The Skeptic الشكاك

728 Obama’s Brother in Egypt

From the inimitable Ibrahim Eissa:

(Click on image to enlarge)

721 Tapes Link Mustafa to Alleged Killer

Sometimes the news reads like so many movie scripts. While Americans watch Miss Congeniality, in Egypt we’re watching The Professional:

Partial translation from Al-Misry al-Youm here.

719 Talaat Mustafa Arrested

Yesterday police arrested Egyptian billionaire Hisham Talaat Mustafa, former chair of one of the country’s largest real-estate development firms and a representative of the ruling party in the upper house of Parliament, on charges that he paid $2 million to have Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim murdered in Dubai. A earlier ban on reporting any connection between Mustafa and the murder had suggested that the government might stand by Mustafa, who has good connections with the president’s son, Gamal. Apparently not.

Reuters’ Aziz al-Kaissouni is filing updates about the effects on the stock market. And Heba Saleh covers the political angle in article for the Financial Times.

716 Spirits, Spam and Wiretaps

This has no relation to anything, but I’m completely infatuated with these photographs of dead people from the 1920s:

And I wanted to take note of an item of spam sent to my work email address: “Without wiretaps, Americans never would have known about the Jessica/Nick split.” You have 20 minutes. Discuss.

710 An Arab Force for Gaza?

Al-Hayat quotes Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit as saying the possibility of an Arab peacekeeping force for Gaza “should be seriously considered” in order to put an end to the violence there:

And with everything else going on to the North, it was easy to miss that former General Security Gen. Jamil Sayyed, currently in custody for alleged complicity in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, has brought charges in France against Detlev Mehlis. A few days late to record this, but I want to remember it.

705 Egyptian Blogger Detained Under Emergency Law

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Hisham Mubarak Legal Center report that Mohammed Refaat, a student and a blogger, was detained on July 21 on charges of “threatening public security” by using the Internet to call for a strike on July 23. Refaat apparently approached a State Security officer who goes by the assumed name Hisham Tawfiq at State Security headquarters after he found his house had been searched and his computer and books had been seized. He was then detained and charged in case No. 1143 for 2008.

On August 17, the organizations report, a State Security prosecutor ordered him released, but officers brought him back to State Security headquarters.

I took a quick look at Refaat’s blog and could find nothing political.

695 Parliament Destroyed, Paper Banned

Let me never again complain that things happen in Egypt only when I’m out of the country. I was at a meeting two blocks away from Parliament around the time the fire started in the Shura Council yesterday. I noticed nothing as I was leaving (the air is always full of smoke), and learned of the disaster only via SMS when I got home. I watched the fire on TV like millions of other squares.

Word has it that Al-Badil’s late edition was banned last night for its reporting on the fire [UPDATE: I'm now hearing the paper wasn't officially banned. The government-owned Al-Ahram printing house simply delayed publication of the edition until it was too late, effectively ensuring that it didn't come out. FURTHER UPDATE: The edition came out the next day, toned down]. The daily has published the edition online (full paper in a compressed file here). For convenience’s sake, I’m posting their coverage as image files here:

While I was in India for a wedding, it seems two big stories broke in Egypt:

• The state introduced stiff new traffic laws in a Quixotic attempt to curb the chaos and gridlock that paralyzes Cairo. That Al-Ahram Weekly story doesn’t mention the fines for professional drivers who smoke behind the wheel. Nice for nonsmoker passengers, but probably foolish to produce hundreds of thousands of pissed-off, nicotine-deprived taxi drivers.
• The Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange took a dive when rumors suggested that a prominent Egyptian businessman had fled the country following the arrest of suspects in the brutal murder of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. Stocks rebounded when the businessman and his friends debunked those rumors. A government ban on reporting the story did little to keep the story quiet, but perhaps helped restore confidence in the stock market by suggesting the government would stand by the maligned millionaire. Feisty Al-Dustur ran the story; editor Ibrahim al-Mansur told AFP government agents pulled all copies of that edition as a result. General Prosecutor Abd al-Magid Mahmud reportedly lodged yet another case against Managing Editor Ibrahim Eissa in connection with the affair.

In unrelated news, Global Voices has an excellent update on online censorship in Tunisia, and Ellen Knickmeyer has an article for the Washington Post about those nauseating “Veil Your Lolipop” ads.

681 ‘A Veil to Protect or Eyes Will Molest’

Late to this, but these adverts for the hijab, via Hatshepsut and Ursula, have put a bee in my bonnet:

“You Can’t Stop Them, but You Can Protect Yourself.”

“A Veil to Protect or Eyes Will Molest”

A few simple points:

• The hijab is a poor defense against sexual harassment.
• Whether a woman chooses to wear the hijab should be her choice alone. She should not be coerced or pressured either way.
• Men, it is our responsibility alone to make our thoughts and behavior honorable.

Along the same lines, see “Shame and Sexual Harassment” from Mona Eltahawy.

679 Draft Egyptian Media Law, Now in English

Many thanks to Arab Media and Society for translating the draft media law that ran in Al-Masry al-Youm a few weeks back.

677 Chahine

Don’t miss Baheyya’s post memorializing Youssef Chahine, Egypt’s most celebrated director, complete with scans of the original publicity pamphlets for some of his best films. I will remember him as the director of Al-Ard and Bab al-Hadid, one of my favorite films from any country.

From Bab al-Hadid:

From Al-Ard: