Adieu, Sandmonkey

by Patrick (Egypt & USA)

For those of you who haven’t yet heard the news, Sandmonkey, the beloved neoconservative Egyptian blogger is leaving the blogosphere.

I’m sad to see him go. We’ve had our disagreements, but I’ve generally agreed with him on his insights and thoughts regarding Egyptian society (though his insights into American society were just intended to please his predominantly conservative audience and lacked any accuracy). He and I both believe in a liberal, free Egypt noted for its secular government, women’s rights, liberal social beliefs, free market, economic prosperity, pro-intellectual philosophy, and religious/political tolerance. In other words, the Egypt pre-1960s.

Despite the fact that many of his commentators were useless, ignorant bigots, Sandmonkey provided a valuable service by offering a different perspective of Egyptians. Many Egyptians are very well-educated and Westernized, and there are a fair share of Egyptians who are supportive of US policy, not to mention a significant number of Egyptians who are in favor of political and religious liberalization. I’m hoping that by portraying Egypt’s diverse and complex social issues, he brought Egypt closer to home for his American readers.

One of the chief reasons is the fact that there has been too much heat around me lately. I no longer believe that my anonymity is kept, especially with State Secuirty agents lurking around my street and asking questions about me since that day. I ignore that, the same way I ignored all the clicking noises that my phones started to exhibit all of a sudden, or the law suit filed by Judge Mourad on my friends, and instead grew bolder and more reckless at a time where everybody else started being more cautious. It took me a while to take note of the fear that has been gripping our little blogsphere and comprehend what it really means. The prospects for improvment, to put it slightly, look pretty grim. I was the model of caution, and believing in my invincipility by managing not to get arrested for the past 2 and a half years, I’ve grown reckless. Stupid Monkey. Stupid!

I really doubt that Egyptian security services are THAT concerned about an Egyptian blogger whose audience is almost entirely composed of Americans and who spends more time talking about the government than actually doing stuff about it. That said, his voice will leave a void in the Middle Eastern blogosphere. I wish you the best of luck SM!