Philip Rizk - detained, "disappeared", finally home with family

For the past few days, Egypt (and many destinations in Europe and the US) has been a swarm of activism and action by friends, family, and others over the fate of a young Egyptian-German blogger, activist (on Gaza especially), and student at American University in Cairo: Philip Rizk.

Philip was detained (or "kidnapped", more accurately) by Egyptian authorities on Friday February 7; police refused to acknowledge that they actually were holding him; initially, they denied his parents' access to Philip. A wave of local and international protests ensued, and under this global "watch", the government finally gave in. Philip was released on February 10 and is home with his parents, an Egyptian father and German mother.

A friend of mine here in Cairo, an "unintended activist" as I call her (she had no reason to become a human rights activist in Egypt, as this is not her own nation), issued the following email to those of us who cared to watch for, pray for, and work for Philip's release:

• "While Philip is safe, many other bloggers and activists remain in detention. The New York Times could run a profile of a political prisoner in Egypt every day for the next year and only begin to scratch the surface of the thousands of people who are locked up because they spoke up, wrote a blog, or went to a demonstration. Without foreign passports and connections to international media, their situations will receive almost no attention. Please keep them in your thoughts and keep pressuring Egypt and other governments to release prisoners of conscience and allow freedom of speech, press, and association."

As I "blog", I myself wonder ... am I one of the 18,000 or so known bloggers in Egypt? or is that the number of Egyptian bloggers who are writing about their country, their society, their economy, their hopes and dreams for a better Egypt? These bloggers have our support - no matter what their ideology or approach (unless they are advocating violence ... then they should simply have our attention, and our vigilance against their views and actions). Democracy bloggers, bloggers for freedom of speech and conscience have more than an uphill struggle in Egypt - they have intense police scrutiny! Let's keep an alternative eye out, and keep a light shining on the dark practices of Egypt's police and especially their secret police, the infamous mukhabaraat.