Highlights:
A. How Al-Azhar’s Students and Security Attacked & Tried to Kill Kareem (Quick link)
B. Kareem’s Appeals Court: Videos, Pictures; Blogger’s Touching Testimony (Quick link)
C. New Coalition Member: Bridget Johnson (Quick link)
D. Why Kareem? What About the Others? (Quick link)
E. RSF Asks UN Secretary-General to Discuss Kareem’s Case with Mubarak (Quick link)
F. Press & Media Coverage (Quick link)
G. Blogosphere (Quick link)

A. How Al-Azhar’s Students and Security Attacked & Tried to Kill Kareem
Very chilling. There are really no words. We have translated his story. You can read it all here: Kareem Amer: The University of Terrorism… And An Exposed Security Connivance

Excerpt:

… I glimpsed at the security official, who was inside, coming toward me with a cylindrical-shaped stick in his hand. At first, he took my hand under one of his arms and asked me to sit with him someplace to discuss something with me. Realizing the danger of this situation, I stripped my hand from under his shoulder and told him that I was in a rush, and that I needed to hurry home. However, he violently pulled me by my clothes, so I ran like the wind toward the back door of the faculty that I had originally exited from.

A university guard glimpsed at me and instantly told me to stay away because I’m prohibited from entering. I asked him, “Do you know what was about to happen to me?” He literally responded, “I know… But I did not see anything!”

[…]

… I found a taxi coming toward me. I stopped it and asked the driver to take me to the bus stop… The driver barely drove away from the faculty door when I found that about twenty students had surrounded the car from all sides, and with them was the security official who was dressed in civilian clothes. In their hands, I saw white weapons [knives], leather belts, and sticks. After forcing the driver to stop, they opened the back doors and forcibly attempted to get me out of the car, but I held onto my seat. They were threatening to kill me …

[...]

Al-Azhar University does not move a muscle when one of its students blows himself up, or heads off to kill the defenceless innocents. Yet, it raises hell when one of its students has an independent, bold, and free opinion!

Other translations: What Kareem Said.

B. Kareem’s Appeals Court: Videos, Pictures; Blogger’s Touching Testimony
Blogger Moneer has posted two videos he took inside and outside the March 12 appeals court session for Kareem.

The first video above is quite dim and Kareem is not visible. The judge confirms Kareem’s four-year sentence. Following that, you can hear the prosecuting lawyers’ acclamations and chants of “Allahu akbar!” (English: “Allah is the greatest!”)

You can also see his father about 22 seconds into the video. In addition, about 45 seconds into the video, a woman, possibly a relative of Kareem’s, seems to be wailing and approaching him at the prisoners’ cage.

The second video shows Kareem being escorted to the prisoners’ vehicle. He is dressed in blue prisoner clothing and his head has been shaved.

Moneer also blogs on his experience and feelings from the court session that day: The Darkest Day in Freedom’s History (in Arabic).

After the judge ended the session, I heard acclamations and takbirs [“Allah is the greatest!"]. As for me, I wanted to cry. Yes, I swear I wanted to cry, I was frustrated…

I exited the courtroom, and I saw the [prosecuting] lawyer [Mohamed Dawoud] and his colleagues… I heard them happily say, “Very beautiful years!” [expression of mockery]… As I went down the stairs, I tried holding the tears from my eyes. I became frightened; I don’t feel safe in a country that punishes people for their words. Tomorrow they will punish us for our dreams and thoughts…

Here are some of the pictures he has taken. You can find other pictures on his blog post.

C. New Coalition Member: Bridget Johnson
We are happy to announce that Bridget Johnson, a nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News, has kindly accepted our offer to join the Free Kareem Coalition as our team’s Consultant.

In her job as an opinion columnist (along with being a freelance contributor to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and The Politico), Bridget has addressed the case of Kareem and other violations of press freedom and human rights around the globe, and will continue to pressure world bodies on the need to act in such cases. As a member of the coalition, Bridget will be giving advice on press releases and media matters, and will contribute occasional reports to the Free Kareem Web site.

More here.

D. Why Kareem? What About the Others?
This is a question that many people ask us, and we would like to address it here on the website in case anyone else has similar concerns or reactions.

There are many people who are going through horrific and unimaginable experiences in prison. Many of these people don’t deserve what they are going through. We do realize this unfortunate fact, we never denied it nor do we consider Kareem more important than the many others in similar positions.

However, you must understand that this campaign was primarily initiated by Kareem’s friends, who are Muslims, the very people that Kareem actually offended through his writings, and was later supported by people who can relate to Kareem through personal experiences. A lot of us are now emotionally attached to this case. Offended as some of us are, we know the fact that Kareem is harmless and that what he is suffering through is incredibly unjust. Prison is a place people go when they commit crimes. Kareem committed no crime, unless you consider honesty, individual liberty and freedom of expression a crime.

As for the claim that the Western media is paying particular attention to Kareem and are treating him as a “special figure” because of his anti-Islam stance, this is hardly the case. At first, members of the campaign were directionless. We didn’t know what to do or where to go for help regarding our friend. No one was paying attention even while the news was out. It was thanks to our cries for help that the media began monitoring and documenting the case, and it had very much to do with us being highly accessible through phone, e-mail, or even physical presence in order to inform the rest about what was happening and why. Many of us also write op-eds in order to maintain this much needed interest within international media outlets. It is due to effort, not any “conspiracies” regarding “hidden ideologies,” which is what some readers claim.

Continue reading here.

E. RSF Asks UN Secretary-General to Discuss Kareem’s Case with Mubarak
Below is their letter. You can read their statement here.

Dear Secretary-General,

Reporters Without Borders would like to ask you to raise the case of imprisoned blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the two-day Arab League Summit that begins tomorrow in Riyadh. Mr. Suleiman, who is better known as “Kareem Amer,” received a four-year sentence on 22 February because of his blog posts. We would point out that the UN has agreed to Egypt’s hosting the Internet Governance Forum in 2009, a choice that would seem inappropriate as long as this young blogger remains in prison.

We know you are committed to promoting an uncensored Internet, one on which users can express themselves freely. We therefore feel sure you would agree that it would damage the UN’s credibility if one of the seven countries in the world that imprison bloggers was asked to host the IGF. We remind you that the second stage of the World Summit on the Information Society – which paved the way for the IGF – took place in Tunisia, a country that systematically violates online free speech.

Mr. Suleiman was arrested on 6 November 2006 because of articles he had posted on his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com), in which he often condemned the government’s authoritarian excesses and criticised Egypt’s highest religious institutions, especially the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law. He was sentenced on 22 February to three years in prison for “inciting hatred of Islam” and one year for “insulting” the president. The sentence was upheld on appeal on 12 March. While his outspokenness may have caused displeasure, we do not think it justified putting him in prison.

We trust you will give this matter your careful consideration.

F. Press & Media Coverage
- National Review Online: Getting Kareem Freed: A brave college student and a network of bloggers are stronger than many think.

Excerpts:

Prior to his expulsion and detention, Kareem was not widely known outside of a small circle (although the Coptic community did publicize his writings). His case is now known all over the world. That is mainly due to the efforts of a group of young bloggers who met Kareem at a conference co-sponsored by the Cato Institute and the Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance (HAMSA).

[…]

In October I was in Tbilisi for a Cato Institute conference and got my usual instant message of “Hello, Dr. Tom.” I asked how he was, and he told me that was worried, because he had been told to go the next day to the prosecutor’s office. I asked him if he had informed anyone else. “No. Just you.” I said that wouldn’t do and he had to send e-mails right now to all of the people from our conference, to other friends, and to anyone who should know. I immediately shot off text messages and e-mails. Several people immediately stepped up to defend Abdelkareem. Dalia arranged for him to have a lawyer go with him to the prosecutor’s office. He went with the lawyer, but the lawyer left the prosecutor’s office alone. Abdelkareem was detained, “pending investigation of his case,” a phrase that was repeated over and over. He was never let free.

As news of his detention came out, other people from the conference stepped up. Esraa, who is behind www.Mideastyouth.com, set up a website dedicated to Abdelkareem’s case: www.FreeKareem.org. She and a few friends began to gather information about the case and post it on the site. I blogged about the case and informed Andrew Sullivan, Johann Norberg, and others, who also posted on the case. HAMSA and PetitionOnline.com set up online petitions (now at over 8,000 signatures), and Jesse Sage of HAMSA and Dalia published an article in the International Herald Tribune. Esraa and some others in Bahrain organized a public protest in Abdelkareem’s behalf. A former Cato Institute intern, Constantino Diaz-Duran, wrote about it in the Columbia Spectator, and with another former Cato-ite, Chris Kilmer, he organized a rally in New York, as did Cato interns and other young libertarians in Washington. Another former Cato intern (Andrew Perraut) organized an event in London, and then libertarians in other cities followed suit (Paris, organized by Vincent Ginocchio of Liberte Cherie; Rome, organized by Alberto Mingardi of the Instituto Bruno Leoni; and Stockholm, organized by Jonas Virdalm and attended by Johan Norberg, who also spoke at the conference where we met Abdelkareem; and elsewhere). Jesse Sage arranged a letter from members of the U.S. Congress; Alberto arranged letters from members of the Italian parliament; and others mobilized diplomatic pressure from their governments. With Raja Kamal of the University of Chicago, I published op-eds on the case in the Washington Post and the Lebanon Daily Star. (The Post article has been distributed in Arabic through Cato’s Arabic Lamp of Liberty.) While the better known organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued much-appreciated statements, the agitation and publicity was mainly organized by a loose network of classical liberal/libertarian activists and writers.

Most important have been the Muslim Arabs who have stepped forward to defend Kareem, embracing his cause of freedom even as they reject his strong criticism of their religion. Dalia and Esraa and the people they have mobilized (including Mohammed and Lalith, the web administrators for the FreeKareem.org site) are pious and observant Muslims who are bravely standing up against extremists. They are standing up proudly for freedom of speech, and not because they agree with all of what Abdelkareem said, for they strongly disagree with much of it.

[…]

ACTION ITEM
If you visit www.FreeKareem.org, think about putting $10 into the kitty through Paypal. It’s easy. The whole movement is being financed by college students, who have dug deep into their own pockets to pay for signs, leaflets, banners, and bandwidth. I’ve donated. I hope you will, too. Then, after you’ve put up $10 (or more!) to support people who have a lot more on the line than you or I do, write a respectful letter to the Egyptian ambassador asking the government to correct the mistake that has been made and release Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman. He should be free, don’t you think?

- Kareem on IkhwanWeb:

This is a very recent op-ed by the editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Ibrahim El-Houdaiby of IkhwanWeb.com, which mentions Kareem’s case:

The very same regime that is cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood, sending tens of their leaders to martial tribunals and claiming that their “religious” ideology is anti-democratic and poses a threat to the country’s social stability and harmony, sentenced Kareem Amer — a secular blogger — to four years in prison a few weeks ago. He was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison for attacking Islam and Al Azhar University, and an additional fourth year for insulting the president. Anyone acquainted with the Egyptian political scene understands that the latter charge is the real reason Amer will spend the next four years in prison.

- Egypt Today:

The following report very briefly mentions Kareem (page three), its theme revolves around the socio-political importance of the Egyptian blogosphere. It features an interview with Wael Abbas who, amongst other things, explains how torture videos from police stations are exposed. It is worth the read for those interested in how influential Egyptian blogs have become.

Click on each picture for a larger image.

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Pg. 2

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F. Alliance for Essential Liberties in the Middle East

Some good friends of ours are leading this excellent initiative, and since they have been very supportive of Kareem we feel the need to make more people aware of their important work. It is also relevant to those who want to help more people than just Kareem, and those who feel that others deserve just as much attention. The website is designed to function interactively, anyone can start and edit a page, much like Wikipedia. The theme of this is to gather as much information as possible about political prisoners in the region, so if there is no profile set up for a person you are concerned about, please register on this website and start compiling information about others in similar, or even worse, positions. More than that, it offers a list of contacts per case which you can use to take further action. We found their tools to be very useful.

Kareem has a profile there, as well.

If you would like to be more actively involved in this very productive and worthwhile project, please contact its founders.

If you have a blog or a website, and this interests you, you are strongly encouraged to help out by including a banner:

G. Blogosphere

- It Looks Obvious: Let Kareem go
Excerpt:

In the spirit of the coming holiday – Passover, the holiday of freedom, we are appealing the Egyptian government to pardon Kareem. After all, blogging shouldn’t be a crime.

- Metablogging: Το ποστ που έστειλε φυλακή τον Kareem για πρώτη φορά (Greek)

- SvD Blogg: Släpp Kareem Amer fri! (Swedish)

- Free Keyboard: وبلاگ نویس مصری در زندان: ۴ سال برای توهین به اسلام و رییس جمهور (Farsi)