Press Release
For more information, contact Ahmed Mansour at: +1-703-962-0874

The International Quranic Center declares that the kidnapping of Egyptian blogger, Reda Abdelarahman ِ Ali, is a forced disappearance case. The Center will take all the necessary steps to prosecute the Egyptian authorities in the International Criminal Court for this "crime against humanity" as it is defined by the Rome Statute and the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Reda was abducted from his home in Abu Hariz, Kafr Sakr, Sharkeya in Egypt on October 26th, 2008.

Since his abduction, Reda's family and lawyers have been trying to locate Reda in the Egyptian prison system. However, the prison authorities refuse to acknowledge that he is indeed in their custody. On November 26th, exactly one month after his disappearance, his family and supporters organized a silent protest in front of the Egyptian Attorney General's office to demand that the authorities release information about Reda. The government has yet to respond to the protest.

Many local and international organizations fear that Reda is currently being tortured and may be executed to cover up the case. Last week, Reporters Without Borders called on the Egyptian authorities to reveal the charges against Reda (and another Egyptian blogger) who are being held at secret locations in defiance of their basic human rights. "The secret detention of these two bloggers is intolerable. We urge their release as quickly as possible since no charges have, to date, been laid against them", it added.

"We call on all Human Rights organizations to help us find and release Reda. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2006, states that enforced disappearances constitute a crime against humanity," stated Ahmed Subhy Mansour, the president of the International Quranic Center. "This means we will be able to prosecute the Egyptian president and senior officials in the government in front of the International Criminal Court, to ensure their crime does not go unpunished."

Reda's disappearance is the latest case in a long series of systematic abuses against the Quranist people (those Muslims who believe in Islam as the religion of peace, tolerance, freedom, democracy and human rights) organized by the Egyptian government, because of their peaceful progressive interpretation of Islam and their adamant support for democratic reform inside Egypt.


Background: The Quranists are a group of peaceful Muslim scholars and activists who advocate a modern, and progressive interpretation of Islam that respects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international legal conventions, rather than the fanatic interpretations of Islamic law that are increasingly gaining strength in the Muslim world. In many ways, the Quranists see themselves as waging a "war of ideas" against Islamist terrorists. The regime of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has persecuted leaders of the Quranists and their families since 1985. The Quranists have suffered three waves of arrest: in 1987, 2000, and in 2007. The Egyptian authorities have kidnapped members of the Quranist movement, tortured them, and later released them in order to intimidate other Quranists from speaking up in support of this peaceful movement and other democracy activists. Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, the leader of the Quranist movement, escaped to the U.S in 2001, seeking asylum. In the U.S. he established the International Quranic Center (IQC), a nonprofit 501c3 organization committed to articulating a vision of Islam as an inclusive and peaceful religion. The organization established the Ahl-alquran website (www.ahl-alquran.com), which has played a prominent role in the international debate about the future of Islam. The website features a worldwide network of Muslim reformers who are dedicated to fighting terrorism ideologically by analyzing their literature and showing their contradictions to the letter and spirit of the Quran. Since establishing the IQC, Mubarak has taken several of the Quranists' family members in Egypt as hostage to stop their advocacy for reform. President Mubarak has governed Egypt for nearly thirty years under an emergency law that gives the government the authority to detain people without charges and without independent judicial review. The government has been abusing this power, particularly against its political opposition. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, approximately 16,000 persons were detained throughout the eighties and nineties without charge, only on suspicion of engaging in political activity.[1] Furthermore, many cases of "forced disappearance" have been documented in Egypt, including the case of Reda Hilal, an Egyptian journalist, who disappeared from his home in downtown Cairo in August 2003 and has never been heard from since then. Media Coverage: · For how long will the persecution of Quranists in Egypt Continue: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3697

· Egyptian State Security Agency arrested two relatives of Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mnsour, Albadeel, 29, Oct. 2008. http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3843 · Egypt's Inexplicable Arrests, Investigative project, 9 Oct., 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3849 · A Family Member of the Quranists' Leader Is Arrested, Almasry Alyoum, Oct. 29, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3839 · The Season to Arrest Quranists Is Back! , The Andalus Center for Tolerance-Studies and Antiviolence, Oct. 29, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3848 · Rights group calls for release of Quranist blogger, Daily News Egypt, Nov. 3rd, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3895 · A statement from the International Quranic Center, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=3977 · An Egyptian internet writer and blogger still detained and his family is threatened to be killed. Muslims Against Shariea, Nov. 17, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4025 · Death threats against Egyptian blogger's family, www.novascottiscot.com, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4026 · A Rally to Call for The Release of Reda , Alyoum Assabea, Nov. 20, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4065 · The Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights submits a complaint to the Prosecutor General accusing the Interior Ministry of detaining Quranist Reda Abdelrahman, Nov. 11, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4133 · Complaint to the Prosecutor General accusing the Interior Ministry of detaining Quranist Reda Abdelrahman. Aldostour, Nov. 22, 2008, http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_news.php?main_id=4077 · Two bloggers being detained at secret locations, Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 26, 2008, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=29434



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[1] Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, "Egypt: Towards a society that respects Human Rights and fights terrorism" (in Arabic), www.eohr.org/ar/report/2004/re9.htm