Sunday, June 15, 2014

Egypt: Coptic Teacher Demiana Emad Sentenced to Six Months in Prison for Insulting Islam

We regularly read stories of Sharia blasphemy laws being used to oppress non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan. But such laws are used to oppress non-Muslims in other countries as well. If a Muslim wants to have a Christian thrown in jail in a Muslim-majority country, he simply needs to accuse the Christian of blasphemy. Since his fellow Muslims won't take the word of a Christian over the word of a Muslim, the case is already closed.

Oddly enough, politicians and the media keep assuring me that Islam is a religion of tolerance and equality.
Demiana Emad
Egypt—A Coptic Christian school teacher has been sentenced to six months in prison on charges of insulting Islam.

Demiana Emad, a 23-year-old social studies teacher, was arrested on 9 May 2013 after the head of the parents' association of Sheikh Sultan Primary School in Luxor filed a complaint accusing her of insulting Islam.

In June 2013, Emad was sentenced to pay a LE100,000 fine. Sunday's jail sentence was ordered by the court in response to an appeal filed by the defendant on last year's fine.

According to a year-old report by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Emad didn't insult Islam, only "presented a comparison between religions in ancient, middle and modern ages as mentioned in the curriculum".

The report, which warned of similar cases becoming "a tool to oppress minorities", added that during investigations the majority of Emad's students denied that she had insulted Islam in her class.

Charges of insulting religion go back to the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, widely used then as a pretext to crack down on political activists. However, occurrences of the charge significantly rose under the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was removed from power last July.

A report issued by the EIPR last September revealed that since the 25 January 2011 revolution until the end of 2012, a total of 63 citizens, both Muslims and Christians, were charged with insulting religion.

Article 98 of Egypt's penal code says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison. (Continue Reading.)

6 comments:

Dacritic said...

When you are insecure, you worry about what people say about you, you get paranoid. Every little thing is an insult. You are afraid that JUST IN CASE someone decides to take these comments a little too seriously and do their research, they'd leave Islam.

Unknown said...

Or you lie and accuse someone of saying something that you know they didn't say, just because you are a liar and that's what liars do, they lie.

Million Thompson said...

You can go to prison for insulting Christianity or Hinduism or Buddha or Judaism or Jediism ..... not.

Million Thompson said...

Islam is held together by fear. Once the fear is gone, Islam will be gone.

Tomasz D said...

It is amazing that Islam is considered a protected specie by political establishment of many countries even though it is one of the most intolerant religion/political/social order in the world according to its own most important source Quran.

Dacritic said...

Tomasz, you're right. You know why you're right? Because people at large are still ignorant about what Islam and the Quran truly teaches. And yes, you don't see people insulting other religions and then getting into trouble, do you? And yet, what I don't understand is, how some very smart and clever Muslims can MISS THE POINT. You insult Islam anywhere where Islam is dominant and you will be in deep trouble, including where I come from, Malaysia. In the first place, why would anyone want to insult Islam? Secondly, if you respond to the insult with violence, it just goes to show you can't reason properly, you become insecure, and you use force to shut people up, isn't it...