"Summoned for questioning by state security." By Jailan Zayan for AFP:
CAIRO -- Egyptian police have arrested a blogger who posted comments critical of the country's Islamic authorities, a security official said Tuesday, a day after a leading media watchdog ranked Egypt as one of the world's top "enemies of the Internet."
Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman, 22, was detained Monday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria after being summoned for questioning by state security, the official said on condition of anonymity.
In his latest entry posted October 28, 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 went to study in Al Azhar at the request of my parents, despite my outright rejection of Al Azhar and its religious ideas, and despite all that I have written which harshly criticizes the rise of religion in daily life and its effect on people's behavior," he wrote.
"I was expelled from Al Azhar for my writing on the Net, a free space not under their jurisdiction," he charged. "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.
Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al Azhar mosque, is considered the most senior Muslim cleric in the country, together with Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa.
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.
so what's his URL?
Truth=Islam's worst enemy.
Re: "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.
Throughout history the treatment of beliefs as if they are objective fact has been the cause of much oppression and stagnation in societies. This was true with the Soviet Union. The fear of this aspect of human nature, the treatment of beliefs as not to be questioned or challenged, was one of the reasons why the framers of the U.S. constitution set up a system of checks and balances between the various branches of government (legislative, executive, judicial) and clearly drew a line between "religion" and secular authority. They introduced a federal system of government to further frustrate the power of any single faction. They feared the fanatical nature of some men and women based on belief-systems.
There is no question that beliefs have consequences and that the meaning of any belief-system is its consequences. No one can ignore beliefs as part of the human need to make some sense out of the mystery of life. Reason alone will not suffice. Jesus was right that, "man does not live by bread alone". However, when beliefs are treated as fact-absolute truth they will be lethal to a person or civilization and cripple the God given creative power of human reason. I agree with this fellow.
From article:
“CAIRO -- Egyptian police have arrested a blogger who posted comments critical of the country's Islamic authorities,….”
Could anyone imagine how many of us bloggers here would be arrested if the Egyptian police had their way. They would need a new prison! But hell, once we all meet at least we’d have something to talk about.
http://www.karam903.blogspot.com/ [Arabic]
Egyptian police are going after the wrong people! they need to go to their schools and arrest those teachers that spew out the koran.
I saw the list of the worst countries that crack down on the Internet-virtually all of them are either Communist or Islamic. I'm sure this comes as no surprise since these two evil philosophies can't handle the truth.
Magdi Allam, who though he continues to call himself a Muslim attended Christian schools in Egypt, should take this up until everyone in Italy has heard about in on the RAI or read about it in the Corriere della Sera. And perhaps it will act as a booster shot in the immunization of Italy, the country in
Western Europe least likely, at this point, to yield to islamization.
I wouldn't click on that site, there is a Trojan on it.
The suppression of free speech is common in all Arab/Islamic countries. No difference exits between secular or sharia run countries. Egypt places itself as secular, bound by universal human rights declaration and so on and as an Arab cultural beacon for its TV series and film production. These are consumed in large quantities in all Arab world countries. And among them are very straight forwards in your face religious (islamic of course) programing (i.e., talk shows, soaps, children series, conferences, viewers call in programs) that speak volumes of hatred, revulsions supported by despicable lies, and outright islamo-centric self-righteous diatribes about anything non-muslim). These are the making to the unseen hands of the charlatans of Al-Azhar and the government is complicit, because all of the mass medias are state controlled.
But do not be fooled my friends, Egypt might as well be a theocracy because of this so called prestigious Al-Azhar islamo-university. The charlantan clerics (so called Al-Azhar Ulammas) (Ulammas means "knowledge people") who operate under this pseudo-prestigious theological oligarchical institution are nothing more than wolves in sheep skins. The secular government knows that and appease them. The persecussion, rape and humiliation of Coptic Christians is all to common in this country. I am not talking about some fringe islamic group going after secular writers (i.e., Nobel laureat Naguib Mahfouz case), I am talking about the state sanctioned silence about the constant humiliation and brutal killing of Copts.
Remind me of the calamity that befell the whole human civilization when the bloody Islamo-fascist Omar (third calif) ordered the burning of what remained from one of the wonders of the ancient world, the great Alexandria library. I say "what remained" because the famous library suffered also from the sporadic waves of Christian Church intolerable intellectual inquisition and auto-dafes. But nothing compared to what Omar did in the span of one day. Why he did it? You guess it: the Koran contains everything. The extent of the loss that followed can never be conceived in terms of lost years in scientific discovery and human intellectual development.
Why didn't Napoleon raze Al-Azhar to the ground? I do not know. He missed a golden opportunity and he would have made humanity a great service. Ironies of history.
I don't see how we can expect Islam to reform itself when anything that even hints at criticism draws reactions like that. Expect the poor sap to be branded an apostate or blasphemer or what ever they can frame him with. Good luck to him.
Any student hungering for truth is bound to run afoul of Koran's university, Egypt's Al Azhar.
I agree with Frank's:
"However, when beliefs are treated as fact-absolute truth they will be lethal to a person or civilization and cripple the God given creative power of human reason. I agree with this fellow."
Me too. Criticize, criticize, criticize with reason.
Truth=Islam's worst enemy.
Posted by: ISLAMSFORLOSERS
Thats my comment too. ISLAMSFORLOSERS said it right.
Islam is all about total state mind control and instilling fear in all. Hitler would have been proud.
Having rejected postmodern materialism years ago, and having been powerfully drawn to Jesus as I read the New Testament, my newfound faith had to withstand some serious and legitimate questions. Does science preclude the possibility of miracles? What does higher criticism of the source documents say, and how do you deal with its claims? What is the logical outworking of Christianity for the rest of society?
These are the questions you absolutely cannot ask of Islam, within Islamic societies, on pain of imprisonment or worse. As if it hadn't done so before, the Egyptian government has officially shown its hand here.
Those moth-eaten institutions have a lot of dirty laundry in their secret cupboards, so no wonder they rush to protect themselves.
About the Egyptian state and police obliging...
I heard that Al Azhar ex-students have a secret society bent on occupying positions of power and influence, much like the freemasons.
Any further clues on that?