Within Egypt’s young and angry opposition, Al Wai Al Masri (the Egyptian Consciousness, www.misrdigital.com) is among the most popular blogs. Published online every Friday, Al Wai Al Masri is more an online political flier than a traditional blog.

Al Wai Al Masri is the work of 31-year-old Wael Abbas, a member of Youth for Change and one of the original Kifaya signatories. He began the online publication in early 2005, but it wasn’t until the referendum that his popularity exploded, reaching a quarter million hits in the month of June.

In his weekly, photo-rich screeds Abbas reports on the week’s protests, publishes cartoons and caricatures pillorying President Mubarak and his son Gamal and acts as a mouthpiece for the opposition. “The age of the prophets has ended, but it seems that one of the propaganda agencies in Egypt has different information,” he wrote under a picture of a Mubarak billboard that read “God chose you for Egypt.”

“Have we reached this degree of ignorance and delusion?” he lamented.

Abbas devoted a special edition to the anniversary of the 6 October War, lamenting the glory days with pictures of captured Israeli soldiers and odes to President Anwar Al Sadat.

Since starting Al Wai Al Masri, Abbas has landed a job with Al Dostour, the edgy independent weekly run by firebrand journalist Ibrahim Eissa. It’s a good match. Like Al Dostour, the language of Al Wai Al Masri is infused with the highly visual, amia-rich language of Egyptian political activism.