The normal conclusions you’d draw from knowing these things are that the Internet is an amazing tool to connect people, a powerful way of spreading information and changing opinions, and a vast world to explore and so on. On the other hand, the conclusion drawn by many dictatorships is that the internet is dangerous when used by the peoples they try to oppress. This is illustrated in how censorship is implemented in states such as China and Iran and in how social media such as Facebook have become symbols of revolution in the Arab Spring movement. It is therefore no surprise that greater powers seek to consolidate their positions by keeping up with their own time and realizing the potential, the usefulness and the dangers of the Internet.

SOPA, PIPA, ACTA. These acronyms have caused uproar in Europe, America and Asia where people speak up in debates, go out on the streets and demonstrate and wage virtual war against the attempts to stop net-piracy from the USA and EU, who seek to make it possible to shut down and block entire websites that feature, for example, copyright-protected images. The opposition believes that any form of internet-regulation, no matter reason, would lead us closer to a world where governments can regulate the streams of information to control what people can know. Thoughts of George Orwell’s dystopic “1984” haunt the minds of many concerned citizens who see the American attempts to regulate the Internet as a sign of the very same imperialist hubris that started the War on Terror. They used 9/11 as an excuse to secure oil from Iraq and Afghanistan – now they try to control the Internet discreetly in the name of War on Online Piracy.

This collides violently with the interests of the Kurdish people in many ways, brothers and sisters. For it is so, that the Internet is a key tool in our struggle for freedom – imagine it being controlled by states allied to our enemies in Ankara or Tehran, enemies who have shown that they don’t hesitate to attack journalists, activists, photographers or a certain Kurdish TV-station in Scandinavia. Imagine how more SOPAs and PIPAs slowly undermine freedom of speech over the years and how the War on Online Piracy is able to evolve into a campaign against enemies of the American government and its allies. Imagine that we, the already silenced people in mainstream media, become silenced on the net, having our sites taken down, our blogs blocked and our videos and images that prove committed atrocities deleted.

To succeed in our struggle, we need all the help we can get. And it is an accepted doctrine among the Kurds that we must seek support in non-Kurdish governments and peoples who can apply outside pressure on our oppressors. But, in order to do that we need to keep the information flowing from the homeland – the proofs of killed civilians, the jailed journalists, the children on hunger-strikes. There is a reason behind the systematic attacks against Kurdish media by the Turkish, Iranian and Syrian governments – if knowledge is power and additionally free and easily accessible then it’s also dangerous for the regimes. The sharpest spears in our struggle are the pencils we hold in our hands – the letters in an article are more dreaded than the bullets fired by rebels.

Knowing these things it should be absolutely out of the question to even accept that the Internet falls into the hands of any government that may be capable of censorship and cutting information-streams – especially not the information-streams vital to the survival of our struggle and nation. Opposing regulations on the Internet is therefore a question of necessity and survival, of protecting our flanks and sides in the virtual world.

Now, the pessimist might say: “what use is there to protest, they will let these laws pass anyway”. Yes, the governments of the West will probably not back down on these laws sooner than we would like and the opposition is in for a long fight. But it is our resolve that should determine the intensity of our struggle – not the resolve of the people we oppose. With such pessimism the attempts of dialogue between Turks and Kurds could be dismissed as futile, especially since the fascists in Ankara use the army to quell the opposition, in contrast to the states of the West. Yet, the struggle in northern Kurdistan goes on – as should the struggle on the streets and squares of Europe and the forums on the net. The cause, to preserve freedom of speech, will have to fuel people and turn the angry freedom-fighters into patient, unrelenting freedom-fighters. If anything, patience and perseverance are the traits every Kurd carries deep within him or her – born from the constant struggle, which have more than once seemed utterly fruitless. The Kurd is not only in need of joining the ongoing campaign against War on Online Piracy but has a natural place in the struggle and can prove to be a valuable ally of the global opposition.

Also, aligning ourselves with the people who protect the Internet is according to the principle to seek non-Kurdish support for our cause. As I have stated before, we live in the age of free information and a completely new, global, internet-culture is emerging. Anonymous, Lulzsec and other hacker-groups are groups created from online-communities and when looking at different demonstrators around the world we see that they carry symbols, signs and masks indicating a common cultural base – internet-memes and Guy Fawkes-masks tell us about the new generation of internet-users, the generation that one day will inherit the world. Joining the opposition would therefore not only be an act of defending the interests of our people, but also to create spheres of influence for the Kurds. By demonstrating side by side and joining forces we’d be getting new friends in a generation that is currently gaining power fast. By protecting the values and ideals all free peoples of the world should staunchly preserve, we remind the new generation that we are humans too. And as the development of the Internet-movement continues Kurds ought to jump on the train in time to keep up – the struggle for the Kurdish people lies not only in preserving our ancient culture and following nationalist paroles from the past, but also in carrying our nation, culture and people from one time-period to another. This is the eternal duty every Kurdish generation is tasked with.

Although most Kurds may not even have any access to the Internet it is no reason for us in the diaspora to neglect the ongoing events of War on Online Piracy. In fact, responsibility lies heavier on our shoulders (or should I say, our keyboards?) since we are the only ones who are able to speak for the Kurds in online media. As our brethren suffer unspeakable atrocities in the hands of our enemies, our duty is to keep the flow of information going – and to protect the backs of our people in Kurdistan.

With all this said, we have a lot to win in joining the struggle and a lot to lose if we do not. Let us therefore join the fight against SOPA, ACTA and PIPA as one of the free peoples of the world. We do it for You, Kurdistan.

67 years ago, in Japan, “THE LITTLE BOY” didn’t mean innocence; it meant damage, pain and suffering. It wasn’t blue and wasn’t white, it was black and grey with spots of red all over the place. And most importantly it wasn’t a toy, it was the bomb that vanished Hiroshima!

It took only 60 seconds to kill 30% of the total population of Hiroshima, 90% of their doctors and 70% of their buildings were instantly turned into ash. Experts predicted it would take a city wiped off the map decades to ever be the same.

Three to four years after the A-bomb, Hiroshima rose from the ashes!

After all, naming a bomb that killed thousands of children “the little boy” wasn’t that cruel. It gave the Japanese the hope of a new start that a “little boy” can have while riding his bicycle for the first time. Each fall showed him the mistakes, which he should never repeat again. And instead of crying, he smiles and tries again and again until the day comes when he can let the winds wipe away all his painful memories as he ride his bicycle as fast as a bicycle can be ridden.

The people in Hiroshima couldn’t fight death, burns or diseases from the radiation, but they certainly could fight fear, despair and negativity. They knew that with hope and faith, everything is possible. They believed in the power of the human willingness, determination and his ability to recover. When people told them “the glass is half full”, they disagreed and refused to settle for anything less than a “full glass”!

As an Iraqi, my left and right brain sides are always in dispute.

My left side thinks we can never be Hiroshima, Iraq can never be the same, the damage can never be undone, the hurt and pain that each Iraqi carries over their shoulders can never be lifted and that we will have to live with the shame of not recovering forever. My left side thinks peace and happiness have left Iraq long ago, and he insists that they will never come back again. He reminds me every day of our mistakes as Iraqis, as a government and as humans.

And whenever someone asks me “where are you from?” he nags me to deny being an Iraqi, he screams loudly the names of the children who were killed by the Iraqis themselves, he sings the wedding songs of the newly weds who were killed on their wedding nights, and sometimes, he makes me listen to the Iraqi mothers telling their stories which always start with tragedy and end with uncertainty. And when I remind him of Hiroshima, with a voice full of rage and anger, trying to hold on to my last piece of hope, quietly he says “but we are Iraqis, we can never do the same!”

Then…just then, my right side wakes up, with his loud silence, reminding me of the days of Hulagu, when he raped, destroyed and shuttered Baghdad. The days when instead of giving up, Baghdad ran and took the hands of her history, medicine, astronomy and mathematics and hidden them inside of her, under her streets and between her walls, turning her rivers into a blue water which she later generously let us drink.

She was smart enough to know that with sword and hatred, you might be able to kill people, damage houses, or even make a city vanish! But she was sure that they could never erase our history, wipe away our culture. That the smell of smoke cannot replace the delicious smell of our tea, and no matter how bitter our pain is, we can never forget how sweet our date once tasted.

I still believe in Baghdad, in Hiroshima!
I refuse to settle for half-solutions, half governments, and that Iraqis will always live with half happiness, half satisfaction and that sometimes they only get to live half a life!
I still want to believe that I will not settle for half a country, I won’t get to choose between south and north, Sunni or Shia, I will never follow half a religion!
And no matter what my left-brain side says, I try to hold on, as hard as I can, to the belief that my right side will always be RIGHT.

When an entire people are systematically oppressed and marginalized, small actions to make their story heard can have dramatic consequences. Similarly, small actions to silence their voice can have dramatic and tragic consequences.

RojTV is one of the only international Kurdish language channels available to Kurds. It broadcasted everything from children’s programmes to Kurdish music and film. But most importantly, it filled the large gap of Kurdish news and politics, information that is ignored or censored from mainstream media. For over a year, RojTV had been embroiled in a long legal battle after being accused of violating Danish anti-terrorism laws. Perhaps you’ve read an article related to the case over the last year, or had been following it avidly. Or maybe the first time you ever heard of RojTV and its legal battle was when the case was closed. Kurds celebrated when RojTV kept its license, despite being found guilty of “terrorism” and charged a hefty fine.

Kurdish celebration was short lived, however. On January 19, Eutelsat Communications decided to stop broadcasting RojTV, effectively shutting down one of the biggest sources of Kurdish news in the world.

With the closing of RojTV, Kurds lose a powerful voice, one that frequently was the only one on their side. With the closing of RojTV, Turkey will no longer be held accountable for the arrest of hundreds of journalists, activists, academics, and even children. Iran can continue to hide the murder of Kurdish migrant workers on the Iranian border, and the arbitrary detention and execution of Kurdish activists. Images of Turkish massacres, like the most recent in Roboski, will no longer flicker across the screens of thousands of people, who can then mobilize to demand justice for their dead.

To you, perhaps, the only emotion you felt was “good riddance”. RojTV was provocative, some say. Or worse, an incitement to terrorism. Its messages had no place in anyone’s living room, you claim.

Dear reader, we’re here to tell you your claims are wrong.

Differences in political opinions should flourish. We’re not telling you to think exactly like us. But the dangers in silencing any political opinion are always more dangerous than any political opinion itself. The censorship of RojTV by the Danish courts, Eutelsat Communications, and by the pressures of Turkey itself extend far beyond the closure of this one Kurdish station. With the closing of RojTV, the voice of the Kurds has been silenced, and because Kurds are humans, who proudly claim their basic human rights, a voice of humanity has been silenced.

For you see, the Kurdish struggle isn’t just the Kurdish struggle, just like the Palestinian struggle isn’t just the Palestinian struggle, and the Egyptian struggle and Bahraini and Syrian. Wherever people sacrifice their time, and their lives, for greater freedom for their people, all of us who are invested in human rights and social justice gain. We, the authors of this letter, aren’t Kurds. One of us is Bahraini, the other Syrian. We’re from two countries run by dictatorships. Our people understand very sharply how valuable freedom is. It is only because we value freedom in our own countries that we feel a duty to stand with the Kurds. We cannot advocate for our own voices while we accept the silencing of others.

This is what motivates us. This is our cause. We are not terrorists, nor advocates of terrorists. Odds are, the word doesn’t mean what you think it means anyway. But either way, there is no political agenda behind our efforts. We merely speak up against violations of human rights, something the Kurds suffer far too often.

And because we speak up, we, as Arabs, are the target of some of the same attacks that Kurds face themselves. We receive hate mail and threatening comments, usually in the name of extremist Turkish nationalists. Our site has faced numerous hacking attempts. All because we stand up for Kurds. If we, as non-Kurds, face this abuse, then what do our Kurdish brothers and sisters have to put up with, simply for claiming their right to their rich historical and cultural background? For asking to live with dignity?

We realize we are reaching out to an unfamiliar audience. You may have never met a Kurd, or have your own opinions regarding the Kurdish struggle. Regardless of anything else, everyone has a basic human right to a voice, and a voice that is heard. Despite centuries of abuse, despite their very language being banned, the Kurdish voice has never been louder. At the very least, you have an obligation to hear them out. Banning TV stations and imprisoning journalists won’t silence the Kurds, but it will lay the foundations for a dangerous world where we all surrender our basic human rights to the people in power, where surveillance and censorship are valued more highly than dignity and liberty.

The Kurds are facing a painful battle for their freedom, one they’ve paid for with their lives. With your support, crimes against the Kurdish people will no longer weigh on humanity’s conscience. Speak up for a world where everyone can be heard regardless of ethnicity or faith. Freedom is non-negotiable. If these crimes are allowed to go unnoticed and unpunished, you could be next.

In solidarity,
S. Boulad
E. Al Shafei
The Alliance for Kurdish Rights

It was a wicked invention; everything good and beautiful became revolting and disgusting when reflected by the mirror.

One day, the Devil flew around in the air with his mirror, reflecting the divine sky but it was too much beauty for the mirror to handle. It broke into millions of pieces, some as small as grains of sand. They fell onto the ground, but also into the hearts and eyes of men, women and children whose heart froze to ice and whose eyes could now only see that which was unpleasant and evil.

The Verdict Of ROJ TV

Not many miles away from the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen and merely 137 years and a few months after his death, the verdict of the trial of the Kurdish TV-channel ROJ TV was announced.

We were 500 snowmen outside the court in Copenhagen, paralysed and silenced by the cold gushes of wind. Then, we heard a scream of joy; we all melted and became a sea of flames.

I was burning and freezing when I turned my back to the dancing crowd, bowed my head and tweeted ”we won.”

We did not win. Yes, ROJ TV was allowed to keep broadcasting from Denmark but only because of formalities in the Danish penal law; a penal law so vague and obscure that the satellite provider, Eutelsat, suspended its agreement with ROJ TV and shut down its satellite signal to avoid being part of ”terrorist activities.”

The Danish court ruled that ROJ TV has acted as a mouthpiece for terror. This ruling was based on the judge’s conviction that ROJ TV is controlled by PKK, a Kurdish rebel group listed as a terror organisation by the European Union, the United States and Turkey, in regard to both finance and content. Therefore, the court sentenced the two companies behind ROJ TV to pay a fine of approximately 900,000 dollars, a verdict that was appealed to High Court three days later.

The verdict of ROJ TV is 190 pages long. The following section will present the essential conclusions that were summarised by the Danish newspaper, Jyllandsposten.

1 – From February 7, 2008 to February 10, 2010 ROJ TV has acted as a mouthpiece for the terror organisation, PKK.

2 – The TV-station has repeated messages from PKK without presenting other views. The guerrilla is portrayed in a positive way and manner that indicates more than sympathy for PKK.

3 – There is however no proof of these links between ROJ TV and PKK in the period June 10, 2006 to February, 2008 which had also been a count in the charge against ROJ TV.

4 – PKK has ”to a great extent” supported ROJ TV financially from 2006 to 2010

5 – The decision about what ROJ TV is allowed to broadcast is made by a media company in Belgium. The department in Denmark has no influence on what programmes to broadcast.

6 – Documents found in Belgium show that individuals with close relations to PKK have had the final word in regard to what ROJ TV should or should not broadcast about PKK.

7 – The two companies, ROJ TV A/S and Mesopotamia Broadcast A/S, have promoted PKK activities and are therefore sentenced to pay a combined fine of approximately 900,000 dollars.

8 – The companies are acquitted prosecutors’ demand of suspending the broadcasting license in Denmark. The Danish penal law cannot on legal basis confiscate the rights of companies, associations, etc.

One Man’s Terrorist

When the trial of ROJ TV started in August 2011, the court not only had to decide whether ROJ TV was a mouthpiece for terror or not, but also if PKK was indeed a terror organisation as Turkey, the European Union and the United States have listed it to be.

The judge looked at the terror lists, she looked at the extracts from ROJ TV’s programmes selected by the prosecutors and then found herself enlightened enough to declare PKK a terror organisation.

Now, this can nothing but enrage people seeking justice and expecting nothing but justice from a court in Denmark that holds its freedom so dear, so dear.

How can anyone regard Turkey’s terror list trustworthy when Turkey is infamous for its treatment of journalists and its restrictions on freedom of press and freedom of speech all the while referring to its terror law?

How can anyone regard the US’ terror list trustworthy when the US only removed Nelson Mandela from the list 4 years ago, when the US is ignorant enough to think that “by killing people who has killed people we can teach people not to kill people” and when the US still has not closed the most terrifying man-made institution on this Earth, Guantanamo Bay?

How can anyone regard the EU terror list trustworthy when the European Union Court in 2008 annulled its ruling that PKK was a terror group?

How can anyone regard terror lists trustworthy when it is common knowledge that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter?

How can anyone regard terror lists trustworthy when it is always the ”state”, ”the richest and the biggest” that has enough money and power to make up a list, put people on it and say: ”There you go, one terror list, please follow it or I will make your life a living Hell.”

How?

The judge did not even allow for ROJ TV lawyer, Bjoern Elmquist, to present his material about ROJ TV to the same extent as the prosecutors. This has given the prosecutors, who have been criticised for their close and friendly relationship with the authorities in Ankara, plenty of opportunities to portray ROJ TV and PKK as terrorists without the risk of being proven wrong by Elmquist.

An Unjust Law

The entire trial of ROJ TV has been a curious one. This has caused many experts to comment upon the fact that the judge did not take into consideration that she was dealing with a TV-channel and should therefore judge ROJ TV by the rules that apply for the media.

If the media is not allowed to interview the part in a conflict called the terrorist, then who is? Yes, ROJ TV may have portrayed the Kurdish guerrillas as freedom fighters, but PKK is after all the resistance movement that was formed as a re-action to Turkey’s oppression of the Kurdish people, a tyranny and brutality only condemned in vague words by the rest of the world.

The Kurdish people and ROJ TV are puppets in a play dominated by world leaders. If the Kurdish people do not speak up, it is massacred by the Turkish state, but if it does speak up, it is silenced by the European Union and United States.

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), author of the essay “Civil Disobedience”, wrote:

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his con science to the legislator? Why has every man a con science, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. […] Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily made the agents of in justice.

If the law is seeking to silence the rightful rebellion of the Kurdish people against the barbaric and heartless oppression, then the law is unjust; then the governments are what Thoreau calls the agents of injustice.

ROJ TV has a conscience that cannot remain silent under Turkey’s oppressive regime and is therefore offering itself as being the mouthpiece for the Kurdish people, dwell on this for a moment: mouthpiece for the Kurdish people.

The Kurdish people consist of freedom fighters, only freedom fighters. Kurdistan is freedom for it is borderless and those who fight for freedom are Kurds.

We Face Death

Everything is relative and has to be seen in its context. ROJ TV is not the average TV-channel whose viewers are safe at home and free to speak the language they want, read the books they want, sing the songs they want or even wear the clothes they want.

There was an incident during one court session. The prosecutors were showing an excerpt from ROJ TV and they pointed out that the journalists were wearing PKK-clothing. The looks from the Kurdish audience in the courtroom must have been those of incredulity and astonishment; this was merely another ignorant comment from the prosecutors who, if they had done their research properly and if the judge had not dismissed all Elmquist’s witnesses including Leyla Zana, would have known more about the Kurdish culture and understood that the ROJ TV journalists were wearing Kurdish clothes.

ROJ TV is much more than the average TV-channel; it gives the Kurdish people a sense of unity that one rarely feels because of the brutal division and oppression of Kurdistan. It is the symbol of the peaceful Kurdish struggle for freedom; it is a mouthpiece for freedom, a mouthpiece for our freedom fighters like members of BDP, the pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, and the passionate Kurdish youth fighting for its identity.

ROJ TV is perceived a mouthpiece for terrorism because the world does not know what terrorism is.

ROJ TV is perceived a mouthpiece for terrorism because the human being is a suppressor of oppression.

ROJ TV is perceived a mouthpiece for terrorism because it is alive, it is not afraid of man-made institutions or death.

To be a freedom fighter is to be alive because being constant aware of death makes you kiss the earth softly, rest your cheek on the scabrous bark of a tree and lay your head on sweet smelling moss. To be alive is what the rest of the world fails to be because being safe and comfortable is to be dead. You are only alive if life tastes like the salty sweat that evaporates from your body when you are fighting in what seems to be Hell.

Boiling Blood

Denmark is the kingdom of the Snow Queen and the West is her empire; she reigns it with a coldness that renders her vassals motionless and speechless. The cold winds carry flakes of snow, which the Snow Queen weaves into the clothes of her subjects, thereby hindering the small pieces of the Devil’s wicked mirror from leaving the eyes and hearts of men.

The Snow Queen’s most loyal servant, the vicious and despicable troll, the worst of trolls, the Devil is laughing, his plan is working: Every single one of the cold, dead vassals see only a distortion of that which is beautiful, stunning, ravishing, alive!

The troll and his empress have a weakness, though, Hans Christian Andersen revealed: the small pieces of the troll’s wicked mirror can be melted and oh, who is better to melt ice than the burning Kurd with the boiling blood?

The Snow Queen and the wickedest of trolls can easily be defeated. Every Kurdish freedom fighter has flames shooting from his fingertips, flames kept alive by the blazing, roaring Sun.

As long as the Sun is burning so long will ROJ TV burn; because ROJ TV is the mirror in which the Sun reflects itself.

- Maspero recruits:
Why does the army only try El-Adli and Mubarak in the case of assassinating protesters in 28 January, and not trying Tantawi and Badin in the case of assassinating the protesters at Maspero? The three recruits who are tried in Maspero case are scapegoats because the members of the military council won’t be tried… If I were free, I would have been in solidarity with them even if they really killed protesters, because justice is by trying who gave the orders not to their tool which implemented the orders. 2011/12/27

- 9 months as a prisoner
Today I completed 9 months as a prisoner (275 days)… 127 days of them on a hunger strike, which means half of my imprisonment period approximately… Nothing to comment about that except: Down with the military rule! 2011/12/28

- The ministry of killers and murderers
You know that killers of protesters if would be tried (which I doubt), would spend their time in prison honored and relaxed, their salaries would normally be paid, their promotion would normally happen in time, then they would come back to service, because the law doesn’t consider killing, torturing and rape to be crimes involving moral turpitude which prevent the officer of coming back to service? It’s necessary that the law be amended, so that the officer who broke the law and entered prison be separated from service immediately, and not have a ministry of interior half of them are precedents.

- Where did all that money go?
The ministry of defense budget in Mubarak’s era was about 100 billion Egyptian pounds yearly. Tantawi was the minister of defense for 20 years in Mubarak’s era, in other words 20×100 billion, means 2 trillion Egyptian pounds, this is approximately the full budget of Egypt for full 6 years, this is of course other than the budget after the revolution and the money for the replacement for loyalty to the regime and the companies which are owned by the army and don’t pay taxes… It’s necessary that someone asks Tantawi and the military council: Where did this money go? We want a statement of account for them to know where was it spent? How much of it was wasted? How much was stolen of it? 2011/12/29

- My suffering
I can’t describe my suffering in prison… Imagine someone made a surgery without anesthesia, no matter how much he described his suffering, no one will understand his pains… I’m also like that, no matter how much I described, no one will feel how much I suffer here! 2011/12/29

- Bored
I’m very bored… I’ve been in solitary confined for two weeks and the door isn’t opened on me and I’m not allowed to talk anyone… Extreme boredom. 2011/12/30

- I remember food all the time
The whole time I’m on a hunger strike I find myself all the time thinking food and the way it is cooked… The hungry always dreams of the bread market     2011/12/30

- The revolution of 25 January 2012
All the time I hope that the same way the revolution of 25 January 2011 was a strong blow to police, I wish that 25 January 2012 will be a strong blow that the army never forgets. 2011/12/30

- Ending my hunger strike
Today I ended my hunger strike… I’ve been on a hunger strike for 130 days, 10 days of them on a thirst strike, 39 days I drank only water, 81 days drinking juices and dairy… I think that this experience in non-violent struggle I would be remembering it for the rest of my life. 2011/12/31

- I and the sheikh Ahmed Makwa
I think that you read my story which I wrote in prison, titled “The Sheikh Ahmed Makwa” (Sheikh Ahmed [clothes] iron) about the prisoner whose mates framed-up a charge for him to move him out of the ward… When I wrote this story I never thought that the same thing would happen to me, when the prisoners in the hospital made for me a case of religious contempt in order to get me out of the hospital… The world is so small! The lesson I learned from this crisis: is that there is no one nastier than police men and the fanatics. 2011/12/31

- New year’s evening
In minutes I’d start the new year… How bad that someone spends the new year’s evening while wrongly imprisoned… What’s strange is that last year at the same time, I was sad and very pessimistic of the year 2011, as if I felt what would happen to me in it… I wish that the year 2012 be the year for the freedom of mine, Egypt and humanity. 2011/12/31

- Thanks to Amir Salem
Today, Amir Salem (the famous lawyer) made a heroic stance and got the public prosecution to the prison for me to try to put an end to the violations of the ministry of interior against me… Before he came I was very sad of the oppression of cronies of police to me, but what he did elevated my morale very much… Thanks, Amir Salem, you helped my to start the new year with a smile     2011/12/31

Related links:
* Sheikh Ahmed Makwa (Sheikh Ahmed [clothes] iron)
* Updates after re-sentencing
* Details of the incident of assaulting Maikel (in Arabic)

It therefore baffles me how little consideration they have for those individuals who need to be protected online especially if they use the internet as a resource to engage in risky (but necessary) activities. Anything from discouraging anonymity on the likes of Facebook and Google+ to requiring legit photos on sites like LinkedIn, not realizing that some of us live in areas where human rights advocacy is not just frowned upon but severely punishable by our governments. Anything you do to protect yourself – these companies consider to be against their “user agreement” forcing you to reveal sensitive information, making this field 10 times more dangerous just so these companies can be more “relevant” and therefore profitable. The problem is that we can’t just simply quit these services. We need them as tools to empower our work.

Every other week I’d get an email from an internet service stating that my account has been deleted or disabled.

Why? “You’re not using a real photo.” No, I use an avatar, which they deleted, and then another avatar, which they also deleted, and attempted to keep it empty, which they didn’t allow, and then finally resorted to just having a logo – but uh oh! Disabled again. This is despite my several attempts at communicating this to customer service reps at these companies. They couldn’t care less. Regardless of what their CEOs say at tech conferences. Irrelevant. They do not abide by these values when it comes to managing their companies and reviewing their user agreements and privacy policies. Do we matter?

Despite all that is being said about the future of the internet, and how great and open it’s going to be specifically in light of the SOPA debates, this remains to be a huge issue. We talk about censorship but we don’t expose the double standards of some of these online companies. Sure we can simply stop using their services – it’s theirs and they can do whatever they want to their terms of agreement (which to be fair we had to agree on before signing up on the site), but it’s still alienating, it’s still dangerous and the more and more companies that adopt these policies the more we risk losing in this struggle against censorship and surveillance.

I want internet companies to realize that they’re not doing their service a favor by alienating many of us who prefer to keep ourselves protected. There is certain information that we really prefer to simply not share. It’s not because we’re stubborn. It’s because not all of us are courageous enough to share every aspect of our lives, checking in from every location, uploading every photo, revealing our physical addresses or phone numbers. Some of us have a lot of reason to be scared shitless of the likelihood of being an easier target by ruthless regimes and armed groups if we did share all of these bits and pieces that these services require.

We’re not asking you to recreate your products to be more fitting for our needs. We’re not asking you to make your products more tempting for spambots and potentially abusive users.

We’re asking you to be considerate.

We’re asking you to make an exception.

For some of us out there, our lives literally depend on these little exceptions.

Respect our privacy if you want users to be loyal to your service. After all, you need us to keep churning up those big checks, don’t you? And we could also your help in staying connected without having to magnify the risks involved in our sensitive online activities.

Please don’t ban me from every service you produce simply for wanting to stay safe.

The stabbing by three masked men Friday night of Mahmoud Abu Rahma, international affairs director of al-Mezan Human Rights Center, is seen as one of the more serious incidents of internal violence since the Islamic militant group’s armed takeover of Gaza in 2007. Hamas leaders have condemned the attack, which wounded Abu Rahma in the hand, back and leg, and insist it is not related to his criticism, human rights activists counter that the assault is the latest in a series of episodes undermining free expression for which the government bears ultimate responsibility.

”From what we have heard from Mahmoud and al-Mezan and according to the investigations they have made, this is a continuation of the attack on freedom of expression,” said Jaber Wishah, deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). ”As long as the authority is the responsible body, the full responsibility falls on its shoulders to stop such attacks.”

Abu Rahma had received numerous death threats since January 1. That was when he published an article on the Maan news agency website accusing resistance groups of causing death and injury by deploying and training next to schools and homes, a charge frequently leveled by Israel but until now not publicly voiced by Palestinians.

On January 3, Abu Rahma was roughed up by unarmed men, and on Friday he escaped being stabbed in the chest only because he was able to use his laptop as a shield, his brother Imad said, adding that the assailants shouted at him that he was a ”collaborator” with Israel.

In his article, Mr. Abu Rahma wrote:”Many citizens fall victim to the continuous negligence of the resistance groups, who show little or no care for people’s life and well being, or worse, fail to take responsibility for shocking acts by their members.Numerous people were injured by live fire coming from resistance group training sites including children, and at least one man lost an eye.”

He added that there is a training site in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya ”that threatens people every day including a girl who was injured inside her school when an explosion occurred in this site.”’

Abu Rahma also criticized the ”misfiring” of rockets aimed at Israel that ”fall on houses and kill [Gaza] civilians”
”Many children have been killed or maimed by explosive devices left in the streets or on farms,” he added. ”And there is the young man who was shot in the legs for daring to criticize a local resistance leader.”.

”Who will protect the people from the wrongful acts of the resistance and government?” Abu Rahma asked.
The assault on Abu Rahma follows a string of attacks against media outlets last year, including an attempt to set fire to the Maan offices in July and an incident in March, during which armed men entered the offices of Reuters and threatened employees with guns. According to Reuters account, the men struck one journalist on the arm with a metal bar and threatened to throw another out the window of the high rise. They took away a video camera apparently after they spotted a reporter filming a demonstration from a building. The group smashed a television set and other equipment before leaving and also seized videotapes from nearby offices of CNN and the Japanese station NHK. Reuters reported that the men said they came from Hamas internal security, but senior Hamas officials condemned the action and denied the group was involved in it.
”We are seeing a silencing of the press,” says Wishah, from PCHR.”These acts cause internal censorship which is even more harmful than external censorship.”

Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator, termed the attack against Abu Rahma ”a deplorable act.”

”Any attack on a Palestinian citizen is a crime and an attack on a human rights activist is a bigger crime,” he said. Bardawil stressed, however, that he thought the attack was the work of criminal elements and not political or related to Abu Rahma’s article.

He said Hamas works to uphold freedom of expression ”but on the ground there are some transgressions and we in the legislative council are working to correct this.” Bardawil took issue with Abu Rahma’s assertion that fighters endanger the lives of civilians by positioning themselves close to homes. ”These are the houses of our children and we don’t ever allow any resistance training that endangers civilians,” he said.

There is also a discrimination between the two genders in the international solidarity with the Palestinian cause… I had read a lot about the American, Rachel Corrie, who was killed because of her non-violent struggle in solidarity with Palestinians… But, it’s the first time to know that there is another British activist named Tom Hurndall who was also killed in Palestine in similar circumstances… I don’t know why people remember the feminine sacrifices more than male sacrifices?

I was also happy to read about the non-violent struggle of some Palestinian activists… I liked what I read in the organization, ISM (International Solidarity Movement)… For all of my life I was against the Palestinian movements because of their violent means, that’s why I am impressed by the non-violent Palestinian experience… I want to visit this organization when I visit Palestine and Israel.

I don’t deny that I started to feel big sympathy with Palestinians of the West Bank who are compelled everyday to see the occupying army of Israel in the streets and squares… I felt their feeling when I was compelled to see the occupying army of Tantawi in the streets and squares of Egypt after the coup d’etat of last February.

In the earphone of the MP3 I hear her refreshing voice… Ofra Haza, the fabulous Israeli singer… Singing in Arabic “Ya Helu ya Hali”… Prisons won’t prevent you of what you like, prisons are inside brains of Arabs preventing them from enjoying the art and the literature of Israel although they are theoretically free… I only in need to listen to the crazy Israeli band, Orphaned Land, even though I don’t know how will I see the the female dancer who dances oriental dancing on their songs on the MP3

I heard of the campaign by some Israeli females in solidarity with Aliaa El-Mahdi… You do it from behind my back, you bastards! All that while I’m imprisoned, waaa.

The Egyptian people are very strange… When Sadat presented the peace treaty for referendum, most of the people agreed on the treaty, then they come to think of me as a traitor because I want to apply the treaty in reality! Honestly, I want the referendum on the treaty to be made once again in order to silence the loud-voiced persons who speak on behalf of the people against the treaty, for no reason, but the referendum has to explicit, giving the people the choice between war or peace, because it’s necessary that the people understand that abolishing the treaty means entering a state of war.

Solidarity letters reach me from ordinary Israeli citizens, but it didn’t reach me any kind of solidarity of the Israeli government… The Israeli people remind me of the Egyptian people, a great people ruled by a gang with an extremist minority harms their image.

Speaking of the official solidarity… The German embassy in Egypt was the only one to send me an official for them to visit me in prison, when it was supposed to be that Israelis be the ones to do that, as I was saying on myself “pro-Israel” not “pro-Germany”… But, it’s OK, that’s what is expected of the government of Bibi “Netanyahu”.

Days before I was imprisoned, I wrote that I wanted to visit Israel, but their embassy refused to give me a visa… In reality, this is part of the truth, the first part of the truth is that before January revolution, there was an agreement with one of the Israeli activists who would have given me an official invitation from a minister of Likud, but after I read that the this minister participated in activists hostile to our revolution, I sent a message to this activist telling him not to send the invitation because I won’t accept that I go to Israel with an invitation from someone who stood against our revolution… Sometimes I ask myself: Was this stance of mine the reason of the was of the unpleasant treatment from the Israeli official since then?

I also sometimes ask myself: Did the Israeli not want me to enter Israel so that to preserve their relation with the Egyptian regime as I was saying? Or, they don’t want me to see Israel on its reality and change my idea about it? I won’t know the answer except after I see with my eyes.

Several years ago, a Palestinian activist from Gaza sent me an e-mail, telling me about his activism… He was joined with a group of teachers in Gaza, who were making researches on the effect of the Israeli gases on the psychology of children in Gaza, and they were taking foreign funds for long years, then the foreign fund, the business and the gifts were cut, then he sent me asking if I was able to help him in a source of foreign fund… I sent him a message, telling him that Palestinian children don’t need researches to be written on paper. Palestinian children need the Israeli gases to stop, and that won’t happen except with your recognition for Israel and entering a peace treaty with it… But, you are like that, you are like the doctor who wants his patient to always keep being ill, in order for the patient to always keep paying the bill of the medical check… Of course, after that, this fellow struggler didn’t answer me again.

I learned that “Yaakov Amitai” was hired as an ambassador to Egypt instead of “Yitzhak Levanon”… I’m happy with the departure of Levanon, the man who contributed in many political crises between the two nations… I don’t know anything about Yaakov Amitai and I’m pessimistic with the choices of Avigdor Lieberman, but I hope that he would be able to fix the relation between the two nations… My advices to him: You are an ambassador of Israel in Egypt, not an ambassador of Likud government for the military council; your role is to bring the peoples closer together, not that you preserve some ink on paper called the peace treaty. The peoples are more important than paper, Mr ambassador.

I really wonder of Hamas claims that it would throw Israel in the sea… I don’t know how a movement which doesn’t even own air force, how would it be able to enter a equivalent war? Not that it would win the war… Minds at rest already!

I think that the two peoples, the Palestinians and the Israelis, need to appreciate the value of “non-violence” and I think that this became easier after the Arab Spring… Likud needs to forget the saying “that the Arabs only understand force”, Hamas and its allies need to understand that they can achieve gains through non-violence, more than the gains that they achieve by their fake missiles (that if there are any gains).

I’m sad that Palestinians lost their round of recognition in the Security Council… The source of my sadness is that this loss will cause more frustration to the Palestinians, this would drive them to more violence… Also, if this step succeeded, this would encourage the Palestinians to follow the non-violent means, and this is in the interest of peace… In my opinion, Israel came out losing by the position of the Security Council.

My tutor Amin El-Mahdi, after reading my article “Why am I pro-Israel”, told me that it’s necessary to speak about disadvantages and advantages, in order to be fair and objective in my evaluation… This is what I tried to do in my article “Why Don’t we Also be Peaceful with Israel”, “Yes to Peace for Egypt before it is for Israel” and in this article “Establishing a Palestinian State is in the Interest of Israel”… The respect of the writer for himself (even if he was imprisoned) is more important than anything else in the world.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg prison – prison hospital
2011/12/8

Related articles:
* Why am I pro-Israel
* Why Don’t we Also be Peaceful with Israel
* Yes to Peace for Egypt
* Establishing a Palestinian State is in the Interest of Israel

- Half of the period of Kareem
Whenever I think of the length of my sentence (2 years), I remember that Kareem Amer was imprisoned for 4 years and he was ignored more than me million times… I was sentenced with half of the period which he spent, despite I was exceeding the limits a million times more than him… The universe isn’t fair! 2011/12/16

- The ones who kept silent
What did injustice to me wasn’t the military… What did injustice to me were the ones who kept silent on the societal racism against me for the past years and the ones who kept silent on the military’s continued violations against me. 2011/12/16

- Public debate
Military officers are capturing (making themselves as lions) and everyday the come in newspapers and TVs to say lies about me, they know that I’m imprisoned, I won’t be able to respond to their lies… If the military officers (and the leaders of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces) had the courage, I invite them to a live debate on air in any subject he chooses… What’s up then? 2011/12/16

- Maltreatment
There are many prisoners who treat me very badly… Many times I feel that there are many Egyptians who don’t deserve the sacrifices which were made for them. Many of the Egyptians don’t deserve anyone but Mubarak, Tantawi and Abboud El-Zomor… No angel is going to come by elections in a society of devils! 2011/12/16

- El-Ganzouri and the Chinese experience
All of El-Ganzouri’s interest is in economy and security, he has no relation with politics or political reform… This is the same line for the National Democratic Party which was repeating the Chinese experience which was built upon the economic reform while continuing in political tyranny! 2011/12/20

- Prison is
Prison under the rule of the militarist regime of July is a place where criminals restrict the freedom of the nobles! 2011/12/21

- Post in prison
I get so happy with the letters which reach me in prison, this elevates my morale so much… I don’t feel strange of the letters which reach me from Europe, America and Canada, but I didn’t expect that I would receive letters from countries such as Bahrain and South Korea. A few letters reach me from Israel, I feel delighted by them, despite that I am sad of their scarcity… Freedom must come. 2011/12/22

- The accused is convicted till proven innocent
The military keeps on stating in the media that the sentence issued against me was because I couldn’t deny the charges against me. Maximum impertinence! What are the principally?! Is the accused innocent till proven guilty, or is he convicted till proven innocent? Principally, the human is innocent and a sentence is issued against him if a proof was found proving his conviction, and if the proof was missing he should be acquitted even if he had actually committed a crime. But the philosophy of distributing the charges to the people without a proof and demanding them to find a proof of their innocence, it’s a legal futility which doesn’t exist in any respectable country. 2011/12/22

- I forgot the keyboard
I feel that because of the length of my confinement, I forgot the places of the letters on the keyboard… Damn. 2011/12/23

- The civilian judiciary isn’t less corrupt
My experience in dealing with the civilian judiciary says that the civilian judiciary isn’t less corrupt that police, military judiciary, State Security courts or any other corrupt establishment… The civilian judiciary was the one to imprison Saad El-Din Ibrahim, Kareem Amer and Ayman Mansour, also it was the one to imprison Ayman Noor and forfeiting of his political rights and refused to re-try him again after the revolution. The civilian judiciary is the one to confine Alaa Abdel Fattah right now, and it was the one to aid Mubarak and later Tantawi to manipulate the results of elections… Even in my presence inside prison, the public prosecution is colluding with the ministry of interior and is helping them to escape punishment of their crimes… A total revolution is needed to purge the judicature. 2011/12/23

- I need a lawyer
It’s unbelievable that I’ve been imprisoned for 9 months and I asked for a lawyer to visit me in prison and no lawyer practiced this mission came to visit me… I think that it’s my right for the revolutionary lawyers that they come to visit me and help me to take legal steps against the violations which are committed against me inside prison. 2011/12/23

- Against the judiciary supervision on elections
For all of my life I’ve been against the judiciary supervision over elections, this was the reason that I didn’t sign the statement for Baradei before the revolution… I knew that the Egyptian judiciary is Islamized and would give the country to Islamists. The Egyptian judiciary is racist, against women, it was clear from its refusal to appoint women in judicial positions. The Egyptian judiciary is racist against non-Muslims, it was the reason in the disgusting rulings against atheists, Bahais and sometimes Christians… In the respectable countries, there is a national council for elections, representing all factions of the society, and there is an essential role for the civil society, we should do that if we loved to be a respectable country and to have fair elections. 2011/12/23

- Defenders and opponents
I feel it’s strange of the people who defend me without having been read my articles. How come you defend someone without knowing what did he say? I also feel it’s strange of the people who attack me and swear-word me without having been read for me anything. How come you attack me and criticize me without knowing what did I say? Isn’t it possible that when you read for me you would be convinced with I say? All the issue reminds me of all the ones who defended or attacked Sayyed El Qemni, Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid and Farag Foda, without even reading anything of their writings… A nations that doesn’t read is a disgusting nation. 2011/12/23

- The girl whom they stripped
It pained me so much to see the picture of the girl who was stripped by Tantawi army during the breaking of the sit-in of the cabinet… I tell her that nudity isn’t a sin, the body isn’t a shame, many girls around the world recuperate on beaches with bikinis without any problem… But, the shame, the scandal and the disgrace have to be attributed to the soldiers who take their salaries from our taxes to protect us, but instead they betray the trust and direct their weapons to their citizens and rape the nobles… All the shame and disgrace on the Egyptian military and all who is in it while keeping silent on what happened. 2011/12/24

- The military elongated its period of conflict with me
I was supposed to travel to Europe in the last June, and I would have started a master, then a doctorate, I would have been out at least 5 years outside Egypt… But, the military’s stupidity confined me and made me free to write against it, it confined many people against the military and is contributing in taking-off its legitimacy gradually… The one who takes the decision inside the military holds a doctorate with an excellent rating in folly. 2011/12/25

- My hunger strike and Nahhas Pasha
I just knew that Mustafa El-Nahhas Pasha died in 23 August… It was the same day I started my hunger strike… I’m happy with this coincidence, because Nahhas is almost the only political personality that I respect in the contemporary history of Egypt… A rose on your grave, the leader of the nation. 2011/12/25

- The dentist
I almost wonder of my bravery in confronting death and my strong frighting of the dentist… How weird are humans! 2011/12/26

- How many members of the Muslim Brotherhood died a martyr in the revolution?
We know that many Christians and Muslims died in the revolution, men and women, old and young people… But, the vital question: how many member of the Muslims Brotherhood was killed! 2011/12/26