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Friend and Ally Update. Just think: this is what is in store for all bloggers, and all independent thinkers who decline to accept Sharia, if the Saudis and their allies succeed in their jihad. "Saudis Confirm Detention of Blogger," by Katherine Zoepf in the New York Times (thanks to all who sent this in):
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — An outspoken Saudi blogger is being held for “purposes of interrogation,” the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed Tuesday.Gen. Mansour al-Turki, an Interior Ministry spokesman reached by telephone, said the blogger, Fouah al-Farhan, was “being questioned about specific violations of nonsecurity laws.” Mr. Farhan’s blog, which discusses social issues, had become one of the most widely read in Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Farhan, 32, of Jidda, was arrested Dec. 10 at his office, local news sources reported. Two weeks before his arrest, he wrote a letter to friends warning them that it was imminent.
“I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me,” read the letter, which is now posted in English and Arabic on Mr. Farhan’s blog.
Since his arrest, friends have continued to post entries on his Web log (www.alfarhan.org) on his behalf under a banner that reads “Free Fouad” and features his picture.
“The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia, and they think I’m running an online campaign promoting their issue,” the letter continued, saying that Mr. Farhan had been asked to sign a statement of apology.
“I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that,” he wrote. “An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is a liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?”
Ahmad al-Omran, a blogger and a friend of Mr. Farhan, said that Mr. Farhan had been the first Saudi blogger to be detained by state security. The arrest created widespread anxiety among other Saudi bloggers and advocates, he said.
“An incident like this has its effect,” Mr. Omran said by telephone. “It’s intimidating to think you might be arrested for something on your blog. On the other hand, this means that these voices on the blogosphere are being heard. But it’s really sad that a blogger who is writing about important issues out in the open would get arrested, while there are extremists who call for violence and hate, and the government is not doing much.”
Mr. Omran said Mr. Farhan was one of the first Saudi bloggers to post items in Arabic and to use his real name. At the top of Mr. Farhan’s blog is a call in Arabic for “freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation and the other lost Islamic values.”
I expect they're going to stay lost, at least in Saudi Arabia, for quite some time.
Posted by Robert at January 3, 2008 9:20 AM
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I'm going to quote from a infamous red book -
"Political power flows from the barrel of a gun".
Dictators are dictators are dictators. They just go by different names.
Foauh Farhan is a true matyr.
Posted by: tanstaafl![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 3, 2008 10:35 AM
“I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that,” he wrote. “An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is a liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?”
What sort of terrorism?
Is the government really lying?
Really difficult to get anything accurate, for the time being, since he wrote in arabic.
Posted by: Oko at January 3, 2008 11:39 AM
I would hope that someone organize a blogger human rights organization, Something like "International organization of bloggers,' where anyone can sign up as a member.
Then when something like this happens, a call can go out to all members, throughout the world, to go into action writing E-mails, and sending them to specific addresses of Embassy's and departments of the offending governments.
No government could ignore 10-20 million E-mails, and might even make them think twice about persuting bloggers who express their opinions on the web.
At the very least, governments will know they're being watched, and their actions will have international reprecusions.
Posted by: rational at January 3, 2008 12:21 PM
Rational,
There is a lettter on www.alfarhan.org in English from the Committe to Protect Journalists to His Royal Highness King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
They cc the following organizations:
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Reporters Sans Frontières
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee
I'm not saying this equals or eliminates the need for a blogger rights organization such as you proposed. However, the existence of this network of organizations and the way they call upon each other in cases like this is relevant.
Maybe the most direct thing we can do is to collect a rolodex like the author of this letter has, so as to be able to tap the network for cases that might otherwise be ignored.
Posted by: Pilgrim at January 3, 2008 11:07 PM
The Saudis do not take kindly if the truth is told about them. Their hand reaches far beyond the borders of their Arabia, even--far too much--into the United States, where they monitor blogs and exert economic pressure on the corporation they have bought into to gag these blogs. But that should surprise no one, as the Saudis have bought not only U.S. corporations but far too many functionaries in our--the U.S.--government. Their evil hand is strong and effective, never underestimate the power of the Saudis via the money they are receiving from the oil in the land their recent ancestors happened to roam over.
Read all about the Saudis at your leisure.
Oh, and incidentally, what are these "Islamic" values the unfortunate Saudi blogger is talking about? Where are they ever listed as extending to all mankind in any Islamic scripture?
at January 4, 2008 1:58 AM
Thanks, Pilgrim, for the information. Anyone that writes a letter or signs a petition is to be congratulated.
My own idea was that there be one central bloggers rights organization, where internet users can sign up as members. Whenever a situation like this occures as in Saudi Arabia, the organization would generate an alert to all members to start writing E-mails to the government involved.
I certainly have nothing against petitions, but believe that individual E-mails, especially in the millions, would have a much more powerful impact.
I think it would be extremely important that a bloggers rights organization like the one I'm proposing should avoid at all cost any issues unrelated to the arrest or persecution of a blogger for what he writes on a blog. All other political, social or moral issues should be avoided so as not to aleinate any segment of the organination's members.
It should confine itself only to a bloggers right blog.
I really believe that bloggers all over the world, especially in oppresive societies like Saudi Arabia, should have recourse to an organization that can, on short notice, bring the house sown on the heads of their oppressors.
If nothing else, it might at least, insure better treatment than they would receive otherwise.
at January 4, 2008 12:04 PM
There is a blogger in Britain that is now being arrested for blogging on Islam as well. Islamic extremists have created “no-go” areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter. They’re going to arrest the blogger Lionheart for writing about it the state of affairs in Britain, yet it’s printed in the Telegraph for the world to see. I was just reading it on another blogger site (dissfunktional @ wordpress dot com is carrying the story) In BRITAIN!
Posted by: horseluver at January 6, 2008 1:06 PM
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