Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman is a 22 year old law student in Egypt who blogged under the name Kareem Amer until being arrested one year ago today. Charged with 'contempt of religion' and ‘defaming the President of Egypt,' the young man was sentenced in February of this year to four years in prison. Supporters will hold rallies on Friday calling for his release in 14 major cities around the world, from London to Mexico City.
The demonstrations are being organized, in part, by the Free Kareem Coalition. The group says it is an interfaith organization founded and primarily made up of Muslims who disagree with what Kareem wrote on his blog but will "defend with all our might his right to express such opinions."
According to his supporters, Kareem was raised in a religious family and educated in Egyptian religious schools throughout his youth. He was expelled from college and referred to Egyptian authorities in 2005 after his authorship of the blog karam903.blogspot.com was discovered. On that blog Kareem has criticized what he called Egyptian gender apartheid, he said that a religious riot he witnessed in Egypt showed the "barbarism and thievery and fanaticism" of Islam and on September 11th, 2006 he wrote a post titled "There Is No Deity but the Human Being." Supporters have translated his posts into English but have included repeated disclaimers that they do not agree with what he has written. They ask international supporters of free speech to support the campaign in a number of different ways.
Below is an interview with Kareem performed after a college disciplinary board meeting, hosted on YouTube with translation overlayed using the service BubblePly. To learn more about the case and campaign, visit Freekareem.org.
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Please everyone post about Kareem. The whole idea of "out of sight/out of mind" is what the Egyptian tinhorns are counting on. We think not. If you Twitter, join our Twitter4Kareem online event. Check it out at twitter.com/cpb Thanks for the coverage, M.
Posted by: Curt | November 6, 2007 3:03 PMI agree this is important - if you blog - you should support this!
Rex
Posted by: Rex Dixon | November 6, 2007 3:05 PMOr, if you don't blog, take action anyway. By writing a letter. Or setting up a small regular payment to Amnesty. There's no need to feel hopeless - and no excuses either. There is always something you can do.
Posted by: Rollo | November 6, 2007 3:43 PMWow. Its hard to believe that someone could be imprisoned so long for this.
Posted by: David Mackey | November 6, 2007 3:56 PM@Rollo - Yes, that was a stupid comment "if you blog" - everyone should be concerned about this.
@David Mackey - Yeah, but what about those people in Gitmo hell? Another story all together...
Rex
Posted by: Rex Dixon | November 6, 2007 4:11 PMOh my god, it's so dangerous blogging controversial things :(
In malaysia, there's this blogger Jeff Ooi who's also sued by companies saying that his articles were defaming them and untrue
His trial is still ongoing today
They just wanted him to remove the blog post - that's all but he didn't wanted to resulting in a lawsuit
Posted by: Michael Woo | November 6, 2007 9:23 PMMy friends barely noticed Kareem's case. Egyptians feel disconnected and powerless where the government is concerned. Only a small, vocal minority will save us. I am sorry to admit that I will not be participating in the demonstration in Cairo. I have no desire to be noticed by the Security Police.
Posted by: PyramidView | November 7, 2007 4:00 AMPyramid: And I would be the last one to encourage you to put your head down on a chopping block. But many of us can speak up without that fear. By the way, Arash Sigarchi in Iran and Shi Tao in China have been sentenced to 14 and 10 years respectively. This happens all the time. In addition to being a human, Kareem's also a person to focus on as a representative of too many folks out there.
Posted by: Curt | November 7, 2007 3:47 PM