White House invites Arab bloggers to Obama’s Middle East speech

By Joby Warrick, The Washington Post

Of the dozens of journalists covering the speech live from the State Department, few had a greater personal stake in President Obama’s words on the Middle East than Ammar Abdulhamid.

The 44-year-old Marylander is a Syrian exile and democratic activist who contributes to several blogs closely followed by his former countrymen in Syria, where a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters has left hundreds dead. From the minute Obama began his much-anticipated speech on Thursday, Abdulhamid’s cell phone buzzed with emails and texts from readers anxious to learn details. Continue reading “White House invites Arab bloggers to Obama’s Middle East speech” →

Syrians have broken the fear barrier

February’s ‘day of anger’ fizzled out, but protests in Deraa show Syria’s revolutionary spirit is now gathering pace.

Ammar Abdulhamid, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011 11.36 GMT

What a difference six weeks make. Back in early February I was asked whether Syria would be next on the growing list of countries to witness a popular revolution. My answer, which came in the form of an article published on Comment is free, was, in essence, “not yet”. Continue reading “Syrians have broken the fear barrier” →

Tweeting the Egyptian Revolution (4)

A selection of tweets related to the Egyptian Revolution, I have excluded most retweets as well as tweets in Arabic or tweets that simply link to articles and news reports. Most tweets reflect personal thoughts of information obtained from monitoring reports from the ground sent by in-country activists and journalists.

What’s Behind Demonstrations in #Egypt? http://goo.gl/tqa12 – Desire 4 Freedom 4 Dignity 4 Better Future than they’re preparing 4 us #jan25 2011-01-28T00:00:54Z
They want power. We want freedom. They have guns. We have cellphones. They’re ready 2 kill. We’re willing 2 die 4 better tomorrow #jan25 2011-01-28T00:05:21Z
#Egyptian unrest may set off vicious economic cycle http://goo.gl/5vxlu – Little price 2 pay 4 ppl willing 2 shed own blood 4 freedom #jan25 2011-01-28T00:20:05Z
Egyptian authorities seem to be encouraging thugs 2 burn cars loot shops in order 2 smear protesters decrease potential turnout tmrrw #jan25 2011-01-28T00:25:54Z
Reports of videos, pictures, status updates getting deleted from Facebook pages supporting protesters, FB new battle front now #jan25 2011-01-28T00:29:33Z Continue reading “Tweeting the Egyptian Revolution (4)” →

Protests in Egypt continue despite government shut down of Internet

Quoted in Deutsche-Welle:

The ramifications outside of Egypt are troubling as activists and journalists struggled to understand the situation there, as Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident and human rights activist in the United States, told Deutsche Welle.

“The Internet, and the Tunisian precedent made the world take notice of events in Egypt from day one, whereas it took months for them to notice the importance of developments in Tunisia, but even there, the Internet played a crucial factor,” he said. Continue reading “Protests in Egypt continue despite government shut down of Internet” →