The war on bloggers

According to the Arabist, the Egyptian Judge Abdel Fattah Morad is planning to file a lawsuit to get 21 Egyptian blogs and websites blocked. This is also the same judge who will hear the appeal of Abdul Kareem Suleiman, the jailed blogger, next week. He was sentenced to four years in jail in February, three for offending Islam, and one for offending Mubarak. If the judge is successful in his demands, it will subsequently make it easy for the regime to get rid of political dissenters airing their views on the internet. Among the alleged offending webpages are Kefaya's website, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Info and Bent Masreyya. Read more on the Arabist, arabist.net

Mubarak and al Azhar strike back

Abdel Kareem Suleiman, an Egyptian blogger, got sentenced to four years in prison. It was the government sponsored Islamic universtity of al Azhar who took the initiative to press charges against him. Apparently, his accusation against al Azhar of suppressing free thought was too much of an insult to ignore. In addition to naming al Azhar "the university of terrorism", Mr Suleiman criticized Hosni Mubarak's dictatorial politics. The result: three years for insulting Islam, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak. Al Azhar and Mubarak have done a great job clearing their names of any suspicions of suppressing the freedom of expression. Dictator, who me?