Egypt Proves Law of Inertia

CAIRO– Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion states that a body in motion in any one direction will continue to move at the same speed in that one direction as long as no force acts upon it. Generally, this law has only applied to physical bodies, however officials in Egypt recently set out to prove that it can also apply to governing bodies. With no extreme forces acting on it, the Egyptian Parliament decided to continue an emergency anti-terrorism law on Tuesday, one which was put into effect when President Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated 29 years ago. This also allows the government to remove alternate forces from its body, since Egypt’s loose definition of terrorism is not limited to acts of violence, but is simply “‘any threat or intimidation’ with the aim of ‘disturbing the peace or jeopardizing the safety and security of the society,’” according to a 2009 report by United Nations special representative on human rights and terrorism, Martin Scheinin.

In a vain effort to legitimize the government’s actions, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif compared the law to the Patriot Act. As the Patriot Act was widely criticized and abused for the purpose of investigating everything from actual terrorist threats to copyright infringement and even what books United States citizens were checking out, this was perhaps not as endearing to the Egyptian law as Mr. Nazif might have hoped. Maged Botros, a member of the policy committee of the ruling National Democratic Party, commented that one might “sacrifice certain rights for certain people at certain times to protect the whole people for the whole future. And when I said ‘certain people,’ I meant ‘people who disagree with you.’ And when I said ‘certain rights,’ I meant ‘do they really count as people anymore?’”

The law’s extension, which grants the government the right to arrest people without charge, detain prisoners indefinitely, limit freedom of expression and assembly, and maintain a special security court, is in response to more than just a challenge regarding the application of the laws of physics. Government officials cite a continued threat from extremists. “We’re pretty sure that ninjas have entered Egypt through the Gaza border breach that Israel’s been asking us to patch up,” one official, speaking under conditions of anonymity, told ICTPT reporters.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was unavailable for comment as he was trying to uphold rumors that he was dead, but an aid told ICTPT reporters that “there are plans to repeal the law… next week… maybe… once finals are over.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?ref=world

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8675301.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion#Newton.27s_second_law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_invocations_of_the_USA_PATRIOT_Act