Tom Palmer points out that the presse attaché of the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., wrote a letter to The Washington Post editor. Mr. Haggag defended Kareem’s imprisonment, claimed that Kareem was sentenced under an impartial judicial process, and went on to insist that that criticism of the government by the media has been ‘liberalized’: Media Freedom in Egypt.

‘Liberalized’ enough to release a blogger? Seems not.

Media Freedom in Egypt
Monday, March 5, 2007; Page A14

Your Feb. 28 editorial “Blogger on Ice; Once again Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak shows zero tolerance for a secular democratic dissenter,” regarding the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Soliman, provided a grossly misleading context to this incident.

First, contrary to your portrayal, freedom of speech is safeguarded in Egypt’s constitution and its legal framework. However, it is not an absolute right. It is superseded by values that Egyptian society holds sacred, including the sanctity of religion — not just Islam but all religions. A legal prohibition against defamation of religion is designed to prevent the bigotry and intolerance that Egyptian society does not accept.

Second, your suggestion that Mr. Soliman’s case was politically motivated could not be further from the truth. His sentence was the result of an impartial judicial process with due process, including the right of appeal. The assertion that the judicial process is subject to political control reflects a lack of familiarity with Egyptian law, under which government decisions regularly are overturned.

But perhaps the greatest distortion is the implication that Mr. Soliman’s case is but one example of the stifling of free speech in Egypt.

Criticism of the government, even the head of state, is now a staple diet of the media. The media sector — both print and broadcasting — has been liberalized to allow for greater independent ownership. Assertions that the government monopolizes the media cannot stand in the face of the expanding scope of freedom of expression in the print and broadcast media in Egypt.

KARIM HAGGAG

Press Attache

Embassy of Egypt

Washington

Tom Palmer responds: Pathetic Response from the Egyptian Embassy.

I hope that the Egyptian authorities will act to correct a clear mistake.

One year of Kareems sentence was for insulting the president, a little matter the irony of which Mr. Haggag does not address: jailing a college student for calling the president a dictator merely verifies the claim. One would think that the best way to rebut the claim would be to let him go. The authorities should correct that mistake immediately.

It’s not the only irony in this case, which started when Kareem was expelled from Al Azhar university for complaining that the university was suppressing thought. The university authorities not only verified the claim, but strengthened it by turning him over to the police and demanding that he be arrested.

With regard to criticism of religious extremism or of any religion per se, civilized people do not strike others or put them in cages when they don’t like what they say. The most dedicated supporters of Kareems case are devout and pious Muslims who do not fear criticism. They are secure in their dedication to their religion and respond to words with words, not with clubs. Kareem should not be punished for his online remarks with jail and beatings, especially when the original cause of Kareems prosecution was his documentation of the unpunished persecution of the christian minority in his home town of Alexandria.

I refer Mr. Haggag to the information available at www.freekareem.org. I hope that Mr. Haggag and others will visit the site for the facts and that they will encourage the authorities to correct the mistake that has been made.

Tom G. Palmer

Previously by The Washington Post:
Blogger on Ice
The ‘Crime’ Of Blogging In Egypt