Jailed Blogger's Supporters to Go Offline and "Flood the Jail with Mail"
Twenty-two year old law student Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman marked the first of a four year sentence in an Egyptian prison last November. His crime was "defaming the President of Egypt" on his blog. His first year in prison included isolation and physical torture.
The one thing that's made a big difference for Kareem, his supporters say, has been international attention. Now those supporters are calling for a two week campaign of snail-mail sent to the jail.
The goal is to let Kareem, and his jailers, know that the situation is far from forgotten. Past mail and media coverage have also improved physical conditions in the jail. Below are links for more info, including a link you can use to add a reminder of the letter writing campaign to your Google Calendar.
Resources
Kareem's primary support group is FreeKareem.org. (Very slow page load.) His crime was in large part denying the truth of Islam, but his supporters say they are primarily Muslims who defend his right to do so.
More in depth coverage of this and other cases can be found at The Committee to Protect Bloggers.
The "Flood the Jail with Mail" campaign is asking you to send a letter or a postcard to Kareem between April 7th and the 21st. You can click on the button below to add a reminder to your Google Calendar.
So far he's been receiving physical mail. Below are the addresses you can use to send that mail, both the English and the Arabic must be present, so fire up your printer and print this page.
Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt
In too many other cases, the Western tech community has dropped the ball for people working online but living in different places. See, for example, the terrible treatment by YouTube of Egyptian video blogger Wael Abbas, whose police brutality watchdog videos were deleted from the site by the company.
We hope you'll set up a reminder and take a few minutes next month to send Kareem a postcard.
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Thanks for covering this. Electronics is super, but especially in a jail setting in Egypt, nothing takes the place of bags of mail to underscore to jailers, torturers and various other nogoodniks that the guy they'd love to beat to death has hundreds of friends in dozens of countries around the world.
Posted by: Committee to Protect Bloggers | March 25, 2008 12:54 PM
You know in the end it does not make much difference. There are some countries that have a tradition of brutality, specially in the case of jailed people. These brutality cases offend our sensibilities, but it is part of their culture. I am not saying it is right. I am saying that it is not part of what we understand.
Posted by: Fabian Schonholz | March 25, 2008 1:45 PM
Fabian, I'm going to be nice about this and say only that if brutality were "part of their culture" then why is it a bunch of Kareem's compatriots organizing to help him out? Go watch the movie http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/ for a more nuanced view on politics and one middle eastern culture.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
|
March 25, 2008 2:10 PM
No nuance necessary, whether it's purely cultural or purely political, or some of both, it's wrong. Efforts should be made toward changing it regardless of the underlying reasons.
As for the letters, if we're talking about people willing to beat a guy for writing something, do we believe they care about letters other than to be annoyed by them? Is Kareem at risk of further injury from this, or does anyone know really?
I do believe the intent is good, just not totally certain what the effect will be besides making the senders feel good.
Posted by: Morgan | March 25, 2008 2:45 PM
Morgan: Yes, we know for a fact, as FreeKareem is in contact with Kareem, that the attention of friends around the world ENDED THE BEATINGS.
And as for our little cultural relativist, Fabian, I would recommend he go to Egypt, stand on a street corner and talk about how the country would be better as a multiparty democracy or about how the judiciary should be unrestrained and judges left alone or the Copts should be allowed greater freedom, then enjoy a truly first-hand experience of kulturism.
To say that Egyptians are inherently bestial is not culturally tolerant. It expresses an latent belief that others are not capable of elevated morality and, no doubt guilt-stricken by that, it creates the fiction that all morality is a cultural construct. Talk to the bus driver who was sodomized with a stick in an Egyptian jail about "culture."
Tool.
Posted by: Committee to Protect Bloggers | March 25, 2008 3:06 PM
Marshall:
1) First of all, I do not agree with brutality. I just want to make sure that I am not misunderstood. State terrorism or otherwise is extremely unappealing to me (I did not want to use harsher language)
2) The fact that HIS FRIENDS are organizing this, does not mean that the culture does not have basis on brutality at some level. I think it is great his friends are working on his behalf.
3) The movie you pointed to, does prove what I said, there is a culture of violence and repression - brutality. It is not just Iran, it includes other countries. Now ... with the Shah, it was no different. I have friends and relatives from and in the region, and they, by at large, agree with me. An in school - a long long time ago - some of my closest friends where from the middle east and we spent countless hours discussing the differences between the middle east and the west. Specially, the lack of understanding and sensitivity we in the west have for the cultural traditions of the middle east.
4) But what you are reacting to is a culture that we can not relate to. Again, I am not saying I agree with what happens, but it does happen and in no small regard, it has to do with cultural patterns that have been in place for centuries if no millennia.
I truly appreciate "being nice". Keeping things civil leads to intelligent - or at least what may seem intelligent - discussions.
Posted by: Fabian Schonholz | March 25, 2008 4:11 PM
@5
I am working on a blog post and since you bring morality up I am curious to know your opinion on the following:
Which one has a narrower definition (or scope), morality or ethics?
Also, I did not say that Egyptians are inherently brutal. I did say however, that by at large, the middle eastern cultures condone brutality, especially in the case of incarceration. from out point of view, it violates basic human rights - which I agree - but human right are unfortunately not always part of the local culture in the same way we see it.
Who are we to say what is better for Egypt?
Posted by: Fabian Schonholz | March 25, 2008 4:19 PM
Fabian: just because brutality has been a part of their culture for countless years does not make it OK, nor does it mean that we should respect it, ignore it, and not try to change it.
The fact that you said "Who are we to say what is better for Egypt?" makes me think that you believe it is better to ignore situations where people are being abused, purely for the sake of not "offending" someone's culture or religion, which I find completely absurd.
Abdul is being treated terribly and there is nothing in the world that could justify what they are doing to him. And I am so glad that others are taking action, hopefully all of their hard work will actually pay off.
Posted by: Jane English | March 25, 2008 5:09 PM
Jane:
Again, I did not say that it is OK. Neither I said that we should ignore it. Do you really think Abdul is the only one being treated terrible?
It is a bummer I can not make my point clear and I am being misunderstood. The only thing I can do is to point you to a blog post I wrote not too long ago. I am not sure it will clarify my position but at least it will shed some light on how I think.
http://www.fabianschonholz.com/2008/03/16/god/
Posted by: Fabian Schonholz | March 25, 2008 6:17 PM
Fabian believes Egyptians are animals. So do too many of its police. People like Kareem, and his friends and supporters, do not. Fabian can write comments on posts about "culture." The rest of you can write Kareem. As Esra'a, the director of FreeKareem.org said to me in an email today:
"as soon as we stop caring, and the campaign is inactive, kareem might be tortured again. and no one will know, the government certainly won't care if he even dies in there...something like this could contribute to actually saving his life in prison and making a difference by lifting his spirits up with the knowledge that people worldwide give a shit. and for a prisoner, yes, that means everything."
Posted by: Committee to Protect Bloggers | March 25, 2008 9:34 PM
There is a culture of brutality in Egypt, but it is a sub-culture of the police and security services. For too long the Security Services have been using increasing brutal tactics. This brutality started with the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood and has spread to police interactions with the general populace. The police even detain people off the street without any warrant or apparent reason. Write to Kareem. His jailors need to know that he has not been forgotten and they are being watched.
Posted by: PyramidView | March 26, 2008 12:57 AM
Over all this discussing one should not forget that a basic reason for sending Kareem a letter is that he's happy about them. Just a young guy, imprisoned for a few words, who is happy to see that he has friends out there.
Posted by: Simon Columbus | March 26, 2008 9:04 AM
I kind of agree with Fabian. @5 say " It expresses a latent belief that others are not capable of elevated morality".
Well western countries are not capable of it either.
Lots of people are being incarcerated and tortured as we speak and with our tax money (inside and outside the country). We're all social animals, remember.
Fabian, you're right, the king of Egypt couldn't care less. Instead of flooding the jail with emails, just send him a few tools to set up an escape. That's way smarter and time-efficient. Seriously!
Posted by: xavierv | March 26, 2008 11:01 AM