{"id":11032,"date":"2013-10-21T17:11:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=11032"},"modified":"2013-10-21T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T21:11:23","slug":"qatar-upholds-15-year-sentence-for-poet-muhammad-al-ajami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/qatar-upholds-15-year-sentence-for-poet-muhammad-al-ajami\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar Upholds 15-year Sentence for Poet Muhammad al-Ajami"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"al-ajami\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nvia Arabic Literature (in English) by\u00a0<\/b>mlynxqualey<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Bad news Monday from Qatar’s Court of Cassation: Poet Mohamed al-Ajami’s 15-year prison term was upheld as final.<\/i><\/p>\n

Al-Ajami’s lawyer, Najib al-Naimi, \u00a0told media outlets that al-Ajami’s only remaining option was to appeal to the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for clemency.<\/p>\n

Al-Naimi told AFP<\/a> that “I hope the emir will grant him an amnesty.” Reuters<\/a>\u00a0reported that the court’s decision had been reached in less than three hours.<\/p>\n

Reuters also reported<\/a> that a cousin of al-Ajami’s said there had been no communication with the new Emir about al-Ajami’s case.\u00a0“But the Emir knows of the case for sure and has the ability to pardon anyone of Qatar’s sons.”<\/p>\n

According to al-Naimi, the poet has\u00a0been held in solitary confinement for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

Al-Ajami was arrested in November 2011 after the YouTube publication of his “Tunisian Jasmine,”<\/a>\u00a0a poet that praised Arab uprisings and criticised governments across the region. The case against him was supposedly about a 2010 poem that criticized the emir, although\u00a0most believe authorities are punishing al-Ajami for his Jasmine poem.<\/p>\n

Kareem James Abu Zaid’s free translation of the Jasime Poem, which was read at an event in support of the poet in San Francisco:<\/p>\n

Jasmine Revolution Poem<\/b><\/p>\n

By Mohammad al-Ajami Ibn al-Dhib<\/i><\/p>\n

Prime Minister, Mohamed al-Ghannouchi:
\nIf we measured your might
\nit wouldn\u2019t hold a candle
\nto a constitution.
\nWe shed no tears for Ben Ali,
\nnor any for his reign.
\nIt was nothing more than a moment
\nin time for us,
\nhistorical
\nand dictatorial,
\na system of oppression,
\nan era of autocracy.
\nTunisia declared the people\u2019s revolt:
\nWhen we lay blame
\nonly the base and vile suffer from it;
\nand when we praise
\nwe do so with all our hearts.
\nA revolution was kindled with the blood of the people:
\ntheir glory had worn away,
\nthe glory of every living soul.
\nSo, rebel, tell them,
\ntell them in a shrouded voice, a voice from the grave:
\ntell them that tragedies precede all victories.
\nA warning to the country whose ruler is ignorant,
\nwhose ruler deems that power
\ncomes from the American army.
\nA warning to the country
\nwhose people starve
\nwhile the regime boasts of its prosperity.
\nA warning to the country whose citizens sleep:
\none moment you have your rights,
\nthe next they\u2019re taken from you.
\nA warning to the system\u2014inherited\u2014of oppression.
\nHow long have all of you been slaves
\nto one man\u2019s selfish predilections?
\nHow long will the people remain
\nignorant of their own strength,
\nwhile a despot makes decrees and appointments,
\nthe will of the people all but forgotten?
\nWhy is it that a ruler\u2019s decisions are carried out?
\nThey\u2019ll come back to haunt him
\nin a country willing
\nto rid itself of coercion.
\nLet him know, he
\nwho pleases only himself, and does nothing
\nbut vex his own people; let him know
\nthat tomorrow
\nsomeone else will be seated on that throne,
\nsomeone who knows the nation\u2019s not his own,
\nnor the property of his children.
\nIt belongs to the people, and its glories
\nare the glories of the people.
\nThey gave their reply, and their voice was one,
\nand their fate, too, was one.
\nAll of us are Tunisia
\nin the face of these oppressors.
\nThe Arab regimes and those who rule them
\nare all, without exception,
\nwithout a single exception,
\nshameful, thieves.
\nThis question that keeps you up at night\u2014
\nits answer won\u2019t be found
\non any of the official channels\u2026
\nWhy, why do these regimes
\nimport everything from the West\u2014
\neverything but the rule of law, that is,
\nand everything but freedom?<\/p>\n

You can listen to Tunisian Jasmine here:<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

via Arabic Literature (in English) by\u00a0mlynxqualey Bad news Monday from Qatar’s Court of Cassation: Poet Mohamed al-Ajami’s 15-year prison term was upheld as final. Al-Ajami’s lawyer, Najib al-Naimi, \u00a0told media outlets that al-Ajami’s only...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1012,11,91],"tags":[1439],"class_list":["post-11032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arab-spring","category-arab-culture","category-poetry","tag-muhammad-al-ajami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11032"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11040,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11032\/revisions\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}