Comments on: Brothers and Comrades

By: The Arabist » 3alaa asks for your help to free his friends

The Arabist » 3alaa asks for your help to free his friends — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 13:58:53 +0000

[...] 3alaa Seif, the leftist blogger who has recently come out of prison, is appealing to you to help release his friends Mohamed Sharqawi and Kareem el-Sha3er. Please check out the appeal on Human Rights First website. 3alaa, and other leftists, have been also campaigning for the release of Muslim Brothers detainees. Mr. El-Sa3id Ramadan, the editor of Ikhwan Web, sent me a list of the MB detainees who were picked up during the pro-democracy demos. The number of detainees had exceeded 900 since last March, but it has gone down to less than 600 detainees at the moment, according to Ramadan, as there has been some recent releases. The list is in Arabic, and there are missing names yet, which Ramadan has promised to send in soon. Weâ€™ll be updating the list as we receive more names. (If you are a Muslim Brother activist, and know more names, please contact the website administrator, and weâ€™ll add the names you know.) [...]

By: The Arabist » Released detainees debate reform on TV

The Arabist » Released detainees debate reform on TV — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:16:07 +0000

[...] As I’m blogging now, 3alaa is speaking on MBC, about the bloggers community in Egypt, human rights abuses, prospects for activism in Egypt, and his encounter with the Muslim Brothers youth in detention. Two released detainees are also to appear on Dream2 TV, Saturday 8pm (Cairo time), together with two Mubrak’s National Democratic Party MPs. Kefaya activists Ahmad Salah and Nada al-Qassas are to debate political reform against Yehya Wahdan, the former State Security Colonel who became the MP for Bab el-She3reya district (formerly represented by Dr. Ayman Nour), and Dr. Sherin 3abdel 3aziz, Al-Wayleeâ€™s district MP. The talkshow host is Wael el-Ibrashi. [...]

By: Hossam el-Hamalawy

Hossam el-Hamalawy — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:23:50 +0000

For some reason my two comments to Hugh were deleted from the post, so Iâ€™m re-posting them again.

Tudeh opted for a â€œpopular frontâ€ with Khomeini, cheering him as the great anti-imperialist, and gave up its organizational independence. What Iâ€™m calling for is a â€œunited frontâ€ between Islamists and leftists over issues where the two tendencies could coordinate over, like the necessity of getting free elections, the stop of torture, liberating the syndicates from govt control, etc. In a united front, each tendency maintains its organizational independence, and still reserve the right to be critical.
Thereâ€™s a good article I recommend on that subject.
http://www.swp.org.uk/swp_archive.php?article_id=6868
Re: Tareq Ali.. I havenâ€™t read the novel you are referring to, I only read Fear of Mirrors, and his book on 1968, Marching in the Streets. Tareq Ali is someone indeed I have so much respect for, and its his right to describe Harman in whatever way he likes. That doesnâ€™t mean however Iâ€™m not a fan of a Harman. Indeed I like his works a lot, and I think he authored several important books which constituted a contribution to the socialist theory and practice. (You may wanna also check out what he wrote of Tareq Ali in his book, 1968: The Fire Last Time)

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 01:58:06 +0000

Thanks for the link - its not often you see Socialist Worker Party pamphlets used to back up an argument.

If you’re a fan of Chris Harman I’d recommend Tariq Ali’s first novel, Redemption - a parody of the ideological contortions of the Trotskeyites following the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. You’ll recognise Harman in there as the lunatic ‘Nutty Shardman’.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:24:47 +0000

Ever wondered why you don’t hear much about the Tudeh Party anymore? Before cheering on an Islamist-Left alliance you might want to open a history book.

By: SP

SP — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:01:29 +0000

Very interesting. I remember last summer when Kefaya and related groups were holding meetings with the Brothers to talk about coordinating protests, ‘Alaa said something about how difficult it was to get either side to stop being suspicious of the other - if you raise the suggestion on the Left you get accused of helping the fundies in their quest for power, and if you wanted to work with Christians and secularists as an Islamist, you were accused of shirk. I think this was with reference to the Zaytoun church protest last summer. I wonder what he thinks of the prospects for cooperation between the leaderships of the Left and the Brothers now…and whether it would help to bring the parties on board to really work together against the regime. Or would the Left still just risk being tarred with the extremist brush.

By: Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 16:53:02 +0000

Yes!

By: Cosmic

Cosmic — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:17:55 +0000

Good stuff. We need more sympathy and cooperation among the Brotherhood and the leftists.