Thursday, February 22, 2007

Egypt demonstrates how Islam and freedom of expression are incompatible
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Photo courtesy of the BBC
An Egyptian court has sentenced an internet blogger to four years' prison for insulting Islam and the president.

Abdel Kareem Soliman's trial was the first time that a blogger had been prosecuted in Egypt.

He had used his weblog to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

A human rights group called the verdict "very tough" and a "strong message" to Egypt's thousands of bloggers.

Mr Soliman, 22, was tried in his native city of Alexandria. He blogs under the name Kareem Amer.

A former student at al-Azhar, he called the institution "the university of terrorism" and accused it of suppressing free thought. Egypt blogger jailed for insult [to Islam and president]

Mark Alexander

3 comments:

Captain USpace said...

This is very sad, God bless Kareem and keep him safe, he will be free someday.

absurd thought-
God of the Universe says
don't tell the truth

evil men will jail you
kill you to protect their lies
.

Yankee Doodle said...

I just discovered your blog. I linked you. If USpace hangs out here, you must be okay!

Here's what might be going on in Egypt:

The radical Islaminazis have been trying to take over Egypt for decades. AND Mubarak is a dictator.

This guy tries to speak a little truth. That is a threat to the dictatorship. Since he also insulted Islam, Mubarak can throw the jihadis a bone while helping himself by coming down on the blogger.

Insulting Islam is only a pretext here.

Mark said...

Welcome to Uspace & Yankee Doodle!

Thanks for linking to my weblog. I appreciate that. I shall return the compliment as soon as possible.

I find it a disgrace that a fellow blogger could be incarcerated for speaking his mind. It just goes to show what we are up against!