The Earth Times report that up to 800 participants aged 18-25 gathered in a Sharm el-Sheikh resort to discuss peaceful means of communication within the troubled region.

Suzan Mubarak, Egypt’s first lady and core member/sponsor of the Women’s International Peace Movement, shares her insight with the young and diverse delegates:

“Peace is not a far-fetched idea. Youth is the most solid resource base,” Mubarak said in her opening speech. “Listening is a great start, but acting upon what you hear is more important.”

Unfortunately, acting upon what he heard is precisely what Kareem did, and he is facing prison time for it. We believe that with Kareem still in prison many youth writers, human rights activists, and even just mere students interested in free speech will take this message as a threat. Kareem is an example of a grand error which we hope to see corrected by the Egyptian government.

Hopefully Suzan Mubarak, who has done an excellent job preaching peace and tolerance, becomes more aware of Kareem’s imprisonment and perhaps tries to influence the authorities to free him which would give her words more practical strength. It’s indeed very important to act upon what one hears, but it’s quite dangerous for such youth activists to do that if fear and punishment is a risk, which is why it would make more sense for Egypt to correct the mistake of imprisoning Kareem which will be a positive example and reflection of Suzan Mubarak’s great words.

Read the full article here, which is very hopeful, but our friend Kareem is still in prison due to free speech and we wonder how quickly this can be addressed for the sake of real peace in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.

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