Facebook has played a central roll in organizing the protests that have erupted in Egypt. Human Rights Watch reports that Friday’s game-changing demonstration was organized through a Facebook site for Khaled Said. Mr. Said was an Egyptian who was beaten to death by police last June in an internet café. Mr. Khaled has become the face of an Egyptian campaign against police abuse. His Facebook page reportedly has 66,000 subscribers.
The April 6 Youth Movement is another important Facebook based protest movements in Egypt. Reportedly, it has over 80,000 subscribers. Ahmed Maher, the Movement’s leader, has been detained and torture repeatedly. The group describes itself as democratic and it appears to support the presidential candidacy Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed El Baradei. Nevertheless, it appears to have the support of Egypt’s controversial Muslim Brotherhood.
April 6 made its first appearance in 2008 when it used Facebook to organized a strike. Their demands in their strike were for higher wages, elections for an assembly that would write a new Egyptian constitution, and that Egypt cease selling gas to Israel. Reportedly, the April 6 strike was supported by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Russian news service RT and Israel’s Jerusalem Post report that WikiLeaks released a US State Department Cable last Friday which documents US assistance to April 6 in 2008. According to the cable, the State Department aided a April 6 leader in visiting the US to attend the Alliance for Youth Movement Summit. It also interceded with the Egyptian government for the release of jailed April 6 members. The cable discloses that the April 6 leader met with Congressional representatives Ed Royce and Ileana Ros Lehtinen when he visited the US.
The 2008 State Department cable also describes a plan by April 6 to force a weaken President Mubarak to hold parliamentary elections in 2011, before the scheduled presidential election. According to the cable, April 6 claims that that its plan has the support of other opposition parties – Wafd, Nasserite, Tagamman, Karama, Kifaya, Revolutionary Socialist and the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is unknown what role April 6 has played in the Egyptian uprising. However, based on what is known, is it possible that the US is trying to mediate a parliamentary transition? Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but perhaps not.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has not commented on this matter.
Comments
I agree that my initial googling on the "social networking origins of the Egyptian unrest" took me to the Khaled Saeed FACEBOOK Group. The photos of young Saeed before & after his beating, torture, & stomping (to death), were enough to sicken & sadden. His face & his message apparently motivated demonstrations that were "noisy" at first, in 2010. However, as the movement around his death coalesced, the group that formed remained nebulous, to restrict identification & destruction by the Egyptian Security Police, AND, perhaps more importantly, chose silent, non-violent, peaceful demonstrations to reduce the openings the police might have to arrest demonstrators.
As a Quaker, I notified American Friends Service Committee, (AFSC), which has a small cadre operating in Gaza, rebuilding buildings torn down by the latest fighting.
I want to also point out the breathtaking leap into peaceful, non-violent aspects of the Khaled Saeed Movement, &, hopefully, the April 6th Movement. Both could actually garner massive world wide attention IF they can remain couched in the use of non-violent demonstrations. This would allow any true peaceful manifestations of Islam in Egypt to be demonstrated for the world.
Dear I Dunno,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
These are interesting times in Egypt. The protest leaders appear to be well organized and thoughtful. The pictures broadcasting from Tahrir Square depict a movement that is democratic and peaceful. This appears to be a movement that can change the face of the Near East.
BTW, I don't mean to sound to terribly unhip, but what does &amp mean?
The Terribly Unhip Management
@Joe, the Terribly Unhip Management,
The &amp is due to an inability of the network to decode the ampersand (((&)))) symbol which denotes the word "and".
Nothing more.
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