Moments ago, CyberDissidents.org received word from a young Moroccan blogger that he was the target of several Facebook messages threatening his life.  The man who posted these death threats is named Abohodaifa Al-Ansari.   The pro-democracy Moroccan blogger, Kacem El Ghazzali, says in a post entitled “Death Threats”: “In the first message, the sender threatened slaughtering me...

A Tunisian has called for the collection of 100,000 signatures against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s candidacy for another presidential term.   The group has gathered around 5200 signatories thus far.  The declaration reads “We, the Tunisian people, both inside Tunisia and in the diaspora, totally oppose any attempt to modify the constitution in order to enable Ben Ali to stay in the...

The Egyptian Interior Ministry has reportedly created a special department purely to monitor Facebook activities.   According to an anonymous source in the Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda, the department is staffed by almost 50 individuals who take turns working three eight-hour shifts daily. The department’s purpose is to monitor Facebook groups and opposition bloggers and to report any...

Democratic dissidents in the Arab world have voiced anger at a recent declaration by the Palestinian Authority police in the West Bank saying that they would arrest anyone publicly breaking the fast of the month of Ramadan. According to the police, eating during Ramadan would “harm the feelings” of Muslims.  They admitted that thus far three Palestinians had been arrested for...

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has come under heavy criticism in the past two weeks following a proposed law that many saw as an infringement on journalist rights. On August 29, the law was passed with several key amendments.   The law originally allowed authorities to raid offices of websites without obtaining permission from public prosecutors. Furthermore, the raids could be undertaken for...