Maikel Nabil, the first blogger put on trial by the interim leadership, sentenced on charges of insulting military.
Last Modified: 14 Dec 2011 14:33

An Egyptian military court has sentenced a blogger who criticised the army to two years in prison, after he went on a hunger strike to protest an initial three-year sentence.

“In the name of the people, Maikel Nabil has been sentenced and punished with two years in prison and fined 200 pounds ($33),” the court said after a retrial on Wednesday.

Nabil, 26, who had criticised the ruling military on his blog and campaigned against conscription, had been handed a three-year sentence in April in a widely criticised trial.

This followed his publication of a blog entry called “The people and the army were never hand in hand”.

On his blog, Nabil said the army had used violence against protesters. He claimed it had also used Cairo’s Egyptian Museum as a place to torture civilians, and that the military forces detained women protesters to take virginity tests.

He was at the time found guilty of “insulting the military” and of publishing false news.

Nabil’s was the first trial of a blogger by a military court since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) assumed control after President Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11 following 18 straight days of anti-government protests.

Nabil has been on hunger strike since August.

His brother Mark told the AFP news agency that Nabil “will escalate his hunger strike. He was drinking juice and milk, but now will only drink water”.

Click here to continue reading “Egyptian blogger gets two years in prison”.

Uploaded to YouTube.com by bluepilgrimage on Dec 12, 2011

Levinsky Park, December 11, 2011
please excuse the poor quality of the audio & video
hopefully the content makes up for it in part

December 12, 2011

The Holy Land Five Appeal
My Father Will Not be Forgotten
by NOOR ELASHI

Exactly three days following the tenth anniversary of the Bush administration shutting down the largest Muslim charity in the United States, the Fifth Circuit Court dismissed the appeal for the Holy Land Foundation case, affirming the conviction of my father, the co-founder of the HLF who’s serving a 65-year sentence for his humanitarian work.

Click here to continue reading “My Father Will Not be Forgotten” by Noor Elashi.

James Petras
12 December 2011

The dynamic of democratic, nationalist and class struggles throughout the Moslem world has set in motion a new constellation of alliances between the imperial West (US and European Union) and Islamist parties, leaders and regimes, dubbed “moderate” by US officials, propagandists and academics.

This essay analyzes the changing contemporary context of imperial domination, especially the demise of longstanding client regimes. It then examines the previous significant ties between western imperial powers and Islamist movements and regimes and the basis of ‘historical collaboration’.

Click here to continue reading “The Washington – “Moderate Islam” Alliance: Containing Rebellion Defending Empire” by James Petras.