Saudi Arabia.

On one side of an auditorium sat men. On the other side of a large partition was a "sea of black," Gates said -- women in full-length abayas that cover their faces, as required in Saudi Arabia.

A questioner asked if he thought Saudi Arabia could meet its ambitious goal of becoming one of the world's most competitive economies by 2010, Gates said.

"I said, Well, if you're not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you're not going to get too close to the top,' " Gates said.

How did the audience react? "One side loved it," Gates quipped.

So what are the Saudis going to do now? Boycot Microsoft?

I love Bill Gates.

The Greatest

The legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali is celebrating his 65th birthday today.

Back in the seventies, he was my childhood hero and he was extremely popular in Egypt because he was black and because he converted to Islam. I think that we have a really fucked up attitude towards blacks. We love respect and sympathize with black icons around the world (Muhammad Ali, Pele, Mandela etc.) yet there is alot of racism in our culture against black people (ask any black person who lived in Egypt). It's also amazing how Islam's image was completely different back then from what it is today.

Sorry about the diversion, back to Muhammad Ali. He was the first man to win the heavyweight title of the world three times and outside the ring, he refused to fight in the Vietnam War, was stripped of his world title and banned from boxing. He was allowed to fight again in 1970 after three years out of the ring and finally regained his title in 1974. He was also a powerful activist for black rights, both in America and around the world. A true hero and one of the iconic figures of the 20th century. As a child my parents would allow me to wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to watch his fights live on the old black and white TV. Happy birthday :)

Santa's heat problem

Could Santa Claus possibly deliver gifts to all the world’s good children – and still remain within the laws of physics? To deliver gifts to all who deserve them, Santa would need to move so fast that he would vaporise due to air resistance, be torn to pieces by gravitational forces or suffer other terrible fates we wouldn’t wish for Santa Claus, but according to one scientist, "Santa has an ion-shield of charged particles, held together by a magnetic field, surrounding his entire sleigh. This is how he solves the heat problem."