Wael Ghonim

Wael Ghonim

Wael Ghonim (born December 23, 1980 in Cairo ) is an Internet activist from Egypt . He became known worldwide from February 7, 2011 in the course of the revolution in Egypt in 2011 .

In 2011, the American Time magazine named Wael Ghonim in the Time 100 list as the most influential personality in the world.

Professional Activities

Ghonim studied computer science, finance and marketing in Cairo. In 2005 he founded the leading finance portal mubasher.info in Arab countries . In 2008 he joined Google Inc. for the Middle East region based in Dubai .

Role in the revolution

Ghonim founded a Facebook page in June 2010 under the pseudonym El Shaheed (“the martyr ”) under the title “We are all Khaled Said ”. He wanted to remember an Egyptian blogger who two Egyptian secret police arrested and beat after his question about the legal basis.

The Facebook page quickly found the support of many, especially younger Egyptians. In the wake of the successful revolution in Tunisia in 2010/2011 , Ghonim called on the Internet for a first demonstration against the regime of Hosni Mubarak, planned for January 25, 2011 . Many of those who signed his appeal formed groups to provide organizational support for an analogous Egyptian revolution.

After tens of thousands followed the call for a demonstration, plainclothes police arrested Ghonim and some 1,500 other Egyptians on January 28 at another protest rally near central Tahrir Square in Cairo. They blindfolded him and took him to an unknown state prison. The arrest was filmed by protesters with a cell phone camera and circulated online, so that numerous Egyptian demonstrators and media representatives tried to get Ghonim's release. The Google company set up a telephone number for witnesses. Other protest groups symbolically appointed the missing Ghonim as their spokesman.

Ghonim was released on February 7; At about the same time, websites, including Facebook, that the Egyptian state authorities had previously shut down, became accessible again in Egypt. In an interview with Newsweek magazine on the same day, Ghonim confirmed that he was the founder of the Facebook page for Khalid. He reported on his detention on the Egyptian private broadcaster Dream TV and denied allegations that he and his supporters were traitors. He was not tortured in prison, but was not informed of what had happened, and the authorities had not informed any of his family members of his arrest. He had been asked by Hussam Badrawi , the General Secretary of the National Democratic Party of Egypt , about how the protest had come about and then asked him to resign. He is not a hero, but those who risked their lives on the street are heroes. When he learned of some people who had been killed in the course of the protests, he wept and asked the relatives of the victims for forgiveness: his group was innocent and those who held their power were responsible for these acts.

On February 8th, he was greeted by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at another central protest rally in Tahrir Square, calling on them to continue demonstrating until their demands were met. A new Facebook page with the title “I instruct Wael Ghonim to speak on behalf of the Egyptian revolutionaries” already found 130,000 supporters in 24 hours. International media reported on Ghonim and suspected that he could become the spokesman for the young, independent Egyptian opponents of the regime, who are not organized in parties.

On February 10, Ghonim, accepting the imminent resignation of President Mubarak, urged protesters to go home. The following day he responded to criticism: he had given the interview before Mubarak's evening speech in which he refused to resign and it was published prematurely against his intention. He does not want to be a spokesman for the people. At the same time he published a catalog of demands to the Egyptian army, including the demand that all political prisoners be released.

On February 18, 2011, Ghonim was prevented from speaking to demonstrators in Tahrir Square by supporters of a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood , Yusuf al-Qaradawi .

After Mubarak's resignation, Ghonim said in a telephone interview with US journalist Katie Couric on February 11, 2011 that the continuous reports of foreign journalists from Cairo had saved the lives of thousands of Egyptians and were therefore part of the successful revolution. He rejected a leadership role for the democracy movement again.

Ghomin called the events in Egypt Revolution 2.0 , which had come from Facebook. He emphasized the positive function of social media in organizing and accelerating democratic movements: If you want to free a people from a dictatorship, you have to give them access to the Internet today. He wanted Mark Zuckerberg to thank the founder of Facebook, one day in person. There you can also find out which dictatorship in the Middle East could be overthrown next. However, like the Egyptian blogger Noha Atef , he put the focus of the revolution on the people who made it happen. They are the real heroes.

Articles and Studies

• Echo Keif: We Are All Khaled Said: Revolution and the Role of Social Media. Fairfax, Virginia: George Mason University , 2011. PDF, 75 pages, 2.0 MB

Web links

Commons : Wael Ghonim  - Collection of Images

• Facebook: We are all Khaled Said
• Tweets from Wael Ghonim
• Arrest of Ghonim in Cairo on January 28, 2011 on Youtube (01:08 to 01:23)
• Report from Dream TV and interview with Ghonim, February 8, 2011 (German subtitles can be selected)
• Facebook: أفوض وائل غنيم للتحدث بإسم ثوار مصر (English: I delegate Wael Ghonim to speak in the name of Egypt's revolutionaries )
• Daniel Grinsted (FAZ, February 10, 2011): Egyptian protest movement: The digital revolutionary
• Der Spiegel, February 10, 2011: Egypt's opponent Ghonim: "I am ready to die"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wiener Zeitung on April 23, 2011: "Time" honors Egyptian Google boss. Retrieved November 4, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 9, 2011: Wael Ghonim - the new heroes are allowed to cry ( Memento from February 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Stop it, the man is dying. Zeit Online , accessed April 23, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Manfred Sax jun. (Zeit im Blog, February 1, 2011): The Facebook Martyr
5. ↑ Kathrin Haimerl (Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 9, 2011): Internet activist Wael Ghonim: Freedom Fighters from the Net
6. ^ Tucker Reals (CBS, February 3, 2011): Google Exec Made Silent Voice of Egypt Uprising
7. ↑ Mike Giglio (The Daily Beast / Newsweek, February 7, 2011): Google Executive Wael Ghonim Admits He Was El Shaheeed ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ Leslie Horn (PC-Mag, February 8, 2011): Freed Google Exec Gives Emotional Interview on Egyptian TV ; Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 9, 2011: Wael Ghonim - the new heroes are allowed to cry ( Memento from February 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ); Sophie Burkhardt (ZDF-heute, February 8, 2011): Released Google manager: "I'm not a hero". Wael Ghonim is behind the Facebook protest  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Der Spiegel, February 8, 2011: Mass protest on Tahrir Square: Demonstrators celebrate the released Google manager
10. ↑ Taz, February 9, 2011: Egyptian Wael Ghonim, released from prison: "You are the heroes"
11. ↑ Frederic Huwendiek (ZDF, February 11, 2011): How Ghonim briefly became a traitor. Leading network activist defends himself against allegations  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Agence France-Presse (February 18, 2011): Egypt protest hero Wael Ghonim barred from stage
13. ^ CBS, February 11, 2011: Egypt: The Online Revolution
14. ↑ Sam Gustin (Epicenter, February 11, 2011): Social Media Sparked, Accelerated Egypt's Revolutionary Fire
15. ↑ welt-sichten, magazine for global development and ecumenical cooperation: Modest revolutionaries. The internet activists in Egypt do not want to be heroes. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 23, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
16. ↑ Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung on April 18, 2011: Who's Afraid of the Internet? (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 23, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.