January 24, 2007—Congressmen Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Barney Frank (D-MA) today wrote Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy regarding the arrest and imprisonment of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman Amer, a 22-year-old resident of Alexandria, Egypt.  Mr. Amer criticized the radical Islam expressed by his professors at Al Azhar University, where he was a law student, as well as in society more generally in a personal weblog.  Before his arrest, he was kicked out of Al Azhar for his opinions. 

Franks said, “Democracies must allow for freedom of speech and certainly for the tolerance of diverse religious beliefs. I laud Mr. Amer’s recognition that violence in the name of religion is unacceptable. I urge the Egyptian government to free Mr. Amer and to protect its citizens from persecution.”

According to reports, Mr. Amer is the first blogger the Egyptian government has put on trial for his writings. While he faces up to nine years in prison, other bloggers have been released without charges; however, unlike the other detained bloggers who concentrated on politics, Mr. Amer wrote often on religion.  In late 2005, Mr. Amer was briefly detained after posting a commentary on riots in which angry Muslim worshippers attacked a Coptic Christian church over a play put on by Christians deemed offensive to Islam.

Congressman Franks is serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on the Judiciary, is Ranking Member on the Constitution Subcommittee, and is a co-founder of the Task Force on International Religious Freedom (TIRF) and the Israel Allies Caucus (IAC).