Egypt’s veteran blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah (@alaa) was detained today (Sunday, Oct. 30) for 15 days pending investigation after refusing to be interrogated by a military investigator, insisting on his right to be tried before a civil court.

Alaa was called in for investigation last week in light of the Maspiro events in Cairo, where 27 people died and many more were injured after the army cracked down on a Christian-majority demonstration. Alaa was very active in the aftermath of these tragic events, and spent two days at the morgue alongside other activists in solidarity with the victims’ families, while trying to convince them to agree to autopsies and trying to make sure the reports of the autopsies are correctly documented. Alaa wrote a very moving piece of that experience in Al Shorouk newspaper (a translation of which can be found here) in which he repeatedly reminded everyone that solidarity is the way out of any problems in Egypt.

Alaa was in San Francisco when he was called to the investigation last week. His father, veteran human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif El Islam Abdel Fattah, appeared in court and asked for the case to be postponed. Alaa came back to Cairo on Saturday afternoon and appeared in court on Sunday morning. The military prosecutor has filed five charges against him including demonstrating, inciting to demonstrate, assaulting military personnel, destroying public property, and stealing military weapons. Alaa, whose sister Mona Seif (@monasosh) is one of the founders of the No to Military Trials for Civilians group, insisted to be interrogated before a civic judge, especially in light of the fact that the army is facing law suits accusing it as a defendant in the same case, which constitutes a clear conflict of interest. He was detained as a result pending further military investigation.

Alaa has been very active on the blogging scene in Egypt since 2004, when he and his wife Manal Hassan (@manal) started the award-winner blog and aggregator Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket (www.manalaa.net). Both bloggers have been very active online and offline in fighting the old regime in Egypt and making sure cases of corruption and police brutality were broken into traditional media. Alaa was detained before in 2006 for 45 days.

Many believe Alaa’s detention comes as a warning to other bloggers and political activists as another step in a series of violations against freedom of expression committed by the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt. Several bloggers were interrogated and/or detained including Asmaa Mahfouz, Hossam El Hamalawy, Loai Nagati, and Maikel Nabil, who has been on a hunger strike since August 22.

The No to Military Trials for Civilians group has published a press release condemning Alaa’s arrest in the strong possible words, and asking for his immediate release, together with the other 12,000 victims of military trials in Egypt, who should at least be retried before a civil court. The group called upon Egyptians to refuse to cooperate with military interrogation and to support the cause of No to Military Trials for Civilians. You can read the press release in its entirety here.

Arab Bloggers Meeting III – Tunisia 2011 from gr33ndata on Vimeo.

By Tarek Amr (@gr33ndata)

By Hisham: A message from the Third Arab Blogger Meeting in Tunis to the Moroccan pro-democracy movement, February 20: Mamfakinch! We won’t give up! – Oct. 2011

I`ve just returned after a long week  of travels, the most exciting of them being the days spent in Tunis for the third Arab Bloggers meeting (#AB11).

I attended the second one in Beirut, 2009, and thought this was awesome. The atmosphere at the time was that of “something in the making”.

It was two years ago and that feeling has proved right. This crowd has been the protagonist, each of them in his/her own country, of  this phenomenal 2011. Each of these people, together with the Arab youth of each country, had proven to be able to contribute, online and offline, to the shaping of a new future of the Arab region.

Two years ago I felt there was a kind of “cultural panarabism”, a feeling of unity pervading the meeting. This time it was even stronger.

When the Palestinian bloggers and activists were denied the entry visa by the Tunisian Ministry of Interior (without giving any acceptable reason), all the other Arab participants have raised in solidarity. We have made petitions,formal statements, press-releases, got all the mainstream media to talk about this (the evidence: when, few days ago, I walked into my Monaco hotel to join the jury of the Anna Lindht award, all the people there -a totally different crowd from the Arab bloggers- pointed out: it`s a real shame that the new Tunisia prevented the Palestinians to join the #AB11 meeting!). We have had a Skype call with them to let them join the sessions and put all their pictures on empty chairs in a symbolic protest for their unjustified absence.

picture by Ibtihel Zaatouri under CC BY license

I`ve attended so many conferences where officials make statements about Palestine and Palestians, and inter-Arab solidarity. This is the first time I`ve felt people being together, despite not being physically together.

There is something this Arab youth shares, beyond rhetoric. The Arab Springs have strengthened this feeling which has been in the making during the past years thanks to physical meet-ups but of course thanks to the Internet and the social networks.

Now there are best practices shared, together with pictures, videos, links, information.

This Arab youth is truly Pan-Arab. One`s revolution is everybody else`s revolution. One`s freedom is gonna be everybody else`s freedom.

The tools are there. Again, the #AB11 is a great mix of tech training (whether it is about learning cyber security or how to live video stream from the streets) and learning from others` experiences and direct participation. Sami Ben Gharbeia, Malek Khadhraoui and Astrubaal `s reflections on Tunisian revolution and the role played by their portal Nawaat have enlightened and inspired so many people in the #AB11 crowd. Bloggers from Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, have also contributed to the debate by  bringing focusing on each of these countries and on their own direct experience in terms of citizens and activists. Pearls that you will never get on mainstream media.

But the novelty of this edition is how do we move to the next step, i.e. how do we empower people to do a better and citizen-media based cover for the upcoming elections in Tunisia and Egypt, and generally speaking how do we get people actively involved in the democratic process of rebuilding the institutions and the country itself. A very interesting panel, coordinated by Global Voices` Solana Saurus, has been held at the #AB11 on this very issue, with lots of insights coming from Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans,too.

For me one of the most interesting panel was the one which featured the Tunisian bloggers who are running for elections debating about their different visions of the constitutional assembly, the alliances among them or with other groups, their ideas towards mobilizing people, etc. Thanks to Jillian c.York we have great notes of the session.

The key question during the upcoming months is exactly this: how do we turn the regime change that was accomplished in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, into political and social change? and how do we turn the blogging and activism that was “in opposition” to dictatorships into a proactive force that reaches out to the ground and helps democracy to emerge?

#AB11 variety of panels and voices has given a great contribution to this debate. In two weeks Tunis will make the first move, by hosting the first democratic elections in the Region since long time. And the Tunisian bloggers and activists will play an important role in these elections which hopefully will later be a key role in the future of the country, too.

You can find a great coverage of the meeting on the Arab Bloggers official website, on Global Voices and on some blogs (like Jillian C. York`s).

Arab Bloggers site has also collected many interesting videos from Tunisia Live and hopefully will publish soon the sessions that have been filmed.

Ibtihel Zaatouri has a great Flickr stream of the meeting and there is also a Storify report about it.

Thanks to Sami and the Nawaat team, all the wonderful Global Voices people, Doreen and Hiba from Heinrich Boll for organizing this inspiring meeting.

Some of us are only still finding our way home, but we’re looking forward to reading what everyone has to say since the meeting in Tunis. Meanwhile, here are excerpts from two thoughtful entries about what the Arab Bloggers Meeting means.

See links to more blogs and media here.

From Sudanese Thinker, now publicly known as Amir Ahmad Nasr (Drima), a touching post that ends on a personal note of self-empowerment. Read the whole post!

To truly begin to understand the significance of the 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting that just took place in Tunisia, you first have to make yourself familiar with what happened two years ago in December 2009 during the 2nd Arab Bloggers Meeting in Beirut.

Back then, in the words of the late Steve “Abdulfattah” Jobs, we were “the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

We were crazy enough to think we could change the world. Crazy enough to think we could change things in our societies, some things, anything. But as crazy as we were, I don’t think any of us imagined in 2009 that we’d be meeting again in the capital of what then used to be one of the most Internet-restricting dictatorships on the planet.

Fast-forward nearly two years later and that’s precisely what happened. We met in Tunisia, and a lot has indeed changed. So much in fact that it took us all by surprise. And you know what? It’s one of the best damn feelings anyone can experience.

And here is the conclusion of Syrian Yazan Badran’s great piece on The Guardian’s “Comment is Free” site:

The challenges facing each country in the post-revolution Arab world will be complex, but not dissimilar, whether in Syria – where the revolution is yet to find its final conclusion – or in Tunisia, where elections will take place in just two short weeks, and our roles as bloggers in the coming process of nation-building will have to be adapted to these new realities.

New spheres of expression, long closed and forbidden to us, are now open. Reclaiming, defending and efficiently utilising these spaces to debate and promote our visions of the new Arab world will be our most immediate task. Also vital to our upcoming challenges is establishing a culture of openness and transparency, something that will require us to overcome years of forced secrecy and anonymity in the Arab world.

We are hopeful that when we leave Tunis and go back to our respective bases, we’ll bring with us not only the sense of solidarity and comradeship that we’ve seen in every corner of the Arab world, but also a workable vision that we can all set upon.

More interviews

• Ghazi Geblawi from Libya
• Mustafa from Lebanon
• Nasser Weddady from Mauritania/USA
• Jillian York from USA
• Rebecca MacKinnon from USA
• Moez Chakchouk, Chairman of Tunisia’s Internet Agency (ATI)

You beautiful people!

Several sessions on Syria have taken place at the meeting. On Wednesday, bloggers discussed the impact of digital activism in Syria, focusing heavily on the Syrian Electronic Army, the pro-regime hacking group recently responsible for defacing Harvard University’s website. Noting that President Bashar Al Assad had thanked the Electronic Army for its efforts, Amira Al Hussaini commented: “SICK.”

A symbol used by Syrian digital activists, urging an end to repression

The discussion also touched upon the issue of authenticity, with some Syrians inside the country emphasizing the legitimacy of diaspora voices, as @redrazan tweeted:

Treating the voices of Syrians inside as authentic and the ones in disapora as not so much, is ridiculous. #Syria

Anonymously quoting a Syrian participant, @ahmed tweeted:

How can Syrians abroad help protesters on the ground in Syria? Is there ways to do that? #ab11

Bloggers also discussed organizing in Syria, where protests are often quickly dispersed and movement is restricted. @ahmed translated and transcribed the comments of Syrian participants, noting the difficulty of organizing and remarking that Syrians “invented “flying protestes”: quick 2-min protest that gets filmed & uploaded.”

Syria is “pulling at my heart strings”

Thursday morning, one of the Syrian participants who had recently spent time in the country gave a talk on the dire situation in the country, prompting Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah (@Tarawnah) to note:

Hands down, #Syria has been the most emotional talk of #AB11 & as a Jordanian its pulling at my heart strings. #BlessSyria

Quoting the speaker, Tarawnah also wrote that, after seven months, “no opposition group has demonstrated its ability to break the regime,” asking “Where do we go from here?”

Syrian-Spanish blogger Leila Nachawati also quoted the speaker, explaining:

Syrian participant explained the ways in which the Syrian government is trying to ignite sectarianism to provoke a civil war.

Although the situation is dire, the Syrian speaker injected hopefulness into the discussion. According to Lilian Wagdy, the blogger also proclaimed that the only hope for #Syria is #Egypt ‘s revolution ending in success, and that Syrians don’t want to “co-exist together, [they] want to ‘live’ together.”