I received a very nice letter from a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors today. She wanted to know if I could help spread the word about a 22 year old Egyptian blogger by the name of Abdel Kareem Nabil, who has been sentenced to four years in prison for “insulting” Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and President Hosni Mubarak. As of now, the story hasn’t received much press in the US, but it seems to be building. The “Washington Post” ran something this morning, and Linette tells me she just heard something on NPR. This, unfortunately, is not an isolated event in Egypt, where it seems free speech protections have been eroding these past several years. If you would like to know how to get more involved, Kareem’s friends, many of whom are Muslim, have started a website to rally and direct support.
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From what I’ve seen of his writing, it doesn’t even come close to being what we in the US would consider “hate speech”. I guess that’s why people are so upset – because he’s a fairly levelheaded secularist.