San Francisco Chronicle - Saturday, March 30, 2002 Egyptian fears response to terrorism is crushing civil liberties By Ashraf Khalil, Chronicle Foreign Service Cairo -- When democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim emerged from prison last month after serving 10 months of a seven-year sentence for defaming Egypt's image, he found a world vastly changed by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. "I tremble at what is happening in the United States and in some of the Western countries as far as civil liberties are concerned," said the American University in Cairo sociology professor, who has been freed pending an appeal of his case. He said repressive regimes in the Middle East were already using the new Western attitudes as a license to clamp down on dissent. In Egypt, the nation's military trial system for Muslim activists is working at full speed. There are two different groups of Islamists being tried in alternating sessions at a military base outside Cairo and another two groups in jail waiting their turn. Ibrahim has been one of Egypt's most high-profile campaigners for democracy and human rights, and many observers saw his arrest in the summer of 2000 and his harsh sentence -- seven years at hard labor -- as a warning shot by the government to keep a tight lid on dissent. Ibrahim, who holds dual U.S.-Egyptian citizenship, was sentenced last May for accepting unauthorized foreign funding for his Ibn Khaldoun Center for Developmental Studies, for embezzlement and for defaming Egypt's image -- charges that Western diplomats and human rights groups denounced as a frame-up. Ibrahim's center had monitored elections in 1995 and publicized vote irregularities that favored President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic party. It was gearing up to monitor a new round of elections when he was arrested. The targeting of the high-profile, internationally known Ibrahim served notice to other human rights activists that nobody was untouchable. The use of a military decree against unauthorized foreign funding made organizations fearful of accepting the overseas grants upon which they depended. "I know my case had a dampening effect (on activists)," Ibrahim said. And, as he sees it, some aspects of the U.S.-led fight against terrorism have made his job harder. The decision by the United States to try terrorism suspects in military tribunals, for instance, is seen as a vindication of Egypt's policy of bringing terrorism suspects and members of Muslim activist organizations before military courts -- a system that had been widely criticized in the West before Sept. 11. In a December media interview, Mubarak cited the U.S. decision and a harsh new British anti-terrorism package as proof "that we were right from the beginning in using all means (in response to) these great crimes that threaten the security of society." Sept. 11, Mubarak said, "created a new concept of democracy that differs from the concept that the Western state defended before these events, especially in regard to the freedom of the individual." Ibrahim says of the new political climate: "I'm an eternal optimist, and I've been looking for signs to fuel my optimism. So far, I haven't seen any." International observers agree. Joe Stork, Washington director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said Ibrahim's trial "was intended to silence (him), punish those who dared to be his associates and intimidate any other Egyptians who might think about criticizing policies in politically sensitive areas." The government says it must keep a lid on dissent in order to maintain stability in a country torn by the demands of secularists, Islamic fundamentalists and Coptic Christians. But observers say the shortage of outlets for peaceful dissent plays into the hands of extremist groups like al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was the leader of Egyptian jihad, and Mohamed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was also an Egyptian. Ibrahim speculates that he got into hot water not only because of his election-monitoring campaigns but also as a result of his studies of Muslim- Christian tensions and a now-infamous article in a Saudi magazine about the royal tendencies of Middle Eastern republics. The article, in which Ibrahim joked about the chances that Mubarak would appoint his son as his successor in the manner of late Syrian President Hafez Assad, was published days before his arrest and may have been the last straw. "As I was going along in the last 10 years, I was alienating one influential actor after another," he said. Now, with some in the West calling for a reformation in Muslim thought, Ibrahim hopes he can play a key role: "The expectation is that I will be back, resuming all my activities. And now that I have an even higher moral ground to stand on, I will take a leadership role." Of his 10-month stint in Tura Prison, Ibrahim bears surprisingly gentle memories. He speaks of the "good heartedness" of not only his fellow inmates but of prison guards and officials. When the country's highest appeals court granted his request for a retrial, Ibrahim's fellow prisoners helped him celebrate. "At 2 o'clock, I heard cheers through the whole ward," Ibrahim said. "That cheer used to only come when Egypt was playing soccer and scoring." Ibrahim says he is still adjusting to life on the outside. "I feel Twilight Zoned, but I feel happy to be free, to smell freedom, to walk in the street, to see people." His delight at his newfound freedom is tempered by a degenerative nerve condition that leaves him walking with difficulty and by anxiety about his retrial, which is set to begin April 27. Still, he cannot resist a little campaigning for issues close to his heart, such as the need for true democratic development in most Middle Eastern societies. "We are the last region to catch up with the third wave of democracy, and we have to do more," Ibrahim said. "Otherwise, we will be condemned to backwardness for hundreds of years. We cannot compete in the world in the 21st century without being democrats, without allowing the imaginative and creative power of our people to come out." [Attachment of type text/html removed.]
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