تقرير عن افتتاح مؤتمر الحزب الوطني، بقلم الصديق العزيز سيف نصراوي

جمال مبارك يطرح نفسه كمرشح لقيادة مصر
القاهرة/19 سبتمبر-أيلول/يو بي آي: وفر مؤتمر الحزب الوطني الديمقراطي الحاكم في مصر والذي افتتح اليوم الثلاثاء فرصة جديدة لجمال مبارك نجل الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك لكي يطرح نفسه كشخصية قيادية نافذة وسط اتهامات من قوى المعارضة بانه يهيء [...]

An interesting article by NYT on the Muslim American dating scene…
It’s Muslim Boy Meets Girl, Yes, but Please Don’t Call It Dating

Egyptians Without Borders have launched a campaign against Mubarak’s presidential succession scheme in Egypt. The group called on Gamal Mubarak to resign from his post as the head of the National Democratic Party’s Policies Secretariat, demanded Hosni Mubarak to appoint a vice president, in addition to the release of all political detainees.

You can find out [...]

Few dozens assembled with difficulty in Tahrir Square, under immense security presence, to demonstrate against Mubarak’s National Democratic Party’s congress that’s starting tomorrow.
The sit in, organized by Kefaya, should have lasted till the following day, as the ambitious organizers of the event were hoping. However the heavy police presence that prevented groups of [...]

Some statistics from AP on the US-run global gulag…

U.S. overseas detention system numbers

A look at the U.S. overseas detention system that has developed since 2001:
NUMBERS OF DETAINEES
Iraq (Camp Bucca, Camp Cropper, Fort Suse) - 13,390
Afghanistan (Bagram air base) - Estimated 500
Guantanamo Bay - 455
NATIONALITIES
Iraq - U.S. command last year counted 325 “foreign fighters” but [...]

An open forum will be held at the Journalists’ Syndicate on how to resist the government’s rigging of votes in the coming labor unions elections, Friday, 22 September, 6:30pm
Participants will include:
Judge Mahmoud Mekki
Abdel Aziz Shaaban, Member of Parliament, Tagamu Party
Saber Abul Fotouh, Member of Parliament, Muslim Brothers
Gamal Zahran, Independent Member of Parliament
Khaled Ali, lawyer with [...]

Does anybody remember the “Victorious Group?” That first of its kind “Salafi Takfiri” group in Egypt a la Zarqawi style, as the state-owned press and self-described counterterrorism pundits told us?
These were 22 young Egyptians, picked up last April. The security then proudly stated, that “Information, documents and interviews … confirmed that they were studying carrying [...]

Blogger and journalist Wael Abass wrote the following report about the blogging scene in the Middle East, for the Deutsche Presse Agentur…
Blogging in the Middle East is a tough choice
dpa, Thursday September 14, 2006
By Wael Abbas, Cairo- Creating a blog in a Western country is a very private decision, depending only on one’s interests [...]

Egyptian legendary comedian Fouad el-Mohandess passed away today. He was 82.
I grew up watching with my sister Fouad’s films. I loved his oldies, the quality Black & White movies and plays. Our parents used to turn the radio on in the early morning, while they are driving us to school, to hear his program Kelmetein [...]

The Vatican pope’s statements made Tuesday in Germany on Islam is snowballing into a new crisis a la Danish Cartoons.
Mahdi Akef of the Muslim Brothers condemned the pope’s statements and requested an official appology. Dozens of demonstrators, mainly from the Islamist-leaning Labor Party, demonstrated at Al-Azhar Mosque today requesting an appology, and calling for banning [...]

A statement from the Center for Socialist Studies regarding the 10th of Ramadan “Utech” Factory, whose workers have been on a continuous strike and a sit in since 20 August, to protest the management’s decision to stop paying their salaries since last July.
عمال “يوتك” بالعاشر من رمضان يواجهون التشريد

مازال اعتصام عمال “يوتك” ـ 158 [...]