November 9th , known as World Freedom Day, marks the fall of the Berlin Wall and is a day of celebration for freedom lovers around the globe. But November 9th also marks the sad one-year anniversary since Egypt imprisoned freedom of speech. What is for some World Freedom Day is for others Egypt Freedom Restraint Day.
One year ago Egypt chose to celebrate World Freedom Day by taking away Kareem ‘s freedom of movement because he stood up for freedom of speech. Today, joining a world wide effort, an enthusiastic and outspoken group of freedom lovers gathered in front of the Egypt Embassy Cultural Office to show our support for Kareem.
We might have been the last Free Kareem rally considering the time zone but I would say we came in first in terms of enthusiasm and commitment. In spite of cold and wind, under the paternal watch of the fierce US Secret Service we managed to convey our message of freedom to passers-by and drivers who enthusiastically responded to our request to honk for freedom.
We spoke freely to show Egypt they can not silence free speech. We spoke about our credo to prove to Egypt that they can not imprison principles. We expressed our views to the press present on location to prove to Egypt that the war of ideas can not be won by force but by reason and arguments. And neither the lack of reaction from the Egyptian authorities nor the chocolate we shared for lunch managed to sweeten our outrage.
We stood up for the sake of freedom of speech and we stood up for Kareem, we did last year, we did this year and we would do it again …our hope is that it won’t be necessary and we will celebrate the next World Freedom Day having Kareem free amongst us.
