The Big Pharaoh reported yesterday that an Egyptian blogger, Karim Soliman, was arrested on 26 October. Mana and Alaa's blog, in breaking the story, reports:

"On Wednesday 26 October 2005, Egyptian State Security took Abdolkarim from his home, and confiscated hard copies of his writings. He is now on his way to an unknown detention. Three Egyptian bloggers visited Abdolkarim's family. The family attributed the state security raid to his writings, although it was not clear if his blogging is directly related. According to his brother, Abdolkarim's relations with Islamist Fundamentalists in his neighborhood of Moharram Bek, Alexandria, are tense. It is possible that the fundamentalists have filed a security complaint that led to his detention."

The Copts United site notes that on 2 November Karim was "deported on 2 Nov. 2005 to one of the detention centres" after being detained at the at the Bab-Sharqi Police Station on the 26th.

It is interesting, though, I guess, not surprising, that this word has taken about 8 days to come out, and it appears that the reasons and Karim's whereabouts are still not known. That's disturbing, though, again, not surprising.

A movement is afoot to pressure the government to free Karim. You can help out by writing the Egyptian Embassy, here, and promote the cause by putting up a poster of which there are many to choose from, here.

Others covering the story are Miss Mabrouk, and Rantings of a Sandmonkey

Karim Soliman is a bold blogger. As the Big Pharaoh notes, he was stunned to see Karim had posted a photo on his blog. Daring, indeed. This gutless wonder supports him.