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Egyptian Blogger Sentenced to 15 Years For Organizing Protest
The Guardian reports that Alaa Abd El Fattah, "one of the activists most associated with the 2011 uprising that briefly ended 60 years of autocratic rule, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for allegedly organising a protest – an act banned under a law implemented last November, and used to jail several revolutionary leaders. ... Abd El Fattah was also jailed under Mubarak, the military junta that succeeded him, and Adly Mansour, the interim president installed after the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi last summer. Under Morsi, Abd El Fattah escaped prison, but was placed under investigation."
The EFF points ou that Abd El Fattah "is one of many caught up in the Egyptian government’s attempt to assert powers. Alaa set an example for how the Internet could be used to organize and exercise free speech: Egypt's leaders should not be permitted to make an example of him to silence others."
Update: 06/12 20:02 GMT by T : Reader Mostafa Hussein points out that Abd El Fattah took part in a Slashdot interview more than 10 years ago, too; it gives some insight into the tech scene (and a bit of the politics) of Egypt at that time.
The progressive leaders and instigators of unrest and revolution are always attacked afterwards. Look at the Irish War for Independence, the Iranian Cultural Revolution, the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, the list goes on.
that briefly ended 60 years of autocratic rule
Haven't we learned from Syria and Iraq that autocratic rule is better than Muslim rule. During the brief Islamic rule of Egypt non-Muslims were killed, raped, burned out of homes and places of worship. Yes, they are a bit hard on this blogger - but lets not forget what the movement he supported stood for.
Organized a protest in 2011.
Ban on protests signed into law in November 2013.
Get put away for 15 years?
If I clap my hands today, and handclapping becomes illegal tomorrow, will I get put away for 15 years too?
Egypt's leaders should not be permitted to make an example of him to silence others.
While I don't disagree with the sentiment, I would point out that Egypt isn't the US and the protections and institutions available to us are not available to Egyptians. This does point out, yet again, the problem with the 'Arab Spring' or any rapid move to a rule-of-law, marginally democratic republic: you need strong political, legal and financial institutions for all of that to work. You have virtually none of that in the Arab world.
How you get from a military theocracy to some sort of representative and stable government is a question that has yet to be answered.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
This happened after that, and since things always have exactly one cause, you must be right.
American revolution: 1765 to 1783. About 18 years. Up to 50,000 Americans dead or wounded.
Arab spring: (Egypt), 2011-today. About 3 years so far. Deaths: over 1,100. 6,400 or so injured
American revolution casualties per year: ~2,700
Egyptian revolution casualties per year: ~2,500.
Oh yeah. It's a total clusterfuck over there, the likes of which the world has never seen, and the difference is clearly religion. Centuries from now, to say nothing of decades, the area will be total hell. Americans after and during the revolutionary war never had legal issues of any type. (/heavy sarcasm)
Lest you say "Oh, but sectarian violence, and rape!" remember that America had outright slavery, and women couldn't vote. Ending either wasn't even much of a discussion. On top of that, America benefitted from being a giant ocean away from most meddling, while Egypt is surrounded by foreign governments trying to weigh in, largely pushing towards sectarian violence. And the worlds superpowers of China, Russia, the US, and the EU are all all up in their buisiness too.
Face it: the Egyptians are handling this a lot better than we did. It could be better in theory, sure, I don't think anyone would question that. But to suggest it's terrible and it's because of religion, which many Americans seem convinced of (not just trolls) is really stupid.
You mean like the plan for killing Occupy high profile members from a couple of years ago? Or the political prosecution of Aaron Schwartz? Or the more recent classifying peaceful protests as terrorism? It is already there, just that most people didn't realized it yet.
Face it: the Egyptians are handling this a lot better than we did.
And there it is.
No matter what issue, wherever on the planet, or how fucked up it is.....the US did it worse. And s still doing it worse.
Egypt isn't the US, but we do provide them with a lot of weapons and financial support while we hold adversaries like Iran, North Korea, Syria or even competitors like China to a different and higher standard of human rights and justify our antagonism towards those countries partly or largely based on their human rights records.
I don't expect the US to impose freedom and democracy around the world wherever we find tyranny, but neither do I want my tax dollars to be used to fund and arm tyrannical regimes like Egypt. Trade with them, okay sure. Arm them, no.
Your automatic extrapolation from "The Egyptians are handling this better" to "The US did it worse no matter what or where" is a knee-jerk reaction that shows off your ass-hattedness.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
It's a shame the US is more civilized than Russia or we'd just bomb them, take it over, and have 51 states. Then probably hit North Korea and Syria and every other complete asshole country where the government terrorizes and kills their own people.
Actually for Egypt the choice is now for Sisi or Sisi... or Sisi. Vote for Sisi or die, bitch!
I think a much more apt comparison would be to the French Revolution: a popular revolt against the establishment that ended up with lots of public violence, several failed democratic regimes, and ultimately led to the rise of a dictator who put down any further revolts by killing and arresting the protestors.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Coming soon to the UK(TM)!
I didn't say we did it worse, the GP did.
Every problem that exists, anywhere in the world, someone will be along quite early in here to proclaim the US did/does it worse.
The OP having to reach back 200+ years to how things were handled during the American Revolution for a comparison simply shows this stupidity in its full glory.
There could be an article here about the nutritional comparisons of boiling grass or tree bark for soup among North Koreans, and some asshat will proudly proclaim conditions in the US are worse.
Some moderator not realizing when the pot is calling the kettle black.
Ten years ago Alaa answered your questions about GNU/Linux and technology in Egypt.
Is it still banned over there?
the price for leaving the Free Speech Zone (TM)
The comments for pretty much every article on Slashdot devolve into an "America sucks" circle jerk ...
Envy really is ugly!
Yeah, you missed my point completely. The GP said the Egyptians are handling their revolution better, and you went off on your tangent of "why does everyone hate America!" by sarcastically belching "oh yeah the US did it worse no matter what it is".
Even as you're walking it back now by claiming "no I didn't say that, I said SOME ASSHAT will proudly say we're doing it worse", it still has nothing to do with the fact that he made an interesting point: many Americans like to claim that the savages in the Middle East can't handle or don't deserve democracy, while forgetting (or maybe they never learned) how messy our own revolution was. If you don't want to debate that point, fine, but your knee-jerk counter-point that abhors any criticism of 'MURRICA! is off-topic, adds nothing, and sounds like Archie Bunker.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.