The Islamist opposition online in Egypt and Jordan
Conclusion
Both the IAF and the Egyptian MB have used official websites in support of election campaigns. While blogging is clearly the superior platform in terms of creating humanizing, personalized narratives about individual members and thus the group as a whole, the case of the MB has demonstrated that attempts to incorporate this platform into a broader media campaign can pose significant challenges to leadership structure and message unity. Furthermore, the disparity between the MB and the IAF towards blogging has demonstrated that a group’s proclivity towards this form of media also depends on the broader internet media context within which these groups operate and their compatibility with dominant discourses within the blogosphere. These factors force us to look beyond their ostensible political agendas in order to understand how and why they embrace new media technologies. In the Arab world this dynamic will develop further as internet penetration rates increase.
Pete Ajemian recently completed graduate studies at the University of St. Andrews. His dissertation research examined issues dealing with new media, politics, and security in the Arab world. He developed an interest in Arab media during his Arabic language studies at Columbia University and the American University of Beirut. He has conducted research for U.S. law enforcement and has written on issues of political violence and terrorism in the Arab world.
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[1] Bowman, Dylan, "Egypt, Jordan slammed for press freedom repression,” Arabbusiness.com, October 17, 2007.
[2] http://www.internetworldstats.com/af/eg.htm.
[3] http://www.internetworldstats.com/me/jo.htm.
[4] For a comprehensive assessment of Internet penetration in the Arab world see, Vincent, Peter, and Warf, Barney, "Multiple geographies of the Arab Internet,” Area (2007), Vol. 39, No.1, pg. 83. On expansion of access, see, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/egypt and, http://opennet.net/research/profiles/jordan.
[5] The concept of an Internet-enabled 'counter-public sphere' is derived from Jurgen Habermas’s ‘public spheres’, whereby this technology provides marginalized groups with an inexpensive means to establish a sphere of media discourse that accompanies their forms of organization and protest. See, Downey, J. and Fenton, N., 'New media, counter publicity and the public sphere', New Media & Society, Vol. 5 (2), 2003, pp. 185-202.
[6] Rohozinski, Rafal, “Bullets to Bytes: Reflections on ICTs and ‘Local’ Conflict,” in R., Latham (ed.), Bombs and bandwidth: the emerging relationship between Information Technology and security, New York: New Press, 2003, pg. 222.
[7] Haugbolle, Sune, "From A-List to Webtifada: Developments in the Lebanese Blogosphere 2005-2006,” Arab Media & Society, (February 2007), pg. 8, accessed from: http://www.arabmediasociety.com/?article=40.
[8] Bunt, Gary R., "Towards and Islamic Information Revolution?,” in E., Poole and J., Richardson (eds.), Muslims and the News Media, London: I.B. Taurus & Company, 2006, pp. 158-160.
[9] Lynch, Marc, '"Blogging the New Arab Public,” Arab Media & Society, (February, 2007), pg. 2, accessible from: http://www.arabmediasociety.org/?article=10.
[10] Kraidy, Marwan, "Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Changing Arab Information Order,” International Journal of Communication, 1 (2007), pg. 241.
[11] Rugh, William A., Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics, Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004, pg. 122.
[12] Stark, Jan. "Beyond 'Terrorism' and 'State Hegemony': assessing the Islamist mainstream in Egypt and Malaysia," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 2, 2005, pg. 312.
[13] Rugh, pg. 122.
[14] Ibid.
[15] See, Antar, Noha, "The Muslim Brotherhood's Success in the Legislative Elections In Egypt 2005: Reasons and Implications,” EuroMesco: 51, October 2006.
[16] Rugh, pg. 124-125, also see, “Egypt: Systematic abuses in the name of security,” Amnesty International, 11 April 2007, accessible from: http://www.amnesty.org/en/report/info/MDE12/001/2007.
[17] Spolar, Christine, "Egypt cracking down on Islamist bloc,” Chicago Tribune, 8 March 2006.
[18] Mayton, Joseph S., "Special Series On Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: Islam Online,” All Headline News, 5 June 2007.
[19] "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood launches election campaign on website,” Al-Sharq al-Awsat website, London, in Arabic, 5 October 2005.
[20] Antar, pg. 14.
[21] Rugh, pg. 122.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Abou El-Magd, Nadia, "Egypt's Elections Turn Violent; 1 Killed,” Associated Press, 11 June 2007, accessed from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19164327/print/1/displaymode/1098/, 12 June 2007.
[24] Author's translation of, "A statement from the Muslim Brothers regarding the events of the 2007 Shura Council elections,” accessed from: http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ArtID=29057&SecID=212, 15 July 2007.
[25] See, "Egyptian Shura Elections Kick Off with Detentions, Riggings,” accessed from: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/Article.asp?ID=1368&LevelID=2&SectionID=94, 12 June 2007.
[26] Author's translation of video archive entitled, "Actions and Events – The Forging of the Shura Elections,” accessed from: http://ikhwanonline.com/Media/MediaView.asp?AlbumID=107&MainCatID=3&SubCatID=16, 12 June 2007.
[27] Loewenstein, Antony, "Blogging against Mubarak,” The Guardian: Comment is Free, June 11, 2007, accessed from: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/antony_loewenstein/2007/06/blogging_against_mubarak.html, 12 June 2007.
[28] Lynch, Marc, "Brotherhood of the Blog,” The Guardian: Comment is Free, 5 March 2007. Accessible from: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/marc_lynch/2007/03/brotherhood_of_the_blog.html.
[29] Lynch, Marc, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, Al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, pg. 51.
[30] See, Lynch, Marc, “Young Brothers in Cyberspace,” Middle East Report #245, Winter 2007, accessible from: http://merip.org/mer/mer245/lynch.html#_ednref2.
[31] Exum, Andrew, '"Internet Freedom in the Middle East: Challenges for U.S. Policy,” The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Watch #1205, 27 February 2007, pg. 1.
[32] Lynch, "Brotherhood of the Blog".
[33] Author's translation of, Mashali, Sali, "Blogs of the sons of the arrested Brothers... shouts against the tyrants,” accessed from: http://www.ikhwanonline.com/print.asp?ArtID=26651&SecID=303, 15 July 2007.
[34] Author's translation of, Abdul Hameed, Rawda, "The slogans of the youth in the world of the Internet: enter politics through the door of blogs,” accessed from: http://www.ikhwanonline.com/print.asp?ArtID=27672&SecID=303, 15 July 2007.
[35] Author's translation of, Mashali, Sali, accessed from: http://www.ikhwanonline.com/print.asp?ArtID=25522&SecID=303, 15 July 2007.
[36] Lynch, “Young Brothers in Cyberspace”.
[37] "Egypt: Shura Council Elections and Other Political Developments,” in M., Dunn (ed.), Arab Reform Bulletin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Vol. 5, Issue 5, June 2007, pg. 12. Accessed from: www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=19217, 29 July 2007.
[38] Magdi, Amr, "Muslim Brotherhood Between Official Ban, Media Success,” Aljazeera.net, English translation, posted on: http://204.10.105.180/Home.asp?zPage=Systems&System=PressR&Press=Show&Lang=E&ID=6252, accessed: 10 July 2007.
[39] See, http://freehassanmalek.blogspot.com/.
[40] See, "Egypt steps up campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood,” Associated Press, 20 February 2007, accessed from: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/20/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Hunting-The-Brotherhood.php, 5 August 2007.
[41] Author's translation of video posted on, http://freehassanmalek.blogspot.com/. accessed from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9-54aYbhtY&watch_response, 5 August 2007.
[42] "Egypt: Shura Council Elections and Other Political Developments,” in M., Dunn (ed.), Arab Reform Bulletin, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Vol. 5, Issue 5, June 2007, pg. 12.
[43] "Abdel-Monem Mahmoud: the Egyptian totalitarian regime is the problem,” accessed from: http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/05/04/abdel-monem-
mahmoud-the-egyptian-totalitarian-regime-is-the-problem/, 10 July 2007.
[44] See, http://monem-press.blogspot.com/2007/06/house-of-egyptian-blogger-raided.html.
[45] El-Ghobashy, Mona, "The Metamorphosis of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers,” International Journal of Middle East Stiudies, 37 (2005), pg. 373.
[46] See, Author's translation, "The party of the community or the community of the party,” accessed from: http://ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post_29.html, and see, Author's translation, "Monem ... I am the Brotherhood,” accessed from: http://ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post.html.
[47] See, "Monem ... I am the Brotherhood".
[48] Lynch, “Young Brothers in Cyberspace”.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Author's translation, "The Brotherhood and Blogging,” accessed from: http://abdelatti.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-post_11.html.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Ibid.
[54] Tammimi, Azzam, "Islam and Democracy: Jordan and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Islamic Area Studies Working Paper Series No. 18, London: The Institute of Islamic Political Thought, 2000, pg. 11.
[55] Brown, Nathan, “Jordan and Its Islamic Movement: The Limits of Inclusion,” Carnegie Paper No. 74, Carnegie Endowment, November 2006, pg. 6.
[56] Ibid, pg. 7.
[57] According to a statement issued by the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood posted on the IAF’s website this internal change was the result of the government’s alleged violations during the elections, however divisions within the Brotherhood over the selection of candidates was publicized before the elections. For the IAF’s stance on the issue see, Author’s translation, “Decision to dissolve itself… the Shura Council members of the Brotherhood: The government practiced the ugliest types of forging in the elections which transformed it into a comedy,” 29 November 2007, accessed from: http://www.jabha.net/body0.asp?field=beanat2003&id=1, 30 November 2007.
[58] Tal, Nachman, Radical Islam in Egypt and Jordan, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, pg. 187.
[59] Lucas, Russell E., "Deliberalization in Jordan,” in Diamond, Larry, Plattner, Marc F., and Brumberg, Larry (eds.) Islam and Democracy in the Middle East, Baltimore, MD, USA: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, pg. 101.
[60] Robinson, Glenn E., "Islamists under Liberalization in Jordan,” in Moussali, Ahmad S., Islamic Fundamentalism: Myths & Realities, Reading: Ithaca Press, 1998.
[61] Nachman, pg. 189.
[62] Brand, Laurie, “In the Beginning Was the State: The Quest for Civil Society in Jordan,” in Norton, Augusts R. (ed), Civil Society in the Middle East. Vol. 1, Leiden; New York: Brill Academy, 1994, pg. 148.
[63] Lucas, pg. 100.
[64] See, Schenker, David, “Jordan’s New Election Law: New Tactics, Old Strategy?,” Policy Watch #546, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, July 26, 2001.
[65] See the IAF’s current electoral platform, item #2, accessible from: http://www.20112007.com/programhzeb.html.
[66] Lucas, pp. 103,104.
[67] Ibid.
[68] For more information on the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the 1998 Press and Publication Law see, Brand, Laurie A., “The Effects of the Peace Process on Political Liberalization in Jordan,” Journal of Palestinian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2. (Winter, 1999), pg. 62.
[69] Cited in, "Media advocacy group criticizes Jordan for sentencing former lawmaker to prison,” The Associated Press, October 11, 2007.
[70] Author's translation, "General thoughts on a bad year for media freedom,” Jordan Watch, accessed from: http://www.jordanwatch.net/arahttp://www.jordanwatch.net/arabic/archive/2007/10/351763.html.
[71] Author’s translation, “The IAF and the Print and Publications Law,” Al-Ghad, 4 March 2007, accessible from: http://www.alghad.jo/index.php?article=5821. See also author’s translation, “The record of Jordanian Islamic reform: real commitment or a façade?,” accessible from: http://www.jordanwatch.net/arabic/archive/2007/3/169537.html.
[72] See, http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/03/amb_hale_and_th.html.
[73] "Jordan: Rise in Arrests Restricting Free Speech,” Human Rights Watch, June 17, 2006, accessed from: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/17/jordan13574_txt.htm.
[74] "The arrest of the Islamic Action Front's website after the arrest of its members!,” June 6, 2007, accessed from: http://www.ikhwan-jor.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=547, 17 October 2007.
[75] Ben Hussein, Mohammad, "Activists slam gov't move to monitor online journals,” The Jordan Times, September 25, 2007.
[76] Author's translation, Mubayyadein, Fairouz, "Candidates for the elections on the TV screens coming soon... one minute of TV announcements and two minutes for radio not to be repeated more than three times daily,” Al-Arab Al-Yawm, October 18, 2007, accessible from: http://www.alarabalyawm.net/print.php?news_id=50229.
[77] Author's translation, "The Election Law for Parliament / temporary law #34 for the year 2001 and its amendment,” accessed from: http://www.20112007.com/lowjordan.html.
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