Egyptian Free Speech in the New York Post

by on March 23, 2007 · 4 comments

My friend Constantino Diaz-Duran has a great op-ed in the New York Post about the Egyptian blogger free speech case:

Egyptian authorities see blogging as so dangerous that they’ve kept Soliman in solitary confinement since his arrest in November. The former law student, whose dream was to open a human-rights law firm, has been been sentenced to four years in prison for the “crimes” of criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and insulting Islam. The case sets a dangerous precedent in a country that has, until recently, been a beacon of hope for reform in the Middle East. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Hands Across the Mideast Alliance have condemned the sentence. Reporters Without Borders has even inducted Egypt into its Hall of Shame, naming it one of 2006′s “Internet Enemies.” The U.S. State Department has expressed concern about Soliman’s conviction and the denial of his initial appeal. In Congress, Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) have joined forces to plead with the Egyptian ambassador on behalf of Soliman. But they remain the sole voices championing the release of this young freedom fighter. Considering that our government sends Egypt nearly $2 billion in foreign aid each year, the response has been timid.

Hat tip: Julian

SHARE: 4 comments

About Tim Lee

Timothy B. Lee (Contributor, 2004-2009) is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He is currently a PhD student and a member of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He contributes regularly to a variety of online publications, including Ars Technica, Techdirt, Cato @ Liberty, and The Angry Blog. He has been a Mac bigot since 1984, a Unix, vi, and Perl bigot since 1998, and a sworn enemy of HTML-formatted email for as long as certain companies have thought that was a good idea. You can reach him by email at leex1008@umn.edu.

Read more articles by Tim Lee.

  • http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com MikeT

    The part I don’t get about this is why we even “engage” these countries. Even the oil angle makes little sense since we get most of our oil from Canada already, and can probably fill in the blanks with Russian and Mexican oil. Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, actively feeds its population racist and anti-American garbage ranging from general epithets to mass-circulating the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

    And in Egypt, that’s the secular government. The Muslim Brotherhood is of the same spirit, only religious! Let’s face a terrible truth. The only two large Islamic states in that region that we can be friendly with at this point are Jordan and Turkey. We should cut off Egypt’s aid and give it to Israel if we give it to anyone. Despite the propaganda about them, at least in Israel, an Arab can freely criticize his government without fearing the stormtroopers coming to his door.

  • http://www.codemonkeyramblings.com MikeT

    The part I don’t get about this is why we even “engage” these countries. Even the oil angle makes little sense since we get most of our oil from Canada already, and can probably fill in the blanks with Russian and Mexican oil. Egypt, like Saudi Arabia, actively feeds its population racist and anti-American garbage ranging from general epithets to mass-circulating the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.


    And in Egypt, that’s the secular government. The Muslim Brotherhood is of the same spirit, only religious! Let’s face a terrible truth. The only two large Islamic states in that region that we can be friendly with at this point are Jordan and Turkey. We should cut off Egypt’s aid and give it to Israel if we give it to anyone. Despite the propaganda about them, at least in Israel, an Arab can freely criticize his government without fearing the stormtroopers coming to his door.

  • http://www.discplough.com/ windsor

    Windsor exports manufacturer and exporter of – agricultural disc, plough, fingers, blades, boulons, spacer reel casting, springs, cutting bar assembly, agricultural harrow disc, agricultural harrow blades, harrow disk blades, agricultural harrow

  • http://www.discplough.com/ windsor

    Windsor exports manufacturer and exporter of – agricultural disc, plough, fingers, blades, boulons, spacer reel casting, springs, cutting bar assembly, agricultural harrow disc, agricultural harrow blades, harrow disk blades, agricultural harrow

Previous post:

Next post: