I got 2300 messages from everywhere , i feel so happy everytime i am receiving a letter , i feel that people
didnt forget about me

Our Flood the Jail with Mail campaign was much more of a success than I anticipated, I confess.

Check out this post to find out how to write Kareem.

***

Update: Full text of Kareem’s letter in English below. Arabic version also at FreeKareen.

I am living through some decent days here which I know will not last. I have several activists with me who were detained during the strike on the 6th of April in Egypt. They are people like me. They are educated, and staunch believers in certain values which they are fighting for.

Some of these people are out now, and the others are waiting to be released. Sometimes I wonder if the reason why they’re here in the first place is to make me more sad when they leave me alone in the dark.

This is the first time since I’ve been in prison that I meet people who are intellectually similar to me, but they will soon be released and I will be lonely again.

I wish I can get out of here. Every time I witness people being released from prison to go back to their homes, I wonder when it’s time for me to also leave. I never did anything worthy of this punishment. I’ve been here for so long, and throughout my detainment, I was never convinced that I ever committed a crime. Their punishment is not effective. This prison never changed my mind, and it never will.

I got 2,300 messages from all over the world. I feel ecstatic every time I receive a letter. I feel that people didn’t forget about me. Sometimes, the prisoners here mock me and try to hurt me by telling me that people forgot about my existence, but when I look at all of these letters that I have in my cell… I don’t care about what the prisoners are saying, because I have concrete evidence with me proving them wrong.

I just wish I could get out of here.

Kareem Amer
Borg el Arab prison, Section 22 Cell 1
Alexandria, Egypt

I think even if we had 1 letter, it would be a success for us. We had around 60 confirmed letters from around the world, and we spoke with a few campuses in the USA and they are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. We aim to collect at least 30 letters per event. We did the same thing at my college here and we managed to collect around 20 - postcards, letters, pictures. I think Kareem would like it to see things personalized. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters.

Ideally people would be sending letters throughout the year, so no amount of days is ever enough. We just specified a date because Curt rightly noted that people would just be saying things like “oh, I’d just send it next month, or the month after that,” and eventually forget. But if they think they have to send it within a specific date, then they will do it much quicker. We hope to be doing this a few times a year to make sure Kareem is being remembered and that people continue making an effort to communicate with him.

And here’s FreeKareem’s update post.

On Monday, April 21, was the official deadline for our letter campaign “Flood the Jail with Mail“. So far, we had about 60 confirmed letters from around the world, but we are assured that it’s not over - some people are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. Our aim is to collect at least 30 letters per event.

People have sent Kareem letters, postcards, pictures, books, etc. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters, or at least most of them. But even if the campaign is over now you can continue writing to Kareem. He is always happy to receive letters from his friends and supporters.

We also have in mind to create another campaign of this sort during the end of the summer in August, and in between, we’d have other kinds of campaigns to keep people aware of Kareem. If anyone wants to help out, they should contact editor@freekareem.org and we’d be happy to accept any suggestions or help.

I’d like to sincerely thank all the CPB members who wrote Kareem. I’d also like to second Esra’a’s encouragement to go ahead and write, or write again, whether the campaign is at an end or not.

In conjunction with FreeKareem.org, the Committee to Protect Bloggers is launching a mail campaign in support of imprisoned Egyptian blogger, Kareem Amer. (If you’re not familiar with the case of this unjustly-imprisoned blogger, please read FreeKareem’s FAQ.)

From today through April 21, both organizations are encouraging their memberships to go analogue and write Kareem a letter or postcard.

There are several reasons for this departure from the digital.

First, Kareem can receive physical mail. Second, a sufficient amount of such mail will remind Egyptian authorities that this blogger, bloggers in general and prisoners of conscience over all, are not alone. When Kareem was being tortured several months ago, the focus of international media was instrumental in stopping it. Finally, it takes us out of our comfort zones and reminds us that what we do exists in the physical world with real consequences.

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt
Kareem’s address in Arabic - mandatory to include on envelope

Upon sending a letter or card to Kareem, please let either the CPB or FreeKareem know you’ve done so, by commenting on one of the blogs, emailing us, or tagging a post about it with “floodthejail.”

Here’s all the information you’ll need to write Kareem from our site and here is FreeKareem’s write-up. (If you don’t write Arabic, don’t forget to print out and affix Kareem’s address in Arabic to anything you send him.)

Again, if you’re not very familiar with Kareem’s situation, you’ll want to read FreeKareem’s FAQ.

We’d like to ask you to do one more thing. When you send something to Kareem, drop a comment on one of the posts on CPB or on FreeKareem. Alternatively, post it on the CPB or FreeKareem Facebook walls or send either us or FreeKareem an email. That way, if there is a discrepancy between the number of letters sent and the number delivered, we’ll be able to document it. (We don’t anticipate this will happen, but better safe than sorry.)

Thanks to everyone for participating. Oh, and don’t forget to post a “Write to Kareem” badge on your site.

***

Also: If you write about this campaign would you tag it “floodthejail“? Thanks.

Curt (that’s me), the director of the Committee, and Esra’a, the director of FreeKareem and MidEast Youth, will be interviewed in a story on our Flood the Jail with Mail campaign tomorrow. Flood the Jail is a campaign to encourage people to write Kareem Amer (real name: Abdelkarim Nabil Soliman), the imprisoned Egyptian blogger. The campaign starts on April 7 and extends through April 21. (It goes without saying, you should feel free to write him at any time, but especially then.)

Go analogue to comfort one of your digital brethren.

Send Kareem a letter, a physical letter, written in your own hand, something he can hold in his. And when the prison officials see the bags of mail coming in, it will warn them off of a return to their earlier practice of physical abuse, not just of Kareem, but of any prisoner of conscience. You can listen to the story on The World’s website. It was prepared by Clark Boyd, who has an enduring interest in these issues and is very good at his job, so even if you’re familiar with what we’re doing, and with Kareem’s case, you’ll probably learn something new.

In conjunction with FreeKareem.org, the Committee to Protect Bloggers is launching a mail campaign in support of imprisoned Egyptian blogger, Kareem Amer. (If you’re not familiar with the case of this unjustly-imprisoned blogger, please read FreeKareem’s FAQ.)

From April 7 through April 21, both organizations are encouraging their memberships to go analogue and write Kareem a letter or postcard.

There are several reasons for this departure from the digital.

First, Kareem can receive physical mail. Second, a sufficient amount of such mail will remind Egyptian authorities that this blogger, bloggers in general and prisoners of conscience over all, are not alone. When Kareem was being tortured several months ago, the focus of international media was instrumental in stopping it. Finally, it takes us out of our comfort zones and reminds us that what we do exists in the physical world with real consequences.

If you would like to write Kareem now, by all means do so, but we would also like to ask that, whatever you do, you write at least one letter to Kareem during the period from April 7 to April 21. Here is the address in English, followed by a link to the address in Arabic. (It goes without saying that the Arabic must be present on the letter to assure its delivery.)

Alexandria
Borg Al-Arab Prison
Room 1 Section 22
Prisoner Abdul Kareem Nabil Suleiman
The Arab Republic of Egypt
Kareem’s address in Arabic - mandatory to include on envelope

Read Alexandra Sandel’s article in Menassat. (She’s wrong about the dates - it’s two weeks, not one.)

Read Marshall Kirkpatrick’s article in ReadWriteWeb.

Read the Society of Professional Journalists’ post on their Press Notes blog.

Read DigiActive’s write-up.

Today, It is allowed for anyone in Yemen to Access Free Kareem campaign. It seems that Yemeni Authorities had received tens of letters asking for releasing this site.

Unfortunately, they blocked my newest blog. It is bad to know that I could not access it from Yemen, and my friend too. I was thinking that it is a technical problem that my blog is new and there is nothing new or hard up to now. I only using it to write some comments and post my articles and reports published in the NP.  By the way, My blog does not contains any “sexy” contents, only my comments about Free Kareem site.

However, Lots of friends outside Yemen said there is no problem with them to open my blog.

Seven months ago, when the Parliament members asked the Minister of Media said that he wants to organize its role only, but it is free for all people in Yemen to get their own blog, and express their own view.

I want to say for His Excellency Hassan Al-Lawzi, it is only less than one week, and I did not finish my blog designing yet.

I hope that they will release it as soon as possible,

Since October, a host of websites have been blocked in Yemen. They include YemenPortal and FreeKareem. YemenPortal was accused of being a threat to national security (it’s simply an aggregator of local content, done for the administrator’s PhD program). CPJ reports that it may have been due to the content on the site.

(YemenPortal administrator Walid) Al-Saqaf said he believes his site may have been blocked after it posted citizen videos of a January 13 protest in the southern port city of Aden. The videos show security forces firing unprovoked at the crowd, he said, in contradiction of the government’s account.

FreeKareem, devoted to the imprisoned Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer, was blocked for having “sexual content.” Yeah. Well. Not so much. No doubt defending a blogger who criticises Islam is the real issue.

Seven other Yemeni sites and who knows how many external ones have been blocked. The Yemeni sites include YemenHurr, Hour’s News, Hdramut, Al-Teef, Al-Yemen, AdenPress, and SoutalGnoub.

Kareem, a 23-year old Egyptian former university student was sentenced a year ago to four years in prison for “offending Islam” and President Mubarak. He has been beaten and tortured in prison. FreeKareem is collecting donations to keep him in decent food and clothing.

Kareem, whose full name is Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, is an Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to four years in prison for airing his critical views on Islam and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Imprisoning a college student for four years for shooting his mouth off is disgusting. Let Egypt and the world know that out of sight in this day and age is not out of mind.