Oppression in Egypt:
Kareem Amer, an Egytian blogger has been sentenced to four years in prison, by one of the spineless state courts. His crime? Contempt of religion and 'insulting and defaming' the president. I didn't think it possible to defame or insult an Arab leader, not enough anyway. These type of charges are a fixed part of the repertoir of Arab despots against opposition and criticism. The 'contempt of religion' charge is occasionally used beyond the Arab World, to other places. This last charge especially is a clever one: it is often used to deter others from siding with the victim, the accused in this case, because in a conservative and extremely conformist Arab World nobody would dare side with someone accused of insulting the faith. The convicted blogger had been expelled last year from al-Azhar University for 'blasphemy'.
Factoid: it is much easier to open a local branch of PETA (animal rights, for the four legged variety) in any Arab country than a local human rights organization- which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing.

Iran's Nukular War:
Things are heating up on the Iranian front- on both the nuclear issue and the over-all regional rivalry with the United States. While Arab commentators are almost certain that the U.S., perhaps with Israel but most likely without, will strike at Iran sometime this year, Europeans are worried that perhaps that is what the administration is planning after all.
The latest Iranian defiance about their nuclear program, and doubts about a consensus on sanctions, may lead to an air and naval war. Unfortunately, it looks like Iranian public opinion, although largely skeptic of the clerical regime, supports a tough stand on the  nuclear issue.
Rush Limbough claimed on his radio show yesterday that President Bush's popularity will zoom up as soon as he orders a strike against the mullahs in Iran. I am not so sure that the usual 'rally behind the president' public reaction will materialize this time. I am not even sure that the 'rally behind the mullahs' public reaction will materialize in Tehran either.

An interesting take on the U.S-Iran standoff was introduced by a Salafi writer in the Kuwait daily al-Watan a few days ago. The writer expects that the United States will eventually drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran that would wipe out the city, and in retaliation the Iranians will drop their own smaller bomb on Tel Aviv that would wipe out the Jewish state. This sounds like a Salafi/Wahhabi/Jihadist dream come true- Allah be praised, as Hollywood scriptwriters would say.

From Iraq: wire services report today that in al-Kut, U.S forces have released Ammar al-Hakeem, son of Abudulaziz al-Hakeem, head of the largest political party in Iraq, SCIRI. Al-Hakeem was detained briefly after returning from a visit to Iran.

Paletinians Eye the Next Round:
Israeli and Arab media report that in spite of the recent Mecca agreement, rival Palestinian factions are training hard for a rematch. Hamas fighters are training in Iran while Fatah (Mahmoud Abbas's group that was established by Arafat) sends its fighters to train in Egypt. This could be a new proxy civil war a la the Spanish one. 
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum