Julie Stahl writes:

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Watchdog groups are pressing for the release of an Egyptian blogger, arrested last month for posting articles critical of Islam on his Web log (blog).

They say Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22, is a victim of Egyptian attempts to limit freedom of expression on the Internet.

Suleiman, known by his Internet pseudonym Kareem Amer, was expelled from the Al-Azhar University earlier this year because he wrote critically about the role of religion in Egypt, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported on Thursday.

(Al-Azhar is the regarded as the highest Sunni Islamic learning institution in the region. The grand imam of al-Azhar mosque, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, is one of the most senior Muslim clerics in Egypt.)

Suleiman also was arrested last year when he condemned violent Muslim reaction to a Coptic Christian play, which some Muslims considered offensive to Islam.

The Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Egyptian Observatory for Justice and Law are campaigning for Sulieman’s release. The groups say he’s been imprisoned on “false charges.”

“The real reason for his imprisonment is that he expressed his anti-governmental and anti-Islamic views in his own online articles,” the groups said.

According to the groups, which are providing legal representation for Suleiman, he was supposed to be questioned before a judge on Thursday in the presence of his lawyers, but police misinformed the lawyers about where the interrogation would be held and took Suleiman to a different court, where he was given another 15 days’ detention.

A petition calling for Suleiman’s release has been posted on the HAMSA (Hands Across the Middle East) website. HAMSA is an American Muslim organization that promotes civil rights in the Middle East.

HAMSA Director Jesse Sage said more than 1,500 people have sent emails to the Egyptian government and U.S. State Department demanding Suleiman’s release.

“This is the first time that someone [in Egypt] was arrested for what he wrote on a blog,” said Sage by telephone. Other bloggers have been arrested, but usually for participating in street demonstrations, he said.

In the last article posted before his arrest, Suleiman blasted clerics at Al-Azhar University and predicted he would be arrested for it.

“[To] Al-Azhar University, to the professors and sheikhs at Al-Azhar who stood and stand against anyone who thinks freely, I say: You will end up in the dustbin of history. Then you will find no one to cry for you,” Suleiman wrote according to a translation provided by MEMRI on Thursday.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Egypt is among the 13 countries known for violating freedom of expression on the Internet.

The Washington-based human rights advocacy group Freedom House said that the number of Egyptians with Internet access has more than quadrupled in the last five years but stands at less than six percent of the population.

“The Egyptian government does not engage in widespread online censorship, and online writers regularly criticize the government and launch concerted campaigns for political change,” Freedom House said on its website.

Nevertheless, it said that, “bloggers were arrested, detained without charge, and harassed by state security agents.”

Freedom House mentions Suleiman’s arrest. It also mentions the arrest of online editor Ahmad Abd-Allah, whose papers, books and hard drives were confiscated. According to Abd-Allah, during his interrogation he was pressured to close his website. But later he was released without charges on condition that he maintain contact with state security.

(Thanks to Egypeter for the link.)

Read the full report here.

We would like to correct Spiegel Online in their report about Kareem:

It is well after midnight when Abdel Kareem Sulaiman, 22, gets some uninvited company. Suddenly the door to his apartment bursts open and a squad of Egyptian security police officers storms into the room and arrests the drowsy Sulaiman on the spot.

This is not what happened.

Kareem went to the Prosecution Office with a lawyer, as stated here many times before. Please do not dramatize the situation for whatever purpose, we would like Kareem’s case to remain accurate at all times.

IRIN Middle East: Weekly update of human rights violations in the region:

CAIRO, (IRIN) – In Egypt, Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced the sentencing on 31 October of former President Anwar al-Sadat’s nephew, Talaat al-Sadat, after being convicted by a military court of insulting the military and the Republican Guard.

HRW condemned the conviction of al-Sadat, who is a prominent parliamentarian. Al-Sadat’s prosecution and sentence [sends] a chilling message to anyone who dares to raise sensitive issues in Egypt. No one should be tried in a military court or any other court for criticising a public institution or a public official, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East Director of the New York-based rights group.

Meanwhile, local NGO Human Rights Info denounced the arrest of a prominent secularist blogger for his views on Egypt’s religious establishment. Alexandrian blogger Abd el-Karim Suleiman, who was arrested on Monday, is being investigated on five charges, which include incitement to hate Islam and spreading malicious rumours that disrupt public security.

We are very concerned that he is going to be charged officially with blasphemy a charge which can carry the death penalty in Egypt, Human Rights Info spokeswoman Dalia Ziada told IRIN.

Over 1,400 people have signed the petition for Kareem so far. Thank you all for your much needed support! If you haven’t signed this petition yet – please consider doing so.

As this following letter shows, Kareem is still not doing very well. Please keep your thoughts and prayers with him. For the previous 2 letters by Kareem: #1, and #2

Constantino Diaz-Duran, thank you so much for this piece.

Free Kareem Amer!

A great injustice is taking place today in a city that was once as cosmopolitan as our dear Manhattan. Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known as Kareem Amer, has been detained on and off for a year in Alexandria, Egypt, charged with a series of crimes that include “spreading information disruptive of public order,” “incitement to hate Muslims,” and “defaming the President of the Republic.”

As students at a world-renowned university, we have a platform that allows our voices to be heard. Kareem’s release is just the kind of cause we should use it for. It is morally imperative that Columbia students join in solidarity for this 22-year-old student, whose only real crime has been having the courage to speak his mind while living under a totalitarian government.

Kareem was first arrested on Oct. 26, 2005, following a long (and to some, blasphemous) blog post he wrote after the Maharram Beh Riot, a violent confrontation between Muslims and Coptic Christians. Having witnessed the violence, and what he called the “brutality, inhumanity, and thievery” of some of his fellow Muslims, Kareem wrote, “We should stand courageously and boldly against these teachings.” These are teachings, he continued, “that became a plague on humanity and are not supported except by extremists like [Osama] bin Laden, [Abu Musab] al Zarqawi, [Ayman] al Zawaheeri, and the thugs that assaulted our Coptic brothers, burned their homes, stole their properties, and tried to assault their religious men and destroy their churches.”

After Kareem’s release from jail a couple of weeks later, he seemed even more adamant in his fight: “It is very terrible that freedom would be taken from a human being because of an opinion or belief of his, but … it is very beautiful that his detention would be an encouragement for him to stick by his principles, and a reason for him to defy and hold on to what he thinks is right, even if he violates the traditions and beliefs of the majority of the people within the boundaries of his society.”

The controversy earned him a further honor. He was expelled from Al-Azhar University, one of the Islamic world’s premier higher-learning institutions. He studied law there, hoping to specialize in human rights. Incidentally, it should be mentioned that he has been one of the most outspoken supporters of women’s rights in the Arab blogosphere.

His expulsion did not dampen his criticisms of his society. He may find it harder now to become a lawyer, but he claims to be freer. “As I was being investigated, I discovered-for the first time-that being a student at Al-Azhar University means I was a slave, owned by it,” he said. “They were expecting me to deny or evade responsibility of my free and courageous opinions-they were waiting for me to give birth to a second personality during the investigations-but how preposterous!”

How brave, I say. The true magnitude of his words might be hard to grasp by someone who has always lived in a free society-and trust me, the U.S. is a free society, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney notwithstanding. Realizing that Hosni Mubarak has been the president of Egypt since before Kareem was even born might help us put things into perspective. Kareem has lived his entire life under the rule of one person, under the boot of the same totalitarian government. In his words, his arrest last year meant only that he was “moved from a big jail to a small disciplinary cell because [he] did not follow the rules that the 70 million Egyptians are forced to abide by, and [he] broke the widespread traditions of the Great Jail of the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

Kareem is now back in the “disciplinary cell.” He was arrested again on Nov. 6 and is being held at a detention center in Alexandria. It is not certain how much longer he will be held. Human rights organizations across the world, including Amnesty International, have protested his detention and expressed concern about the fact that he is being charged with religious crimes. He is a prisoner of conscience, jailed for having something that many of us need more of-guts.

An online petition has been established to collect signatures for Kareem’s release. But we should not stop at that. We have the resources to raise more awareness about this injustice, and we should put them to good use.

I would like to think that, as Americans and Columbians, we share Kareem’s commitment to freedom. Like Kareem, we believe that all men and women deserve equal protection under the law. Like Kareem, we believe that government and religion should never be mixed. Like Kareem, we have the energy that youth provides. Unlike Kareem, we are able to voice our opinions freely. Let us not abandon him in his fight for liberty.

The author is a student in the School of General Studies majoring in American studies.

Egypt arrests another blog critic-

Police in Cairo have detained a blogger whose posts have been critical of the Egyptian government.

ami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, was detained along with three friends after leaving the house of a fellow blogger late at night.

No reasons have been given for Mr Siyam’s detention. The other friends were released after being questioned.

Human rights groups have accused Egypt of eroding freedom of speech by arresting several bloggers recently.

BBC Arab Affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says blogging in Egypt is closely associated with political activism in a culture where democratic freedoms are severely restricted.

Anti-harassment protest in Cairo

In recent weeks, bloggers have been exposing what they say was the sexual harassment of women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene.

Mr Siyam’s host on Saturday night, Muhammad Sharqawi, was detained for several weeks earlier this year.

The most recently detained blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil, was detained in Alexandria on 6 November and was charged with disrupting public order, inciting religious hatred and defaming the president.

Amnesty International says Mr Amer appeared to have been detained for expressing critical views about Islam and Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities.

We’d like to thank Tom Palmer for his continuous efforts to increase awareness on this case.

You can act to help free Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, who has been detained by the Egyptian authorities for writing on his blog. Regardless of whether you agree with his views or not (he is very critical of the Egyptian government and of Islam), please support his right to express his views peacefully. Please sign this petition for his release. It’s easy. If you want to do more, please write a respectful letter to the Egyptian Embassy in your country. Just a minute of your time can help a young man who should not be in prison. Please take that minute. And then ask at least one friend.

Please think of yourself in a prison cell and how much you would hope that others would act on your behalf.

Thank you Tom. This campaign is stronger because of your efforts.

FYI, Glenn Reynolds has also blogged about this.

Originally published at the Tharwa Community:

The Tharwa Community strongly denounces the arrest of Egyptian blogger Abdel Karim Suliman Amer, known as “Kareem Amer,” for expressing secular opinions on his blog. Kareem, a former student at Al-Azhar University, was illegally arrested in October 2005 by security forces due to opinions he expressed online regarding the sectarian violence in Alexandria that year.Egyptianblogger After his arrest and release, Al-Azhar Univeristy dismissed Kareem and filed a communiqué with the Office of the Public Prosecutor against Kareem. Despite the arguments of Kareem and a human rights lawyer from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information who was representing him, the prosecutor decided to detain Kareem again on November 6 for four days, on a renewable basis, pending an investigation.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948, states:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The Tharwa Community fully supports Kareem’s right to free speech, as we stand by all those brave enough to express their views, however controversial, in repressive societies.

We formally sponsor the petition drafted by the Hands Across the Mideast Support Alliance (HAMSA) to release Kareem, and we ask all of our readers to express their solidarity with Kareem by signing this important document. We also encourage you to visit www.freekareem.org for more information on this matter.