Hala Masreya!

By Sara Ghorab

(06/26/2006)

You may have heard of the recent unpleasantness with Hala al Masry, an Egyptian blogger who could more accurately be called a FREEDOM FIGHTER for the new Egypt that so many are trying to raise from the ashes of the utter trash that it has denigrated to.

For those unfamiliar with Hala, keep reading and I'll get you caught up.

Who: Hala Helmy Botrous Makrious (but she's been writing under the pen name "Hala al Masry.")

What: "Blogging," officially, but she's more of a citizen journalist than a "blogger," having witnessed and exposed so many of the atrocities and stunts that Egyptian State Security (hereafter "ESS") have been pulling recently.

How: Through words, photos and videos, Hala has shed light on many things that have long hidden under the cover of the danger and threat of the ESS. Unfortunately, through this and other cases, ESS have gotten wise to the practice of blogging and reporting from cybercafes.

When: June 15th, Hala was pulled over in the Cairo Airport, and hit with trumped-up charges of attacking her father (who denied it), as well as "defaming Egypt by propagating information to the outside world" (source, freecopts.net). She had been on her way to Newark, NJ, to attend June 19th's 4th International Coptic Conference, put on by Copts United/ICU/Cameel Halim.

Why: Because EGYPTIAN STATE SECURITY ARE FOOLS! It's true. All they care about is protecting the name of a badly-run and horrible parody of Egypt that they created themselves.

Some people blame the problems on ESS, others blame the problem on Mubarak or dictatorship or 1001 other things. Some people seek to save Hala because she is Coptic, or Alaa because he is Muslim. Some people support Dr. Wafa Sultan and Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman because they are so vocal in their detraction of Islam.

In other words, people lend their support to the aforementioned people on the sole basis of what these people have said (or continue to say).

But this is not the way to drag Egypt into the 20th Century! (Or 21st, but that would be hoping for too huge of a miracle at one time.)

We should NOT be supportive based on whether we agree or disagree. Rather, we should support FREEDOM OF SPEECH in all its forms, and help out those who are fighting for it–and especially those who are acting on faith by actually practicing it before we have it here. (Or outside of Egypt, for that matter.)

It is very interesting that Hala was pulled over for "defaming Egypt," and ruining/insulting/hurting her country (Masr), when she is, in fact, working so hard to expose the flaws and maggots and ROT that is, well, rotting the very core of our once-great nation and making it into such a stench-ridden hellhole that many people would step on their own mothers to escape and move to Canada or America or Europe.

And so, based on this, I reject the idea that Hala is betraying Egypt, and propose that she–and others who support her or expose similar ESS malfunctions–are the ones fighting for Egypt, protecting Egypt, and, in a manner of speaking, are the only TRUE Egyptians!
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Blog: http://saraghorab.wordpress.com/