Egyptians Go E-Politics

At the Daily Star Ahmad Zaki Osman explains the effect that the internet is having on Egyptian political participation. By utilizing popular online networking tools like Facebook, and other methods for widespread information distribution like YouTube and blogs, the younger members of society are changing the political landscape.

Osman reports that as “internet users have voiced direct criticism of Mubarak’s regime,” the government has cracked down on the opposition by arresting bloggers, like Moneim Mahmoud, Wael Abbas, Karim Amer, and most recently Isra Abdel Fattah for organizing the April 6th demonstrations. As for the Muslim Brotherhood’s blogging participation, Osman notes that “most Brotherhood blogs joined the reformist side of the debate, rejecting ideas such as supervision of the executive and legislative branches by a board of religious scholars or exclusion of women and Copts from the presidency.”

For more on the Islamist political movement, visit Abu Aardvark where Marc Lynch discusses the the moderating force of the the Muslim Brotherhood on radicalism.