Student groups of Amnesty International New Zealand have been actively working on Kareem’s case for some time now, featuring him on their Freedom Challenge action page:

Here in New Zealand criticisms of the government and educational institutes are made every day… just listen in to friends and family conversations and you’d be surprised how often those criticisms are made. What won’t surprise you at all is that such comments are made without fear of imprisonment, ill-treatment or torture – a right denied Shi Tao and Abdul Karim Nabeil Suleiman.

Amnesty International considers Abdul’s sentence as “yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt,” and considers him to be a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted on account of the peaceful expression of his views.” Join Amnesty in calling for Kareem’s immediate and unconditional release.

In a recent e-mail to us, Jay Crangle, a member of the organization, writes:

We are mailing a petition with over 800 signatures to the Interior Minister this week, as well as the diplomatic representative of Egypt accredited to New Zealand.

We would like to thank Amnesty International New Zealand for their consistent efforts concerning Kareem’s case, and hope that they too will be involved in our worldwide rallies.

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Amnesty has graciously provided supporters of Kareem Amer an easy way to contact some important Egyptian officials - just fill out this form! Your letter (a template is provided) will be sent to the U.S. Ambassador, and copies will be sent to Egypt’s Minister of the Interior and Minster of Justice.

It only takes a few minutes of your time, and you have the option of sending the letter by e-mail, snail-mail, or fax: Condemn the Four-Year Sentence of Egyptian Blogger Karim Amer.

(Hat tip: Jason Talley)

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See also Amnesty’s background information on Kareem.

(And while you’re at it, don’t forget to send a letter or postcard to Kareem’s address!)

UPDATE: @ May 11, 2007
The form is now down. We have asked Amnesty to put it back online. (Thanks to Guerry for pointing this out!)

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Reporters Without Borders has started a petition calling for the release of both Kareem Amer and Abdul-Moneim Mahmud. Please sign it!

“We call for the release of Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman (Kareem Amer) and of Abdul-Moneim Mahmud, who have been imprisoned for expressing their opinion online. We urge the organisers of the Internet Governance Forum to intervene with the Egyptian authorities on behalf of these two bloggers. It would be intolerable for a UN summit on the future of the Internet to be held in a country which imprisons bloggers”.

The petition will be sent, on 6 November 2007, exactly one year after the arrest of Kareem Amer, to Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, to Executive Coordinator of the IGF, Markus Kumar, as well as to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.

“Kareem Amer”
Adel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, better known by the pen name Kareem Amer, was arrested on 6 November 2006, for articles published on his blog (www.karam903.blogspot.com). He frequently attacked the authoritarian excesses of the government of Hosni Mubarak and criticised the country’s top religious authorities, particularly the Sunni University Al-Azhar, where he was studying law. The blogger was sentenced on 22 February 2007, to three years in prison for “inciting hatred of Islam” and one year for “insulting” the Egyptian president. The sentence was upheld on appeal on 12 March.

Abdul-Moneim Mahmud
Abdul-Moneim Mahmud, who runs the blog Ana Ikhwan (www.ana-ikhwan.blogspot.com), was arrested on 14 April 2007. He has been officially accused of membership of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but his detention appears most likely linked to articles and photos he has posted online and at his work exposing torture committed by the security services.

Please circulate this link and spread the word!

Here is a link to the petition in French and in Arabic.

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(Who is Monem? Read our previous post concerning his arrest.)

The international Free Monem! campaign has been launched. We urge you to show your support for yet another victim of Egypt’s human rights violations.

Friends, Monem supported Kareem when Kareem needed it. Now all we ask is that you show your support to Monem by visiting the campaign and seeing what you can do to help. Spread the word!

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It appears we have a twelfth capital that took part in the worldwide Free Kareem rallies last week! The Young Liberals of Norway held small event outside the Egyptian Embassy in Oslo, and presented a letter to the Egyptian Ambassador. (Hat tip: Knud Edmund Berthelsen)

Many thanks to the Young Liberals of Norway! We are also appreciative of the International Federation of Liberal Youth for spreading the word to its member organizations (including the Young Liberals of Norway) about the Free Kareem demonstrations.

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Many thanks to our good friends at the Liberal Alliance who helped us by rallying for Kareem’s cause and the cause of human rights in general!

A rally was held in front of the Egyptian embassy in Athens where a petition for Kareem’s release was handed to the ambassador.

Special thanks to Fotis Perlikos for organizing the rally as well as providing us with pictures. Thank you so much!

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Modern Discussion, according to its Web site, is a “media news cultural tribune to publicize objective and critical dialogues and opinions about the vital issues concerning the secularism, democracy, human rights, women’s rights, development, environment, human heritage in order to build a humane, civil and secular society that guarantee basic political, economic, sociological, cultural rights for humanity.” Kareem Amer regularly published his reformist articles on the Web site.

In support of Kareem, Modern Discussion has set up an online petition campaign titled, “There Is No Sanctity but the Human Being and His Freedom: A Solidarity Campaign for Liberal Writer Abdul Kareem Suleiman”. The petition states that, “We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the unjust sentence against liberal writer Abdul Kareem Suleiman, and we demand his immediate release.”

Links:

• Original (Arabic) petition.
• English translation of petition (using Google Translate; sign here).

• Kareem Amer’s profile on Modern Discussion.
• English translation of Kareem Amer’s profile (using Google Translate).

• Modern Discussion home page.
• Modern Discussion in English.

Please sign the petition here.

We thank Modern Discussion for their solidarity and we hope this will help raise awareness on Kareem.

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Along with the Syrian blogosphere, bloggers in the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania) stand against the injustice Kareem is facing: Maghreb bloggers condemn the imprisonment of an Egyptian blogger.

Excerpt:

Maghreb bloggers condemn the imprisonment of an Egyptian blogger
28/02/2007
Many bloggers were disheartened by the sentencing of Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer to four years in prison.

Many Maghreb bloggers condemned the recent sentencing of an Egyptian blogger to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The blogger, 22-year-old Kareem Amer, is a staunch critic of Mubarak, and has accused al-Azhar University, the most prominent religious establishment in Sunni Islam, of encouraging extremism.

“Four years of imprisonment for Kareem Amer. Three years for insulting Islam and one year for Mubarak … Criticism in our countries is an insult and a crime. Sorry Kareem, [but] talk is useless, my friend … you will grow in status, and they will shrink,” blogged al-Moudawina Attounisia.

His crime is that he blogs, wrote Moroccan blogger Naim. “He was imprisoned for expressing himself on his personal space. This happens in Egypt in the 21st century.”

Under the headline, “Shame on Egypt: Blogging is not a crime!”, Moroccan blogger Larbi addressed Kareem. “You have committed the unforgivable by doubting Islam and criticizing the government … You are only 22-years-old, but you’ve already known prison and interrogations and will surely get out scarred for life. Your mistake is being born in a place characterized by denial of free thinking, persecution, inhumanity and the absence of liberty. Your sole mistake is denouncing the autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak and the radical and retrograde alternative of Islamists.”

Thysdrus quoted an article by a Saudi blogger about the fast-growing blogging phenomenon in the Arab World. “Governments in the region should stop wasting time and resources cracking down on bloggers, and should focus more on the benefits they can gain from blogging. Blogs can give indications of trends and public opinion regarding pressing issues in every country, and leaders and officials should learn to be more open to criticism: They should realize that being in the public eye does not give them some kind of immunity. On the contrary, it is the other way around,” said the blogger.

Thank you Maghreb!

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Syrian blogger Abu Kareem has initiated a solidarity campaign for Kareem with his fellow Syrian bloggers: Syrian Bloggers in Solidarity with Kareem Amer.

Syrian bloggers have posted the following statement in their blogs in solidarity for Kareem Amer:

We, as a community of Syrian bloggers, condemn the arrest and sentencing of Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman for the peaceful expression of his dissenting views. We ask the Egyptian government to reconsider its decision to arrest and prosecute Abdel Kareem. The stated reasons for their action include the preservation of the public peace and state security, and the prevention of incitement against Islam. We contend that his arrest will achieve neither. Silencing such dissenting voices as Abdel Kareem’s, serves only to strengthen the hands of extremists who will not shy away from violence to achieve their goals. Moreover, we remind the Egyptian government that his arrest and prosecution violates at least two articles (see below) of the 1948 United Nations universal declaration of human rights to which Egypt was a signatory.

Relevant United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles:

Article 18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19. 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.

Such rights for freedom of expression are also enshrined in the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam and the 2003 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s religion.

Thank you, Syria.

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Kareem’s case has appeared in La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper. (Hat tip: Saro)

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You can read it all in Italian here, and in (broken) English here (If the English link fails you, use the Google translator).

The article links to this Web site and to the petition set up at PetitionOnline.com. That explains why we’ve had more than 200 hundred new signatures on that petition today from Italians (and the number is still rising like mad):

Please don’t forget to also sign the petition letters set up by HAMSA! (Here and here).

To Kareem’s Italian supporters: Grazie infinite!

Update (17/Feb/2007): Thanks to our fellow Italians, the petition now has over 2,000 signatures.

Now I know who to cheer for during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

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