CAIRO: Employees of the Islam Online (IOL) website continued their sit-in for the third day running at their Sixth of October offices, demanding their settlement packages after the majority of them submitted their resignation. A source from IOL who spoke on condition of anonymity said, "Qatar has reneged on the deal for the severance packages. A lawyer is currently present to discuss legal rights. IOL employees started a strike on Monday after warnings of mass layoffs and employee investigations by the funder of the site, Qatar's Al-Balagh Foundation. It was also announced that their contracts, which expire at the end of March, would not be renewed. A total of 300 employees submitted their resignations Tuesday after being told it was the only way to ensure they receive severance packages. At the heart of these events is a struggle over IOL's editorial content between a new board of directors in Qatar and the website editors in Egypt. South African Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, head of IOL Radio and one of the few non-Egyptians working there, told Daily News Egypt that the root of the current crisis began in January, when managing editors were asked to urgently submit their editorial agendas because the board wanted to chart the website's editorial agenda for the next few years. "They issued an agenda of their own, and we were told our agendas should be in accordance, she said, "This was the first [time] many people had heard of the new board. Already, people saw that as a sign of trouble. The board had never before interfered in editorial decisions. A meeting was called where they were informed that a new board had been appointed and the general manager along with the managers of the English and Arabic sections were to go to Qatar for talks. General Manager Tawfiq Ghanem appointed Ashraf Sabti to stand in for him while he was in Qatar. Wadvalla said, "Qatar sent an email, worded very rudely, rebuking the General Manager, Tawfiq Ghanem, for taking the decision to appoint someone to stand in for him. They said only they exercise the right. A petition signed by 250 of the IOL Egypt employees was sent to the chairman of the board and IOL founder, the Egyptian cleric Yousef El-Qaradawi, denouncing the manner in which Qatar had communicated with them. Ghanem then resigned. The board appointed a Qatari, Atef Abdel Moghny in his place, who transferred the site to a smaller, slower server as a cost-cutting measure and took the password for the main server, according to Wadvalla. Rumors quickly abounded but assurances were given that all was fine - until Monday, when employees began their sit-in to request answers from the new board. "When national security police were called in by Qatar, a full out strike ensued, Wadvalla said, "It turned into a full strike after a committee from Qatar came and said all 250 people who had signed the petition protesting against the rude tone of the email [sent] to the general manager, would be investigated. "In the afternoon, Qatar blocked Egypt's access to the server. By the end of the working day, it was said the contract between Al-Balagh, the holding company owned by the Qatari board, would not renew the contract it had with Media International, she added. This meant that the employees would be terminated, so they submitted their resignations in order to receive severance packages. They are currently calling for a six months salary plus one month for every year of employment. The IOL staff is also calling for a full one-year's salary for those earning less than LE 1,000 a month. "Nobody will leave until each employee is afforded their full rights, Wadvalla said, "Thus the sit-in continues. IOL was founded by El-Qaradawi in 1997 and became a popular Islamic resource on the internet that fielded questions on religiously taboo topics such as sexuality. It developed into a more comprehensive website, offering news, commentaries and analysis. In a pioneering move, the IOL protest was streamed live online and IOL staff continuously updated news of the sit-in on sites such as Twitter.
