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.
A few weeks ago, we shared with you an exceptional portrait by a young high school student who wanted to express his support for Kareem via art. You can view the artwork and the author’s description here.
Kenny has written us back with an update:
At the local art-show where “Kareem” was exhibited lots of people truly enjoyed it and asked me about Kareem’s story. Yet, there also were people who felt uncomfortable with the image at the show. I don’t know exactly why. None of these people have spoken to me. To make it short: Kareem was later hung aside from the “eye-catcher wall” due to the “Provocation” felt.
Currently, Kenny’s taking part in a competition where he’s applying his portrait of Kareem. Please vote for this artwork here! It will significantly help increase awareness and support for Kareem.
17 year old Kenneth Bergfeld came across Kareem’s story in Germany. He felt that such an injustice must be fought. He wishes to share his artistic contribution with the Free Kareem campaign and the rest of the world, and thus, here is Kenneth’s portrait of Kareem, followed by his description of it:
My painting may not look 100% like Kareem, but it probably is the most “famous” picture of him and the facial expression of his give reason enough for a spectator to recognize Kareem or at least to assume it is him.
The painting has the measurements of 120 cm times 80 cm and the medium is acrylics on canvas.
I’d like to stress why it was important for me to paint Kareem. When reading the newspaper article concerning Kareem’s situation it felt awkward to me that although we live in a globalized world issues such as the freedom of speech can not be taken for granted everywhere.
I had difficulties imaging myself being imprisoned for sharing my own opinion in school (Kareem’s case is that of university). It seems so normal that we say what is on our heart, that we speak out our concerns, criticize government, leaderships and various institutions. Yet, there are countries where these freedoms are not granted to the people.
So the question for me was what I could do in order to feel with these political prisoners. What could I do to understand their destiny? How could I show my concern and bring it into public so that more people knew about Kareem? And most important: How can I show those regimes that although there are vast oceans and thousand of miles between them and me I get in on the injustices taking place there? The answer was simple to me.
I sketch and draw since I was a little kid telling stories of my vacations, field trips or of fictional fantasies. Now, at my age of 17, I am politically concerned and I felt that it was lain on my heart to paint Kareem.
I am hoping to study arts after graduating from high school and aspire that then I can reach even more people with my message. There are millions of people who are interested in stories like the one of Kareem, but in our modern age of mass media with advertisements and billboards robbing any free squarefoot of our skies it seems hard to really see what is relevant and what not. Stories of people like Kareem have to be made public in any thinkable way that there is.
I have experienced this during the process of painting Kareem and hope to do so when “Kareem” will be hanging at a local art exhibition this Saturday and Sunday (15th and 16th of December).
Nonetheless, I have a specific view on why it is important to fight for people like Kareem.
As already said before, we can show governments far away that we do not support them (furthermore, feel grievance at the way they act) through the internet and sites like FreeKareem.org.
It is such people like this that do their part for the good fight and you out there that can make a change. If we unite globally, we cannot be defeated. Maybe your contribution is art, writing to Kareem, blogging, or any other way of showing your participation. But, the most important thing is that no matter how minor your contribution may seem at first sight someone in the world may be inspired to take even bigger action. The future is unwritten. And we can write it for the good of people like Kareem who do not experience the same advantages as we do and need support so that they have the feeling that someone out there is listening to them.
Anyone can feel free to contact me. Thank you very much for your interest.
This is an excellent and unique contribution and the Free Kareem Coalition is extremely honored to be sharing Kenneth’s work.
Thank you, dear Kenneth, for your time and dedication to Kareem’s cause and for the willingness to fight this grave injustice which was committed by the Egyptian government! Thank you!
The 16th Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France prize awarded today [5th of December] in Paris:
The young Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer is the laureate in the Cyber-dissident category. The 23-year-old was sentenced to four years in jail for criticism posted on his blog of President Hosni Mubarak and of the Islamist grip on the country’s universities.
Read full report here.
This news has been featured in Le Monde, France’s most prominent newspaper:
RSF récompense le blogueur égyptien Kareem Ader, emprisonné pour quatre ans
Premier blogueur jugé et condamné en Egypte pour ses écrits, le jeune Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, plus connu sous le nom de Kareem Amer, a reçu le prix “Reporters sans frontières (RSF) - Fondation de France” pour l’année 2007 dans la catégorie “cyberdissident”, mercredi 5 décembre.
Read full news article here.
The Christian Science Monitor also reports:
RSF’s cyberdissident laureate was Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil, sentenced in February to four years in prison for insulting Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The 23-year-old former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, sharply criticized conservative Muslims in his blog. His lawyers allege he is being held in solitary confinement and tortured in prison.
Read full article here.
Heise online also contributed a special report on the RSF award ceremony:
Egyptian blogger receives human rights prize:
In Paris, Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was awarded this year’s Human Rights Prize in the category “Internet dissident” by Reporters without Borders and “Fondation de France”. In February, Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, as he is called in real life, was sentenced to four years of imprisonment for publicly criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and the way the country’s universities are strictly operated according to Islam. In his weblog, Amer showed how Mubarak put pressure on religious leaders to support him.
[…]
As Reporters without Borders puts it, the prizes are awarded to those who make a special contribution to freedom of the press and human rights. Each of the four prizes in the categories of journalists, Internet dissident, medium, and organization, include 2500 euros.
Read the full article here.
Read HRINFO’s press release [Arabic] here.
Rawda, Kareem’s lawyer, traveled to France to get the prize on behalf of Kareem.
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!
Today, the 16th of November, is what the UN considers the “International Day of Tolerance.”
We welcome the Egyptian government to embrace this day by showing respect for freedom of speech and having tolerance for anyone who holds a different opinion or believes in a different faith (or chooses not to believe in anything at all.) Both of these factors are essential in any democracy, which Egypt should not dare call itself should it continue carrying out its human rights abuses.
How does Egypt define religious tolerance and human rights? Because the Baha’i faith is still unrecognized within Egypt. The Egyptian Baha’i minority lack the most basic rights because they cannot officially get their ID cards, the key to civil life in Egypt. As for human rights, people like Kareem are still in prison simply for expressing their personal opinions. Kareem’s 4 year sentence violates every definition of tolerance, free speech and democracy.
Is this really how Egypt wants to be viewed by the world?
Is this really what Egypt wants to put its citizens through?
Will Egypt admit that it’s operating under a merciless dictatorship?
When will Egypt correct these grave mistakes?
Today, the 15th of November, is the day the PEN organization dedicates to writers in prison all over the world:
Once a year, on 15 November, PEN stages its Day of the Imprisoned Writer where its membership of writers use their combined force to work towards change.
PEN has a profile of Kareem. He is also considered an Honarary Member of English PEN. On the 7th of November, PEN also published a press release to promote the worldwide rallies as well as to condemn his unjust sentence.
On this day we would like the world to remember the injustice that Kareem is being put through, merely for writing his personal opinions on his blog.
Many thanks to the efforts of Sandeep, at least 5 blogs wrote about Kareem yesterday, to make up for the lack of a protest (it wasn’t possible due to Diwali, a famous Hindu festival, that was taking place at the same time.)
If you read Hindi, please visit these blogs and read what these bloggers had to say about Kareem:
- Post featured in the blog ‘Unmukts’
- Post featured in the blog ‘Shabdonkiduniya’
- Post featured in the blog ‘Gurudevji’
- Post featured in the blog ‘Hindiacom’
- Post featured in the blog ‘Merachithha’
Thanks to all our friends in India who helped spread the word about Kareem!
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.
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):
