Mahmood’s Den: Blocked!

October 29, 2006 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Arabisms, Geek Culture & Tech, Seriously

My god, the state of internet censorship in the Arab world progressively keeps getting worse, the latest series of bad news coming from Bahrain, which just blocked one of the best blogs in the Arab world, Mahmood’s Den.


Mahmood’s Den blocking order signed by the Minister of disInformation

I mean, what the hell?

Mahmood’s Den was the very first blog I ever read in my life while Googling the closure of Big Brother Arabia in Bahrain due to “indecency”. I had no idea that it was a blog, nor did I have any idea what a blog was. I rediscovered it later on when I started reading blogs in 2004. It is one of the oldest blogs in the Arab world, as well as one of the most informative and interesting. Although internet censorship is shitty in all its forms, what makes the blocking of Mahmood’s Den much more of a pity is that Bahrain’s “Big Brother” cannot distinguish between what’s good for them and what’s bad for them.

The other sites on the list are just as depressing, because this is a sad signal that the Arab world is going backwards with tolerance years at a time. In 2005, Huda Azra Nono, a Jewish lady from the Bahraini Jewish community, was the president of Bahrain Human Rights Society. Today, a year later, Bahrain blocks the following sites:

www.freecopts.net
www.arabchurch.com
www.ladeeni.net
www.kurdtimes.com
www.annaqed.com

Copts. Arab Atheists. Arab church. Criticism. Kurds.
Tolerance = 0.
(add to that albawaba.com, which is like, WTF?)

Ahhh. The state we have reached! It really breaks my heart. Arabs. We need to wake up and smell the coffee.




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  • Iyas M.

    I don’t think there is an Arab country that has any kind of freedom! I mean, do you really think there is freedom in the Arab world! If you Roba go ahead and write about any (of the countless) deficiencies in the Jordanian government and the liberty of people in Jordan, your Andfaraway will be blocked in no time!… I liked to surf mahmoud’s blog every now and then! but I am surprised as I cannot even access it from the U.S.?! Anyways… The freedom of the Arab people should start from their youngsters, we should not blame our “leaders” for depriving us from our liberties.. we need to work to get them back,

    Iyas.

  • http://blog.sweetestmemories.com Qwaider قويدر

    I hate anything that has to do with censorship, but why are you going so far to demonstrate it? Look in our own back yard. In Jordan where places like Arabtimes.com has been banned for what … about 10 years now?

    To tell you the truth, some sites do deserve to crash and burn, since “Atheism” has become as much in fashion these days as fundamentalism has become.

    Anyway, I stand strong with Mahmood!

  • Perry

    Minister of “dis”information? LOL!

  • http://sickbhoy.blogspot.com $!ckbh0y

    I hate censorship. There is far too much of it. I have to put up with it at work by a digital “smart filter”. Anything that “it” thinks is political gets blocked. It’s very annoying. I can imagine how people must feel in other State controlled areas… Amnesty International are running a campaign to protect censored online users rights and have a website you can go to and show your support…

    http://irrepressible.info/

    Have a look and let me know what you think. I’ve included a banner ad from their site on my blog.

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  • http://www.hopestarburst.blogspot.com/ Hope

    This is really bad news. I hate censorship. it really makes me angry. Is there anything that can be done about this?

  • http://sickbhoy.blogspot.com $!ckbh0y

    Update on recent Censord Blogs:

    A Greek Blogger has been jailed, DAYS before Athens hosts the Internet Governance Forum for posting links to “slanderous material”.

    You can read the rest of the story here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/30/greek_blogger_arrested/

    How embaressing is this for the Greek Government?!? – and just after Amnesty International launched it’s http://irrepressible.info/ campaign to protect the rights of censored bloggers and the internet communities right to free speech.

  • Pingback: Sugar Cubes » Stop Internet Censorship in the Arab World!

  • http://www.arabchurch.com My Rock

    I am the owner of http://www.arabchurch.com and our site is a christian site that has nothing to do with political issues, and I am wondering, why they blocked our site?
    I sent them few e-mails asking the reason of blocking us, but I got nothing in return, which is sad!