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.
Join the Conversation
Firstly I want to thank you so much for agreeing to do this despite the risks and controversy that came with it, and doing so on such short notice. I and everyone else at the Free Kareem Coalition really appreciate it.
Secondly you are not wrong, Kareem did break the law. A law that deprives people of their basic human rights. Criticizing Islam is a human right. Criticizing the president is a human right. Both are elements of free speech, which is supposedly guaranteed in the Egyptian constitution. Egypt should never claim to be even slightly democratic if it takes both of these things away from their citizens.
When we protested in Bahrain in front of the Egyptian Embassy, my friend Mohammed who co-organized the rally couldn’t travel to Egypt when he had a conference there a week later. We did nothing wrong; we stood there together with respectful signs. It was legal and it was peaceful. We presented a clear message and we went home (after being secretly pictured and followed by investigative police.) The next time Mohammed tried to go to Egypt, they held him for as much as 14 hours in the airport, interrogated him, and denied him entry to the country. Why? Because he supports and respects human rights, and because he showed up to this small and peaceful protest (which took place last December, before Kareem was even trialled and sentenced.)
That is wrong and unjust. If people are going to be nationalists about this and worry about their worldwide reputation, i.e, “this is bad for Egypt,” they better start working the way many of activists already are on making Egypt a better place for everybody, or at least where human rights are recognized and respected by the government. No one but the Egyptian government itself is making Egypt sound bad. We wouldn’t be doing any of this if we didn’t actually care to make it better place to live in or visit.
The law itself is in violation of human rights if this is how it’s being practiced. Unfortunately, our society is trained to believe that free speech should be reserved only to those whose speech we agree with. This is a corrupt mentality that is endangering the lives of millions in the region and we better do something about it now before it gets out of hand. Many Muslims already are. I don’t agree with people who criticize Islam, I state this quite clearly throughout this website where I defend my faith against attacks all the time, but I damn well think people have the right to criticize as long as it’s not inciting violence. Kareem never did that, as provocative and insulting as his posts were. He wrote about what he observed. If you read Mohammed Fadel’s document about him, which includes much of Kareem’s personal biography, you will realize why he thinks this way. I don’t agree with him at all, but I don’t blame him for being like this either.
We continue to receive threats and negative feedback concerning the campaign. But Kareem is my friend and I will stand up for his rights, all personal differences aside. I just wish that everyone else will do the same because the campaign represents not just Kareem but everyone else in a similar position.
Every Muslim, whether they wish to admit it or not, went through Kareem’s doubts or disbelief at one point or another. I am one of those, but I later regained faith in Islam. This only happened when I moved to a less strict society where I felt free to make my own decisions instead of having them imposed upon me by society and by law.
I support the Free Kareem initiative and I am really happy to see how successful it’s been. A year later and the message is still strong. I am positive that Egypt is listening.
Thanks for having enough courage to do this Miriam.
First, hello! You guys run a very good website, I’ll be recommending it to others. And yes, I linked here from an article about your, Esra’a, Yahoo Groups article. And no, I was not looking for porn.
I have followed the trial of Kareem only a small amount. Here in the States it has received very little coverage, which amazes me. This case should be on frontpages and at the top of the list at all broadcast news programs. This is supposed to be an issue that Americans are deeply concerned about, and yet our media gives it at best a cursory glance, and moves on to the latest celebrity gossip and political money scandal.
I am going to write an article about Kareem and your efforts to free him. I hope you will allow me to link to your multiple articles, and further hope you get some new traffic from this.
Contrary to popular believe there are many conservative Americans who feel quite strongly about freedom of thought and expression. The problem is lack of in depth coverage by our media, the internet is changing that, slowly but surely.
Thanks for the support, 2Hotel9.
There have been op-eds published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Reuters, the Associated Press and a few others about Kareem, especially when he was officially sentenced in late February. This is mostly thanks to the many people who helped blog about him.
The problem is that both the media and the international blogosphere tend to forget he ever existed once the hype dies down. This is why we’re using the strategy of worldwide rallies to help keep him in our sight and in our minds, and because simultaneous rallies for the same cause makes a compelling story for journalists to write about.
We’d appreciate any help you can give us in generating worldwide concern and support for Kareem.
Exactly! If you want to get attention, be newsworthy. Keep raising you voice until you’re loud enough to be heard.
It’s actually the very first time in history that people rally for the same blogger in over 17+ cities worldwide.
Oh, crap.
Link
You may want to read this too.
Thanks for the articles and links. I hope to post a readerblog piece at sayanythingblog by the weekend.
I just read your article about this, and I wanted to thank you very much for writing it. I’ll be sharing it tonight on the Free Kareem website as well, hopefully it will encourage some journalists to write about him.
Not a problem! I meant to get it done sooner, but work and an untimely computer virus delayed me. Going to work on another, with connections to several other internet suppression cases combined, try to highlight just how widespread this is becoming.