We have received notifications from over 400 individuals worldwide who have written letters and postcards in support of Kareem as a response to our latest letter campaign. We are waiting to hear back from Kareem on whether or not he received at least the majority of these letters.

Do know that Kareem is extremely appreciative of these efforts, thanks so much for taking the time to do this, and for those of you who haven’t had the chance yet, it’s never too late. Please send a letter and encourage your friends to do the same.

We are shocked and disturbed by the fact that Kareem is still in prison, and will never give up fighting for his freedom and human rights. Thank you for your support!

We have written about the latest abuses Kareem has been facing from prison guards and security officials, and believe it implies an urgent call for action: We must flood the jail with mail to Kareem. If they want to rip up his letters, let them. We’ll just keep sending more!

Flood the Jail with Mail

A few months ago the campaign was a success, with many letters being sent to Kareem on a daily basis for an entire month, but this is needed now more than ever! Kareem has expressed his support for this initiative. He needs the worldwide support and recognition for his own safety. Please consider taking part in this campaign, which you can read about here.

Here is Kareem’s address in prison:

Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Section 10, Room 22
Alexandria
The Arab Republic of Egypt

You must include the Arabic text in the letter as well:

Sending him messages and postcards by snail-mail is very important, not only because it will assuage his pains, but to also tell the government and prison that we are still watching.

This is not a requirement – but we suggest that you laminate your letters/cards for them not to be ripped up.

Kareem has been in prison for 1120 days. One can only imagine what 1120 days in an Egyptian prison cell, being humiliated on a daily basis and occasionally tortured, can do to a person.

If you were in such a position, would you want someone to support you through it? Would a supportive letter from a complete stranger help? Knowing that someone, somewhere, cares about your struggle for free speech, and admires your courage, enough to take the time to express that in a letter? Even if it’s just a postcard, it would mean a lot to you.

Please, take a few moments to write a supportive letter to Kareem. Let him know you’re there and that he’s not alone. Send this to 10 more people and have them send one too.

You may also write to these Egyptian Officials and Diplomats to express your outrage at the fact that Kareem is still imprisoned for his blog posts.

Human Rights First has launched a letter campaign for you to request the release of 3 detained bloggers/activists. The letter will be aimed at the Foreign Minister’s recent visit to New York in order to represent Egypt in the United Nations General Assembly, despite the fact that Egypt clearly doesn’t believe in free speech or human rights. Please take a moment to get involved:

This week an Egyptian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit arrived in New York City to participate in the United Nations General Assembly. Even as these officials speak on behalf of their country, the Egyptian government continues its assault on free expression.

At this moment, three bloggers in detention are:

Mosaad Suleiman Hassan (better known by his pen name Mosaad Abu Fajr), novelist and activist from the northern Sinai, detained since December 26, 2007;

Mohamed Refaat, a 22-year-old student at Cairo University, arrested on July 21, 2008, whose detention continues under Emergency Laws. He faces accusations that include incitement of a strike;

Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman (a.k.a. “Kareem Amer”), a 23-year-old former student at Al-Azhar University currently serving a four-year sentence for views he expressed on his blog.

This year Egyptian authorities have arrested, detained, and prosecuted at least 20 bloggers, journalists, and activists. Using broadly-worded laws that criminalize insulting the president or religion, or harming Egypt’s reputation, and relying on Emergency Laws to justify prolonged detention, the government has clamped down on one of the most basic rights-the right to free expression.

Please call on the Egyptian authorities to release the bloggers currently detained and stop using vague, overly-broad laws to repress free speech.

The message to release these innocent detained individuals will be directed to:

Take action here.

Kareem has been arrested since November 6th, 2006. He is about to spend his 600th day in prison! We are planning an event for this day and hope that you will all be involved.

Here are the details.

Date: Saturday, the 28th of June
Occasion: Day 600 for Kareem in prison!
Theme: Increase awareness for Kareem in prison, and get in touch with him!

How you can get involved:

On the 28th, dedicate a post on your blog/website to Kareem.

You can do this in two ways:

Option 1: Write a post/letter directly to or about Kareem. Make people aware of what Kareem is going through. Express your opinions or concerns over the fact that he is still in prison just for sharing his personal views on radical Islam, extremism within Al Azhar, and the president of Egypt.

Option 2: Write about something controversial, fearlessly, the same way as Kareem did (whether be it about free speech, human rights, religious freedom, political rights, et al) and then dedicate this post to him.

You may also choose to directly write to Kareem using the following address:

Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
The Arab Republic of Egypt

Please attach the Arabic address on your letter:

On Monday, April 21, was the official deadline for our letter campaign “Flood the Jail with Mail“. So far, we had about 60 confirmed letters from around the world, but we are assured that it’s not over – some people are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. Our aim is to collect at least 30 letters per event.

People have sent Kareem letters, postcards, pictures, books, etc. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters, or at least most of them. But even if the campaign is over now you can continue writing to Kareem. He is always happy to receive letters from his friends and supporters.

We also have in mind to create another campaign of this sort during the end of the summer in August, and in between, we’d have other kinds of campaigns to keep people aware of Kareem. If anyone wants to help out, they should contact editor@freekareem.org and we’d be happy to accept any suggestions or help.

In our previous post, we wrote that the most recent “The World” podcast will feature a discussion about the “Flood the Jail with Mail” campaign which is co-organized by the wonderful and hard working Committee to Protect Bloggers (CPB) This podcast features the director of the Free Kareem Coalition (myself), Curt from CPB, and Elijah Zarwan, a Cairo-based human rights researcher.

You can now listen to the short 4 minute talk here. [MP3]

BBC’s “The World” is going to feature a new podcast concerning the upcoming 2-week long letter campaign for Kareem, detailed by Curt from the Committee to Protect Bloggers here.

Curt and I (Esra’a) will be discussing the Flood the Jail with Mail campaign [click here for info] which goes live on Monday, April 7th. We encourage everyone to get involved!

Visit the website and make sure you listen to Friday’s show to learn more about the campaign and Kareem’s situation in general.

We are happy to announce the launch of a joint mail campaign in support of Kareem together with the Committee to Protect Bloggers.

From April 7 through April 21, both organizations are encouraging their readers to go analogue and write Kareem a letter or postcard.

There are several reasons for another analogue campaign:

First, we’ve organized demonstrations and public outreach events all over the world but nothing that targets Kareem directly. It is time for a campaign that focuses on him in personal way! He really enjoys letters and they make a difference to him, as he has stated before. Second, a sufficient amount of such mail will remind Egyptian authorities that Kareem, bloggers in general and prisoners of conscience over all, are not alone. Remember, when Kareem was being tortured several months ago, the focus of international media was instrumental in stopping it. And finally, this campaign means an opportunity for us to really do something directly for Kareem.

We have asked you to write to Kareem before, and by all means continue it! But now we are especially asking you to send him at least one letter between April 7 and April 21. During this period, let’s “flood the jail with mail”!

Below you find the address in English, followed by a picture of it in Arabic. It goes without saying that both versions (if you are writing from a non-Arabic country) must be on the mail to assure that it gets delivered.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt

Kareem’s address in Arabic (mandatory to be included on the envelope)

Please also have a look at Alexandra Sandels’ article about this campaign at Menassat, which includes statements by Esra’a and Wa7damasrya as well as some background information.

If you need more information about the “Flood the Jail with Mail” campaign, please feel free to contact us.

Photographer’s caption:

Shahinaz encouraged everyone in the group to write letter to Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman, the blogger who was jailed last year for insulting Islam and President Mubarak, and facilitated matters by providing stamped envelopes.

Please follow this lead and write a letter to Kareem this week.