Free Abdel Kareem - Redux

A security official has confirmed that blogger Abdel Kareem is once again held by state security. I pray for him. He is in trouble for posting comments critical of Al Azhar, the country´s Islamic authority. They ought to be tolerant and have faith that if God have a problem with anyone, he will hand out the punishment himself. Of course, the issue is not merely theological to them, it is about power.

Once again are religious institutions confusing themselves with God: instead of seeing that they are part of the problem, they interpret any criticism of the institution as criticism of God. Such confusion, at least in my ears, is blasphemy. The reaction of the authorities, the religious and the state security, is a sign of weakness: they fail to provide the arguments or set good examples, so they resort to power. I´ll remember that next time someone is claiming that Islam does not need a reformation or that its leading scholars are not backwards.

I don´t know why Abdel Karim persist: he must have known what was coming. Whatever his reason, he is facing up to powers who long ago lost any claim of authority. I respect him for that, and I wish him luck.

What you can do to help is to make sure that you and others are not staying quiet.

Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22, was detained Monday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after being summoned for questioning by state security...

...the blogger lashed out at Al Azhar University - the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning in the region - from which he was expelled earlier this year.
...
... "I say to Al Azhar and its university and its professors and preachers who stand against anyone who thinks differently to them: 'You are destined for the rubbish bin of history, where you will find no one to cry for you, and your regime will end like others have'," he went on.
...
The blogger was already arrested in October 2005 after posting a vitriolic comment condemning the Muslim reaction to a Coptic Christian play that sparked violent clashes after some Muslims deemed it offensive to their religion.

The arrest took place on the same day that Paris-based international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders published a new list of 13 countries that it describes as "enemies of the Internet."
...
"Many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned this year in Egypt, so it has been added to the roll of shame reserved for countries that systematically violate online free expression," the group said.

"President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981, displays an extremely disturbing authoritarianism as regards the Internet," the watchdog said, listing a number of recent cases in which bloggers were harassed. ...

Middle East Times: Egypt arrests blogger who criticized Al Azhar, by Jailan Zayan, AFP November 8, 2006

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