Mahmood Al-Yousif

Mahmood Al-Yousif also known as The Blogfather is a highly influential Weblog Award (Bloggie) nominated Bahraini blogger and political activist. Considered to be the "father of the Bahraini blogging community", Al-Yousif devotes his blog to critiquing the Bahraini government, discussing local and world politics, sharing his views on current events, religion and society, as well as glimpses of his day-to-day life with his readers.

Mahmood Al-Yousif has adopted a series of socio-political causes including the JUST BAHRAINI Campaign launched in 2006 which is aimed at desegragating the Sunni and Shiite population of Bahrain. Awareness of the cause is raised through the distribution of wristbands and badges with the campaign slogan "Not Shi'i, Not Sunni, JUST BAHRAINI". Amongst several other causes adopted by Al-Yousif is the promotion of freedom of speech in Bahrain and on the internet. In an entry entitled "It's Over" posted on his blog on October 8, 2008, Al-Yousif explained that he had decided to stop blogging and "move on".

On February  7th,  2007,  blogger Mahmood Al-Yousif was summoned to appear in front of the Public Prosecutor after Bahrain's minister of municipalities and agriculture sued him for an alleged libelous blog post published on his blog on 22nd December, 2006 and titled "First ministerial brainfart of the season".

According to Mahmood :" At the end of the 3 hours of questioning, [the Chief Public Prosecutor for Capital Mr. Wael Buallai]  asked us to adjourn to the waiting room for him to deliberate. He did, and decided that this case should be regarded as a misdemeanor and set bail at BD500 (US$1,325).