Bloggers: The Biggest Threat to Arab Dictators?

From Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., bloggers have been arrested for voicing their opinions and shedding light on their government's human rights violations. Why are Arab tyrants so afraid of bloggers?  Well, because bloggers play a large role in bringing awareness to the atrocities committed by governments.

Maikel Nabil

Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil was arrested in Egypt for criticizing the military, he is still being detained and his twitter page @maikelnabil has been inactive since  March 28, 2011, the date of his arrest.

Palestinian blogger Waleed Al-Husseini was arrested by Palestinian authorities for creating a facebook page named "Allah", following his arrest and release Al-Husseini posted an apology on his blog for insulting Islam and at the end claimed that his statement was not coerced, a statement I can't help but doubt.

Mahmood is the guy with a huge smile in the suit next to the two men in dishdashas

One of Bahrain's most popular bloggers Mahmood Al-Yousifi was also arrested for criticizing the government and exercising free speech. He tweeted through his arrest but that tweet has since been deleted, his twitter page is @mahmood, follow him if you want to follow up with the Bahraini revolution.

Fouad Al-Farhan

Fouad Al-Farhan is a Saudi Arabian blogger who was arrested and detained for a year for blogging about political reform in Saudi Arabia. He continues to blog about politics since his release.

Slim Amamou

Tunisian blogger Slim Amamou was also arrested for blogging and tweeting about the government during the Tunisian revolution. He has been released and is back to blogging.

In Qatar, home of Al-Jazeera News, blogger and human rights activist Sultan Al-Khalaifi has been unjustly arrested. Amnesty International has advocated for his release and you can too, just click here to demand Sultan Al-Khalaifi's release.

Ahmed Mansour

A few weeks ago, in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), human rights activist and blogger Ahmed Mansour was arrested for calling for democratic reform in the U.A.E.

There are many more arrests of bloggers and activists in the region, and all of these arrests of bloggers reminds me of the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword" or should I say "the keyboard is mightier than the sword."

The arrests of the bloggers shows the world two things: Firstly, Arab leaders are scared shitless. Second, having a blog is the new form of public political criticism.

As a blogger myself, I will keep on blogging regardless of the threat, because as a wise man once said:

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." - Henry David Thoreau