Questions for Mubarak

Washington Post ^ | 2/11/05 | Saad Eddin Ibrahim

[Valin]

Last month former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright visited Egypt on a fact-finding mission for the Council on Foreign Relations. While there, she met with officials and civil society leaders, including an opposition member of Egypt's parliament, Ayman Nour, who heads a new political party called El Ghad, or Tomorrow. In his assessment of the situation in Egypt, Nour was sharply critical of President Hosni Mubarak's failing policies.

Shortly afterward -- as soon as Albright and company had left -- the parliament met in emergency session to approve a government-sponsored motion stripping Nour of his parliamentary immunity. Minutes later, as he was leaving the parliament building, he was arrested by members of the notorious State Security Agency. His home and party headquarters were raided and searched, and computers and many of his papers were seized.

(snip)

Isn't it these dismal failings that feed popular discontent and contribute to the Islamists' growing numbers? And isn't it Mubarak's repression of secular civil forces that has kept the field empty for the Islamists in Egypt, where there are now more than 100,000 mosques where they can freely preach their message -- but only a handful of registered political parties and human rights groups?

(snip)

Western countries owe Egypt's budding democratic movement their attention and support. I was dismayed by the faint "we take note'" reaction of State Department spokesman Richard Boucher to Nour's arrest and the trumped-up charges against him. There are hundreds of dissidents like Nour in Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia -- the three countries that are at the hard core of Arab authoritarianism.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks for posting.

I had been unentirely unaware of the efforts of the Mubarak regime to repress democratic dissent.

[Valin]

FYI
Hello From the land of the Pharaohs Egypt
http://www.bigpharaoh.blogspot.com/

A good Blog from (SUPRISE!) Egypt.

It's one of the blogs I check into a couple of times a week.