Thin Skins

A blogger in Egypt was jailed for "insulting Islam."

An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger. Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution, had pleaded innocent to all charges, and human rights groups had called for his release.

Two U.S. congressmen ... expressed deep concern about the arrest of Nabil — who also goes by the blogger name of Kareem Amer — and called for the charges to be dropped.

"The Egyptian government's arrest of Mr. Amer simply for displeasure over writings on the personal Web log raises serious concern about the level of respect for freedoms in Egypt," Reps. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., and Barney Frank, D-Mass., wrote to U.S. Ambassador Nabil Fahmy.

The Bush administration has not commented on Nabil's trial, despite its past criticism of the arrests of Egyptian rights activists.

Here's an idea: stop sending money to support the regime. They've proven they're going to be repressive and hate us whether we give them money or not -- so stop giving it to them!

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(Hat-tip to Banduar)