A great friend in San Francisco got involved within a day of hearing this news and managed to put something together in the very last minute for Kareem’s sake and the general cause of freedom of speech. She made great posters and stood in front of the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco, California. We are extremely appreciative of her support! Here are some pictures:

A note from Peter Eyre, the rally’s organizer:

The rally in DC was a success. There were 18 freedom fighters who showed up to help spread the word about Kareem and vocalize their opposition to government-imposed censorship. Foot traffic in the area was moderate, and we handed out around 350 flyers.

I had a short conversation with an employee at the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau (where the Free Kareem rally has been held the past three times as well, as the Egyptian Embassy is a bit off the beaten path). I wanted to communicate why were had gathered outside their property. He was surprisingly pleasant and in agreeable about Kareem’s right to free speech because, as he put it, he is a “human being” (he noted that he had himself moved to the U.S. to more fully enjoy his rights). I asked him to tell his colleagues and those he works for that we don’t support Egypt’s policy on this issue.

My colleague Drew got some footage from which the attached stills were pulled. I hope to put together a video on Kareem and the larger issue of free speech, similar to what we did for the DC gun ban case and the larger case for freedom in Heller Yeah!

(Click on each image for a larger picture.)

Members of Jong VLD, LVSV, Jeunes MR and FEL joined up to protest before the Egyptian embassy. According to the organizer, Philippe De Backer, their action made the national newspapers websites. The rally was a great succes with over 40 participants during the 2-hour protest!

Here is a news article covering the event in Dutch.

Our great thanks goes to Nicola Iannello, who in his capacity as a university professor and director of the School of Liberal Thought in Rome, managed to get this great rally together in an effort to free Kareem. Special thanks also go to Annalisa Chirico and Giulia Innocenzi (the 2 wonderful ladies in the first photo) who did a great job gathering people to participate in this rally.

Many thanks to everyone else who joined and made this possible! Two of the protestors were allowed into the Egyptian embassy in order to express their concern for Kareem.

Great pictures of the rally are below (Note: More from the organizers on this Facebook page.)

(Click on each picture for a larger image.)

12 cities around the world are participating (or have participated) in the worldwide Free Kareem demonstrations today.

Here they are:

• Paris, France

• London, UK

• Brussels, Belgium

• Stockholm, Sweden

• Berlin, Germany

• Bucharest, Romania

• Washington, DC, USA

• New York, NY, USA

• Rome, Italy

• Berne, Switzerland

• Rhode Island, USA

• NEW! San Francisco, California

Thanks for everyone who got involved to make this possible! We will be posting the results shortly.

Latest press release from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concerning Kareem’s completion of his 2nd year in prison:

Reporters Without Borders today renewed its call for the release of Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, aged 24, sentenced in 2006 to three years in prison for “insulting Islam” and one year for “insulting the president”, who will have served half his sentence on 6 November 2008.

“Two years have gone by and nothing has changed. His family have never come to visit him. Only his lawyer reports to the outside world, about his morale, which weakens day after day, and his fragile state of health. His parents, probably as a result of intimidation, have even publicly disowned their son and called for him to be sentenced to death. Wardens have prevented him from leaving his cell since 1st September. Two years, that’s enough. It is time to free him”, the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

Kareem Amer was arrested on 6 November 2006 because of articles he posted on his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com) criticising the authoritarian abuses of President Hosni Mubarak, and the administration of the Sunnite al-Azhar University where he was studying law. On his website he challenged the university’s practice of separating the sexes and he revealed pressure brought to bear on some clerics to support President Mubarak.

“One year has gone past and I am still deprived of my freedom. The pain of the experience has taught me that no feeling is as bad as that of injustice”, he wrote from his cell on September 2007. “Enemies of freedom, symbols of oppression [...], know that your days are already clouding over. The dawn of future generations is coming. Tomorrow belongs to us”, he ended.

Egyptians alone represent almost 30% of the region’s bloggers. Most of them are human rights activists, victims of ever harsher methods of dissuasion. Egypt figures prominently on Reporters Without Borders’ list of “Internet Enemies”. Since this summer, bloggers wanting WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) network access have to provide their email address and their mobile phone numbers before getting access to the World Wide Web. These are vital bits of information for advertisers, spammers … and security agencies.

Click here for the release.

IUF will sponsor a Free Kareem Rally in Berlin in front of the Egyptian Embassy at 12.30pm on the 6th of November.

6. November 12.30 Uhr
Kundgebung für die Freiheit von Kareem Amer
Kundgebung vor der ägyptischen Botschaft in Berlin

Sehr geehrte Frau Wright,

wir möchten Sie herzlich einladen, an diesem Donnerstag, dem 6.11. um 12.30 Uhr, mit uns Ihre Unterstützung für den ägyptischen Blogger Kareem Amer auszudrücken.

Kareem Amer ist ein ägyptischer Autor und Blogger der immer den Mut fand sich für das Recht auf freie Meinungsäusserung einzusetzen. Da er selbst von diesem Recht Gebrauch gemacht hat, ist er zu einer Gefängnisstrafe von vier Jahren verurteilt worden.

Zusammen mit anderen Organisationen und Individuen in vielen Hauptstädten der Welt werden wir gegen die Inhaftierung des ägyptischen Bloggers Kareem Amer protestieren, der für sein Eintreten für Gleichberechtigung, seine Kritik an der Radikalisierung des Islam und der ägyptischen Regierung verurteilt wurde.

Unabhängig davon ob, Sie Kareems Positionen teilen, können wir alle der Meinung sein, dass niemand für das Äußern seiner Meinung inhaftiert werden darf. Wir bitten Sie daher am Donnerstag zwischen 12.30 Uhr – 13.30 Uhr, während Ihrer Mittagszeit mit uns Kareem und das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung zu unterstützen.

Veranstaltungsort
Egyptian Embassy / Ägyptische Botschaft in Berlin
Stauffenberg Str. 6-7
10785 Berlin

Wegbeschreibung über google
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=stauffenbergstr.+Berlin

Routenplaner der Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
BVG

Programm

12.30 Uhr Kundgebung für die Freilassung von Kareem Amer

13.30 Uhr Übergabe der Petition zur Freilassung von Kareem Amer an den Ägyptischen Gesandten

13.40 Uhr Ende der Veranstaltung

Das IUF lädt die Teilnehmer am Donnerstagabend um 19.00 Uhr zu einer informellen Veranstaltung in die Räume des IUF ein.

Bitte beachten Sie, dass für die Teilnahme am Donnerstagmittag, trotz Klimawandel, warme Kleidung von großem Vorteil ist.

A Free Kareem rally will be taking place in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland on Nov. 6 at about 11:00am.

[Bus line 19, stop Willadingweg.]

If you’d like to request for any specific details concerning this rally, please contact the organizer, Maryvonne Chartier-Raymond through chray[at]bluewin.ch

Your attendance at any of the worldwide rallies makes a difference!