Swim upstream. At the mouth of the river of your life are two rights before most anything else is possible. Safety and freedom of expression. If you can read this message you’re probably enjoying both. So take a moment to stand up for someone who’s suddenly lost them. Add your voice, asking for the release of the courageous and most popular blogger in Saudi Arabia. Collective action helped in Venezuela.

On December 10th, Fouah al-Farhan was arrested for speaking out against corruption in his country. Of course, he’s being held for “security” concerns, for “purposes of interrogation.”

In Arabic, the slogan on top of his blog calls “freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation and the other lost Islamic values.”

As a close ally (ostensibly) for the U.S., Saudi Arabia must feel the heat from Americans who disagree with this arrest. As Michael Arrington notes, “I just don’t understand how we can continue to support that government while we criticize others.”

Too often visiting there or being held in a “secret detention center” leads to “disappeared.” Said Winston Churchill, ““Without courage all virtues lose their meaning.” Fouah al-Farhan bravely chose to write in his own name – as we can do in defending him. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

Update: he is still detained.