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Iran arrested Kareem Amer for a sophomoric rant against his university and gave him a four-year prison sentence. His lawyers say since then, his teeth have been smashed and he’s beaten regularly.

Iran has nothing to do with Kareem’s case. The government responsible is Egypt’s.

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People have sent Kareem letters, postcards, pictures, books, etc. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters, or at least most of them. But even if the campaign is over now you can continue writing to Kareem. He is always happy to receive letters from his friends and supporters.

We also have in mind to create another campaign of this sort during the end of the summer in August, and in between, we’d have other kinds of campaigns to keep people aware of Kareem. If anyone wants to help out, they should contact editor@freekareem.org and we’d be happy to accept any suggestions or help.

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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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You can now listen to the short 4 minute talk here. [MP3]

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Curt and I (Esra’a) will be discussing the Flood the Jail with Mail campaign [click here for info] which goes live on Monday, April 7th. We encourage everyone to get involved!

Visit the website and make sure you listen to Friday’s show to learn more about the campaign and Kareem’s situation in general.

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The one thing that’s made a big difference for Kareem, his supporters say, has been international attention. Now those supporters are calling for a two week campaign of snail-mail sent to the jail.

The goal is to let Kareem, and his jailers, know that the situation is far from forgotten. Past mail and media coverage have also improved physical conditions in the jail.

To let this campaign be really successful, it is important to let as many people as possible know about it. So if you own a blog, follow Marshall’s example and write about the campaign, tell your friends about Kareem!

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The original article can be found here.

„We blog, because we believe“

One year ago Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was sent to prison because he had insulted the Islam.

by Simon Columbus

His fingers form the victory sign, but Kareem Amer has not won, on the contrary: On February 22 of the last year, the student of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo was sentenced to an accumulated four years in prison. Three years for allegedly insulting Islam, another year for defaming the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

What had happened? On October 22, 2005 riots against Christian believers occurred in front of a Coptic church in Alexandria. Three people were killed in those days.

Kareem Amer, who’s real name is Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, described the incident in his blog as attacks by thieves and looters – the religious conflict were nothing but an excuse. And he goes on: „put Islam on trial and sentence it and its symbols (…) so that you can be sure that what happened yesterday will never be repeated again.“

Hard words in a country where Islam is the state religion and the Sharia the base of the legislation. Even many of those who are now fighting for Kareem Amer’s release don’t agree with his polemic.

„As Muslims, we certainly do not agree with what he said and the manner in which he said it in“, says Esra’a Al-Shafei from Bahrain, „however we do feel the need to protect his basic human rights for the sake of all of us.“

Therefore Esra’a Al-Shafei has initiated the Campaign „Free Kareem!“. On the Internet, the supporters collect informations about the prisoner and organize worldwide protests.

Kareem Amer is one of many: A rising generation of educated young sons and daughters from the Middle east has claimed the internet as a way of expression. Foaud Al-Farhan, another jailed blogger from Saudi Arabia, says what this generation thinks: „We blog, because we believe we have opinions that deserve to be heard, and minds that should be respected.“

Many of the young bloggers do not write only about politics, but most of them mention political topics again and again. They want to discuss and to exchange themselves, about their lives as well as about the problems of the Near and Middle East.

For Fouad Al-Farhan, this is only possible through forums, social networks and blogs on the internet, because there were no free media or freedom to assemble in the autocratically lead countries of the region.

The current annual report of the non-government organization Reporters without Borders comes to the conclusion that there is no press freedom in any of the Near and Middle Eastern countries: „Flattery is still the best way to keep one’s job and freedom.“

All the more influential have become the young bloggers, who are able to write what they really think. They bring problems to public attention which are ignored by the state-controlled media. Many of the work under nicknames, use anonymizers to protect themselves.

About a dozen detentions and threats of bloggers through Egyptian officers were counted by the Initiative for an Open Arab Net in 2007. Also in the Near and Middle East, the war against terror gives an excuse to legitimate raids and blocks of websites.

Repeatedly, bloggers became victims of political conflicts: Ahmed Al-Omran, one of the most prominent Saudi bloggers, believes that his compatriot Fouad Al-Farhan is arrested as a scapegoat. He had gotten in the middle of a conflict between King Abdullah, who is pressing for reforms, and his conservative officials.

Kareem Amer had a similar fate: Most probably he is detained because the police tried to part the Egyptian blogosphere in Islamist members of the Muslim Brotherhood and liberal reformists.

Kareem Amer was expelled from his family just before he was sent to jail – his father even called for the death sentence. Because Egyptian prisoners depend on their families for their daily needs, Esra’a Al-Shafei and the team of „Free Kareem!“ collect donors for him. In a letter from prison, the detained let them know as a thank: „Prison didn’t change me“.

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So if you expect updates, rally information, notifications of new initiatives concerning Kareem, please disregard the outdated Facebook groups for Kareem and add this one instead.

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