msm archives — 3arabawy

Visualizing dissent: The mechanics behind the Egyptian revolution

3arabawy — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:20:43 +0000

My article for ROAR Magazine.

UPDATE: The article is also available in Russian.

Counterrevolutionary propaganda

3arabawy — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 19:55:37 +0000

Internet and Revolution in Egypt

3arabawy — Sun, 24 Jan 2021 11:05:24 +0000

I’ve written a critique of online activism in Egypt, which you can read in Arabic here.

Big Brother Headlines

3arabawy — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 09:28:23 +0000

Whether it’s owned by the state, or “independent” businessmen, Egypt’s front page headlines are all coined identically by the army’s Department of Morale Affairs.

‘War on infidels’

3arabawy — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 16:37:20 +0000

It was a pile of trash already, but it’s even getting worse since Yasser Rizk became the CEO of Al-Akbar, Egypt’s second largest state-owned newspaper.

Just to give you a sample, above is Al-Akhbar’s front page on 28 March, breaking the news about the Egyptian army’s heroic efforts to “abort a terror strike” on a security check point in Sinai’s Sheikh Zuweid’s area, as the “Apaches bomb a Houthi cell in Rafah that includes Palestinians and Iranians!”

And today’s front page runs a headline announcing the “martyrdom of 15 [Egyptian army] fighters and the liquidation of 27 infidels!”

Pro #Jan25 artist dropped from playlist at Egyptian state radio

3arabawy — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:51:59 +0000

Hamza Namira, known for songs with social and humanitarian themes, has been dropped from the list of artists to be played on state radio stations.

Support Khaled Abol Naga

3arabawy — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 11:43:34 +0000

One of Egypt’s leading actors, Khaled Abol Naga, is currently facing a smearing campaign from the regime propagandists in state and private TV, after he called on President Sisi to leave and lashed out against his police state.

One of the regime cronies, Lawyer Samir Sabry, has even filed a lawsuit asking the authorities to strip Abol Naga off his Egyptian nationality and prosecute him on charges of “high treason.”

This is part of the McCarthyist atmosphere Egypt is living in today, with continuous witch-hunt against anyone and anything related to the #Jan25 Revolution.

Abol Naga is not only a great artist, but also has always sided with just political causes, before and after the revolution. For example, in the video below, Abol Naga, extends his solidarity to the 2 May 2010 labor protest for a national minimum wage.

My solidarity goes to Abol Naga.

Sisi’s Dirty War: Propaganda, lies and no accountability

3arabawy — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 12:01:40 +0000

Lest we forget, the regime’s mouthpiece the daily Al-Ahram newspaper’s front page headline announced “Egypt to be declared terrorism-free in days,” on 23 September 2013, and estimated “may be a week”.

But the insurgency in Sinai, which is already a decade long at least, starting with the 2004 Taba bombings, has only escalated during Sisi’s rule and will continue to escalate as his army pursues the Dirty War strategies and tactics by the book.

Supported by the US and Israel, the Egyptian army is completely embroiled now in the counterinsurgency operations, and is leading the “fight against terrorism”, even when Sisi initially admitted in a meeting with senior commanders sometime in 2013 before the coup, that it was not “the army’s job to fight terrorism. The army is a killing machine… [Fighting terrorism] is the job of the ministry of interior.”

And after more than a year of the start of the counterinsurgency, it is clear the security situation is going down the drains, with no accountability.

Why Sisi fears Gaza

3arabawy — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 09:39:23 +0000

Sisi fears Gaza, for the same reason Mubarak did. It’s not because of the tunnels. The tunnels have always existed. They flourished only because of the Egyptian-Israeli siege. The arms do not flow into Egypt from Gaza; it’s the other way around. Not a single concrete proof was ever given by Sisi’s propagandists or the security services implicating Hamas in any ongoing terror attacks on Egyptian soil.
Rather, Sisi, like Mubarak before him, fears the Palestinians example. The Palestinians have always acted as a radicalizing factor for Egyptians. Dissent is contagious. There is a fine thread connecting the second Palestinian intifada, which erupted in 2000, with Tahrir Square in 2011.

‘Elephant jockeys and cannibals’

3arabawy — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 09:06:40 +0000

The deputy head of the Egyptian Football Federation, Hassan Farid, regards Africans as “elephant jockeys and cannibals,” and Egypt’s most prominent sports news website doesn’t mind at all posting those racist statements without any sort of commentary.

Such anti-African racism is rampant in Egyptian media.

Today's @youm7 pic.twitter.com/iJfr1axKgh

— عمو حسام (@3arabawy) August 28, 2014