What began as a widespread call for a general strike ended as the police cracked down across the nation, dispatching thousands of riot troops, arresting more than 200 demonstrators and fighting with protesters in the north.

While two schools were burned and more than 150 people were reported injured in the northern town of Mahalla al-Kobra on Sunday, it was the eerie emptiness of the normally teeming streets of Cairo that signaled the depth of discontent with President Hosni Mubarak’s government.

The calls for a strike, which spread quickly across the country mostly by cellphone messages and word of mouth, underscored a new challenge to the government’s monopoly on power: rising public outrage and a growing willingness by workers and professionals to press their demands by striking.

In Cairo, many stores were closed and hundreds of students protested at three universities. Riot police officers massed in the central Tahrir Square and stood in formation outside the lawyers’, doctors’ and journalists’ syndicates. At the lawyers’ syndicate, a few hundred protesters stood on the roof and on a balcony chanting “Down, down, Hosni Mubarak.”

In Mahalla, the center of the nation’s textile industry, riot police fired tear gas at stone-throwing crowds. Angry demonstrators set fire to two schools, a tourism company and a truck carrying subsidized food, officials said.

Read the rest of the article here.

And on Menassat:

The revolution may not be televised - at least not on Egypt’s state-run TV - but you can be sure it will have its group on Facebook. Undeterred by last Sunday’s security crackdown, Egypt’s cyber-dissidents are calling for new anti-government protests on May 4, president Hosni Mubarak’s 80th birthday.

Read more here.

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Below are some photos of the rally that took place in Washington DC in defense of Kareem on the 22nd of February. This is the fourth rally to take place for Kareem in Washington!

Big thanks to Jonathan Blanks for the photos and for making much of this possible! And thanks to everyone who made it through despite the uncooperative weather.

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Below is a picture of the very successfull rally that took place for Kareem in New York on Friday, the 22nd of February. Thanks to everyone who made it! Excellent big banners were created for this event.

[Click here for full image.]

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Are you in London?

Join a demonstration in defense of Kareem!

Friday, 22nd of February, 2pm-4pm
Egyptian Embassy,
26 South Street,
Mayfair W1K 1DW

Since his imprisonment, Kareem has spent time in solitary confinement, as well as deliberately put in cells with violent prisoners, beaten, humiliated, and consistently persecuted to abandon his secular beliefs and accept Islam again. His family have disowned him, with his father saying he will happily see his apostate son be killed.

The London division of the worldwide campaign is organised by a pair of London School of Economics students. We are looking forward to receiving all the support people can offer to this campaign.

Contact us to put you through to the organizers.

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Letter from Joey Coon concerning the Washington DC rallies for Kareem:

Dear friends,

February 22nd is an important anniversary: the first anniversary of the sentencing and imprisonment of a peaceful Egyptian student for comments on his blog. I’d like to ask you to join friends of free speech in supporting freedom for Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman. People in or around Washington, D.C. can join us at the Egyptian Cultural Office in Washington, D.C. on Friday February 22nd to show support for Kareem and for freedom of speech. Click here to contact me for more details. (A friend has agreed to treat attendees to lunch at Baja Fresh afterwards.)

February 22nd marks one year since Kareem’s sentencing and imprisonment.

Kareem has been defended by many who disagree with his views, but who defend his right to express them. No one should be imprisoned and beaten for blogging. I invite those who live in the Washington, D.C. area to join us for a brief, peaceful and respectful rally. We ask only that you join us during your lunch hour to support Kareem and free expression. Those of you who are interested in signing a petition, providing information on your blog, or writing respectful letters to Egyptian officials, can find other suggestions on how to help Kareem here.

For more information on Kareem, his sentence, how he has suffered, and the campaign to free him, please visit www.freekareem.org.

Sincerely,
Joey Coon

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Today, authors of the IUF Berlin blog write about the rally they held in November 9 in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin:

IUF-berlin organized the Berlin rally, one of many international rallies in support of Kareem Amer an Egyptian blogger who has been imprisoned for expressing his opinions.

the rally was held in front of the Egyptian embassy in Berlin on stauffenberg straße, and wolfgang and i were able to speak with the ambassador and hand over a petition signed by those in attendance at the rally.

for more information about the rallies held around the world and the continuing struggle to help free Kareem and stand in defense of the freedom of speech, see the Free Kareem website.

We would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the great folks at IUF Berlin for a successful and much needed rally.

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Many thanks to the Center for Institutional Analysis and Development (CADI) in Romania who made the Bucharest rally possible. Here are some pictures of the rally followed by a great description from Olga Nicoara, one of the core organizers:

These pictures were taken from Belodvin’s blog:

Flyer used to promote the rally:

Message from Olga:

Dear Friends of the Freedom of Speech/Friends of Kareem,

I am writing to inform you about the Bucharest FREE KAREEM rally, organized by CADI on November 9th, from 12 to 14 pm in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

We are thankful to the 17 people who gathered with us for the “Protest of Silence” meant to show solidarity with Kareem Amer, the young Egyptian student imprisoned for blogging his opinions on the Egyptian state and the Muslim religion.

CADI presented the message and arguments of the Silent Protesters in a memorandum also undersigned by Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience, Association Liberalism.ro and CISED and delivered it to the Egyptian Ambassador in Bucharest.

Upon arrival on site, the Egyptian Ambassador kindly invited us inside to discuss the problem. For an hour, Horia Terpe, Executive Director of CADI and myself expressed our concerns to the Egyptian Ambassador to Bucharest, Fawzi Mohamed El-Said Gohar. To the best of my memory, this is how I would structure my recollection of the Ambassador’s in reply:

- Kareem has brought a personal and public offense to President Hosni Mubarak – an act evaluated as being a serious crime under the Egyptian civil laws.

- Kareem also committed crime when he criticized Islam on his blog. An offense brought to the Muslim religion and its icons is an open offense to all the Egyptian Muslims and a violation of their rights. As such, Kareem’s actions escape punishment by the Court.

- Kareem also stated falsehood. There are no conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.

- Egypt is a sovereign state; therefore no outsider has the right to interfere with its laws, religion, public issues, policies, court decisions, etc.

- Nor should they have an interest. We Romanians should be for example concerned about our crowded streets and advocate for better traffic control.

- No one in Egypt or anywhere else is justified to criticize a certain policy or a court decision issued by an Egyptian justice or. Instead, individuals and NGOs have the option to promote legislative change through other means such as party politics.

- Complete freedom of expression would cause total chaos, and social nightmare. The Egyptian lawmakers specifically design limitations/regulations in order to protect the citizens against themselves. Abusive free expression attacks persons and religion.

- There is no doubt regarding the correctness in the judges’ decision as far as Kareem’s case is concerned. Egyptian judge nor can be suspected of corruption.

- CADI’s own act of pressuring is unjustified as we lack sufficient information regarding Kareem’s case. We ought to do more research on Egyptian legislation and Islam and reflect upon it much longer.

At the end of the conversation, His Excellency promised to pass on our message to Cairo and assured us of his openness to discussions in any future event of this kind. We thank him in return - hoping that we made some difference in the direction we sought - and leave you to reflect on this piece of debate that stands behind Egypt’s act.

We shall continue to militate for Kareem and everyone’s right to express their beliefs.

The Coalition will respond to the ambassador’s claims in another post; in the meantime we would like to thank CADI for making their voices heard concerning the grave injustices that Kareem is being put through simply for speaking his mind.

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Thanks to Lamis Khalilova, board of directors of Amnesty Czech, for making this rally possible!

According to Lamis, “we were invited into the embassy and were given the opportunity to voice our concerns over Kareem’s case and freedom of speech and expression in Egypt.”

Here are some pictures of Friday’s rally!

Thanks to Amnesty International at the Czech Republic and to everyone else who participated in this rally!

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Much thanks to the efforts of Pedro Sette and Magno Karl for making this rally possible in Brazil! And special thanks to everybody who showed up.

Here are some pictures!

Watch the video!

Thanks again to Pedro, Diogo, and Magno for putting together a great rally.

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Many thanks to the assistance of Reporters Without Borders.

Watch the video HERE!

Special thanks goes to our friends at RSF and everyone else who made an effort to make this rally as successful as possible. Thank you!

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