White House: Groups Call for Saudi Arabia King
Abdullah to Support Women's Rights, Religious Freedom

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)























http://www.realcourage.org/2010/06/dc-ksa-062910/

On June 29, 2010 in Washington D.C., human rights groups and
volunteers picketed the White House sidewalk and Pennsylvania Avenue
while Saudi Arabian King Abdullah met with U.S. President Obama.

June 29, 2010: Saudi Arabia King Abdullah and U.S.
President Obama Meet

While King Abdullah and
President Obama were meeting, Muslims























and non-Muslims, men and women, united to demonstrate in front of
the White House to call for President Obama to urge Saudi King Abdullah
to support women's























rights and religious























freedom in Saudi Arabia, and urged King Abdullah to follow























through with previous calls for reforms.

June 29, 2010 - White House Demonstrators from
Various Groups: CDHR, The Gulf Institute, IIC, and R.E.A.L.

Groups
of demonstrators included representatives of and volunteers supporting The
Institute for Gulf Affairs, Islamic Information
Center (IIC), Center for Democracy and Human Rights
in Saudi Arabia (CDHR), Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV),
and Responsible for Equality And
Liberty (R.E.A.L.). CDHR, Gulf Institute, and R.E.A.L. had all
separately planned demonstrations for that day at the White House. Some
groups decided to consolidate their efforts at the White House.

June
29, 2010: Demonstrators Protesting for Women's Rights, Religious Freedom
in Saudi Arabia Outside White House

Demonstrators in
support of freedom for religious minorities and women in Saudi Arabia
represented a broad cross-section of individuals: women, men, Muslims,
non-Muslims, Arabs, non-Arabs, white and black Americans. They stood
before the White House to urge President Obama to focus on what must be
America's real "common cause" with Saudi Arabia - our shared human
rights and human dignity.

June 29, 2010 - Diverse Individuals Unite for
Human Rights and Freedom in Saudi Arabia

Demonstrators
from the combined supporters of The
Institute for Gulf Affairs, IIC, and R.E.A.L. also
chanted slogans at the Saudi mission leaders and the White House during
the meeting between President Obama and King Abdullah.

One woman demonstrator led a chant for women's rights, shouting to
the Saudi leaders that "women are not property," and calling for Saudi
Arabia to "end gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia."

Other demonstration chants at the White House including "end
religious oppression in Saudi Arabia," "free Hadi and Nathalie," and
"religious freedom in Saudi Arabia."

Saudi
Mission Outside the White House Gates

Protesters
picketed the White House sidewalk with signs and distributed fliers on
human rights issues, as Saudi mission leaders were entering the White
House gates. One individual entering the White House stopped to take
photographs of the demonstrators. The IIC's Mahdi Husain and
R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm picketed past Saudi mission individuals as they
took photographs of the demonstrators.

Muslim Mahdi Husain (Right) of the IIC and
Christian Jeffrey Imm (Left) of R.E.A.L. Picket Together for Religious
Freedom and Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia -- Standing Publicly and
United for Human Rights

The demonstrators also called
upon the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to act on victims























of religious oppression in that nation. The Institute























for Gulf Affair's Director Ali Al-Ahmed denounced such religious
oppression, remarking on Hadi
Al-Mutif, the longest serving religious prisoner in Saudi Arabia.
Hadi Al-Mutif has been in prison for 17 years for a joking comment as a
teenager that was viewed as blasphemous by a Saudi court, and was
originally accused of apostasy and sentenced to death, even though Hadi
Al-Mutif is a Muslim. Hadi Al-Mutif remains in prison and has alleged
physical abuse, and much of his time in prison has been in solitary
confinement. The























Gulf Institute has been promoting a
petition calling for the freedom of Hadi Al-Mutif.

The Gulf Institute Director Ali Al-Ahmed Tells
Media of the Religious Oppression and Imprisonment of Hadi Al-Mutif in
Saudi Arabia

R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm also distributed
an orange flier summarizing the























concerns of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) regarding the need for religious freedom, freedom of worship,
and religious tolerance in Saudi Arabia. The USCIRF made specific
recommendations to President Obama to address such concerns in his
meeting with Saudi King Abdullah.

The demonstrators called for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to support women's























rights in that nation, and called for changes to the guardianship























program that exists in Saudi Arabia.

Demonstrators also called for the religious freedom of Canadian Nathalie Morin
who, along with her children, has been held a prisoner by her
common-law husband in Saudi Arabia. The DC Chapter of the Muslims for
Progressive Values (MPV), held a
protest demonstration outside of the Saudi Embassy on this subject on























Saturday, June 26, 2010. The June 26 protest was led by MPV's Fatima
Thompson. The Canadian branch of
MPV also held a protest in Toronto on June 26, outside the G20 Summit.

Muslims for Progressive
Values (MPV) DC chapter activist Fatima Thompson Protests for Women's
Human Rights - Photo from June 26 Protest Outside Saudi Embassy

At
the Tuesday, June 29 protest at the White House, MPV's Fatima Thompson passed























out fliers to the White House visitors, engaging them to become
aware of the plight of Nathalie Morin and Hadi Al-Mutif in Saudi
Arabia. She urged women to become educated on the women's rights issues
challenging Saudi women in terms of the guardianship























program and the challenge























to women's rights in daily life and law in the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia.

Nathalie Morin, shown here with her eldest son,
Samir (now nearly seven years old), says she has been trying to return
to Canada for 2½ years. (Family photo)

While Fatima
Thompson was distributing fliers, R.E.A.L.'s























Jeffrey Imm also addressed the White House visitors with his portable
microphone system from the Pennsylvania Avenue area, while holding
up posters with photographs showing the abuse that Nathalie Morin and
her children have undergone in Saudi Arabia. R.E.A.L.'s Imm stated, "if
a woman was beaten like this, if children were abused like this, in the
United States, wouldn't we call the police? The attack on women's
rights in Saudi Arabia is very much a law enforcement issue - one of
enforcing our universal human rights for women's rights and dignity -
consistently around the world."

In Saudi Arabia: Abuses of
Canadian Woman Nathalie Morin and Her Children - Nathalie Morin is Held
Against Her Will

After protesting at the White House,
the demonstrators then moved to outside























the Blair House down the street from the White House on Pennsylvania
Avenue for visiting dignitaries to continue to send their message in
support of religious freedom and women's rights to the visiting Saudi
mission. Demonstrators saw Saudi King Abdullah and his aides during the
protest demonstration outside of Blair House.

June 29, 2010 - Human Rights Activist
Demonstrating Outside Blair House

While human rights
activists demonstrated on June 29, 2010, Saudi King Abdullah and U.S.
President Obama met and told the media of some areas of common
interests. The news media reported that the two were finding common
grounds on the topic of Middle East peace, as well as frustration with
the media. King























Abdullah, stated, regarding the media: "May God spare us from all
of the bad things they can do to us. (Laughter) And may God -- and may
God bless us with all the positive things they can do for us and for
humanity," to which President Obama replied "Well, that is an excellent
prayer."

Responsible for Equality And
Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our unqualified, universal
human rights for both women and men, and for the religious freedom,
freedom of worship, and freedom of conscience for all. R.E.A.L. stands
in support of freedom of the press and freedom of expression. But most
importantly, R.E.A.L stands in support of our fellow human beings, and
recognizes that all human rights campaigns are missions of mercy, and
the most important element to successful human rights is compassion and
dignity to all.

R.E.A.L. urges all to Choose Love, Not Hate - Love Wins.

R.E.A.L. urges the press of the world not to be silent about human
rights violations and oppression, whether it is found in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, in the United States, or anywhere else in the world.
R.E.A.L. urges the media and press to continue to be a voice of
conscience in reporting the news of the world, no matter how
inconvenient the truths of our conscience may be to world leaders.

Without such a compass of our
conscience in human rights, all of our freedoms, including our
freedom of expression, will remain endangered in too many parts of the
world.

We must all be responsible for equality and liberty.

Additional























Photos are at this web link.

As additional photos are obtained from other volunteers, we
will update this blog posting and the























web link of photographs.

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Demonstration Group Contacts:

The Institute for Gulf Affairs

Ali Al-Ahmed, Director

Website: http://www.gulfinstitute.org/

Islamic Information Center (IIC)

Mahdi Husain, Public Relations

Website: http://www.IslamicInformationCenter.org

Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (CDHR)

Ali H. Alyami, Executive Director

Website: http://www.cdhr.info/

Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV)

Washington DC Activist: Fatima Thompson

Website: http://www.mpvusa.org/

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) volunteer group

Founder: Jeffrey Imm

Website: http://www.realcourage.org/

Email: info@realcourage.org

R.E.A.L.
Supports Our Universal Human Rights for All Human Beings

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Groups' Upcoming Events

The human rights groups all have additional upcoming events this
summer. The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
(CDHR) has a conference























on Muslim scholars' warnings on radicalism on July 20, 2010 in
Washington DC on Capitol Hill, 4:00pm - 6:30pm, Rayburn House Office
Building Room B-369. The Islamic Information Center (IIC) has a conference























in Washington DC at the Capitol Hilton on July 23 through 25.
The Muslims























for Progressive Values (MPV) group has an annual conference in
Atlanta, Georgia on August 6 through 8.

Responsible for Equality And
Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has a public outreach scheduled
for Sunday July 11 at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool at 2
PM, where it encourages Muslims and non-Muslims to join together to
demonstrate our shared support for democracy and freedom, in response
to groups that seek to deny such freedoms, and urges those interested
to contact R.E.A.L. at info@realcourage.org

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Orange Ribbon for Universal
Human Rights - Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)