The C.R.I.M.E. Report

ISSUE #75 CONTENTS:


SPOTLIGHT CASES:

Slim's Shady Detention

Error 404Slim Amamou’s mistake was to request a permit for a rally in Tunis. The local cyber activist joined with several colleagues to plan a peaceful demonstration against online censorship, part of a May 22 worldwide day against government Internet filtering in Tunisia. But as Slim filed the official paperwork, police swooped in, detaining him and demanding he record a video asking people not to attend the demo.

Tunisia was the first Arab country to introduce Internet access and paradoxically remains a trailblazer - only now with world-class Internet censorship. The May 22 global protest targeted "Ammar 404," the imaginary censor Tunisians have created whose name is a pun on the "Error 404" message displayed when trying to access censored content. Tunisians living abroad took to the street to protest in front of their country's embassies and consulates in Bonn, New York, and Paris.

But in Tunis, authorities would allow no such demonstration. During Slim's lengthy detention (along with fellow activist Yassine Ayari) he had to record a " public service announcement" urging protestors to stay home. He was also forced to sign a document stating he "understood that his call for a demonstration is wrong." The next day, a phalanx of Tunisian police gathered outside the Technology and Communications Ministry, which runs the country's Internet firewall.

Still, young Tunisian organized flashmobs in Tunis cafes wearing white t-shirts to show their defiance to the government ban. And Slim, despite it all, refuses to be silenced. In fact, he maintains a steady stream of commentary via his Twitter feed, appropriately named "Slim404."



Gearing up for the June 12 Anniversary

Last June, millions of Iranians captured the world's attention by peacefully gathering in massive rallies to denounce an apparently rigged election. The regime’s brutal response, captured most vividly in video footage of bystander Neda Soltan being shot to death, unleashed an escalating wave of protests. A year later, the same regime remains in power, but a wave of anniversary protests are planned inside Iran and around the world.

Last month, opposition leaders Mousavi and Karroubi joined together to announce Saturday, June 12, as a formal anniversary day of protest. Solidarity rallies are planned in over 50 cities around the world as a part of a "Global Day of Action." The 12June.org website offers a complete portal to these events, as well as guides to organize a rally in your own hometown.

Currently the only event in the Mideast is slated to take place in Cairo, though exact details have not been publicly announced. It remains to be seen if more reformers in the Arab world respond to growing calls for cross-borders solidarity and organize public solidarity events. In the meantime, any CRIME Report readers in New England are encouraged to attend the June 12 afternoon rally on the steps of Boston Public Library, which HAMSA is helping to organize.



WANTED for Challenging Slavery: Biram Dah Abeid

Just a generation removed from slavery, Biram Dah Abeid is co-founder of the Mauritanian Abolitionist Revival Movement (known in French as " IRA-Mauritanie"). His organization has been repressed by the Mauritanian regime, which fears any public discussion of the country’s enduring institution of slavery. But now Biram is challenging prominent clerics to formally denounce human bondage in his country, forcing religious leaders to choose sides in an escalating civil rights struggle.

What is your family connection to slavery?
Taking black Africans in slave raids happened for centuries in Mauritania, with the descendants of those abducted born into slavery. My paternal grandmother, for instance, was abducted by militia conducting pillaging raids against an African ethnic group who maintained their animist religious traditions. My grandmother was taken as a slave and sold to an Arab family. All of her children were born and lived as slaves. Except that while she was pregnant with my father, her master declared that my father should be born free. The master thought this act of charity would help cure a disease he was suffering from. But even this freedom had boundaries, and I grew up very aware of the precarious situation of blacks in Mauritanian society.

What does your group do and why did the regime shut it down?
Slavery has not ended in Mauritania. Our group is engaged every day in providing support for victims of human rights abuses in Mauritania, including those still held under the yoke of slavery. We therefore denounce and lobby against slavery both inside Mauritania and abroad. This is something the Moorish elite who rule Mauritania do not want discussed. They crack down on activists and NGOs who speak about slavery and the groups that benefit from it. Our organization was never formally recognized by the regime and has been declared illegal.

Why are you reaching out to clerics?
We recently sent a letter to the cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has a prominent TV show on Al Jazeera, asking him to explicitly denounce slavery in Mauritania. He has so far not replied. We are approaching figures like this because it is the clerics in Mauritania who have legitimized slavery and presided over its institutionalization as a system approved by religious scholars. It is time for clerics to provide an unequivocal rejection of slavery in Mauritania, in Sudan, in the Gulf, and around the world.

QUIZ: Who fears “emo” girls?

Answer: The Muttawa, aka the Saudi religious police. A Saudi paper reports that the vice squad in Dammam recently arrested 10 young women dressed in "emo" style, a vulnerable punk look with unusual hairdos, heavy make-up, and alterna outfits of skinny jeans. The emo girls were busted at a local coffee shop, apparently for causing a disturbance with their by revealing the bold outfits on beneath their all-black abayas. Before the police would release the criminals, the girls' parents were forced to sign a pledge that their daughters who not repeat such "un-Islamic" behavior. But, hey, why can't the muttawa guys be a little more sensitive?


BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here are quick ways to contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement: