Egypt: Blogger Who Insulted Islam Loses Appeal

On February 25, Egyptian blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman was found guilty of "insulting Islam". 22-year old Abdel Kareem (pictured) was also found guilty of criticizing Al-Azhar University, which is the largest Sunni theological college in the world. Kareem had been a former student at this university before he was expelled in March 2006.

The father of the law student showed the intolerance typical of Al-Azhar University, where he had forcibly sent Kareem to study. The father demonstrated the love and charity of Islam by declaring that he disowned Kareem, and wanted him executed.

Kareem's blog is still online, even though on February 25, the court in Alexandria sentenced him to four years' jail. He had been sentenced to three years for insulting Islam. Additionally Kareem had been found guilty of "spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country's reputation", and "defaming the President of the Republic". For defaming the undemocratic tyrant Hosni Mubarak, he was given a one year sentence.

Kareem had become an apostate from Islam. After the rioting which took place in Alexandria in October 2005, when mosques organized their followers to attack Coptic Christians, Kareem wrote: "The Muslims have taken the mask off to show their true hateful face, and they have shown the world that they are at the top of their brutality, inhumanity, and thievery. Some may think that the actions of the Moslems does not represent Islam and has no relationship with the teachings of Islam that was brought by Mohamed fourteen centuries ago, but the truth is that their actions is not different from the Islamic teachings in its original form."

Last year, Kareem was one of seven bloggers who were arrested for challenging the corrupt regime of Hosni Mubarak and the Islamist judiciary, but was the first to be convicted.

Today, the Court of Appeal in Alexandria has ruled that the four year jail sentence shall be upheld. His lawyer has said that the case will now be taken to the Supreme Court. Ahmed Saif said: "Kareem was in the court but I was unable to talke to him. There was a huge crowd of supporters and journalists . We lodged the request and hope to be able to meet our client this week or the next."

One of Kareem's last blogs made before his arrest has been translated by the Free Kareem Coalition. It can be found in its entirety here entitled: "There Is No Deity But The Human Being."

This is an extract:

Freedom, as I learned it, understood it, and believed in it, is the removal of all restrictions from the human being's burden. Slavery, which is its antithesis, means the submission of the human being by imposing some restrictions on his life for the purpose of controlling him. Where restrictions are found, freedom disappears, and where freedom is found, the restrictions fall. This is obvious and does not require practical evidence, and it is illogical to object to it on the grounds that societal principles or religious beliefs must be taken into account. Either absolute freedom is our goal, or we be honest with ourselves and declare our hatred and rejection of it, and declare our preference to surrendering to restrictions over having freedom handed to us.

Freedom's denial of restrictions does not mean that the human being has the complete freedom to do everything he is able to do. Being powerful does not mean that I am free to subjugate he who is less powerful than I am. For one of the most important principles of freedom is to not trespass on the limits of others' freedoms; this is so that freedom will be meaningful, and not be merely a justification for the actions of those who take advantage of their power to subdue others. Freedom - coupled with responsibility - is a right for all human beings with no distinction, and in order to have this right implemented in a realistic picture, every individual must respect the freedom of others and not degrade it. The law is what organizes this matter, and prevents individuals from trespassing on each other in the name of freedom.

It should be noted that for the past 25 years, America has spent billions in aid to the shabby political regime of Egypt, via its USAID program. If America is so bothered about a lack of democracy in countries like Iraq, then perhaps US citizens should be lobbying their congressmen. While Hosni Mubarak does not allow freedom of speech to those who would criticize him, then perhaps USAID money should be suspended until this freedom of speech, a sine quae non of democracy, is actually practiced in Egypt.