I’ve been guilty of taking blogging lightly. But when someone sends me an email about a blogger who’s been arrested perhaps in part on account of his blogging, it serves to jolt me rudely back to reality.
Philip Rizk is a student at the American University in Cairo who blogs about relief work in Gaza at tabulagaza.blogspot.com. As I understand it, he’s been working to get medical and relief supplies into the Gaza Strip.
On 6th of February, he was arrested while participating in a protest in Cairo about the closure of the Rafah border. Thing is, he was not arrested as part of a group. Rather, he was separated from his fellow protestors, shoved in a van, and whisked away. Clearly premeditated-not a coincidence.
On 9th of February, security personnel visited his parents’ home and searched the house for evidence against Philip, without a warrant. They intimidated his family and attempted to arrest his father.
To date, no one, neither his family nor his lawyers, have received word about Philip Rizk’s whereabouts. He’s virtually fallen off the face of the earth.
This post is my attempt to stand in solidarity with him.
Here’s hoping that he’ll be out soon and blogging his experience here.
Here’s the link to the online petition.
And if you could blog about it and make some noise, the better.
Update: Ok, I finally found a firsthand account of what happened on this blog. It fills in some gaps.It's my window, but I don't own the view.
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What An African Woman Thinks
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Philip Rizk: The Tale of the Missing Student, Blogger and Activist Posted: February 10th, 2009, 6:47am CST