Cairo-based blogger Yasmin Amin provides an excellent analysis of Kareem Amer’s entire blog, concluding that his blog posts were anything but harmful: The Crime of obeying God!

Excerpts:

Since that last entry he has been arrested and detained and has no doubt gone through hell. We have all seen enough videos on YouTube of what goes on in Egyptian Police Stations to know that his detention there was probably a nightmare – to say the least.

[…]

He writes about honour killings and how the hymen is an affliction women are cursed with and how this insignificant piece of skin becomes a curse. Strangely enough just this week Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, issued a fatwa making hymen reconstruction surgery for women who have lost their virginity before marriage as halal [Islamically permissible].

[…]

Karim criticised the use of religion to suppress women in all spheres of life. He objects to not educating girls, of not allowing them to work in certain professions and fields. He condemns female circumcision and genital mutilation as yet another form of repression. He criticises marrying off girls at an early age and is very passionate about discontinuing domestic violence. All his criticism has been dealt with before by Al Azhar and the Grand Mufti. Just this month Egypt’s top Grand Mufti declared that Islam does not bar women from becoming heads of state.

[…]

He criticises the blind following of so-called enlightened individuals who have a magic hold on many young people by means of lectures distributed via cassette tapes. He writes about the elections, about Ayman Nour, the Kefaya Movement, about Nawal Sadawi and Inas El Deghedi, a female movie director with many controversial and highly critical films.

[…]

In August he wrote an open letter to the President. He posed many questions to him about forgeries in elections, about his long time rule, about whether or not he intends to fight discrimination in Egypt on religious grounds, about providing job opportunities for young graduates and about the rumours of appointing Gamal Mubarak as a successor. All his questions come from the President’s own campaign speeches and slogans or from articles previously published in opposition papers. Again nothing new here! Perhaps the only thing was that he actually urged the President to reconsider running.

[…]

In another post in August 2005 he criticised the statement made by Al Azhar to allow enrolment of Coptic students under the condition that they memorise the Qur’an. Personally I can see the double standards evident in such a permit.

[…]

[Karim] exercised his freedom of opinion. He took his right of expressing his opinion seriously and believed enough in it to write it on the internet in a publicly accessible blog. In my opinion Karim lived up to both his own true self and principles as well as his religion.

This is very well worth reading. Read it all and spread the word about Kareem.

Thanks to everyone who sent us links to media outlets.

Major Media Outlets

CNN: Egypt blogger jailed for insults

“I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence,” said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial as a member of the public.

BBC: Egypt blogger jailed for ‘insult’

During the five-minute court session the judge said Soliman was guilty and would serve three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.

TIME: The Blogger-Martyr of Egypt

In his blog, Kareem predicted that he would get into trouble with the law for his views. Still, he insisted on his right to freedom of expression and made no secret of his disgust for the laws that govern the system and restrict his liberties. He warned Al Azhar scholars and professors that they would end up in “the garbage of history.”

Associated Press: Egypt blogger gets 4 years in prison

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media rights group, said Internet writers and editors are the fastest-growing segment of imprisoned journalists, with 49 behind bars as of December.

“With this verdict, Egypt has opened up a new front in its efforts to stifle media freedoms,” said Joel Campagna, the group’s senior Middle East program coordinator.

CBC: Arab governments wake up to threat of blogging

Blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil, 22, has been in detention since November on charges of insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife for writing that is critical of Islamic authorities.
His trial, which began in January in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, is the first trial of a blogger in Egypt.

[...]

There are now 26 million internet users in the Arab world and 40,000 Arabic blogs, according to a report by the Initiative for an Open Arab Internet.

Sawsen Zaidah, a Jordanian journalist who produces the program Eye on the Media, says blogging is appealing because it is not as heavily controlled as traditional media.

Al-Jazeera English: Egyptian blogger sentenced to jail

A blogger attending the trial who goes by the name “Sandmonkey” said: “It’s a dangerous precedent because it will impact the only free space available now, which is the internet. The charges were undefined and vague.”

Coverage of the trial has even reached Iceland and Denmark.

More media coverage from Google News.

Blogosphere Coverage

Amira Al-Husseini provides an excellent summary of the reaction of the blogosphere on Global Voices Online: Arabisc: Bloggers Rally to Kareem’s Support

When Kareem was first detained in early November for this writings, many bloggers in the Middle East tried to distance themselves from the case because they did they did not want to be associated with blasphemy against Islam. Today, while some condemn the sentence as an attack on freedom of expression, others believe the blogger got what he deserved for swimming against the tide.

[…]

Egyptian blogger Sharaqwi calls for a campaign to release Kareem and promote freedom of expression in his country.

الحكم مقلق وضد حماية حق الرأى والتعبير وممكن يبقى بداية لسجن النشطاء بتهمة أهانة الرئيس..
يسقط يسقط حسنى مبارك………
مش عاوزينة مش عاوزينه.. مهما يقولوا اننا بنهينه
مطلوب حملة تضامن مع كريم والدفاع عنه وعن حرية الرأى والتعبير،
وهنسيبنا من أى دعاوى اننا بنتضامن مع مدون كافر..
احنا بنتضامن مع مصرى منتهكة حقوقه.

“The sentence is alarming and against freedom of expression. This could also be the beginning of imprisoning activists for insulting the president. Down Down Hosni Mubarak.. We don’t want him.. we don’t want him.. however much they say we insult him..What is required now is a campaign to support Kareem and defend both him and freedom of speech. And let’s not argue about whether we are supporting an atheist blogger. We are supporting an Egyptian who is being denied his rights,” he explains.

[…]

American blogger and a supporter of Kareem Dr Tom Palmer insists that the sentence will not go unchallenged.

“This will not go unchallenged. His case is the case of every blogger, every dissident, every person who aspires to life as a free citizen. My sincere thanks and recognition to all who have helped the cause of free speech and the case of Abdelkareem. Please be ready to act again, respectfully and with dignity, in the hope that this grave miscarriage of justice will be corrected, perhaps in a way that will allow the Egyptian authorities to do the right thing and save face,” he writes.

Another American blogger Doug Mataconis wonders what his government’s reaction to the sentence would be.

Keep in mind. An American ally and supposed example of moderate Islam. And what has the Bush Administration had to say about this travesty ? So far, nothing:

The Bush administration has not commented on Nabil’s trial, despite its past criticism of the arrests of Egyptian rights activists.

We’re waiting Mr. President.

[…]

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif, who is himself facing a defamation case in a Bahraini court, was also quick to the defence of Kareem, describing today as a sad day for freedom of expression.

“And if Egypt leads, the Arab world are supposed to follow, right? So the arrest, detention and jailing of people for simply writing their thoughts is forging ahead unchecked in the Middle East… and there doesn’t seem to be any will whatsoever for anyone to stop it, even for a moment, to think of what that is going to do for this and future generations.

Yet another reason for one to maintain their anonymity at all times.
Big brother is not just watching, but is waiting to pounce at the slightest chance to silence critics in the full sight of the world and even they are not interested in doing anything about the situation,” writes a concerned Al Yousif.

More blogosphere coverage on Google Blog Search.

UPDATE: Der Spiegel, Europe’s biggest and Germany’s most influential weekly magazine, has published Kareem Amer’s case: Four years detention for Blogger in Egypt. (Hat tip: 404)

From Reporters Without Borders:

22 February 2007

Four-year prison sentence for blogger “Kareem Amer”

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned the four-year prison sentence imposed today by a court in Alexandria on Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for “inciting hatred of Islam” and insulting President Hosni Mubarak in his blog, for which he used the pseudonym of “Kareem Amer.”

“This sentence is a disgrace,” the press freedom organisation said. “Almost three years ago to the day, President Mubarak promised to abolish prison sentences for press offences. Suleiman’s conviction and sentence is a message of intimidation to the rest of the Egyptian blogosphere, which had emerged in recent years as an effective bulwark against the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”

Reporters Without Borders continued: “As a result of this conviction, which clearly confirms Egypt’s inclusion in our list of Internet enemies, we call on the United Nations to reject Egypt’s request to host the Internet Governance Forum in 2009. After letting Tunisia, another violator of online freedom, host the World Summit on the Information Society, such a choice would completely discredit the UN process for debating the future of the Internet.”

The organisation added: “This heavy sentence is also a slap in the face for the international organisations and governments that support President Mubarak’s policies. It is time the international community took a stand on Egypt’s repeated violations of press freedom and the rights of Internet users.”

Suleiman, who was arrested on 6 November 2006, got three years for inciting hatred of Islam and one year for insulting the president. The judge dismissed the charge of “spreading rumours liable to disturb the peace” which had been included in the prosecution’s indictment. Suleiman’s blogs regularly criticised the government’s religious and authoritarian excesses. He also criticised Egypt’s highest religious institutions including the Sunni university of Al-Azhar, where he studied law.

Egypt is on the list of the 13 Internet enemies which Reporters Without Borders compiled in 2006. The government wants to host one of the stages of the Internet Governance Forum, a series of UN-sponsored negotiations about how to regulate the Internet (see: http://www.intgovforum.org/).

On 23 February 2004, the newly-elected president of the Union of Egyptian Journalists, Galal Aref, made an important announcement: President Mubarak had just telephoned him and had formally undertaken to abolish prison sentences for journalists in connection with their work. In effect, he was promising a major overhaul of the laws concerning press offences. Three years later, nothing has changed. Journalists still risk being imprisoned despite the semblance of a reform last year.

Reporters Without Borders believes that people writing online, like professional journalists, should enjoy the basic right to freedom of expression and it condemns any use of prison sentences to punish offences linked to the publication of views and information.

Previous updates on Kareem Amer by Reporters Without Borders are available here.

Egypt: Karim Amer sentence makes bloggers new target of the authorities

Press release, 22/02/2007

Amnesty International condemns the four-year sentence handed down by an Egyptian court today against blogger Karim Amer, and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

“This sentence is yet another slap in the face of freedom of expression in Egypt,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Programme Director. “The Egyptian authorities must protect the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, even if the views expressed might be perceived by some as offensive. Amnesty International considers Karim Amer to be a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted on account of the peaceful expression of his views.”

“The Egyptian authorities must repeal legislation that, in violation of international standards, stipulates prison sentences for acts which constitute nothing more than the peaceful exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion.”

Karim Amer is the first Egyptian blogger to be tried for writing blogs criticizing Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities, President Husni Mubarak and Islam. Charges against him included “spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation”, “incitement to hate Islam” and “defaming the President of the Republic”.

Further information :
Egyptian blogger faces 10-year prison sentence

This is only the beginning of a very hard time for Kareem: Blogger gets 4 years for insulting Islam

Nabil [Kareem Amer], wearing a gray T-shirt and sitting in the defendants pen, gave no reaction and his face remained still as the verdict was read. He made no comment to reporters as he was immediate led outside to a prison truck.

Seconds after he was loaded into the truck and the door closed, an Associated Press reporter heard the sound of a slap from inside the vehicle and a shriek of pain from Nabil.

Please stay strong Kareem…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Free Kareem Coalition
+1-617-661-0053
free.kareem@gmail.com

Interfaith Coalition Condemns Jailing of Egyptian Student over Blogposts, Calls on Egyptian President Mubarak to Pardon Abdelkareem Soliman

CAIRO – The “Free Kareem Coalition,” an interfaith group of human rights activists from around the world, condemned the sentencing of Egyptian student Abdelkareem Soliman for expressing his opinion on his personal blog.

A judge in Egypt today sentenced Kareem to four years in prison for the alleged crimes of “defaming the President of Egypt” and “insulting Islam.”

Dalia Ziada, a blogger and activist involved with the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, explained that Kareem’s conviction remains the first time an Egyptian blogger has been arrested for writing on his blog. “It sends a chilling message to bloggers of all persuasions in Egypt and across the Middle East. We are not free to express ourselves openly on our websites.”

Kareem criticized Egyptian authorities for failing to protect the rights of religious minorities and women, and expressed views about religious extremism in strong terms.

Bahraini blogger Esra’a Al-Shafei, who launched the website FreeKareem.org to coordinate the international solidarity campaign, noted the basic human rights violation. “I was offended by some of Kareem’s blog writings. But I cannot support his imprisonment merely because he said a few things that insult my identity. Freedom of expression and open exchange of ideas must be respected.”

In November, Kareem was detained after being interrogated by prosecutors. He was held for over two months without trial and has remained in solitary confinement without access to his lawyers.

Kareem’s conviction comes despite global rallies on Kareem’s behalf, including demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies in Washington, Rome, London, Paris, Stockholm, and New York. Over 2,000 people have sent letters to Egyptian authorities demanding Kareem’s release.

Opinion editorials in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, and Beirut Daily Star have all also called for Kareem’s release, along with a bi-partisan coalition of US Congressional leaders, European parliamentarians, and Costa Rican representatives.

“We call on the appeals courts in Egypt to listen to international condemnation and do the right thing,” stated organizer Mohammed Shouman. “Kareem’s right to free expression has been violated and his conviction should be overturned.”

In the meantime, activists fear Kareem’s life is in danger and hope for high-level intervention. “We hope President Hosni Mubarak will pardon Kareem and allow him to start a new life outside of Egypt,” noted Al-Shafei. “We won’t be silent until Kareem is safe.”

See www.FreeKareem.org for the latest updates.

-1-

By Alexandra Sandels
First Published: February 20, 2007 for the Daily Star Egypt-

CAIRO: Facing a prison sentence of up to 11 years for his controversial Internet writings on Islam and President Mubarak, Egyptian student blogger Abdelkarim Soliman Amer, also known as “Kareem Amer’, has reportedly received death threats from strangers as well as member of his own family.

In conjunction with the final court ruling in the case, currently scheduled for Thursday Feb. 22, Amer’s family reportedly disowned him publicly a few days ago while urging the court to apply the Sharia in the court’s verdict.

Angered by his son’s actions, Amer’s father had boycotted the previous court hearings, but he will allegedly attend Thursday’s session along with his four brothers to announce the disownment of his son before the courtroom.

Hesitant to speak publicly about their son, one of Amer’s family members told The Daily Star Egypt that “Kareem is 21 years old and suffering in his imprisonment, but must take full responsibility for his wrongdoings.”

According to a recent article published in Al-Masry Al-Youm, Amer’s father has denounced the human rights organizations involved in his son’s case, referring to them as “monkey rights groups.”

A source close to Amer’s lawyers told The Daily Star Egypt that “no communication exists between the Amer family and the lawyers.”

“Kareem and his father have talked and the father will attend the court session. I am busy though and am definitely not planning on going,” Amer’s relative stated when asked about Thursday’s trial.

In addition to being disowned by his family, Amer is allegedly receiving many death threats and intimidation from enraged Muslims worldwide.

“There are numerous comments on Kareem’s blog from complete strangers from a wide range of Muslim countries, including Egypt and the Untied Arab Emirates, calling for his death as punishment for his writings. It’s dreadful,” Esra’a Al-Shafei, founder and moderator of the Internet support campaign for Amer, www.freekareem.org, told The Daily Star Egypt.

Adding their voices to a large number of international organizations, activists, and national governments urging the release of Amer, the Association for World Education in Geneva recently called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to speak out against Amer’s imprisonment.

“Kareem needs protection and must get out of Egypt for his own safety. People will kill him there. I hope he is allowed to leave the country at this point,” Al-Shafei stressed.

The Washington Post, a leading daily American newspaper and the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C., has published an article on Kareem Amer’s unjust imprisonment: The ‘Crime’ Of Blogging In Egypt.

The co-authors, an Associate Dean for Resource Development at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute (a libertarian think tank), describe the circumstances the lead to Kareem’s imprisonment, and explain why the Egyptian government is mistaken to have him imprisoned.

The ‘Crime’ Of Blogging In Egypt
By Raja M. Kamal and Tom G. Palmer
Wednesday, February 21, 2007; Page A15

A former college student, Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, is sitting in an Egyptian prison, awaiting sentencing tomorrow. His alleged “crime”: expressing his opinions on a blog. His mistake: having the courage to do so under his own name.

Soliman, 22, was expelled from Al-Azhar University last spring for sharply criticizing the university’s rigid curriculum and faulting religious extremism on his blog. He was ordered to appear before a public prosecutor on Nov. 7 on charges of “spreading information disruptive of public order,” “incitement to hate Muslims” and “insulting the President.” Soliman was detained pending an investigation, and the detention has been renewed four times. He has not had consistent access to lawyers or to his family.

Egyptian authorities have made a mistake in prosecuting Soliman. It is Egypt that will be hurt if he is convicted and sent to prison. That’s why sincere friends of Egypt call on the government to drop the charges against him. It is the right thing to do, and it is the best thing for Egypt’s standing in the modern world.

The case has gained attention in newspapers the world over and from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Informal networks of bloggers have spread the word, notably through http://www.freekareem.org. Last Thursday, bloggers and human rights activists around the globe gathered to call on Egyptian authorities to respect freedom of speech. We echo this call.

Soliman has criticized Egyptian authorities as failing to protect the rights of religious minorities and women. He has expressed his views about religious extremism in very strong terms. He is the first Egyptian blogger to be prosecuted for the content of his remarks. Remarkably, the legal complaint originated with the university that had expelled him; once, it was a great center of learning in the Arab world, but it has been reduced to informing on students for their dissent from orthodoxy.

One of us, Tom Palmer, met Soliman at a conference for bloggers in the Middle East last year. In person, Soliman seemed quiet and shy but very committed to championing women’s rights and the rights of minorities.

We kept in touch by G-mail chat. Despite occasional admonitions to be careful about what he posted online and to think about possible consequences of public dissent, Soliman said that he was not afraid to express his views.

Last October, Soliman instant-messaged that he had been ordered to attend an interview with prosecutors the next day. Friends at organizations such as Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information quickly found Soliman a lawyer. Word spread when he had been detained, and protests were organized at Egyptian embassies. Soliman had no organized movement or group behind him, but his case came to be known around the world.

We find it shocking that a university would turn a student over to the authorities to be prosecuted for voicing his views. The future of learning and science is at risk when dissenting views are punished rather than debated. Jointly, we have contacted Egyptian authorities to ask that they correct a clear mistake and release Soliman.

Egypt is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media.” The exceptions allowed are narrowly drawn and require proof of “necessity” before restrictions can be imposed. The posting of opinions on a student’s personal blog hardly qualifies as a threat to national security, to the reputation of the president or to public order.

Soliman is not a threat to Egypt, but this prosecution is.

Whether or not we agree with the opinions that Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman expressed is not the issue. What matters is a principle: People should be free to express their opinions without fear of being imprisoned or killed. Blogging should not be a crime.

Raja M. Kamal is associate dean for resource development at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Tom G. Palmer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and director of the Byrne Project on Middle East Liberty.

Raja M. Kamal and Tom G. Palmer have also written about Kareem in yesterday’s edition of The Daily Star, a Lebanon-based, pan-Middle East English language newspaper: Freedom for an Egyptian blogger and freethinker. Below are excerpts:

The adoption of new technology in the Arab world is in full gear. With the absence of free press and media outlets, citizens are now turning to external media outlets such as CNN, BBC, and Al-Jazeera to obtain less filtered news, and to the Internet as a venue to express and share their thoughts. In his Weblog, Abdelkareem voiced a rather sharp criticism of Al-Azhar University, its archaic and rigid curriculum that entices and fosters religious extremism, and the Egyptian government. He was subsequently expelled from the institution.

[…]

Although we feel the opinions he expressed were strongly worded and he could have chosen less aggressive and contentious words, Abdelkareem raises legitimate issues and concerns of paramount importance to the Egyptian society. For example, the rigid academic curricula at Egyptian (and other Arab) colleges are in need of overhauling at the very least. Universities, such as Al-Azhar, lack a commitment to critical thinking and have failed to help their students integrate in the modern globalizing world.

[…]

We strongly feel that sending Abdelkareem to jail will not solve Egypt’s problems but rather will help create a larger wedge of mistrust between the government and its people. This will force bloggers to go underground, publishing their blogs under assumed names.

Policies of restricting free expression are doomed to fail. What the government of Egypt must do is to accept and embrace new technology like the Internet and use it as a source of constructive dialogue that will advance discussion on topics of importance to the Egyptian people. Issues like transparency, educational reform, personal liberties, and the role of women must be debated, advanced, and resolved. Egypt will greatly benefit from having thousands of bloggers debating and exchanging ideas in cyberspace.

The government of Egypt must reach out to people like Abdelkareem because they are a much-needed source of reform on all levels. Citizens should be free to express their personal opinions without fear of being imprisoned or killed. The mind and the parachute have one thing in common. They only work when they are open.

Thank you gentlemen. Thank you.

Kareem’s father talks to Al-Masree Al-Yawm (‘The Egyptian Today’) on Kareem’s past, and accuses a feminist writer and a leader of the expatriate Copts of leading his son to his “heresy”. (Hat tip: Dalia).

The article is in Arabic. Here’s my translation, in full:

The Family of the Accused of Contempt of Religion Accuses Nawal El Saadawi and Adli Abadeer of Encouraging Him to Infidelity

Written by Naser El Sharqawy
20/2/2007

(Photo: The father of the accused.)

The family of Al-Azhar [University] student Muhammad Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, who is accused of contempt of religion, and whose verdict will be delivered by the Alexandria Criminal Court on the upcoming Thursday, has accused writer Nawal El Saadawi and Adli Abadeer, a leader of the expatriate Copts, of being behind his heresy and infidelity.

The father of the accused, an engineer in the Alexandria Directorate of Agriculture, asserted that his son was in constant touch with El Saadawi and Abadeer after he established an Internet Web site attacking the masculine society and women’s rights in Islam. He also constantly published articles on Coptic Web sites that contained insults to Islam and to the messenger [the prophet of Islam] – peace and blessings be upon him -.

His father added: “Following the publication of these writings, I requested that he desist from these thoughts so he does not get expelled from his studies at the Faculty of Sharia [Islamic law] at Al-Azhar. And indeed, a disciplinary hearing was held in the university and some scholars conversed with him. However, he insisted on his position and thus he was transferred to the Prosecutor. And when he refused to back down from his thoughts, he was referred to trial with the charge of contempt of religion.”

His father revealed that, when his son started attending university, he refused to live with students who listen to music.

His father also said that his son abandoned his studies, got interested in forming friendships through the Internet, and constantly visited Christian Web sites. After that, he was arrested following the events of the Moharam Bek church in Alexandria, because of articles he published commenting on the events of the sectarian sedition then. He was held for 18 days. Following his release, some Internet bloggers contacted him, and they convinced him that they were the reason he got out of prison.

His father asserted that after that [incident], his son initiated declaring his damaging opinions, to the extent that they were surprised with him informing them that he will openly break the fast in the end of the month of Ramadan. His father accused the human rights organizations for losing his son’s opportunity to declare his repentance, and that’s by their aiding and defending him.

Previously reported by Al-Masree Al-Yawm: Kareem’s Family Disowns Him; Father Wants Him Killed If He Does Not “Repent”

Reported by Al-Masree Al-Yawm (The Egyptian Today), with thanks to Dalia.

The article is in Arabic. Here’s my translation, in full:

Family of Al-Azhar Student, Accused of “Contempt of Religion”, Disowns Him Before His Court Verdict Session

Written by Nabeel Abu Shal and Tamer Al-Sharqawy
18/2/2007

The family of Al-Azhar student Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, accused of “contempt of religion”, has disowned him before his court verdict session on the upcoming Thursday. His father, a retired mathematics teacher, has demanded applying the Sharia [Islamic law] ruling on him by giving him three days to repent, followed by having him killed if he does not announce his repentance.

The father of the Al-Azhar student, who is accused of contempt of the Islamic religion, harming the reputation of Egypt, and inciting to disrupt the peace and to overthrow the regime, has decided to rescind from boycotting his trial hearing sessions. [He has decided] to attend the court verdict session with his four brothers, who completely memorized the Holy Quran, to announce disowning the accused Abdul Kareem inside the court room, in order to reduce the embarrassment and pressure that civil rights organizations are applying on the court panel.

The father of the accused also described the organizations that are working on having his son acquitted as “monkey rights” organizations, in his own words. He also described his son as the “monkey” who has imitated the atheists of the West in their intellectual thinking.

The family also said that they will announce their disownment of their son on the Internet as well.

The Dean of Sharia in Al-Azhar University, which the student Abdul Kareem attends, had him attend a disciplinary hearing after he attacked the Islamic religion on the Internet, and spoke against the Messenger of Allah – peace and blessings be upon him – and the companions [of the prophet of Islam].