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!

Many thanks to our good friends at the Liberal Alliance who helped us by rallying for Kareem’s cause and the cause of human rights in general!

A rally was held in front of the Egyptian embassy in Athens where a petition for Kareem’s release was handed to the ambassador.

Special thanks to Fotis Perlikos for organizing the rally as well as providing us with pictures. Thank you so much!

Blogosfere, an Italian network of 150 blogs of professional information, has created an excellent video of still photos taken during the February 15 rallies in Rome and London:

A couple of pictures from Rome with thanks to Alberto:

Among those present in the rally were Italian politician Daniele Capezzone and Senator Francisco Compagna.

You can see Blogosfere’s translated posts that are dedicated to Kareem and the rally here, here, here, here, and here. Thank you for standing with fellow blogger Kareem.

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- Paris
- London
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.

Much thanks to Constantino and Chris for holding a second rally on February 15th in The Big Apple (the first was on January 31st):

The NYC rally was a little smaller than last time. The weather was horrible, and the condition of the streets dreadful (piles of dirty snow everywhere, melting into a nasty, muddy slush), so no one really wanted to be out on the street that day. Still, we were able to distribute about 100 fliers with information about Kareem, and asking people to visit www.FreeKareem.org and sign the petitions.

The people at the Mission came out to get fliers from us and ask why we were there. We were just a block away from the UN, and it was right around closing time, so most of those 100 fliers went to foreign workers and diplomats. Several showed interest and thanked us for calling attention to this.

And without further delay: Pictures!

Well done, Soldiers of Truth. I salute you all.

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- Paris
- London
- Rome
- Washington, D.C.

The February 15 London rally organizer, Andrew Perraut, reports on the event with positive news:

I’m happy to report that it went very well. We had fewer people than expected, but it was a good group, with representatives from LSE, Amnesty International, the Institute for Economic Affairs, and the International Policy Network. We also attracted a writer for the Index on Censorship–he tells me that they are watching Kareem’s case very closely and are considering naming his as one of the most important cases of the year. There was also a documentary filmmaker who has produced a piece on Egyptian bloggers; she hopes to have segments including our rally aired on BBC 4.

We handed out quite a few fliers and got support from some of the people passing by. Our group was directly across from the Embassy and looking into their windows, which they quickly closed. Still, people from the inside were watching us through the curtains almost constantly, and one woman from the Embassy came outside to take some of our fliers. I’ve attached some pictures of the rally for you to see.

And here are the pictures, with thanks to Andrew and Blogosfere:

UPDATE (February 20, 2007):

Blogosfere has created an excellent video of still photos taken during the February 15 rallies in Rome and London:

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- Paris
- New York City
- Rome
- Washington, D.C.

Liberté Chérie, a libertarian federation of associations based in France, reported the on the success of their Paris rally on Free Kareem Day:

The manifestation for Kareem took place as expected on Thursday at noon, despite the fact [that] the Ministère de l’Intérieur was a bit reluctant at letting us approach too close to the Egyptian embassy. But the policemen were on our side, so all diplomatic vehicles in the vicinity got a “Free Kareem” leaflet for meditation.

One hundred full-size posters were stuck on the walls near the Place de l’Etoile / Arc de Triomphe (with adhesive tape on Kareem’s mouth, as a symbol). An Iranian girl and two Egyptians we met in the street even helped us distribute our leaflets!

Photos:

Merci beaucoup, Liberté Chérie!

Other Rallies Held Worldwide on Free Kareem Day:
- London
- New York City
- Rome
- Washington, D.C.