The Coalition is proud to thank Jason Talley, Richard Morrison, Erin Wildermuth, Joey Coon, Andrew Perraut, Anca Bogdana Rusu and many others for all their amazing work on setting this rally up (or attending it!) Here are some pictures:
Many more here!
Our deep thanks to everyone who helped organize and participate in this rally.
Thanks to Lamis Khalilova’s initiative, Amnesty Czech held a demonstration at the Egyptian Embassy on April 27. Here’s their account on the events that occurred during the day, along with some pictures:
Thanks to Vaclav Mlynarik for announcing the event at the city hall and getting a permit to gather in print, we were there both de facto and de jure. Many passersby, including high school students, families taking a walk, and even people heading home for a weekend in a rush, stopped to sign the letter of appeal and lots of members and friends of AI showed up too.
Those who needed more time promised to check out the freekareem.org site and sign the online petition. Even a taxi driver stopped his car , asked us what all the fuss was about and when we explained and he saw the banners, he too signed the petition through his rolled down window!
Vaclav Mlynarik wrote a letter to his Excellency the Ambassador of Egypt to the Czech Republic, which we all signed (30 signatures) and handed over, along with a short printed account of Kareem’s case to the second secretary at the embassy, Mr. Ahmad Sharif.
Petr Vitek, Vaclav Mlynarik and I introduced ourselves and exchanged greetings before Petr began to highlight why we were here. What was supposed to be short and polite quickly developed into a conversation.
We spoke to him about our concerns regarding the human rights situation in Egypt in general and about Kareem’s case in particular, he shared our concern and agreed that the right to free speech is an important right that needed to be upheld. He also said that he shared our views on human rights, however he went on to say that in the region, human rights are “very specific” and there are “special cases” we must pay attention to. We disagreed with all due respect and clearly stated that human rights are universal rights, which do not depend on gender, race and /or religion. Where a person is born should never determine the amount of freedom he/she enjoys.
We acknowledged that Egypt has made a tremendous amount of work, which has led to the improving of the standard of living in the country, but we still deemed it was time for an even bigger shift on the humans rights stage, we told him it was important for Egypt to differentiate between militant terrorists and its citizens and especially the youth who practice their basic human rights; we here in Prague would not go to jail for thoughts that don’t incite on violence published on a blog and we want Egyptian bloggers to enjoy the same rights.
Mr. Shareef promised he would hand over the letter to the Egyptian authorities and assured us that the officials in Egypt would receive it.
At the rally we projected a video compilation onto a white screen. The material projected were mainly clips kindly compiled by Michal Stasa from the material available on your site, the rally outside the Egyptian booth in Paris, Posts from Kareem’s blog, Kareem’s interviews and people’s opinions on Kareem’s case.
The employees of the embassy took pictures and videos of us and that is visible in one of the pictures, it was expected and we don’t mind it at all, in fact we exchanged waves and smiles. It is also important to say that the Czech Police were very polite, supportive and went out of their way to make us feel welcome. I hope that one day demonstrators in an Arab country experience the same kind of interaction with the police.
The media here in the Czech Republic and in Europe in general gave us a lot of coverage and that is mainly thanks to the excellent efforts of our press secretary Eva Dobrovolna. The day started with an invitation and a 7-minute interview for a morning news and events show on the Czech National TV, on which I appeared. The Czech News agency covered the event too and published news item in English and Czech that has appeared in a few dailies. Last but not least was the radio coverage of RBB Radio Multikulti, the largest German national radio station; their Arabic section covered the event with Amnesty International outside the Egyptian Embassy in Berlin and called us here to Prague while we were at the demonstration. I gave them a phone interview which is now available on their site online. I think it especially crucial that Kareem’s ordeal be told in full with no cosmetic adjustments and allowances in Arabic.
We hope that Kareem will soon hear of these worldwide events and efforts and that he will feel encouraged, high spirited and optimistic because he is not alone. We also hope and believe that he will now sense an improvement in the treatment he is receiving in jail, which is very often the case and Amnesty International has had that experience with prisoners of conscience right after such medial attention. We hope to see him released from jail before his sentence is completed. We also hope that this event encourages bloggers everywhere to be courageous and outspoken, and that they aren’t forced to self sensor. May their pens never dry and their keyboards never fail them.
Lamis Khalilova
Member of board of directors AI CR
Sympathetic for Kareem’s case and longing to raise awareness about the injustice he’s been facing, individual human rights activists (accompanied by the Free Kareem Editor) rented a car from Toronto, and drove for four hours to have their voices heard in Canada’s capital city.
Our trip consisted of three primary visits: Parliament Hill, Amnesty Canada, and, of course, the Egyptian Embassy.
I must express my deepest respect and admiration for Cam Vidler, Chris Ding, and Seyitbek Usmanov. Thanks very much, gentlemen, for riding so far and protesting in the rain!
Some of our posters:
Parliament Hill
In the above photo, from left to right: Chris, Seyitbek, and Cam.
Despite the weather, there was a good number of visitors to the Hill. Fliers were handed out, and Kareem’s case was discussed with several interested members of the public, who expressed shock at what Kareem is going through. Some foreigners seemed to understand his situation because their home countries faced similar restrictions on the right to free expression.
One human rights activist told us she was working on a campaign to free Huseyin Celil, a Canadian human rights activist who was sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities. She was interested in our campaign and told us she will be checking the Web site.
Before visiting the Egyptian Embassy, the team passed by Amnesty Canada’s main office. We handed them a copy of our open letter to the Egyptian Ambassador, the Free Kareem petition, some of Kareem’s articles, and fliers. They assured us they will vigilantly work for his freedom.
Egyptian Embassy
Embassy officials seemed to expect us! We did not even need to knock on the door when someone opened it and asked us what we wanted. We told him we were here to express our support for Kareem Amer, and that we had a letter and petition for the Egyptian Ambassador. He accepted the package to the Ambassador, and following that, we got to business on the sidewalk.
By this time, several Embassy officials were coming in and out through the door, speaking in Arabic and expressing to each other distress over us protesting in front of the Embassy. They got particularly upset each time we took a picture!
Some of them tried reasoning with us. They were extremely respectful, and they asked us to leave because we did not have permits to protest and hand out fliers in front of their Embassy. However, we insisted we had a right to stand on the public sidewalk, and since there were only four of us it should not be a problem. We were simply peacefully and quietly protesting for Kareem’s imprisonment, we told them.
They tried speaking in Arabic most of the time because they wanted to focus on (intimidate?) the only Arab speaker in the team. They said that the RCMP and police will be coming within minutes and that, as fellow Arabs, they did not want to get an Arab into trouble. However, the authorities never came.
One official, calling himself a diplomat, told us that he knew all about Abdul Kareem’s case and about the situation of the blogosphere (implying we did not need to be here). We explained to him that we were not blaming any individual from the government. We assured them we were on their side, and that we are just raising awareness so President Mubarak can correct the mistake made by the Alexandria court.
Another official told us that we are free to protest, and that he is free to call the police to arrest us. I agreed with him wholeheartedly, and I expressed my sincere wish that Egyptians in their homeland live under the same freedoms he’s enjoying in Canada.
Despite their fierce opposition, they were courteous and we ended the rally on good terms, even shaking hands with them.
We were happy with the outcome and we hope we’ve made a difference last Friday. We dedicate our trip to Kareem and all prisoners of conscience. The truth shall make you all free!
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.
Many thanks to Alberto Mingardi for organizing this rally and making it possible. We are especially thankful for the media coverage. Historian Giordano Bruno Guerri writes a piece covering this on Il Giornale. At least 150 fliers were distributed.
(Pictures first published in Dal Mondo.)
UPDATE (April 30, 2007):
Blogosfere, as usual, shows its support for Kareem at the rally (hat tip: Sara Bovi):
- Anche Blogosfere alla manifestazione per Kareem
- Blogosfere alla manifestazione per il blogger Kareem
- Free Kareem
Many thanks to Bidjan Tobias Nashat from the Hertie School of Governance for making this rally possible and for organizing the much needed event. Thanks a lot!
(Thanks to Amnesty for the above pictures.)
UPDATE (May 9, 2007):
Amnesty’s coverage on the event is published here: Mahnwache für inhaftierten ägyptischen Blogger. (Hat tip: Bidjan)
Many thanks to Andrew Perraut, our London Coordinator, who also notes:
…the Embassy staff were watching us carefully again and many of them passed by us several times to read the signs. We even had a few people stop to honk their horns in a show of support or tell us that they hoped Kareem was freed soon. His profile is definitely higher than it was during the last rally.
Thanks Andrew for making this rally possible!
Thanks to Anca Bogdana Rusu and Olga Nicoara for their hard work on making this rally possible, and for sending us the pictures below!
This is a note from the organizer:
Thanks to Olga who put a lot of time and effort into getting the authorization from the City Hall, the Free Karrem Bucharest rally went according to the plan. We were not many but we were passionate about our mission. At 11 a.m. in front of the Egyptian Embassy here in Romania we gathered ready for “fight”, armed with fliers, letters to the ambassador ready to be signed (thanks again to Olga’s devoted work) and last but not least flowers we began. We gave fliers and flowers to people passing by, in an attempt to raise public awareness about Kareem’s case.
The choice for flowers was justified by 2 reasons: first of all to make it clear ours was a peaceful, respectful manifestation, that we mean no harm, just trying to help one of our friends, secondly it is so much more difficult for people to say no when you hand them a flower along with a flier (Horia called it bribery, I prefer to call it successful marketing strategy)….and it did work, most people we spoke to agreed to sign our petition and many also promised to sign the online one. Next week, after we gather more signatures we plan to send them all to the Egyptian Embassy.
Our only hope is that this work manages in some way to help Kareem and to bring him some comfort by showing him he’s not alone and people around the world do care about him and his faith.
Thank you,
Anca
We are extremely proud of their efforts and for this meaningful rally which helped us send a very positive and urgent message to Egypt.
Pictures below:
Many thanks to Henrik Alexandersson, one of the speakers at the rally, for these pictures. We are expecting more from the organizers and fellow protestors!
Rally organizer Jonas carries a sign that translates to “Honk your horn for freedom of speech!”
Johan Norberg speaks out for Kareem.
Stefan Geens, who lives in Egypt.
Member of parliament Henrik von Sydow of the Moderata Samlingspartiet party.
Many thanks to Jonas Virdalm for organizing this rally, who also adds:
There were 6 policemen there watching us and they did not bother to report us. So it was a good demonstration for a good cause.
Thank you so much for making all of this possible! We are very happy that the Stockholm were, as per usual, a great success.
UPDATES (April 30)
1. More pictures here.
2. Videos galore!
Many thanks to our friends in DC who made this rally possible! Special thanks to Knud Edmund Berthelsen for helping out with the organization of this rally.
Here are the pictures:
More pictures available on Flickr!
