---

Hej gruppe

Jeg har modtaget en mail fra Tijl Vercaemer Tijl(snabela)telenet.be , der
var en af ophavsmændene til sitet http://www.SupportDenmark.com
Han har nu brug for hjælp til at komme i kontakt med "kendte" personer,
journalister, intelektuelle personer osv. der er villige til at støtte op om
sagen med deres underskrift. Han har ligeledes brug for støtte til en
Arabisk jura-studerende (blogger) Kareem Amer der er blevet fængslet for at
støtte ytringsfriheden ifb med den første Muhammed krise.

Hermed en opfordring til at få denne "request" sendt til de relevante
personer som i kender og som vil støtte freedom of speech.

Jeg har copypastet mailen i sin helhed:

******

Hi Andrea,

2 years ago you helped me translating the SupportDenmark.com site. Many
things
have happened since then, but the discussion about freedom of speech in
Europe hasn't stopped yet. Yesterday, the President of the EU Parliament:
Hans-Gert Pöttering, said in an interview with the Qatari newspaper "The
Peninsula" that media should develop a sort of "self responsibility". "They
should always know the consequences of what they publish about other
cultures."[1]. Similar statements were recently made by UN secretary general
Ban Ki-moon[2], UN high commissioner for human rights Louise Arbour[3] and
the EU Presidency [4].

Out of fear for violence or economic boycotts, some politicians seem to be
willing to limit our right to express our opinions freely. Some even say
that
if a statement causes violent reactions, the person who issued the statement
should be held responsible.[5]

Maybe it's time for Europeans to remind our politicians that freedom of
speech
is only meaningful if it entails the freedom to express opinions that some
might not want to hear. To do that, I'm trying to start a new campaign.

The idea is to get a group of European author's, intellectuals, journalists
and artists to agree on a platform text for freedom of speech in Europe.
This
text should be released to the press with as many signatures of known
personalities as possible. After that, it will be posted on the internet and
everyone will be given the opportunity to sign.

I already contacted some people, and received some positive responses, but I
need a lot more people from a lot more different countries to make this
campaign a success. That's why I need your help. I need you to send me a
list
of people who you think might be willing to sign such a text. It would be a
great help to me if you could send me a list of names and addresses of
author's, intellectuals, journalists or artists from your part of Europe, so
I can contact those people and ask them to join this initiative. Or you can
contact them yourself if you wish to do so, and forward them this email.

An while I'm at it, there's also something else I'd like to ask you. One of
the Arab bloggers who supported the SupportDenmark.com campaign by putting a
banner on his website, was the Egyptian blogger and law student Kareem Amer.
Kareem wrote in Arabic about Egypt, the Islamic university he attended and
Islam in general. He was very critical, accusing his university of
training "two-legged bombs" and calling it's scholars "turbans void of
brains". Because of his writings, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
The charges he was convicted for are "contempt of religion" and "defaming
the President of Egypt". His family publicly disowned him, and his father
called for applying the Sharia on his son by giving three days to repent,
followed by having him killed if he did not announce his repentance.

I would like to ask you if you could spare some minutes to send this brave,
young Egyptian a letter or a postcard. To let him now he isn't alone, but
also to let his jailers know that people all over the world are watching
what
they do to him. That's not unimportant in a country infamous for it's abuses
of prisoners. You can find his address here:
http://www.freekareem.org/2008/03/19/flood-the-jail-with-mail/ Translations
of some of his writings can be found here:
http://www.freekareem.org/what-kareem-said/

Best Regards and thanks for your help,

Tijl Vercaemer Tijl(snabela)telenet.be

***********


[1]
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&month=April2008&file=Local_News2008041434733.xml
[2] http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sgsm11483.doc.htm
[3] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/media.aspx
[4]
http://www.eu2008.si/en/News_and_Documents/CFSP_Statements/March/0328MZZ_Fitna.html
[5] A month before the Dutch politician Geert Wilders released his Fitna
movie, the Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said that Wilders would be
personally responsible for the safety of Dutch people abroad if he released
his movie.
http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/politiek/artikel/asp/artnr/195082/index.html
(in Dutch)


--
Rea721 AKA Leon Andrea. Hvis en troende kræver, at jeg som ikke-troende
skal overholde hans tabuer i den offentlige sfære, så beder han ikke om min
respekt, men om min underkastelse. Og dette er uforeneligt med et sekulært
demokrati. - Flemming Rose