Extra! Extra! Fridays Now More Fun Thanks To Enduring America Daily

Over the past couple of days we've been experimenting with paper.li, a service which creates a daily 'newspaper' from the links you and your friends post to Twitter. I made one for @EANewsFeed and we were very pleased with the results. It's just a bit of fun, but if you want a snapshot of what we, and the fine people we follow, have been linking to on Twitter, take a look at today's Enduring America Daily. A new edition arrives hot off the press every day around 1200 GMT:



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UPDATE: Here's EA reader Arshama's.

This is the first of a few fun online things we have planned- once we switch to the new site (which really is happening soon!) we'll start putting them out there for our fine readers to enjoy. And while we're on the subject of social media, don't forget to say hi to us on Facebook, and follow our updates on Twitter (more concise feed now also available).

Iran Document: Mohammad Khatami on Religion, the Islamic Revolution, and the Republic (15 August)

Former President Mohammad Khatami's statement on Sunday in a meeting with former members of the Union of Islamic Associations of Students in Europe, translated by the Facebook page supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi:

The answer is clear: religion in the Islamic Revolution was the supporter of freedom and wanted the people to rule their own destiny. It was calling for the situation in which the relationship between the rulers and the people would change from [the rulers] being Gods and [the people] being slaves to the relationship in which people were masters and the government their servant and responsible [to the people].

The outcome of the Revolution was the Islamic Republic: “Republic” with the same meaning everywhere in the universe, in which the base and the focus should be the people and in which the religious standards and Islamic values, especially morality, justice, and human dignity, are respected....

In our revolution, we wanted a regime and government in which freedom of expression and criticism was not only the right but even the responsibility of the people, and we heard this great remark from the late revolutionary leader (Aytollah Khomeini) that the rulers should not think that no one has the right to criticise. Rather the right to criticise is a God-given right.

Today we clearly and loudly announce that we do not regret that we carried out the Revolution; we are not sorry that we voted for the Islamic Republic; we are proud of our support for the Revolution and the Islamic Republic; but we say that the Islamic Republic should not divert from its path even in the name of Islam.

We say that in the Islamic Republic the opportunity to participation and a presence in deciding their destiny should be provided for all. Its necessity is to have an open environment and free parties and organisations and to allow their activities. Criticism should not only be allowed but rather considered valuable.

We say immorality and misconduct is a major problem for a government and we say that oppression in any form and by anyone is rejected and condemned. It is amazing that people who talk and act compassionately like this are accused of all sort of transgressions and are called conspirators.

The real conspirators are the persons or movements which bluntly lie and leave the responsibility on the establishment, which attempt to squeeze out everyone and every movement that they do not like and abolish legal freedoms, which discredit the law and portray the face of religion and the establishment as indecent and obscene, which reduce people’s satisfaction, and which weaken society’s trust in the government and make it easier for the enemies who want to bring the fatal blow to the establishment and the country.

From Egypt to Iran: How Social Media is Significant (Eltahawy, Siavashi, Fartashphoto)

Over the last 48 hours, I have encountered three articles --- courtesy of Twitter --- that bring out the significance of social media over the last 18 months. Dave Siavashi of Iran News Now revisits the story of Iran since June 2009 to conclude, "The Twitter Revolution is a revolution in the way information is shared and consumed....It has the power to make people take action. And in this way, it is already changing the world."

Fartashphoto asserts passionately, "We believe Twitter is Internet’s Soul which is more awake and dynamic than anytime helping peaceful people all around the world . That’s why dictators hate Twitter."

And Mona Eltahawy writes for The Washington Post, "Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are the New Tools of Protest in the Arab World":

Iran: A Protest in Washington (Shahryar)

Khaled Said is not the first Egyptian whom police allegedly beat to death. But his death has sparked a virtual revolution that is affecting Egypt's tightly controlled society.

Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian businessman, was brutally beaten, his family and activists say, by two plainclothes police officers on June 6. An Interior Ministry autopsy claimed that Said suffocated after swallowing a bag of drugs he tried to hide from police. But a photograph of a shattered body that his family confirmed was his started circulating online. Teeth missing, lip torn, jaw broken and blood pouring from his head: It was difficult to square such trauma with suffocation. His family said he was targeted after he posted a video online allegedly showing police sharing profits of a drug bust.

If social media in the Arab world were merely outlets for venting or "stress relief" -- as detractors claim -- then Said's fate would have ended with some angry comments on Facebook and a tweet or two railing at the Egyptian regime.

Instead, thanks to social media's increasing popularity and ability to connect activists with ordinary people, Egyptians are protesting police brutality in unprecedented numbers. On July 27, the two police officers connected to his death stood trial on charges of illegal arrest and excessive use of force. If convicted, they face three to 15 years' imprisonment.

While social media didn't invent courage -- activists have long protested the tactics of President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally who has maintained a state of emergency in Egypt since assuming office in 1981 -- the Internet has in recent months connected Egyptians and amplified their voices as never before. There's an anti-torture Web site with a hotline to report incidents. The independent advocacy group El Nadim Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence publishes an online diary that has documented 200 allegations of abuse since February. On another site Egyptians post pictures of abusive police officers.

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