Silence echoing

January 6, 2008 at 1:00 am · Filed under Arabisms, Geek Culture & Tech, Seriously

Fouad Alfarhan is still tossed in some jail cell, twenty-six days on, for voicing an opinion.

It is days like this that make me feel so miserable, so hopeless, so pessimistic. When will we, as Arabs collectively, be granted the right to think, express, and interact?
This is for Fouad, this is for Karim, and this is for any other person, Arab or otherwise, who was tossed into jail for expressing their opinion.




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  • طفيلي( ahmad)

    If freedom of speech will disturb the system and spread chaos among people, I or majority of people would not support it. This kareem and who are like him are using the controversy things in our culture for the fame. I am sure in the next ten years; you will find this karrem preaching head to head of Wafa Sultan attacking our religion and Islam and having nice life in USA.

    Does the freedom of speech allow other insulting your father or your mum saying they are b**** or son of******? How will you feel about that?

    This piece of shit insulted Islam and Prophet Muhmmad and there are supporting for people and they are Muslims. if you look at his picturemm he is a good actor with cat’eyes . This is disgraseful using religion for bad casues.

  • http://diasporicdiscontents.blogspot.com Carmen

    Ahmad, if someone called my mother a bitch I’d be pissed off but I wouldn’t put him in jail. If someone insulted the prophet, I’d be pissed off but I wouldn’t but him jail.

    Is Islam really that weak that it can’t survive any kind of criticism? Are you telling me that Muslims are really that weak of mind that they can be swayed by someone saying something bad or insulting about Islam? Chaos will reign??? You’re treating Muslims like they’re four-year olds who need mommy and daddy to tell them what’s wrong and what’s right.

    The smartest way to fight someone insulting your beliefs is to challenge them, not silence them.

    Islam CAN and WILL survive people insulting it. It seems like a lot of Muslims fear that the more insults Islam takes, the more likely it is to disappear. Have more faith in your faith.

  • Husams

    Hi Roba, i clicked on Fouad Alfarhan and this what appeard “Oops! I think your shoes just walked you out of And Far Away…” ….. ” Walk back in, will you?” further the page does not recognize “no” as a valid answer! i just felt my free well being violated and had to go back against my desire! happy now?.. on the other hand why the link “links” is not working anymore, i used to use it as a path to the other blogs. are you just trying to capture me here? heh admit!

    Ahmad, how you define an insult? someone saying that islam is not right is an insult to you? giving an opinion about a bad aspect in Islam is an insult? so i have the option to say that your opinion is right, or else i go to jail, that is how you define freedom of speech? on the other Fouad Alfarhan did not attack Islam in anyway, in a matter of a fact he is a religious muslim, and he got jailed for accusing the Saudi government of being unjust in jailing many innocent religious political prisoners.. here is one of Fouad’s posts about freedoms from an islamic point of view http://www.alfarhan.org/archives/136

    The point here is that you should stand with freedom of expressions and opinions no matter what its about, that what Roba showed here ” I dont agree with you, but i shall fight till death your right to say it ” that what we should all learn.

  • Amer

    ** THIS A REPLY TO CARMEN **

    Carmen,

    I’m a Jordanian Muslim residing in Florida in the United States.

    Your comparison is extremely flawed.

    Calling your mom is a bitch is in no way related to insulting your beliefs, and even in the U.S., the so-called land of freedom, a religious, racial, or sexual verbal offense of this nature will cause you anything between a $500 fine to a 30-day misconduct jail sentence, depending on the state.

    It is the same as saying you hate beef versus saying you hate a certain company’s beef. Or saying you don’t agree with the beliefs of buddhism versus actually bashing a respected religious higher power in that society.

    Either situation is a valid, extremely common lawsuit for slander, harassment, discrimination, or hostility.

    You’re free to say what you want, but it’s just wrong (and legally recognized everywhere to be so) to specifically bash a religious icon that someone, somewhere worships.

    I don’t agree with how long he’s been locked up, but misconduct is misconduct.

    I don’t feel bad for him. You did it knowing it would offend a bigger slice of people, you suffered the consequences – tough shit.