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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The Free Kareem website has been on a hiatus for a short while as we were very busy planning a set of actions that will be carried out on the 22nd of February. We expect many people around the world to be involved on this day, which is intended to bolster support for Kareem Amer.

Why the 22nd of February?
This is the day that Kareem’s sentence was finalized and announced. You can read all the posts we wrote last February here.

Has he spent one year in prison?
No, Kareem has spent more than a year in prison. As our Kareem counter shows, he has been in prison for 466 days now, since the 6th of November.

How is Kareem doing?
The last letter indicated that Kareem was doing much better than he was in previous months. However, it has been at least 3 weeks since we last heard from him, and we are not sure what could’ve happened since then. We are doing our best to remain in close contact with him, although we are not certain whether or not our letters are actually reaching the intended destination. Close friends will do their best to visit him soon and we hope to write an update concerning his status.

What is a worldwide op-ed day?
We are trying to get as many people as possible, in many different parts of the world, and in as many different languages, to write about Kareem in their local papers (whether it be student papers or internationally distributed and respected papers such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NY Times, and more. Op-ed is short for “opinion/editorial,” and authors/journalists who publish articles in such columns tend to be more personal and opinionated than the average report. If we succeed in getting the intended number of papers involved, this will be a very powerful step for the Free Kareem campaign.

Why are you holding a worldwide op-ed day for Kareem?
Our strategy is intended to put Kareem’s story back in the papers. Due to lack of updates, and general lack of awareness, a lot of people seem to have forgotten about Kareem’s case. We are doing our best now to alarm everyone around the world that Egypt cannot be respected if this young man is still being unjustly imprisoned.

What can we do on the 22nd of Feb?
You can involve yourself by posting a message for or about Kareem on your blog, website, journal, or if you’re in the area, attending a rally that will take place in the 3 following locations:
- Paris, France
- London, UK
- Washington DC, USA

We have chosen 3 strategic locations as opposed to conducting a worldwide rally this year. The reason for this is that we are trying to shift our strategy a bit and focus more on media-related events that will put Egypt back on the human rights agenda. We will resume with our worldwide rallies when we feel that the time is more appropriate.

Please contact us if you would like to find out more information concerning these rallies (or our future activities in general.) We are working hard on making this all possible for Kareem and we will soon follow-up with an update.

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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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Erin Wildermuth, the video production manager at Bureaucrash.com, sent us these great videos which they created to help promote Kareem’s cause around the world. Please watch it, favorite it, link to it, or embed it into your own blogs!

The Coalition would like to thank the Bureaucrash team for their amazing and consistent efforts in helping Kareem. They have shown a wonderful and much needed commitment which we appreciate very much!

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Many thanks to Miriam Asnes, Galit Gun, Constantino and others who showed up to this rally! Here are some pictures:

Miriam writes about the rally:

Free Kareem demonstrators received at Egyptian Consulate, NY

There is a lot for all of us to think about after our very small but controversial demonstration today to ask that Kareem Amer’s sentence be shortened. The most interesting thing that happened was when, at Galit’s suggestion, we went up to the second floor of the set-back building to let the consulate know that we were downstairs. As we prepared to walk out the door, the receptionist motioned to me.

“Would one of you please come and meet with someone?”

Which is how I ended up in the office of Mohammad Khalil, an assistant to the Egyptian consul. He was very polite and wanted to know all the details of Kareem’s case. “What is he charged with?” he asked me in Arabic. “Writing incendiary comments about the president and the religious establishment,” I told him, and then was quick to point out that the Free Kareem campaign isn’t about his views, but about the appropriate response to someone criticizing the government or Islam. He promised to look into the matter and I gave him my email address so he could follow up. This might mean that I will have a very interesting time at border control next time I visit Egypt

However, the argument that the issue is not the content of Kareem’s posts but rather freedom of speech got us into a heated argument on the street. It started quite innocuously; two gentlemen who had been at the consulate on personal business pointed out that I had misspelled the phrase “Utluqu Sirah Kareem Amer” as “Utluqu Sira3 Kareem Amer” (I do so much writing about “Al-sira3 al filistini” that I mistakenly wrote the word for “struggle”.) It turned out that Mr. Spellcheck had taken a personal interest in Kareem’s case and knew all the details. “You know, it was all completely legal, according to the laws. Not an emergency law or anything,” he said. “He got a year for criticizing the president, and okay, this I think is wrong. But criticizing Islam? He is threatening the fabric of society. He is threatening the values that we teach our children. He should be put in jail; this is the law in Egypt.”

We respectfully disagreed, saying that there should not be limits on free speech and that surely he agreed that Islam was powerful and respected enough in Egypt to withstand some dissent. But his comments did bring to light something I didn’t quite realize beforehand as a newbie to the Free Kareem campaign; technically, this is a campaign that is saying that the Egyptian laws by which Kareem was sentenced are unjust and therefore it is a legal reform campaign directed at Egypt. If I am mistaken on this point, please do let me know.

The second gentleman was really a piece of work. He claimed that America was run by “the Jews” and that they were the source of his own personal woes (getting rejected for a license by the school board) as well as America’s foreign policy. “The majority of the businessmen, the majority of the government are Jewish,” he told me. People like this are always in complete disbelief to learn that Jews account for under 2% of the US population.

“This is bad for Egypt,” he yelled at us. “Not at all,” I tried to tell him. “We like Egypt. We know that Egypt wants to respect people’s rights. We’d like to help her do that.”

And then, as usually happens, even the most bigoted and obnoxious heckler sometimes has a point. “If you are standing here for Kareem,” he told us, “then you must also demonstrate for everyone who is experiencing injustice from the government here.” I bowed my head. How many times did I go out and demonstrate against the illegal detentions after 9/11 or the current detainees of my own government in Guantanamo? I’m much more likely to run a program like the Middle East Community Outreach Panel series we founded at UMich than show up with signs and a megaphone. Is that preference or cowardice?

For me, the best moment of the afternoon happened as I left the consulate. The receptionist who had managed to get us an audience with someone on staff stood as I walked out the door.

“Thank you,” I said.

“No, thank you” he said sincerely. I could tell then that he had probably heard of Kareem Amer.

Excellent recap of the rally. Thanks to everyone who was involved.

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Bureaucrash, the freedom activist network, features a blog post about the DC rally by Anca who is one of the organizers:

November 9th , known as World Freedom Day, marks the fall of the Berlin Wall and is a day of celebration for freedom lovers around the globe. But November 9th also marks the sad one-year anniversary since Egypt imprisoned freedom of speech. What is for some World Freedom Day is for others Egypt Freedom Restraint Day.

One year ago Egypt chose to celebrate World Freedom Day by taking away Kareem ‘s freedom of movement because he stood up for freedom of speech. Today, joining a world wide effort, an enthusiastic and outspoken group of freedom lovers gathered in front of the Egypt Embassy Cultural Office to show our support for Kareem.

We might have been the last Free Kareem rally considering the time zone but I would say we came in first in terms of enthusiasm and commitment. In spite of cold and wind, under the paternal watch of the fierce US Secret Service we managed to convey our message of freedom to passers-by and drivers who enthusiastically responded to our request to honk for freedom.

We spoke freely to show Egypt they can not silence free speech. We spoke about our credo to prove to Egypt that they can not imprison principles. We expressed our views to the press present on location to prove to Egypt that the war of ideas can not be won by force but by reason and arguments. And neither the lack of reaction from the Egyptian authorities nor the chocolate we shared for lunch managed to sweeten our outrage.

We stood up for the sake of freedom of speech and we stood up for Kareem, we did last year, we did this year and we would do it again …our hope is that it won’t be necessary and we will celebrate the next World Freedom Day having Kareem free amongst us.

Pictures of the rally (also below):

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Much thanks to Boye Bjerkholt, there will be a Free Kareem rally in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Oslo, Norway, at 12:00PM.

If you’re in the area, please show your support by attending this rally!

Embassy address:
Drammensveien 90 A
N - 0244 OSLO

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There will be a Free Kareem rally in Paris this afternoon, in front of the Egyptian Embassy and in the streets around the Place de l’Etoile nearby, making the city count 15. Many thanks to Liberté Chérie for organizing this event!

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ALL RALLIES TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY THE 9TH OF NOVEMBER:
If time is set to “TBA,” please e-mail the organizer of the relevant rally on Thursday to check the exact time. We will update this as soon as we are informed.

London rally:
Organizer: Debi Chakrabarty
E-mail: debi.chakra(at)gmail.com or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, 26 South Street, Westminster (Map)
Time: 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
[Rally participants will be meeting at the Green Park tube station at 3 PM so that they can walk over together.]

Washington, DC rally:
Organizer: Anca Bogdana Rusu
E-mail: anca_bogdana_rusu(at)yahoo.com or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy Cultural Office, Egyptian Embassy Cultural Office by DuPont Circle, 1303 New Hampshire Ave. NW (Map)
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Further information: Facebook Event Group

New York City rally:
Organizer: Mimi Asnes
E-mail: mimi.asnes(at)gmail.com or click here
Place: Egyptian Consulate, 1110 2nd Avenue, New York (Map)
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM

Rome rally:
Organizer: Eleonora Bianchini
E-mail: eleonorabianchini(at)blogosfere.it or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, Villa Savoia - Via Salaria, 267, Roma (Map)
Time: TBA

Berlin rally:
Organizer: Jessica Wright, Institut für Unternehmerische Freiehit
E-mail: jessica(at)iuf-berlin.org or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, Stauffenberg Str. 6-7, 10785 Berlin (Map)
Time: 1:00pm

Amsterdam rally:
Organizer: Tori Egherman
E-mail: tori.egherman@gmail.com or click here
Time: 12:00pm

Stockholm rally:
Organizer: Jonas Virdalm
E-mail:
Place: Egyptian Embassy, Strandvägen 35, 11451 Stockholm (Map)
Time: 12:00pm
Further information: Speakers will include Henrik Alexandersson (Frihetsfronten), Magnus Andersson (CUF), Rola Brentlin (MUF) (h/t, Johan Norberg)

Prague rally:
Organizer: Amnesty Czech (amnesty.cz)
E-mail: lamiskhalilova(at)gmail.com or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, Pelléova 14, Praha 6 - Bubeneč, 160 00 (Map)
Time: TBA

Rio de Janeiro rally:
Organizer: Pedro Sette
E-mail: psette(at)ordemlivre.org or click here
Place: Egyptian Consulate, Rua Muniz Barreto, 741 (one block away from the subway station.)
Time: 10AM

São Paulo rally:
Organizer: Magno Karl
E-mail: mkarl(at)ordemlivre.org or click here
Time: TBA

Athens rally:
Organizer: Fotis Perlikos, Liberal Alliance
E-mail: perlykos01(at)yahoo.gr or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, 3 Vasilissis Sofias Av., 106 71 Athens
Time: TBA

Bucharest rally:
Organizer: Olga Nicoara
E-mail: olga.nicoara(at)cadi.ro or click here
Place: Egyptian Embassy, Dacia Boulevard 67
Time: 12pm - 1pm

Mexico City rally:
Organizer: Armando R.
E-mail: aregil(at)cato.org or click here
Place: Embassy of Egypt in Mexico City, Mexico - Alejandro Dumas No. 131, Polanco, Mexico, D.F.
Time: TBA

Brussels rally:
Organizer: Pieter Cleppe, Jong VLD
E-mail: pieter_cleppe(at)yahoo.com or click here
Address: Egyptian Embassy, Avenue de l’Uruguay 19, 1000 Brussels (Map)
Time: TBA
Further information: View flyer

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